Preface

I wrote this book to help developers discover Force.com as a viable, even superior tool for building business applications.

I’m always surprised at how many developers I meet who aren’t aware of Force.com as a platform. They know of Salesforce, but only that it’s a CRM. Even those who have heard of Force.com are amazed when I describe what Appirio and other companies are building with it. “I didn’t know you could do that with Force.com” is a common reaction, even to the simplest of things such as creating custom database tables.

Since the second edition of this book, Salesforce has delivered more than six major releases. This third edition refocuses the book on custom application development and away from “clicks not code”-style, configuration-driven features. It contains updates throughout to cover new capabilities such as Developer Console, JSON support, Streaming and Tooling APIs, REST integration, and support for MVC frameworks like AngularJS in Visualforce. It also features a new chapter: Chapter 8, “Mobile User Interfaces.”

Although there are more cloud-based application development platforms than ever before, Force.com continues to offer unique and outstanding value for business applications. With its core strength in customer data management, deep set of thoughtfully integrated features, and support for open standards, Force.com can save you significant time and effort throughout the software development lifecycle.