12. Social Applications
This chapter introduces Chatter, a layer of functionality that spans all Salesforce applications and the Force.com platform. Chatter provides the means for users to communicate with each other in the context of the applications and data central to their work, privately and entirely internal to their company. It is delivered securely to their Web browsers and most mobile devices. In adopting Chatter, Salesforce customers, partners, and application developers gain the best features of consumer services such as Facebook that form a social glue that makes interacting at work a compelling, relevant, and professional experience.
Chatter is a collection of collaboration features, including user profiles, forums, polls, questions and answers, file sharing, and private messaging. This chapter focuses on the integration of the most basic Chatter features into custom applications. Brief descriptions of its sections follow:
Overview of the Chatter data model—The heart of Chatter is the data model, standard objects in the Force.com database that allow any application to participate in the conversation and automate Chatter interactions. Once you have an understanding of its data model, incorporating Chatter into your Apex programs is straightforward.
Using Chatter in Apex—Although the Chatter data model is available, it’s the lowest-level way to access Chatter features. Chatter in Apex is a built-in library that provides Chatter features as first-class Apex classes.
Introduction to the Chatter REST API—The Chatter REST API is valuable for integrating Chatter into applications residing outside of the Force.com platform. Like Chatter in Apex, it hides implementation details of Chatter that would otherwise be exposed by direct access to the data model.
Working with Chatter Visualforce components—Learn how to add Chatter functionality to your custom user interfaces with minimal effort using standard Visualforce components.
Sample application—Modify the Services Manager sample application to make staying in touch with resources on a project team using Chatter easy.