Summary

This chapter engaged you with the Force.com database in areas essential for application development. The skills covered in this chapter should enable you to build various data-driven applications, all through configuration rather than coding. Here are some key points to take forward:

The Force.com database is not a standard relational database. It’s a logical database based on Objects and Fields, like Tables and Columns but tuned for business applications and integrated into every feature of the platform.

Custom objects are the backbone of development in Force.com. By defining them and their fields, you are also defining a user interface that is programmatically generated by Force.com. This interface allows data to be entered and browsed without coding, while preserving the data integrity called for in your object definition.

Services Manager consists of four custom objects and leverages two standard objects: Account and Contact.