Writing this book has been fun and I have enjoyed the time I have spent working on the chapters. My family has been very supportive, as well as being a useful springboard for some of the ideas; it is only with their support and patience that I have been able to complete my part of this endeavor.

Many other people have helped in the creation of the book and I am grateful to them all. Here's my attempt to provide acknowledgment where it is rightly due.

First I'd like to thank the heroes at salesforce.com for providing such an amazing product. Salesforce CRM is one of the very few business applications that is so easy and fun to work with. The application just goes from strength to strength with each new release and the amount of innovation, new feature development, and added business value that it brings is simply outstanding.

Next I would very much like to thank the team at Packt Publishing who have successfully orchestrated the completed work. From the time when I was first approached, to the time of editing and coordinating the final reviews, the team has been extremely supportive and highly professional throughout the writing process.

I would like to thank all the many people who have contributed with ideas and code recipes. Instead of trying to name them all and risk not mentioning others, I would like to thank in general all the salesforce.com employees, professionals, and keen enthusiasts who help make the salesforce.com community such a productive and collaborative environment.

If you haven't participated in the salesforce.com online user communities such as: success.salesforce.com (where you can post questions or ideas); developer.force.com; LinkedIn salesforce.com user groups; and Twitter (look out for #salesforce and #askforce), I would strongly recommend them as they are a truly valuable place to exchange information.

Finally, I would like to thank YOU for purchasing the book. I sincerely hope you find it as enjoyable and useful to read as it has been to write!