function readOnly(count){ }
Sign Up ›
Starting November 20, the site will be set to read-only. On December 4, 2023,
forum discussions will move to the Trailblazer Community.
Learn More

Browse by Topic
ShowAll Questionssorted byDate Posted
+ Start a Discussion
mhw8mhw8 

Deploying to the force.com cloud.

I am new to force.com and I have what is probably a very basic question.  For custom applications that we wish to integrate with SalesForce CRM, is it possible to deploy these applications within the SalesForce cloud / stack or are the Web Services APIs the only option?

Please let me know if this question is too vague and I will attempt to clarify. With my limited knowledge of force.com, I am just not sure where to start.

-Mark

Best Answer chosen by Admin (Salesforce Developers) 
shillyershillyer

Thanks for clarifying, since you plan to create this custom app for just your internal company, you are really only limited the available features in that Salesforce Edition.

If you require more than the point-and-click features, you can leverage Apex Code and Visualforce to program custom business logic and UI to meet your business needs. The Force.com Developer Guide can go more into these technologies.

So I recommend first determining what edition your company uses and what are the features available, and then build from there. You can then use your free Developer Edition to build all of the functionality and then use the Force.com IDE to deploy this to your company's production account when ready.

Best,

Sati

All Answers

shillyershillyer
Hi Mark,
 
You have two options here:
 
1. You can build a custom application completely on Force.com that extends Salesforce CRM. Once complete, this application can be packaged up and distributed to your customers via the AppExchange.
 
2. You can build a custom application on your own hosted stack and use Force.com Web Services API to integrate with Salesforce CRM
 
The advantage with #1, you don't have to host anything. We supply the infrastructure, technology platform and distribution engine, while you provide the innovation and IP. I recommend checking out the Force.com Workbook for some great examples.
 
Hope that helps,
Sati
mhw8mhw8
Sati, thank you for the very quick response, I appreciate it. It does help and also creates a follow on question:
 
Can you provide some clarification to what it means to "build a custom application completely on Force.com" I have read through Salesforce_creating_on_demand_apps.pdf available from this site. This document provides some information on building custom application, but it did not completely answer the scope of this question.
 
From my reading, it is my understanding that I can use standard programming languages to accomplish custom business logic that might not fit into the point and click logic available from force.com. It also discusses the topic of S-Controls which makes it sound like I can plug just about any UI logic I need into a Tab within force. If I write custom logic components and ui controls (S-Controls) that work with it, can that code be deployed within the force.com cloud?
 
If the answer above is yes, it can be deployed in the cloud, are there limitations on cloud resources that I should be aware of?
 
Note that the applications I am talking about are not ones that would be made available to "customers". They would be internal to our organization's sales team and would simply be part of salesforce as far as they are concerned.  
 
thanks again,
 
-Mark
shillyershillyer

Thanks for clarifying, since you plan to create this custom app for just your internal company, you are really only limited the available features in that Salesforce Edition.

If you require more than the point-and-click features, you can leverage Apex Code and Visualforce to program custom business logic and UI to meet your business needs. The Force.com Developer Guide can go more into these technologies.

So I recommend first determining what edition your company uses and what are the features available, and then build from there. You can then use your free Developer Edition to build all of the functionality and then use the Force.com IDE to deploy this to your company's production account when ready.

Best,

Sati

This was selected as the best answer
mhw8mhw8
Sati, this is very helpful. Thank you again for the rapid response. I will follow your suggestions and respond with more questions as they arise.
 
-Mark
sunny.dale5sunny.dale5

I am new to developer force too and wanted to build myself the same way that other developer achieved.