Cloudforce 2010

In case you weren't at the Cloudforce 2010 event in San Jose today, here are a few pictures that I took:


SaaSy and Chatty


Cloudforce 2010 Audience


The Chatter Dating Game


Michael and Marc


Steadicam


Marc

Introducing Agile Vision from CA!

CA just released Agile Vision - their first application built entirely on Force.com. Agile Vision is an application that teams can use to collaborate and manage their projects. It's especially aimed at teams that are using an Agile development methodology. I'm the Technical Account Manager for CA, so I'm pretty excited about this launch.

The app looks great - CA has built a lovely user interface that will help teams work efficiently, even if they are distributed:

I'm really excited for CA, and this is just the first of many great apps that CA will build on Force.com. For more information, check out ca.com/agile.

Salesforce Spring '10 - New User Interface Theme

Read about the new hotness over on the Force.com blog: Salesforce Spring '10 - New User Interface Theme

Dreamforce 2009: How to Write Good Unit Tests in Force.com Code

In addition to presenting the Creating Rich User Experiences session at Dreamforce 2009, I also presented a session on How to Write Good Unit Tests. I was really happy with how the session turned out - after the session, a couple of attendees told me that they were surprised that I was so enthusiastic about a topic that they had considered to be complete drudgery. They said that they were excited to go back home and start applying the tips that I had provided.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to check out the video, read the accompanying How to Write Good Unit Tests article, download the slide deck and play around with the sample source code from the session.

Dreamforce 2009: Creating Rich User Experiences Using Google Visualizations and Adobe Flex

The content from the session that I presented with Nick Simha at Dreamforce 2009 is now available. The feedback that we received on the session was pretty great, so I hope that you'll check it out!

In addition to the video and slide deck, be sure to check out all of the great session resources that we put together.

Introduction to Developing Commercial Applications on Force.com

If you're thinking about building a new application on Force.com, be sure to check out the new How to Develop Commerical Applications on Force.com blog post.

Watch Force.com Developer Courses on iTunes!

Really exciting news on the Force.com blog - You can now access over 30 hours of Force.com classroom training as podcasts on iTunes!

Google I/O: Force.com as a Google Visualization Data Source

The video from the Google I/O session where I spoke about Force.com as a Google Visualization Data Source is up on YouTube. It's been viewed a number of times already - I'm glad that so many people are interested in Google Visualizations and Force.com! The discussion specific to Force.com starts at about 32:00.

You can also download the accompanying slide deck from the Implementing your Own Visualization Datasource session page.

Google Code Blog - Guest Post

Google just published a guest blog post that hints at the exciting announcement that we'll be revealing during our upcoming Google I/O session:

...

Salesforce.com will be co-presenting a session at Google I/O that will discuss how to embed the power of the Google Visualization API in Force.com business applications, and how to turn a Force.com application in to a Google Visualization data source. We hope to see you there!

...

http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/05/visualizing-your-clouds-data.html

Speaking @ Google I/O

I'm really excited to be speaking at the upcoming Google I/O conference! Here's my speaker blurb:

Jesse Lorenz is a Technical Evangelist at Salesforce.com, focused on inspiring independent software vendors, product teams and other partners to architect and build innovative applications on Force.com. Jesse is one of the authors of the Google Visualization Component Library for Force.com.

http://code.google.com/events/io/speakers.html#jlorenz

Nir Bar-Lev, Itai Raz, and I will be discussing the Google Visualization API.

Are You Having Problems Sharing?

From the blog:

The number one rule in life for author Robert Fulghum is to "Share everything." Your Force.com application is one place where it’s okay to break that rule and not share everything. That’s why Force.com allows developers and administrators to control access to data at many different levels. You can control access at the object-level, the record-level and even at the field-level. In the vast majority of cases, the appropriate Force.com sharing settings can be defined declaratively by simply pointing and clicking. In some cases, developers may need the ability to define even more sophisticated sharing settings, and this is where Apex Managed Sharing comes in.

Apex Managed Sharing allows you to use Apex Code to build sophisticated and dynamic sharing settings that aren’t otherwise possible. For example, a developer can use Apex Managed Sharing to write a trigger that will automatically share a custom object record with a user that has been specified in a lookup field. You can also use Apex Managed Sharing to write custom Visualforce controllers that implement your sharing logic.

After an introduction to sharing, the accompanying article looks at the components of Apex Managed Sharing, and how you can use Apex Managed Sharing in your own applications. The article, Using Apex Managed Sharing to Create Custom Record Sharing Logic, also provides sample code for the trigger described above.

Apex Managed Sharing is a really interesting aspect of Force.com. It enables developers to build some very innovative applications.

How to Build an App on Force.com

If you're curious about what it's like to build an app on Force.com, I recommend watching the video from the Force.com in Action - Fast Application Development in the Cloud session that was presented at Cloudforce London. It's an outstanding introduction to many of the services that Force.com provides to business analysts and developers for free.


If you're inspired by the session and want to get your hands dirty, the exercises in the Force.com developer workbook are a great way to get started building apps on Force.com.

The other session videos from Cloudforce London can be found here: http://www.salesforce.com/eu/cloudforce/09-london/recorded-sessions.jsp

Cloud Connect Recap

In case you weren't able to attend Cloud Connect in person, Ryan Marples put together a great recap video from Cloud Connect.

Cloud Connect

I'm going to be at the Cloud Connect Event Tuesday - Thursday of this week. Drop by the Force.com booth and say hello if you're there as well.

Why You Must Put Your Force.com App Under Version Control

Without a version control system, your software development process will not be efficient. And that's the best case scenario - I've seen software development projects fail because version control wasn't used. As a result, I became a version control disciple.

My first experience with CVS was at university during my first major collaborative development project. Throughout the project, my team was very diligent about checking code in to CVS after every significant code change. We regularly ran integration tests and this meant that we always had an accurate understanding of our progress to date. However, it wasn’t until the last day of the project that I really learned the value of version control.

On the due date, my team was feeling calm and confident about our work. We had completed development of all the required features ahead of schedule, and we had already added a number of bonus features. The experience of the team sitting next to us in the computer cluster was a stark contrast to ours.

This other team hadn’t bothered to set up a CVS repository for the project as had been suggested by our instructor. Instead, they had used email to exchange updated code over the course of project. To make matters worse, they had waited until the day before the due date to perform their first full code integration. It was painful to watch them flail against the bugs that they kept discovering. When my team left the computer cluster that evening, it was obvious that the other team wasn't going to be able to submit their project before the midnight deadline. Since then, I’ve used a version control system for every project that’s lasted longer than a day - including projects that I've worked on alone.

I feel a sense of accomplishment every time I check additional functionality in to a project. I also enjoy peace of mind, knowing that I can always revert to an older version of code if my current development direction doesn't work out. It’s so easy to put your entire Force.com application under version control and the benefits are so great, that I can’t think of any valid reasons for not doing so. To prove how simple it is, I recently recorded a video that demonstrates adding a Force.com project to a Subversion repository in less than 90 seconds:



http://blog.sforce.com/sforce/2008/12/put-your-forcecom-app-under-version-control.html

Success Tour - Washington D.C.

If you're going to be at the D.C. Success Tour this Thursday, be sure to say hello. I will be co-presenting the "Become a Force.com App Builder" session.

Valuable Dreamforce 2008 Sessions

Now that I have the shameless self-promotion out of the way, here are a few more links to some other really great Dreamforce session recordings:

Apex Code Deep Dive

Apex Test Coverage Best Practices

Force.com Sites

Multitenant Magic: Under the Covers of the Force Platform Data Architecture

Meet the Force.com Platform Development Team

Dreamforce 2008 Session Recordings

All of the sessions from Dreamforce 2008 have been posted on the salesforce.com Community. Recordings of the sessions that I co-presented are now available. Let me know what you think.













Also, be sure to check out these two Google Visualization blog posts: Google salesforce.com

Dreamforce 2008: Beyond S-Controls

(Arguably) The Top 3 Reasons to Attend Dreamforce 2008

As you might be able to tell from some of my previous posts, I'm rather excited about Dreamforce 2008. What I didn't mention are my personal top 3 reasons for attending Dreamforce this year. In chronological order, they are:

Beyond S-Controls: Learn to Use Visualforce in Your Force Platform Apps
If you're familiar with S-Controls and want to know why Visualforce is so much more compelling, then this session is for you! Join Force.com Platform experts as they review the typical uses for S-Controls and explain why Visualforce is easier, faster, and more fun to use in your applications!

Monday November 3
4:45 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.

Presented By
Jesse Lorenz - salesforce.com
Jon Mountjoy - salesforce.com


Build Any UI for Any App Using Visualforce
Learn how to use the latest Force.com Platform innovation, Visualforce, to build any UI for any application. This technical introduction will include code walkthroughs and cover topics including components and common use cases.

Tuesday, November 4
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Presented By
Jotham Fisher-Smith - Surfwriter
Ron Hess - salesforce.com
Jesse Lorenz - salesforce.com


Elevate Your Force.com Platform Apps with the Google Visualization API
Looking to bring the power of the Google Visualization API to your Force.com apps? Attend this session to learn how to add rich charting and visualization capabilities to your Force.com apps in a session jointly presented by Google and Force.com experts.

Wednesday, November 5
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Presented By
Nir Bar-Lev - Google
Jesse Lorenz - salesforce.com
Itai Raz - Google

I hope to see you at Dreamforce and would love to chat after a session, or in the Force.com developer lounge!