Force.com (Development Platform)

Hi Folks, Today I’m writing about Force.com. Previously, we have discussed about how to start with Salesforce.com and Force.com and what type of solutions/products provided by Salesforce through Salesforce.com CRM.

So that is all a basic stuff. Now let’s move ahead with some Customization and Configuration with development Features of Force.com.

Force.com is a Application development platform which enables you (as a developer or administrator) to Customize and Configure existing applications according to the workflow of your business and if it still doesn’t fit in, you can develop your own applications.

To get into the force.com – you can just click on the setup link on the screen of your developer account, as we discussed previously. So if you look at the sidebar available there you can Customize/Configure and Develop the applications and components of your applications.

Force.com provides two ways to implement your own business logics in any application.

1. Declarative Development

2. Programmatic Development

Declarative Development

Force.com has tools for declarative development, with the help of those tools you can implement your business logics by just pointing and clicking, means there is no need to write code. It is a preferred way to lower your development time and cost. It is easier and faster.

Here is the table with available tools in the Declarative Development toolkit.

Model	View	Controller
Objects	Page layouts	Formulas
Fields	Record Types	Validation Rules
Relationships	Formulas	Workflow Rules
	Reports and Dashboards	Visual Workflows
		Process Builder
		Assignment Rules
		Sharing Rules

These are point and click development tools by using them you can implement your business logics to achieve your business goals. By using these tools, An Administrator can also Develop the application for an Organization because these tools doesn’t need any coding skills and everything depends on the logic of a business. So this is not it but let’s move ahead with some more advanced tools.

Programmatic Development

Force.com has an advanced toolkit for programmatic development. With the help of tools available in this toolkit you can develop advanced applications on force.com platform for Salesforce.com by writing code as implementation of your business logic. It can be more time consuming and higher at the cost but it’s always convenient for the applications and business requirements.

Here is the table with available tools in the Programmatic Development toolkit.

Model	View	Controller
SOSL	Visualforce pages	Apex Classes
SOQL	Visualforce Components	Salesforce APIs
Apex Triggers	Lightning Components

These are the Programming tools which you can use to develop robust applications with many advanced features with enhanced security. These development tools needs coding skills as well as administration skills.

A guy with both Declarative and Programming skills, can be a better Developer for Salesforce.com Applications.

So, I’ve covered almost all development tools by using them you can implement your business logics to achieve your business goals. We will discuss all these topics in separate articles, in brief. I hope this article will help you organize your thoughts as well as mine.

Stay tuned to Salesforce Nation…