Before getting off with Salesforce.com

A beginner in Salesforce?? No need to fret…just read on: 

Now, the next question that comes to mind after a brief introduction (previous post)  about the salesforce.com is: Will you be able to get through? And What are the things that you will be facing?

As they say a known devil is always better than an unknown devil! The purpose of this post is not to scare you but to give you an Idea of exciting and not so exciting things that you would get to see, learn and implement in salesforce.com . A salesforce.com programmer is one of the best quality programmers as he needs to know the architecture, database, programming languages and designing of applications. So you actually get to implement all spheres of the web and the things that you might have learned during your college days.

The salesforce.com platform can be divided into two categories for developers:

• Customization

• Programming 

Customization is the initial step to get going with salesforce.com. It uses point and click principal to perform operations. It comprises of creating objects (tables with columns to store records), creation of users (people who would use the application), profiles (setting for the application that the user would use) and roles (a hierarchy into which the users fall and functionalities associated with them). Security features also come under the customization. Most of the basic tasks can be performed using customization. Customization plays a very important role and lays the foundation for any programming.

Programming knowledge should be enhanced on acquiring a strong knowledge of customization. That is what I would recommend personally. An added advantage would be the knowledge of any Oops language, although it is not a compulsion. We would use the programming techniques when the provided features of salesforce.com are incapable to achieve its goal. Apex and Visualforce are the two programming languages that one will work on. 

Any query or suggestion is most welcome!

Written By : - Er. Anup Prakash (anup@forceapp.biz) (Certified Developer).

Edited By : - Er. Akbar Ali Khan (uckbarr@yahoo.co.in) (Mechanical Engineer)

What is Salesforce.com?

Salesforce:

                 What is Salesforce? This is the first question that pops up at someone’s mind when they hear it for the first time! When I heard it for the first time at  the beginning of the year 2011, I thought it was some weird stuff that one of my friends was learning and was not going to get anything out of it. A cynical approach? May be, this is the way I am programmed! Okay coming back to the Salesforce Story:  In the year 2011 I had some backlog and a degree was a distant dream or figuratively it was still couple of years away. So I quit my BPO Job after 2 years in 2013. I needed something huge to get into IT-Companies.

                   After doing some research the thing that I zeroed on was "Salesforce". Not knowing what it was I decided to get into it and know it inside out. After paying  a handsome 1000 USD I got to know the basic of Salesforce.  I didn't know what Cloud Computing was, so after 2 weeks I was able to understand that Salesforce.com wasn't just a website. It was an entire application in the form of a website. I fell in Love with it and mind you, it wasn’t a love at first sight!  As the days passed I got to know the beautiful functionalities of Salesforce. For Beginners the earlier you realize the better it is for you! "Salesforce.com is not just a website, It’s an application/Software in the form of a website." If you observe the complex plumage of Salesforce.com you will realize it has a some interesting feathers like -  force.com, site.com, data.com etc. we'll discuss those later.

There are two big terms "SaaS" & "PaaS":

• · SaaS - Software as a Service

•    PaaS - Platform as a Service

What is the difference between these two?

                These questions are often asked in interviews as well. The simplest answer to this is Salesforce.com is SaaS where as Force.com is a PaaS. So what are these? I'll throw an example and you'll catch it at once. Have you ever used a software or played a game?? Yeah I confess – A lame question! Obviously you have! So there you are. That is the half of SaaS. Okay now consider that you are given access to the software/game unless and until you are paying a fee. Unless it’s the owner's wish to give you the access. So SaaS is a Software access just as a Service.  Got it?? Cool!! Now moving on to PaaS. Have you used a Turbo C++/ Eclipse/ Netbeans IDE?  Those are Platforms on which we work to create applications/software/programs. So a service provided so as to develop applications on the cloud are known as Platform as a Service.

So that was a rough Idea about Salesforce.com. Any query or suggestion is most welcome!

Written By : - Er. Anup Prakash (anup.prakash@hotmail.com) (Certified Developer).

Edited By : - Er. Akbar Ali Khan (uckbarr@yahoo.co.in) (Mechanical Engineer)