Salesforce.com

You can do cool stuff using “External Objects” in force.com - namely, access the data from force.com application through yet another tab. If you think that is cool, this post is indeed for you.

The typical way to configure in salesforce/force.com is to point and click. This is easy, effective and often the chosen way to do configuration to build applications on force.com. .. it is almost boring for developers like me.

Date fields are present everywhere in any CRM application, and SFDC is not an exception. SFDC provides a number of ways in which you can work with date fields. There are more than a few things that you will find unique here, that look “oh so obvious” in hindsight.

Let’s say you are running a webinar that expects at least 20 people across the globe who need to be present for the session, or you have scheduled meetings with a dozen people from the client executive team.

Salesforce URLs are confusing. The custom force.com applications are no different. Even when they make the best effort, the turn out to be something like this - https://na17.salesforce.com/home/home.jsp This helpfully tells me that I am connected to NA server, and I am on a JSP page.

For all you people wondering on where exactly to start with salesforce and salesforce1, this is just the guide that you were waiting for. All the tutorials, guides and more in one big web page that should take you from the beginner to expert in a few weeks if not days.

It is fairly obvious that SFDC is doing many things right, and the latest announcements confirm they are on the right track. I am referring to the recent announcement of Salesforce1.

Or, rather force.com is. SFDC is not in focus today because it is a beautiful CRM product, but because it enables you to so much more using the force.com platform. Irrespective of whether you go all native, or use the force.