Sittin’ on Top of the World

Wow, I really am flying fast & loose with my post titles these days. But since it got your attention, you may as well keep reading. So what does the top of the world have to do with Salesforce development. Can’t figure it out yet? Top of the world…top…the peak…the apex…APEX!! (Yup, I went there). As a button-click admin, all I really knew about Apex was that if it was beyond my button-clickin’ skills, then it was probably something to do with Apex & I couldn’t do it. But I had no idea what Apex really was.

Let’s look at the Salesforce definition of Apex: “a strongly-typed, object-oriented programming language that allows developers to execute flow and transaction control statements on the Force.com platform.” A little too wordy for me, so let’s break that down.

• Strongly-typed – this is a computer science-y term for coding languages that put restrictions on how actions that mix data types can be mixed. To put it a bit clearer, a coding language that has somes rules.
• Object-oriented programming – OOP is one style of programming using Objects — Click for a refresher, but objects are storage center for data & the actions (methods) that the object can do.
• Language – While my last few posts have been regarding dev-speak, this is actually the words & syntax that a developer uses while writing code. Things like ‘public class‘, ‘standardController‘, etc etc…
• Execute flow – Translate to ‘make stuff happen’
• Transaction control statements – Not gonna lie, I didn’t know this one. So I googled it! These are statements that control DML actions: insert, update, delete.
• Force.com platform – Really? Are you on the right blog? Well, if you aren’t a SFDC addict, this is the cloud computing platform that I can stop raving about.

Hopefully I didn’t lose you through all that. Next week, I’m going to switch gears a bit & provide some insight to all the happenings at Dreamforce. If you aren’t going yet, hurry up & sign up now (only 16 days until the big event)! I’m gonna have some really great schwag for my readers, including extra special gifts for those who comment on my blog! Seriously!