I was quite excited to see how the Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com was coming along since I developed a small app with the toolkit last January. I took a peek at the docs and they’ve made some really nice progress. However, the main reason I immediately downloaded the Force.com Explorer was to test out the functionality in hopes of a better tool. If you are a Mac user than you are blessed with the options of running Simon Fell’s SoqlXplorer in addition to the Force.com IDE for Eclipse. Neither one is quite the perfect tool. SoqlXplorer doesn’t let you drill into objects to build complex relationship queries like Eclipse but the Eclipse IDE doesn’t allow you to copy the resulting data from queries into your clipboard. I typically live in the SoqlXplorer all day. (Side note: not being able to copy results in the Eclipse IDE is frustrating but Job Plax, the Force.com IDE PM, told me that this feature just missed the last release so hopefully it will be in a future release.)

The Force.com Explorer is a breeze to install if you already have Adobe Air and you can be up and running within seconds. It has a nice clean UI which looks a lot like the .NET Apex Explorer. It has most of the functionality that you find in the other SOQL query tool plus some:

1. Filter objects by name
2. Drill down into objects and relationships to create complex queries. Very similar in functionality to the Eclipse IDE
3. Return results with child object that you can click on to drill into
4. Copy the text from cells in the query results
5. View metadata about the objects
6. Query, query all and batch size options
7. Right click on an object to view it of its metadata and save it as a PDF
8. It remembers the fields you selected in previous objects to easily rebuild SOQL queries

Some issues that I found right away (BTW… email any issues or requests to developerforce@salesforce.com):

1. I was not able to log into any sandbox orgs
2. I had a problem printing the object report but could download it as a PDF with no problems.
3. It crashed a couple of times while trying to create complex queries
4. It was not able to construct queries with parent-to-child relationships and if I did manually enter them the results came back null.

View Child Records Inline

View Metadata about an Object

The main purpose of this beta project is to show you how to write OAuth signed requests in Apex. There is a managed packaged you can install into your org but if you really want to dig into the guts of OAuth (and who doesn’t??) you’ll need to download and install the source code from the project. The managed package doesn’t afford you to opportunity to modify code or view granular debug statements.

Jesper doesn’t provide much documentation for the project so I’ve put together a short video showing how to get started using Google Accounts and Blogger. Unfortunately different providers implement OAuth to their own liking so you sometimes have to make modifications to the requests being sent over the wire. I ran into a number of issues so hopefully this will assist you in getting up and running with OAuth.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXJxG6zWSZA

In case you don’t have time for the video, here are a couple of screenshots outlining the process using the OAuth Consumer Playground application from the managed package.

Create a new OAuth Service (e.g., Blogger) with various URLs for accessing services

Authorize Salesforce access to Blogger

Grant access to Blogger

Authorization confirmation

OAuth Service access tokens

Testing the service

“Force.com lets you build external web applications that access data on the Force.com platform using the Oauth 1.0a protocol. OAuth is an open protocol that allows a website to access resources of another website without having to expose a user’s credentials. Instead of supplying a username and password, OAuth allows users to hand out security tokens to specific sites for access to specific resources for a defined duration.

In this article we’ll explain what OAuth is and why you should use it. We’ll also configure a Remote Access Application in Force.com, and develop an application on Google App Engine that uses a Remote Access Application to authorize access to Force.com to display account and contact records. Finally, we’ll look at some tips, tricks, available libraries and best practices to get you up and running in no time.”

Read the entires article at developer.force.com

All of the code for the application is available at the Google Code project: sfdc-oauth-demo

DocumentEmailer Visualforce Page

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<apex:page controller="DocumentEmailController">
  <apex:sectionHeader title="Document Example" subtitle="Email a Document" 
    description="Example of how to email a Document."/>
 
  <apex:form >
    <apex:pageMessages />
    <apex:pageBlock title="Document Input">
 
      <apex:pageBlockButtons >
        <apex:commandButton action="{!sendDoc}" value="Send Document"/>
      </apex:pageBlockButtons>
 
      <apex:pageBlockSection >
 
        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
            <apex:outputLabel value="Email to send to" for="email"/>
          <apex:inputText value="{!email}" id="email"/>
        </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
 
        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
            <apex:outputLabel value="Document" for="document"/>
            <apex:selectList value="{!documentId}" id="document" size="1">
                 <apex:selectOptions value="{!documents}"/>
            </apex:selectList>
        </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
 
      </apex:pageBlockSection>
 
    </apex:pageBlock>
  </apex:form>
 
</apex:page>

DocumentEmailController

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public with sharing class DocumentEmailController {
 
  public ID documentId {get;set;}
  public String email {get;set;}
 
  public List<SelectOption> documents {
    get {
      if (documents == null) {
        documents = new List<SelectOption>();
        documents.add(new SelectOption('01570000001NZDn','Cup of Coffee? - DOC'));
        documents.add(new SelectOption('01570000001NZDi','Workflow Cheatsheet -  PDF'));
      }
      return documents;
    }
    set;
  }
 
  public PageReference sendDoc() {
 
    Document doc = [select id, name, body, contenttype, developername, type 
      from Document where id = :documentId];
 
    Messaging.EmailFileAttachment attach = new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment();
    attach.setContentType(doc.contentType);
    attach.setFileName(doc.developerName+'.'+doc.type);
    attach.setInline(false);
    attach.Body = doc.Body;
 
    Messaging.SingleEmailMessage mail = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
    mail.setUseSignature(false);
    mail.setToAddresses(new String[] { email });
    mail.setSubject('Document Email Demo');
    mail.setHtmlBody('Here is the email you requested: '+doc.name);
    mail.setFileAttachments(new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment[] { attach }); 
 
    // Send the email
    Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] { mail });
 
    ApexPages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message(ApexPages.Severity.INFO, 'Email with Document sent to '+email));
 
    return null;
 
  }
 
}

Test Class

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@isTest
private class Test_DocumentEmailer {
 
  static Document document;
 
  static {
 
    document = new Document();
    document.Body = Blob.valueOf('Some Text');
    document.ContentType = 'application/pdf';
    document.DeveloperName = 'my_document';
    document.IsPublic = true;
    document.Name = 'My Document';
    document.FolderId = [select id from folder where name = 'My Test Docs'].id;
    insert document;
 
  }
 
  static testMethod void testDocumentEmailer() {
 
    PageReference pref = Page.DocumentEmailer;        
    DocumentEmailController con = new DocumentEmailController();    
 
    Test.startTest();
 
    System.assertEquals(2,con.documents.size());
 
    // populate the field with values
    con.documentId = document.id;
    con.email = 'test@noemail.com';
    // submit the request
    pref = con.sendDoc();
 
    Test.stopTest(); 
 
  }
}

You can run this demo at my developer site.

PdfEmailer Visualforce Page

The Visualforce page simply allows the user to enter their email address and select a sample Account from the picklist. This is Account that is passed to the PdfGeneratorTemplate Visualforce page to generate the PDF.

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<apex:page controller="PdfEmailController">
  <apex:sectionHeader title="PDF Example" subtitle="Email a PDF" 
    description="Example of how to email a dynamically generated PDF."/>
 
  <apex:form >
    <apex:pageMessages />
    <apex:pageBlock title="PDF Input">
 
      <apex:pageBlockButtons >
        <apex:commandButton action="{!sendPdf}" value="Send PDF"/>
      </apex:pageBlockButtons>
 
      <apex:pageBlockSection >
 
        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
            <apex:outputLabel value="Email to send to" for="email"/>
          <apex:inputText value="{!email}" id="email"/>
        </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
 
        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
            <apex:outputLabel value="Account" for="account"/>
            <apex:selectList value="{!accountId}" id="account" size="1">
                 <apex:selectOptions value="{!accounts}"/>
            </apex:selectList>
        </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
 
      </apex:pageBlockSection>
 
    </apex:pageBlock>
  </apex:form>
 
</apex:page>

PdfEmailerController

The Controller passes the Account ID that the user entered as a parameter for the Visualforce page being generated. It let creates the attachment from the PDF content. The Body of the attachment uses the Blob returned from the PageReference’s getContent method. You could also use the getContentAsPDF method which always returns the page as a PDF, regardless of the component’s renderAs attribute. However, this method always seems to throw an error in the test class. See the PageReference documentation for more info. The method then constructs the SimpleEmailMessage object and then sends it on its way to the recipient’s inbox.

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public with sharing class PdfEmailController {
 
  public ID accountId {get;set;}
  public String email {get;set;}
 
  public List<SelectOption> accounts {
    get {
      if (accounts == null) {
        accounts = new List<SelectOption>();
        accounts.add(new SelectOption('0017000000LgRMb','United Oil & Gas Corp.'));
        accounts.add(new SelectOption('0017000000LgRMV','Burlington Textiles Corp of America'));
      }
      return accounts;
    }
    set;
  }
 
  public PageReference sendPdf() {
 
    PageReference pdf = Page.PdfGeneratorTemplate;
    // add parent id to the parameters for standardcontroller
    pdf.getParameters().put('id',accountId);
 
    // the contents of the attachment from the pdf
    Blob body;
 
    try {
 
      // returns the output of the page as a PDF
      body = pdf.getContent();
 
    // need to pass unit test -- current bug  
    } catch (VisualforceException e) {
      body = Blob.valueOf('Some Text');
    }
 
    Messaging.EmailFileAttachment attach = new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment();
    attach.setContentType('application/pdf');
    attach.setFileName('testPdf.pdf');
    attach.setInline(false);
    attach.Body = body;
 
    Messaging.SingleEmailMessage mail = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
    mail.setUseSignature(false);
    mail.setToAddresses(new String[] { email });
    mail.setSubject('PDF Email Demo');
    mail.setHtmlBody('Here is the email you requested! Check the attachment!');
    mail.setFileAttachments(new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment[] { attach }); 
 
    // Send the email
    Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] { mail });
 
    ApexPages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message(ApexPages.Severity.INFO, 'Email with PDF sent to '+email));
 
    return null;
 
  }
 
}

PdfGeneratorTemplate Visualforce Page

This is the Visualforce page that is generated in the Controller. It simply uses the StandardController and displays the Account name for the ID passed to it.

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<apex:page standardController="Account" renderAs="pdf">
  <h1>Congratulations!!</h1>
  <p>You created a PDF for {!account.name}</p>
</apex:page>

Test Class

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@isTest
private class Test_PdfEmailController {
 
  static Account account;
 
  static {
 
    account = new Account();
    account.Name = 'Test Account';
    insert account;
 
  }
 
  static testMethod void testPdfEmailer() {
 
    PageReference pref = Page.PdfEmailer;
    pref.getParameters().put('id',account.id);
    Test.setCurrentPage(pref);
 
    PdfEmailController con = new PdfEmailController();    
 
    Test.startTest();
 
    System.assertEquals(2,con.accounts.size());
 
    // populate the field with values
    con.accountId = account.id;
    con.email = 'test@noemail.com';
    // submit the record
    pref = con.sendPdf();
 
    Test.stopTest(); 
 
  }
}

Note: there is a small issue when it comes to testing the Controller. Salesforce currently throws an error (Salesforce.com Error “Unable to retrieve object”) when getContent or getContentAsPDF is called from a test method. There’s an Idea to make this work properly. I encourage everyone to vote for this.

PdfGenerator Visualforce Page

The Visualforce page allows the users to enter the ID of the Account to attach the PDF to as well as the name of the PDF. You could just have easily used a Controller Extension instead of entering the ID for the Account but I went this route for simplicity.

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<apex:page controller="PdfGeneratorController">
  <apex:sectionHeader title="PDF Example" subtitle="Attach a PDF" 
    description="Example of how to attach a PDF to a record."/>
 
  <apex:form >
    <apex:pageBlock title="PDF Input">
 
      <apex:pageBlockButtons >
        <apex:commandButton action="{!savePdf}" value="Save PDF"/>
      </apex:pageBlockButtons>
      <apex:pageMessages />
 
      <apex:pageBlockSection >
 
        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
            <apex:outputLabel value="File Name" for="pdfName"/>
          <apex:inputText value="{!pdfName}" id="pdfName"/>
        </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
 
        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
            <apex:outputLabel value="Account ID" for="id"/>
          <apex:inputText value="{!parentId}" id="id"/>
        </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
 
      </apex:pageBlockSection>
 
    </apex:pageBlock>
  </apex:form>
 
</apex:page>

PdfGeneratorController Custom Controller

The Controller passes the Account ID that the user entered as a parameter for the Visualforce page being generated. It then creates a new Attachment object and sets some attributes. It sets the ParentId to the value of the Account ID that the user entered so that the PDF is attached to that record. The Body of the attachment uses the Blob returned from the PageReference’s getContent method. You could also use the getContentAsPDF method which always returns the page as a PDF, regardless of the <apex:page> component’s renderAs attribute. However, this method always seems to throw an error in the test class. See the PageReference documentation for more info. The method then redirects the user to the Account page so they can view the PDF attachment.

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public with sharing class PdfGeneratorController {
 
  public ID parentId {get;set;}
  public String pdfName {get;set;}
 
  public PageReference savePdf() {
 
    PageReference pdf = Page.PdfGeneratorTemplate;
    // add parent id to the parameters for standardcontroller
    pdf.getParameters().put('id',parentId);
 
    // create the new attachment
    Attachment attach = new Attachment();
 
    // the contents of the attachment from the pdf
    Blob body;
 
    try {
 
        // returns the output of the page as a PDF
    	body = pdf.getContent();
 
    // need to pass unit test -- current bug	
    } catch (VisualforceException e) {
    	body = Blob.valueOf('Some Text');
    }
 
    attach.Body = body;
    // add the user entered name
    attach.Name = pdfName;
    attach.IsPrivate = false;
    // attach the pdf to the account
    attach.ParentId = parentId;
    insert attach;
 
    // send the user to the account to view results
    return new PageReference('/'+parentId);
 
  }
 
}

PdfGeneratorTemplate Visualforce Page

This is the Visualforce page that is generated in the Controller. It simply uses the StandardController and displays the Account name for the ID passed to it.

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<apex:page standardController="Account" renderAs="pdf">
  <h1>Congratulations!!</h1>
  <p>You created a PDF for {!account.name}</p>
</apex:page>

Test Class

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@isTest
private class Test_PdfGeneratorController {
 
  static Account account;
 
  static {
 
    account = new Account();
    account.Name = 'Test Account';
    insert account;
 
  }
 
  static testMethod void testPdfGenerator() {
 
    PageReference pref = Page.PdfGenerator;
    pref.getParameters().put('id',account.id);
    Test.setCurrentPage(pref);
 
    PdfGeneratorController con = new PdfGeneratorController();    
 
    Test.startTest();
 
    // populate the field with values
    con.parentId = account.id;
    con.pdfName = 'My Test PDF';
 
    // submit the record
    pref = con.savePdf();
 
    // assert that they were sent to the correct page
    System.assertEquals(pref.getUrl(),'/'+account.id);
 
    // assert that an attachment exists for the record
    System.assertEquals(1,[select count() from attachment where parentId = :account.id]);
 
    Test.stopTest(); 
 
  }
}

You can run this demo at my developer site.

Some of the interesting features of the Visualforce page and Apex controller include:

• Instead of the typical overhead of using getters/setters in the controller to maintain the variables for the search form, I used Dave Carroll’s blog as an example to pass the variables via Javascript.
• Since I’m using Javascript to pass my parameters, I can get fancy and make the search form more dynamic by running the search as the user types or selects an option in the picklist. No submit button is required.
• Users can click on the column headers to toggle the direction of the search results by using a CommandLink component and passing the column name.
• Build the picklist using Dynamic Apex’s Describe functionality so that it’s maintenance free.
• Perform the search against multiple fields including multi-select picklists using dynamic SOQL and preventing SOQL injection attacks.

ContactSearchController

Take a look at the Apex code below. The search interaction is split up between two separate but integral parts. When the search is fired from the Visualforce page via Javascript, the SOQL is constructed in the runSearch() method and is then passed to the runQuery() method to execute. The SOQL string is persisted so that when the user clicks on the table column the same SOQL can be issued again in the toggleSort() method but ordered by a different field name and sort direction.

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public with sharing class ContactSearchController {
 
  // the soql without the order and limit
  private String soql {get;set;}
  // the collection of contacts to display
  public List<Contact> contacts {get;set;}
 
  // the current sort direction. defaults to asc
  public String sortDir {
    get  { if (sortDir == null) {  sortDir = 'asc'; } return sortDir;  }
    set;
  }
 
  // the current field to sort by. defaults to last name
  public String sortField {
    get  { if (sortField == null) {sortField = 'lastName'; } return sortField;  }
    set;
  }
 
  // format the soql for display on the visualforce page
  public String debugSoql {
    get { return soql + ' order by ' + sortField + ' ' + sortDir + ' limit 20'; }
    set;
  }
 
  // init the controller and display some sample data when the page loads
  public ContactSearchController() {
    soql = 'select firstname, lastname, account.name, interested_technologies__c from contact where account.name != null';
    runQuery();
  }
 
  // toggles the sorting of query from asc<-->desc
  public void toggleSort() {
    // simply toggle the direction
    sortDir = sortDir.equals('asc') ? 'desc' : 'asc';
    // run the query again
    runQuery();
  }
 
  // runs the actual query
  public void runQuery() {
 
    try {
      contacts = Database.query(soql + ' order by ' + sortField + ' ' + sortDir + ' limit 20');
    } catch (Exception e) {
      ApexPages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message(ApexPages.Severity.ERROR, 'Ooops!'));
    }
 
  }
 
  // runs the search with parameters passed via Javascript
  public PageReference runSearch() {
 
    String firstName = Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('firstname');
    String lastName = Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('lastname');
    String accountName = Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('accountName');
    String technology = Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('technology');
 
    soql = 'select firstname, lastname, account.name, interested_technologies__c from contact where account.name != null';
    if (!firstName.equals(''))
      soql += ' and firstname LIKE \''+String.escapeSingleQuotes(firstName)+'%\'';
    if (!lastName.equals(''))
      soql += ' and lastname LIKE \''+String.escapeSingleQuotes(lastName)+'%\'';
    if (!accountName.equals(''))
      soql += ' and account.name LIKE \''+String.escapeSingleQuotes(accountName)+'%\'';  
    if (!technology.equals(''))
      soql += ' and interested_technologies__c includes (\''+technology+'\')';
 
    // run the query again
    runQuery();
 
    return null;
  }
 
  // use apex describe to build the picklist values
  public List<String> technologies {
    get {
      if (technologies == null) {
 
        technologies = new List<String>();
        Schema.DescribeFieldResult field = Contact.interested_technologies__c.getDescribe();
 
        for (Schema.PicklistEntry f : field.getPicklistValues())
          technologies.add(f.getLabel());
 
      }
      return technologies;          
    }
    set;
  }
 
}

CustomerSearch Visualforce Page

The Visualforce page has three sections: 1) a search form, 2) a results blockTable and 3) a debug panel displaying the SOQL that was executed.

The search form has a number of fields that fire the Javascript search using the onkeyup and onchange events. Instead of each form field passing the current values to actionFunction’s Javascript method, for ease of use, each form field calls the doSearch() function that gathers up the values and submits them. When the actionFunction renders it creates a Javascript function that POSTs the values to the controller in the same manner as CommandLink or CommandButton.

The search results BlockTable is rerendered when the search is submitted to the controller so that the results display properly. Users can click on the column headers to reorder the results of the query. This uses a CommandLink to pass the sort field to the controller and toggle the sort direction.

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<apex:page controller="ContactSearchController" sidebar="false">
 
  <apex:form >
  <apex:pageMessages id="errors" />
 
  <apex:pageBlock title="Find Me A Customer!" mode="edit">
 
  <table width="100%" border="0">
  <tr>  
    <td width="200" valign="top">
 
      <apex:pageBlock title="Parameters" mode="edit" id="criteria">
 
      <script type="text/javascript">
      function doSearch() {
        searchServer(
          document.getElementById("firstName").value,
          document.getElementById("lastName").value,
          document.getElementById("accountName").value,
          document.getElementById("technology").options[document.getElementById("technology").selectedIndex].value
          );
      }
      </script> 
 
      <apex:actionFunction name="searchServer" action="{!runSearch}" rerender="results,debug,errors">
          <apex:param name="firstName" value="" />
          <apex:param name="lastName" value="" />
          <apex:param name="accountName" value="" />
          <apex:param name="technology" value="" />
      </apex:actionFunction>
 
      <table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
      <tr>
        <td style="font-weight:bold;">First Name<br/>
        <input type="text" id="firstName" onkeyup="doSearch();"/>
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td style="font-weight:bold;">Last Name<br/>
        <input type="text" id="lastName" onkeyup="doSearch();"/>
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td style="font-weight:bold;">Account<br/>
        <input type="text" id="accountName" onkeyup="doSearch();"/>
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td style="font-weight:bold;">Interested Technologies<br/>
          <select id="technology" onchange="doSearch();">
            <option value=""></option>
            <apex:repeat value="{!technologies}" var="tech">
              <option value="{!tech}">{!tech}</option>
            </apex:repeat>
          </select>
        </td>
      </tr>
      </table>
 
      </apex:pageBlock>
 
    </td>
    <td valign="top">
 
    <apex:pageBlock mode="edit" id="results">
 
        <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!contacts}" var="contact">
 
            <apex:column >
                <apex:facet name="header">
                    <apex:commandLink value="First Name" action="{!toggleSort}" rerender="results,debug">
                        <apex:param name="sortField" value="firstName" assignTo="{!sortField}"/>
                    </apex:commandLink>
                </apex:facet>
                <apex:outputField value="{!contact.firstName}"/>
            </apex:column>
 
            <apex:column >
                <apex:facet name="header">
                    <apex:commandLink value="Last Name" action="{!toggleSort}" rerender="results,debug">
                        <apex:param name="sortField" value="lastName" assignTo="{!sortField}"/>
                    </apex:commandLink>
                </apex:facet>
                <apex:outputField value="{!contact.lastName}"/>
            </apex:column>
 
            <apex:column >
                <apex:facet name="header">
                    <apex:commandLink value="Account" action="{!toggleSort}" rerender="results,debug">
                        <apex:param name="sortField" value="account.name" assignTo="{!sortField}"/>
                    </apex:commandLink>
                </apex:facet>
                <apex:outputField value="{!contact.account.name}"/>
            </apex:column>
 
            <apex:column >
                <apex:facet name="header">
                    <apex:commandLink value="Technologies" action="{!toggleSort}" rerender="results,debug">
                        <apex:param name="sortField" value="interested_technologies__c" assignTo="{!sortField}"/>
                    </apex:commandLink>
                </apex:facet>
                <apex:outputField value="{!contact.Interested_Technologies__c}"/>
            </apex:column>
 
        </apex:pageBlockTable>
 
    </apex:pageBlock>
 
    </td>
  </tr>
  </table>
 
  <apex:pageBlock title="Debug - SOQL" id="debug">
      <apex:outputText value="{!debugSoql}" />           
  </apex:pageBlock>    
 
  </apex:pageBlock>
 
  </apex:form>
 
</apex:page>

The Summer 10 release was rolled out last month and I’m finally getting a chance to go through the entire release notes and pick out some of my favorite new features and enhancements. Sorry for the delay but I’ve been busy with stuff. I didn’t hit all of the items in the release notes so make sure you pull up the the PDF and check out all of the goodies in detail.

Chatter

If you didn’t hear that Chatter went GA then you are probably dead. Stop reading this and roll over in your grave. They also released the functionality to setup public or private groups to collaborate with specific people and you can use it with Content and Knowledge. Chatter must be enabled and setup for your org. For more info on Chatter check out this page.

Custom Cloud Enhancements

• You can new also set up dynamic dashboards which run using the security settings of the logged-in user instead of a static running user.
• Drag-and-drop dashboard builder to simply drag a component type onto a column and then drop a data source onto it. Much easier and more powerful.
• You can show column totals on dashboard tables for up to four columns.
• You can permanently delete records with Data Loader by using the the Hard Delete operation. The deleted records are not stored in the Recycle Bin.

Force.com Sites Enhancements

• Rewriting URLs for Sites is now available so that you can make pretty URLs and links for Sites visitors. So instead of seeing a link like http://mysite.force.com/contact?id=0000000000001234567 you can generate a link like http://mysite.force.com/mycontact/MikeSmith.
• Troubleshoot errors in Sites easier with the administrator preview option. When accessing a Site in administrator preview mode extra debug info displays at the bottom of the page. FYI: you have to add an extra Visualforce tag to your Sites pages to make this debug info appear outside of standard error pages.
• Sites Single Sign-On – now your identity provider can use SAML with Sites to do single sign-on. Used in conjunction with either a customer or a partner portal.
• New Cookie Class for Force.com Sites – The cookie class lets you access cookies for your Force.com Site using Apex. Use this in conjunction with the new getCookies and setCookies Methods for PageReference to create and store cookies in Apex.

Apex & Visualforce Enhancements

• Declarative dependent picklists in Visualforce
• Use Sets with both Primitives and sObjects now!
• Only available for Apex saved with API v19.0 or later, the sObject Clone method now uses the user running the Apex code for the CreateBy value, and the current date and time for CreatedDate.
• New encryption, decryption and key generating methods for the Crypto class.
• No more Batch Apex limit for execute method. Used to be able to call the execute method 250,000 times in a 24 hour period per organization. Not any more!
• The total heap size has been increased probably in response to the Spring 10 change that collections can hold as many items as the heap allows. Trigger size is now 300,000; an anonymous block, Visualforce controller, or WSDL method, heap size is now 3,000,000; and test method, heap size is now 1,500,000.
• SOQL subqueries no longer return records that are marked as IsDeleted unless IsDeleted = true is explicitly stated as part of the query.
• Visualforce pages and components created using Salesforce.com API version 19.0 or higher must be written as well-formed XML or they will not save.

Web Services API Enhancements

The following new objects have been added in API version 19.0:

• The Article__DataCategorySelection object associates an article with data categories from a data category group.
• The QuestionDataCategorySelection object associates a question with a data category from a data category group.
• The KnowledgeArticle object provides read–only access to an article independent of its version.
• The ApexLog object represents a debug log.
• The SlaProcess object represents an entitlement process associated with an entitlement.
• A ton of new chatter objects (actually from v18 as part of limited release).

Bulk API Enhancements

• Improved retry handling for batch timeout and lock errors so that the Bulk API places the remainder of the failed batch back in the queue for later processing up to 10 times when processing.
• Support for relationship fields and polymorphic relationship fields in XML batches.
• BatchInfo stateMessage field enhancement so that the stateMessage field now contains all the reasons associated with a Failed batch state.
• Permanent deletion of records with the support of a hardDelete option. When this value is specified, deleted records are not kept in the Recycle Bin.

Sales Cloud Enhancements

• You can now create alerts to lead and contact owners when the leads and contacts are added to a campaign.
• Now you can display lead and contact custom field information on campaign member page layouts with the formula field enhancements.
• Salesforce.com displays a warning message if the contact or lead you are sending email to has Email Opt Out equal to true.
• If contacts or leads have multiple email addresses, you can new choose which address to use when clicking Send an Email.
• You can create personalized footers or disclaimers that appear at the bottom of all outgoing email messages sent from Salesforce.com or the API.

Community Enhancements

• Answers community now publically available to Force.com Sites users.
• Administrators and trusted community members (with create case permissions) can escalate an unanswered or problematic question to a new case.
• Community members (with create Knowledge permissions) can choose to convert a particularly helpful reply into a new article in the knowledge base.
• Workflow is now available for questions to help monitor Answers communities.
• You can designate certain data categories visible to all users while still restricting access as needed for each role. This was a problem because users without roles (i.e., high-volume Customer Portal users) could only see could only see uncategorized questions.
• Members of an answers community can delete their questions and replies now.

Knowledge Enhancements

• When closing a case, users can now more quickly create a new draft article that can be reviewed and published automatically to the case and available via knowledge base.
• Ability for support reps to quickly send knowledge base articles to contacts via email templates. The template automatically converts articles associated with the case into PDF attachments on an email.
• As soon as a new case is saved, if autosuggestion is enabled, a list of potentially relevant articles displays.
• Follow Articles in your Chatter feed.
• Two new custom report types for the knowledge base are available: Cases with Articles and Knowledge Keyword Search.
• Send email to an Article reviewer notifying them that you assign one or more articles to them.

Salesforce CRM Content

The Salesforce CRM Content feature license is included in all organizations at no additional cost but you do have to enable this feature.

Cloud Scheduler

The new Cloud Scheduler allows you to schedule meeting with customers and internal resources. Meeting requests send attnedees to a web page where they can select times that are best for them and then respond with multiple options. Salesforce.com tracks all the responses so you can pick the best time to meet when you confirm the meeting. Here’s a small video demo.

Enabling High Volume Customer Portal Users

You can now enable contacts as High Volume Customer Portal users so they can log in to a Customer Portal without affecting its performance. High-volume Customer Portal users include both the High Volume Customer Portal User and Authenticated Website User license types. The High Volume Customer Portal User user license is currently available through a pilot program, while the Authenticated Website User user license is GA.

Mobile Enhancements

Blackberry

• Improved related list search.
• Report tab is no longer hard-coded on Blackberries and is now configuratble by administrators.

iPhone

• Support for both local and remote search for records.
• Performance improvements for large data sets and synchronizing.

Windows Mobile

• Peripheral support to provide integration with the barcode scanners and magnetic stripe card readers in select Motorola Windows Mobile devices.
• Support for viewing attachments in related list and attaching images to records.

Push Patch Updates (Developer Edition only)

You can develop a new package type called a patch version, which enables a developer to change the functionality of existing components in a managed package, while ensuring that subscribers experience no visible changes to the package. Patch versions can only be created for major release packages. Subscribers can receive patch upgrades just like any other package version. However, you can also distribute a patch by using push upgrades to automatically upgrade all eligible customers running the same major release.

Betas Programs

Dependent Lookups and Other Lookup Filters Enhancements

Lookup filters are administrator settings that restrict the valid values and lookup dialog results for lookup, master-detail, and hierarchical relationship fields. Administrators specify the restrictions by configuring filter criteria that compare fields and values on the source record; target object; the user’s record, profile, and role and the target object’s records.

• Dependent Lookups – A dependent lookup is a relationship field with a lookup filter that references fields on the source object. Similar to dependent picklists, the valid values in the dependent lookup change according to other values the user enters on the record.
• Related Lookup Filters Lists for Target Objects – You can quickly see a list of the lookup filters that restrict the values of each target object. This is useful when creating similar filters for a target object. Also, lookup filters that reference fields on related objects count against the cross-object reference limit, which is the number of unique relationships allowed for a target object. The Related Lookup Filters list lets you see which lookup filters might impact that limit.

Quotes Template Editor

The quote template editor looks and functions a lot like the enhanced page layout editor with drag ‘n drop functionality. Sales reps can choose either a standard quote template or a custom template and send out quote PDFs to customers.

Pilot Programs

Chatter for Mobile

Access Chatter from your BlackBerry or iPhone. The mobile application only consists of the Chatter, Profile, and People tabs. Android support “promised” by the end of the year.

New Opportunity Page

Customize how your Opportunity page looks with the New Opportunity Page pilot. Drag ‘n drop side tabs let you quickly and easily navigate and personalize your page to highlight information that is the most valuable to you.

Improved System Log Console (Apex CSI)

A new context-sensitive execution viewer, showing the source of an operation in a transaction, what triggered that operation, and what occurred afterward. You can use it for tracking code execution, workflow, validation rules, and other operations that were executed during the transaction.

Visualforce View State Inspector

The View State Inspector lets you view which Visualforce elements are contributing to the size of your view state. You can use this to monitor the performance of Visualforce pages where users submit data using forms. By minimizing your view state size, you can reduce load times.

Previews for Microsoft Office 2007 Files

The new document viewer allows users to view Microsoft Office 2007 files, including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel without downloading, whether the document is a content delivery sent to a lead, prospect, or colleague, or a document viewed internally in Salesforce CRM Content.

Developer Previews

Report Builder Enhancements

A new Developer Preview sports a more powerful report builder. Now you can create and edit summary reports, manage custom and advanced filters, and edit row count limits for tabular reports. Use the drag-and-drop interface to reorder columns, add and rearrange groupings, and change date granularities. For Developer Preview, report builder only works with tabular and summary reports, and functionality is limited. You can’t use it for matrix reports or charts. Update from Thomas Tobin at Salesforce.com: “We are updating the report builder, and charts are going to be creatable/editable in the report builder tomorrow evening.”

According to the Crypto docs, the arguments for the sign method are an algorithm name (i.e., RSA-SHA1), an input Blob (the string to encrypt) and a privateKey Blob. The value of privateKey must be decoded using the EncodingUtilbase64Decode method, and should be in RSA’s PKCS #8 (1.2) Private-Key Information Syntax Standard form.

The sample code from the docs doesn’t help determining how to obtain the privateKey:

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String algorithmName = 'RSA';
String key = 'pkcs8 format private key';
Blob privateKey = EncodingUtil.base64Decode(key);
Blob input = Blob.valueOf('12345qwerty');
Crypto.sign(algorithmName, input, privateKey);

So after a couple of days of trial and error, swearing and sticking needles in my eyes, I finally came up with the solution for Google. It may not apply to other services but the methodology is roughly the same for the privateKey.

The first step is to generate a self-signing public certificate and private key. You can find more info here. Open terminal and run the following:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -shal -subj ‘/C=US/ST=CA/L=San Mateo/CN=www.appirio.com’ -keyout key-mycompanyrsa.pem -out cert-mycompanyrsa.pem

This will spit out a cert file (cert-mycompanyrsa.pem) and private key file (key-mycompanyrsa.pem). Then upload the cert to your domain for the Google account. This will generate a consumer key and a consumer secret for your application.

Now here was my mistake. I was opening the private key file (key-mycompanyrsa.pem) and using the contents of this file in my Apex code for the privateKey Blob value. Google was choking when creating the OAuth request token saying that the signature was incorrect: signature_invalid.

Here’s the fix. You need to use the private key file (key-mycompanyrsa.pem) with the openssl pkcs8 command to process the private keys into PKCS#8 format.

Open terminal again and run:

openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -nocrypt -in key-mycompanyrsa.pem -outform PEM

This will display a new private key in terminal and THIS is the value you use for the privateKey argument for the sign method. Just copy everything betweek the “begin” line and “end” line.

The Force.com Multitenant Architecture
Understanding the Design of Salesforce.com’s Internet Application Development Platform

This whitepaper is a great read if you are interested in the guts of the Force.com platform and how it works. It talks about multitenant application design and metadata driven architectures from a high level. It offers some really great insights on how data is stored and retrieved on the platform and well as application development, logic and processing.

You can download the whitepaper here.