Salesforce Integration Simplified PART 1 - Salesforce Integration Scenarios

Hello Amigos,

I have been thinking about doing this for a very long time now I got the chance to do it. I am gonna tell you a super simplified way to integrate two systems. I dont want to stretch the article long so I will cut of the stories as much as possible and help you understand using simple illustrations.

We came across two protocols REST and SOAP

REST Vs SOAP Though both are equally powerful which one to choose ?!?

To illustrate in the layment terms

REST 

If you want to expose data without much importance to data security and you have large chunk of data to process choose REST.

REST is browser friendly since JSON is supported and its easy to understand.

REST has better performance and scalability.

SOAP

Focusses on Application logic than of Data.

It provides response in XML which I really dont like.

It is more secure than REST.

SOAP sucks :D


Image illustrates how REST works

Image illustrates how SOAP works

As a developer working on a destination org to integrate a legacy system using SOAP you need to ask for a WSDL file from the technical team of Org 1.









Part 2 and Part 3 will provide few use cases of using a API to perform HTTP callouts and writting test classes for mock callouts stay tuned.

References: SOAP vs REST

Authored by:          

  Nirmal Christopher,


 Salesforce.com Certified Developer, 

Reporting and Analytics in Salesforce (Part 1)

This should be a nostalgic Post. The reason I call this is as nostalgism because of the content I am posting here, Who doesn't love a quick refresh on the topics we never work for a long time. I have categorized the reporting and analytics in to two parts. Let me go through the complete road map of these series of Blogs. The part one is going to cover the power of Salesforce reporting, Report types and Formats in reports.

Reporting in Salesforce:

This is one of the powerful features in salesforce in the click and point arena is concerned. We can drill down, Group, Summarize data between different objects or same objects lets see some possibilities what the SFDC reporting can acheive

1.  Create Reports using standard report types.
2. Creating Custom report types.
3. Add Formatting for the reports (Matrix, Tabular, Summary and Joined)
4. Bucketing, Grouping, Add Formulas etc..

Create Reports using standard report types

In Salesforce the report types are built with standard objects for instance say we need to built a report with Accounts and cases or a joint report with Open and Closed Opportunities in a joint reports we use the satndard report types. Just click on the report type and start creating the reports right away.

Custom Report Types
What if the you need to create a  custom report with custom object and related records from other objects ? The best practice is to use Custom report types and use it in building report's with custom object data.

Report Formatting 
Based on the need the reports can be set in one mong the four formats listed below

Tabular - The first thing to consider about this report format is that Tabular reports are just like a spread sheet. If you want to display unlimited number of rows with a single grand total we can opt this format. Also remember we cannot create grouping in this format.

Summary - Thsi is way similar to former format but you can add row grouping, view subtotals and create charts. They can also be used as a source reports for your dashboard components.


Matrix - This is more advanced type of formatting compared to summary.  Use this type for comparing related totals, especially if you have large amounts of data to summarize and you need to compare values in several different fields, or you want to look at data by date and by product, person, or geography. Matrix reports without at least one row and one column grouping show as summary reports on the report run page.

Joined Reports -

Joined reports let you create multiple report blocks that provide different views of your data. Each block acts like a “sub-report,” with its own fields, columns, sorting, and filtering. A joined report can even contain data from different report types.

Bucketing, Grouping, Add Formulas etc..

We can create bucktes  for any fields and add this field as a sorting or a grouping bucket. Imagine we need to group account records based on record counts we can do this.

This is evolved into a robust and powerful feature in the data analytics in Salesforce.

References : https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=reports_changing_format.htm

Authored by: Nirmal Christopher,

 Salesforce.com Certified Developer, 

Development Engineer, 

A simple Salesforce 1 Example