markcane

As an architect I’m generally obsessive about three things; patterns, principles and practices. I could probably add to this list but I also prefer to keep things simple. This post is concerned with the first P, Patterns – in the integration architecture context. At what level should they be defined and applied? I tend to […]

A Salesforce instance is a constrained environment where limits exist in respect to capacity and execution. Examples of capacity limits being data storage, number of active users, number of custom objects/custom fields/picklists etc. examples of execution limits being API calls per 24-hour period, SOQL queries executed within an Apex transaction, Viewstate size in Visualforce pages […]

At the time I started writing this post we were living in a Chatter Mobile world, this is no longer the case. As announced recently at Dreamforce ’13 we have entered the Salesforce1 era, the direction of which will no doubt become clearer as we transition to the Spring ’14 release. What is clear now […]

A real challenge for all Salesforce Architects is keeping up-to-date on the constantly evolving native platform capabilities and customisation/extension points. It’s a truism that nothing stands still, this is especially true in the Salesforce world, with 3 releases a year, frequent off-cycle incremental feature enhancements, acquisitions etc. etc.. This constant evolution is of course great […]

Winter ’14 introduces two-factor authentication (2FA) for both User Interface and API logins, a long-awaited security feature enabled through User Profile, or Permission Set. The relevant permissions are: Two-Factor Authentication for User Interface Logins Two-Factor Authentication for API Logins The second factor in question being a time-based token generated by a Salesforce supplied, device specific […]

First of all let me be clear on one thing, I’m a big advocate for Salesforce-to-Salesforce, for many org-to-org data convergence/integration use cases S2S is an efficient, cost effective solution. Over the last couple of years I’ve had the pleasure to work with a non-profit organisation, via the Salesforce foundation, on an interesting use case […]

Super quick post on Embedded Analytics just in case this has passed anyone by and because it’s probably my favourite non-technical new feature for some time. In short, it is now possible to embed two charts (not reports) into a standard page layout (custom objects and standard objects), blurring the lines slightly between layouts and […]

With Winter ’14 the new Analytics API turns GA. This RESTful style of API consumes standard API call limits, uses OAuth authentication and JSON request/response message formats (representations). The key functionality of the Analytics API is the execution of reports (in synchronous or asynchronous modes), the application of dynamic filtering and the inspection of report […]

Slightly depressing to be saying this in late August but Winter is almost upon us in the shape of the Winter ’14 (or v29.0) release. The Winter ’14 release notes are now available, find below a brief introduction to 10 Force.com highlights (in no order of significance). 1. Increased Sandbox Storage Limits. Developer sandboxes now […]

The concept of any-org development is an interesting one. The strict definition, to my mind, being the development of a set of components (perhaps packaged) that are designed and coded specifically to install and function in any Salesforce org. This is typically an ISV concern, where testing and maintaining a single-code base can be highly […]