And from the perspective of a developer, it sure is a small install base to develop for–I’m sure they’ll get to the point where your Apex code can be run in any instance, as long as it’s certified.

As always, we’ll all be keeping our eye on the ever-changing landscape of Salesforce…

I am also bullish on Apex, but there are some limitations on it now as it related to AppExchange developers.

As a developer of AppExchange apps, I’d love the ability to write Apex code as part of an AppExchange app. However, this code is currently not distributable and, if it were, would only be distributable to UE Orgs. Certified AppExchange apps can support PE, EE and UE orgs via the API now. I am sure this limit will change, but it’s an issue now.

Also, Apex Code is a “strongly typed” language. There is no ability to perform Apex actions using a Partner WSDL paradigm whereby the configuration and you dynamically generate SOQL. Using the regular API from an external server, this is possible. The API allows you to make describe calls to get config info so that you can determine schema design and also know a user’s field level security rules. You can then dynamically build a SOQL statement in a variable and use that to do your query. Not in Apex. I believe you need to type out your SOQL in the code.

Once the distribution of code limitation goes away, I can see using Apex Code to perform specific actions for AppExchange apps. However, being able to fully rely on it for an AppExchange app is a ways away. In the short-term, Apex Code would be used for callouts from an external server using the API to perform specific tasks against the org.

http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/salesforce_apex_language_reference.pdf

And the Cookbook:

http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Members:Cookbook

I’ve found them both helpful. There is also an Apex discussion board at salesforce.com/developer to find answers to specific questions.

What resources did you use to learn APEX?

Seth

We’re a pretty small player in the Salesforce universe–16 out of their 900,000 users. They surely don’t have to listen to us for fear of losing our account: they donate it anyway! But I am amazed by how in-tune Salesforce.com is with what’s being said about their platform. Salesforce.com employees read this blog and countless others. And it’s not just one marketing guy reading them–it seems to be a pervasive attitude of keeping your ear to the ground, be it blogs or discussion groups.

It’s something that other companies could learn from. It’s one of the reasons we love Salesforce.com and one of the key reasons they are so successful. Turns out the CRM company is really good at CRM…

Great article that explains how APEX fits in the salesforce customization space.

The one great thing about APEX Code (and Pages) is not just the code but the people at Salesforce building, designing and supporting it. I’m amazed at how much they listen to the dev community and how fast updates and improvements to the language come out.

Cheers;
GlennW