(SYS-CON Media) - Salesforce.com announced the availability of Apex Code, the world's first on-demand programming language. The preview release of the Apex programming language will enable developers to learn the capabilities of the Apex language, write code and create applications, and provide feedback on Apex's design and capabilities. The developer preview release is currently scheduled to be followed later this year with a beta for salesforce.com customers. Apex Code will dramatically expand the reach, scope, and depth of applications available on the AppExchange and will enable any type of enterprise application to be delivered on demand.

"Salesforce.com has now cracked the code of enabling unlimited innovation on demand," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "All components and applications created with Apex Code and the Apex on-demand platform will be able to be shared via salesforce.com's AppExchange directory, enabling all the innovation that Apex unleashes to benefit the entire on- demand community. With Apex applications available through the AppExchange, customers will benefit from unprecedented choice and freedom of on-demand applications for The Business Web. Customers will be thrilled and amazed as the salesforce.com community demonstrates what is truly possible on demand."

The Apex On-Demand Platform and Apex Code

Delivered with Salesforce Winter' 07, the Apex on-demand platform provides a complete feature set for building business applications, including data models and objects to manage data, a workflow engine for managing collaboration of data between users, a user interface model to handle forms and other interactions, and a Web services API for programmatic access and integration. The Apex Web services API is one of the world's most widely used enterprise Web services, handling more than fifty percent of salesforce.com's 3.7 billion services transactions in salesforce.com's Q307.

New to the Apex on-demand platform is Apex Code, the world's first on- demand programming language. Apex Code extends the powerful and proven success of the Apex platform by introducing the ability to write code that runs on salesforce.com's servers. This makes possible the development of a new class of applications and features deployed entirely on demand. Apex Code also makes it possible to infuse intelligence into existing Salesforce apps by capturing business logic and rules such as data validation. Code created, run and stored with Apex will be 100 percent multi-tenant and encapsulated to protect customer implementations against faulty code, and automatically upgraded in conjunction with the salesforce.com service. Apex Code enables entirely new kinds of apps to be built on demand-such as complex inventory checking and order fulfillment.

Developers can use Apex Code to do everything from creating custom components, customizing and modifying existing salesforce.com code, and creating triggers and stored procedures, all the way to building and executing complex business logic, run entirely on salesforce.com's multi-tenant service. Apex Code is a Java-like development language that is secure, easy and fast, and will be immediately familiar to any Java programmer. Anything built using Apex Code can be made available as a Web service and is accessible via SOAP and XML standards.

 Features and capabilities of Apex Code include:

* Apex Code and event model -- Apex Code can be tied to the execution of the platform, enabling developers to exert fine-grained control over an application. Developers can use Apex to customize the core features and functionality of their Salesforce deployments for their unique business needs. Apex Code also delivers the power to reprogram any component of Salesforce, such as Campaigns, Cases or Opportunities, or build entirely new components completely from scratch.
* Transaction control -- Because Apex Code is closely bound to Salesforce data, developers can readily add transactional features to their applications. For example, if one user is referencing a field while somebody else is trying to delete it, the system is aware of the conflict. Apex Code also features data commits and rollbacks, which are
especially important when working across multiple objects.
* Packaging, re-use and Web services. Apex Code uses a packaging model similar to that of Java, in which reusable packages of code can be invoked from each other or from within triggers. Significantly, any method defined in a package can optionally be automatically exposed as a Web service, and thus can be invoked via the Web services API or directly through the AJAX toolkit.
* Performance, scalability and upgrades. Because Apex Code runs on demand, developers enjoy the benefits of the scalability, reliability and availability of salesforce.com's industry-leading service. Applications potentially run faster because a single query can obtain information from multiple objects. When newer versions of Salesforce and the Apex code itself are introduced, code is never rendered obsolete. Salesforce.com ensures backward compatibility so that code continues to
operate without modification.
* Apex Code and the AppExchange. Apex Code can be packaged alongside custom objects, S-controls and other platform features, allowing developers to redistribute their Apex Code-enhanced apps via the AppExchange directory.