Tools and Toolkits
Development Tools
Developer Edition Environment: This online environment lets you instantly start developing and testing your software-as-a-service application.
Force.com IDE: The Force.com IDE is a full-featured, Eclipse-based coding environment, with capabilities like code completion, version control, collaborative development, and project sharing.
Force.com Migration Tool: The Force.com Migration Tool is a Java/Ant-based command-line utility for moving metadata between a local directory and a Force.com organization.
Force.com Explorer: This cross-platform AIR application, still in beta, provides a lightweight tool that lets developers browse their schema, custom objects and fields, and build and test SOQL queries.
Workbench : This powerful, web-based suite of tools designed for adminstrators and developers to interact with Salesforce.com organizations via the Force.com APIs. Workbench includes robust support for the Force.com Partner, Bulk, Rest, Streaming, Metadata, and Apex APIs that allows users to describe, query, manipulate, and migrate both data and metadata in Salesforce.com organizations directly in their web browser with a simple and intuitive user interface.
Apex Explorer: This tool is outdated. For a Windows utility in more active development, see the Force.com Explorer.
Data Tools
Force.com Toolkit for Google Data APIs: This toolkit exposes the Google Data APIs directly within Force.com Apex, making it easier to access them natively from your Force.com apps. The toolkit is open source, and we've got many tutorials to help you start coding.
Force.com Data Loader: The Force.com Data Loader helps you to perform bulk operations data in your Force.com environment: insert, update, upsert and delete data, as well as export data from Force.com objects. You can use .csv files or relational databases as the source or target for this data movement.
Force.com Excel Connector : This Excel plugin lets you access and update your data directly from Microsoft Excel, allowing easy reporting, mass updated and cleansing of any Force.com data, including custom objects. (Source provided.)
Cloud Integration Tools
Force.com for Amazon Web Services: This toolkit exposes the Amazon Web Services Simple Storage System (S3) services natively in the Force.com environment. Force.com Apex code wraps the S3 API and access methods, making them directly available to your own application code.
Getting Started with the Force.com Toolkit for Azure: This toolkit makes it easy for you integrate Force.com with existing Windows Azure projects.
Force.com for Google App Engine: This Python library and test harness lets you access the Force.com API from within Google App Engine applications. The library is open source, and we've got an installation and user guide to help you start coding.
Force.com for Facebook: Force.com for Facebook gives you direct access to the Facebook APIs from within Force.com Apex code, letting you create new social graph applications and user experiences that connect directly to the Force.com platform.
Language Integration Libraries
PHP Toolkit: This toolkit provides an easy way to make Force.com Web service API method calls from within PHP. Read
Getting Started with the Force.com Toolkit for PHP for details on getting started.
Force.com Toolkit for Adobe AIR and Flex: Build Force.com apps with rich, dynamic Flex interfaces and offline AIR functionality using this toolkit.
Java: See the Force.com Web Services API to learn about integrating with Java using standard WSDL and SOAP. Alternatively, check out the
Web Services Connector for a dedicated Java library.
.NET: See the Force.com Web Services API to learn about integrating with .NET using standard WSDL and SOAP. Alternatively, check out the
Force.com Toolkit for Azure if you're using Azure.
Ruby: See the
Getting Started with the Force.com Toolkit for Ruby article for details on how to integrate with Ruby using the Force.com Toolkit for Ruby
Mobile Integration Libraries
The Salesforce Mobile SDK is an open-source suite of familiar technologies—like a REST API and OAuth 2.0—that you can use to build great mobile apps that use Force.com or Database.com. The Mobile SDK supports three development approaches for building mobile apps: native, HTML5, and hybrid.
- Native—You can code native apps for each mobile platform (e.g., Android, iOS), taking advantage of each platform's native capabilities.
- HTML5—You can build HTML5 apps using familiar technologies such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. An HTML5 app with lightweight server-side pages typically offers the most portability (i.e., the same app can run on all platforms), but won't be able to access native platform features.
- Hybrid—You can create hybrid apps that use a JavaScript bridge in a native container to merge the portability of HTML5 with native device capabilities, such as the camera or address book.
Getting Started with the Mobile SDK for iOS
Getting Started with the Mobile SDK for Android
Email Tools
Email To Case Toolkit: The Email-To-Case Agent (AKA Email2Case) is a sample implementation that pulls emails from your mail server and uses the Force.com API to create new Cases or append Cases. Use this to enable Email-To-Case. Please note that Email-To-Case requires Java version 1.5 or higher.
Telephony Tools
Force.com Connect CTI Toolkit: The Force.com Connect CTI Toolkit allows partners to connect nearly any telephony API to Force.com. It gives Salesforce.com customers the ability to have screen pops, click-to-dial, and automatic call logging directly from the Force.com web interface.
Community Contributed Tools
The section below lists tools created by the DFC community to support a variety of languages and use cases.
Apex Editor LS : An alternative apex editor plugin for eclipse that features better content assist, sortable outline, quick outline, toggle comment and fixes many other issues raised about the standard Force.com IDE editor in the ideas site. Check
http://www.multimodus.hr/apex-editor-ls.html for details and current version.
Ajax Tools : This package contains a collection of tools for developers working with AJAX toolkit to build s-controls. Included are: A syntax-highlighting editor that can load/save s-controls directly from your salesforce.com account ; extensive code samples for the toolkit, dojo, and the UI in a handy code browser; a JavaScript shell with completion and input history -- very handy for trying commands against the API; and a SOQL Explorer for browsing your data schema and building SOQL queries.
Scripting Tools: This offering lets you use the AJAX Toolkit and javascript as a scripting language from Windows via integration with WSH (Windows Scripting Host). With this package, you can write and run batch scripts to do common and/or bulk tasks using the Force.com API using nothing more than a simple text editor (no IDE, no compiling, etc).
Mass Update Anything: This handy cross-platform utility makes bulk updating or deleting records fast and easy. It's like a cross between the Excel Connector and Force.com Explorer that simplifies these tasks.
SMAC: SMAC (Salesforce Mobile Administration Console) is an iOS (iPhone, iPad) mobile application which enables you to efficently access and manage your salesforce.com users and data. Quickly reset passwords, deactivate users, and run SOQL queries on the go.
SOQL Commander: SOQL Commander is a free online tool that enables you to build and test SOQL queries. It features a Schema explorer that allows you to browse standard and custom objects schema. It works across all browsers, and features end to end encryption (ssl/https) for security.
