Getting Started

The Force.com platform is the most scalable, secure and popular on-demand platform in the world today. You can develop and instantaneously deploy applications without any infrastructure - 100% on-demand. The advantages of a robust on-demand platform are enormous, but how can you get started creating on-demand applications to meet your own requirements?

The four simple steps below will give you a quick introduction to developing on the Force.com platform, and the resources listed below will give you the key locations to visit to continue your on-going learning process.




Force.com Quick Start

1

JOIN DFC

Join DFC to get your free Developer Edition (DE) account and access to key resources. Once you've joined, set up a profile on the Discussion Boards.
2

WATCH THE VIDEO

Watch the Become an App Builder with Force.com video, which will give you a quick introduction to the Force.com platform.
3

READ THE BOOK

Download the PDF of the book Creating On-Demand Apps to access introductory material on the power of the Force.com platform.
4

CREATE YOUR FIRST APPLICATION

Log in to your Developer Edition account and then, using the information in the book, you can begin building custom applications immediately.


Next steps

You have now gained a good understanding of developing applications using the Force.com App Framework. But the Force.com platform can go much farther, leveraging additional components -

  • Apex Code is a procedural language which lets you implement logic to extend the functionality of native Force.com applications. Getting Started with Apex Code introduces you to this technology.
  • Visualforce gives you flexible control over your user interface, using the traditional model-view-controller (MVC) paradigm coupled with a rich set of user-interface components. See the Visualforce Resource Center to learn more about building your own Visualforce interfaces.
  • The Force.com Web Services API lets you access your Force.com data and logic from outside the Force.com platform. Getting Started with the API introduces you to this technology.

Additional Resources

As with any robust development environment, there is much more to the Force.com platform. As you look to learn more about the capabilities of the platform, your key resource is the Wiki. This Wiki is the repository of a vast array of articles, multi-media presentations and code samples to help you understand more about the Force.com platform.

Your other key resource is your fellow developers. The DFC discussion boards are a place where you can find engage with other developers, as well as salesforce experts, to discuss issues surrounding your Force.com applications.

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