Advanced Force.com Code (Apex) Development and Performance Considerations

Professional Visualforce DevelopmentStephan MoraisDirector of Product Managment Visualforce & UI Architecture

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Safe Harbor

What is professional development?

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?

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Judgement

Quality & Detail

Design

Looking ahead

Professional Visualforcein 4 parts in 4 parts

TMTOWTDIThere’s more than one way to do it.

Part 1

Visualforce Development Models

<apex:commandButton

rendered="{!buttonRendered}"

action="{!doFoo}"

rerender="a, b, c" />

<apex:actionSupport

event="onclick"

action="{!doBar}"

rerender="x, y, z"/>

Visualforce “Classic”

‣ Easy AJAX‣ Partial page updates‣ Managed state‣ But there’s a view state tax

Visualforce Development Models

<apex:form>

<apex:inputText value="{!query}"> <apex:actionSupport event="onkeyup" rerender="results"/>

</apex:inputText>

<apex:dataList value="{!results}" var="r" id="results">

{!r.firstname} {!r.lastname}

</apex:dataList>

</apex:form>

Google Instant -style search results with Visualforce “Classic”

public List<Contact> getResults() {if (query != null && query != '') {return Database.query('SELECT firstname, lastname, email ' +'FROM Contact ' +'WHERE firstname LIKE \'' + '%' + query + '%\' ' +'OR lastname LIKE \'' + '%' + query + '%\' ');} else { return null; }}

Visualforce Apex

Visualforce Development Models

<apex:form>

<apex:commandButton>

<apex:actionSupport>

rerender

Visualforce “Light”

‣ Only leverages templating and components

‣ Client manages state‣ Uses direct AJAX‣ No view state

Visualforce Development ModelsGoogle Instant -style search results

with Visualforce “Light”<input type="text" value="" class="search" onkeyup="doSearch(this.value)"/>

function doSearch(q) {var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();xhr.open('GET','/apex/gi_light_results?' + 'q='+encodeURIComponent(q),false);xhr.send();document.getElementById('results').innerHTML = xhr.responseText;}

<apex:repeat value="{!results}" var="r"><li>{!r.firstname} {!r.lastname}</li></apex:repeat>

public List<Contact> getResults() {if (query != null && query != '') {return Database.query('SELECT firstname, lastname, email ' +'FROM Contact ' +'WHERE firstname LIKE \'' + '%' + query + '%\' ' +'OR lastname LIKE \'' + '%' + query + '%\' ');} else { return null; }}

Visualforce Apex

Visualforce Development ModelsVisualforce “CSR” (Client Side Rendering)

‣ Client-side rendering in JavaScript

‣ May leverages JavaScript libraries like Ext and JQuery

‣ Client-server communicationvia SOAP or REST APIs

‣ Client managed state

<apex:form>

<apex:commandButton>

<apex:actionSupport>

rerender

Visualforce Development ModelsGoogle Instant -style search results

with Visualforce “CSR”<input type="text" value="" class="search" onkeyup="doSearch(this.value)"/>

sforce.connection.sessionId = '{!$Api.Session_ID}';function doSearch(q) {document.getElementById('results').innerHTML = '';var results = sforce.apex.execute("GIController","getResultsWS", {queryArg : q});if (results.length > 0) {var ul = document.createElement('ul');for (var i=0; i<results.length; i++) {var r = results[i];var li = document.createElement('li');li.innerHTML = '<span class="r1">' + r.FirstName + ' ' + r.LastName + '</span>' +'<div class="r2">' + r.Email + '</div>';ul.appendChild(li);}document.getElementById('results').appendChild(ul);}}

webservice static List<Contact> getResultsWS(String queryArg) {if (queryArg != null && queryArg != '') {return Database.query('SELECT firstname, lastname, email ' +'FROM Contact ' +'WHERE firstname LIKE \'' + '%' + queryArg + '%\' ' +'OR lastname LIKE \'' + '%' + queryArg + '%\' ' );} else { return null; }}

Visualforce

Apex

JavaScript Remoting for ApexComing Soon Sneak Peak

public global class MyController { @RemoteAction public static String sayHello(String helloTo) { return 'Hello ' + helloTo + '!'; }}

<script type="text/javascript">MyController.sayHello('World', function(result, e) {document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = result;});</script>

TODO: VF sample code

Google Instant -style search results with JavaScript Remoting

TODO: Apex sample code

Performance Matters

Part 2

Performance Best Practices Design for performance at the beginning,

not the end

Measure server and client -side perf

Optimize view state

Be wary of heavy-weight JS frameworks

Pick the right development model

Speed of Google Instant ExamplesComparing the different models

Model Time to Render after keyup

Visualforce Classic 873ms

Visualforce Light 250ms

Visualforce CSRAJAX Toolkit 582ms

Visualforce CSRJavaScript Remoting 195ms

Performance Tools

Apex CSI

View State Inspector

Performance Tools

Firebug

Dynatrace Ajax

Page Speed

YSlow

New Performance ToolsComing Soon Sneak Peak

Scorecard

Apex CSI Performance Perspective

User Experience MattersLess is more.

Part 3

Right Data, Right UI, Right Time

TODO: Image of Bad VF page– Too many fields

– Too many related lists

– Related lists editable

Right Data, Right UI, Right Time

TODO: Image of Improved VF page– Fields scoped down and to the user

– Related lists only on demand

– Related lists inline editable

Field SetsComing Soon Sneak Peak

Dynamic BindingComing Soon Sneak Peak

<apex:repeat value="{!$ObjectType.Contact.FieldSets.Compact_Detail}" var="f">{!$ObjectType.Contact.Fields[f].label} : <apex:outputField value="{!contact[f]}"/><br/></apex:repeat>

Inline EditingComing Soon Sneak Peak

<apex:detail inlineEdit="true"/>

<apex:outputField inlineEdit="true" .../>

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player

plays where the puck is going to be.”

Wayne Gretzkey

Part 4

<HTML 5>

HTML5Offline Access

<apex:page contentType="text/html" showheader="false" standardStylesheets="false" sidebar="false"><apex:outputText escape="false" value="<!DOCTYPE html>"/><html manifest="/apex/manifest_cache">...

<apex:page contentType="text/cache-manifest" showHeader="false" standardStylesheets="false" sidebar="false" cache="false">CACHE MANIFESTCACHE:/apex/accounts/soap/ajax/20.0/connection.js/soap/ajax/20.0/apex.js/favicon.icoNETWORK:/services/Soap/package/AccountController</apex:page>

HTML5Client Storage

localStorage.setItem('foo', 'bar');  var bar = localStorage.getItem('foo'); 

Mobile

Touch

+

ExampleHTML5-based, offline capable VF page for iPhone

TODO

Recap

TMTOWTDI Understand the different Visualforce models

Performance MattersMeasure and optimize

User Experience MattersLess is more

Skate to where the puck is goingHTML5 and mobile

Questions?smorais@salesforce.com

Additional InformationTODO- Developerforce Articles- Souders Books- See my Chatter Feed for demo code zip