Salesforce Features
May 2008
Visualforce Pages
Create Any User Interface as a Service – Now Generally Available
Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
- Customize the user interface of any Salesforce application
- Build new user interfaces and experiences for custom applications
- Design your own wizards
A breakthrough for the Force.com platform, Visualforce is a new technology for developing powerful user interfaces (UIs) that can be used to enhance the standard Salesforce applications or to create custom applications. Visualforce includes all the resources developers need to build rich, interactive applications and user experiences for a variety of audiences, applications, and devices.
Visualforce Pages to PDF
Convert Any Visualforce Page to PDF
Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
- Deliver print-optimized documents with a single click
With Visualforce, you can weave together information from several objects into a single screen. For example, imagine that a sales rep needs to generate a quote in PDF format that includes information from the account, contact, quote (custom object), quote line items (custom object), and product objects. With Pages to PDF, you can create a Visualforce page that formats all this information appropriately and binds the page to a button in the UI. This button converts the page into a PDF document or leverages Apex to automatically attach the page to a record or send it in an email.
Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.
Recent Items for Mobile
Synch Recent Work in Salesforce to Users’ Mobile Devices for Immediate Access
Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited Editions
- Display recently accessed records on mobile devices
- Define how records are displayed
With Summer ’08, any records a user recently accessed, both from both standard and custom objects, are available on that user’s mobile device. Users can manage their settings to enable or disable the recent-item display and define the maximum number of recent items to be displayed.
Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.
Salesforce and Google Docs
Real-Time Document Collaboration
All Editions
- Create and collaborate on documents in real time
- Attach Web-based documents to records in Salesforce
It’s the kind of easy collaboration everyone in the business world needs: creating and editing Web-based documents, spreadsheets, and presentations hand-in-hand with your colleagues, partners, and customers. Everyone can access and edit the documents together, in real time—no more mailing attachments or worrying about different versions floating around. With real-time collaboration finally a reality with Salesforce and Google Docs, teams can work together seamlessly—the way you always wanted.
Salesforce and Google Talk
Instant Messaging From Within Salesforce
All Editions
- Exchange instant messages with colleagues while reviewing CRM data
- Save time by not toggling back and forth between applications
With the addition of Google Talk, real-time communication for your internal sales teams or customer-facing support teams can be part of your Salesforce solution. Your teams can collaborate during sales calls, when servicing customer support issues, or while coordinating with partnersâall without ever leaving Salesforce. Salesforce and Google Talk is also a great way for users to collaborate on creating CRM data in Salesforce: Your users can send instant messages to each other while reviewing contact or opportunity data and quickly coordinate changes or next steps.
Force.com Package Manager
Flexibility and Ease of Use for Your Managed Packages
All Editions
- Prevent installation of outdated packages
- Delete private Apex classes and triggers
As part of Summer ’08, Managed Package Versioning lets you can guarantee that upgrades are deployed automatically with each new release of your package. You can bundle any solution components or a set of related apps with your managed package and prevent customers from installing older packages.
CAPTCHAS
Protection Against Unauthorized Data Exports
All Editions
- Prompts users to solve challenge to ensure a person—not a computer—is requesting a download
- Uses industry-leading service reCAPTCHA
A |CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test that ensures that the response is not generated by a computer. Such challenges can prevent data from being exported in response to requests from infected computers (bots), even if your computers are compromised. When users attempt to export data or use URLs to fetch CSV files of Salesforce data, they must pass a CAPTCHA test (similar to those used by Google or Ticketmaster) to ensure that a real person is initiating the download.
Dynamic Apex
Dynamic and Flexible Programming with Apex Code
Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
- Retrieve and evaluate application customizations
- Inspect and programmatically enforce user permissions
When you develop CRM extensions and custom applications, flexible operations that support the dynamic nature of end-user interactions can be an advantage. For example, you may want to implement a Visualforce page that renders based on user-level access and dynamically enforces application permissions. With the Apex Describe feature in Summer ’08, you can build generic and flexible processes that use the Describe methods to dynamically determine runtime behavior.
Login as Partner
Get on the Same Page—Literally—as Your Partners
Enterprise and Unlimited Editions, Bronze, Silver, and Gold Partner Portal Licenses
- Allow channel managers and administrators to log in as Salesforce Partner Portal users
- Reduce confusion and save time
As a channel manager or administrator, you need tools to help your partners succeed. Having the same information in front of both you and your partners saves time and reduces the need for clarifications. Using the Login As Partner feature, you can see exactly what your partners see to eliminate any confusion. This feature, which has been available with Salesforce Partners since 2005, is available with the new Salesforce Partner Portal (Spring ’08 release) with Summer ’08.
Note: This feature is not enabled by default for Salesforce Partners customers. User profiles must be configured to grant users the permission to use the Login as Partner feature.
Content for Partner Portal
Deliver the Most Effective Content to Drive Partner Business
Enterprise and Unlimited Editions, Silver and Gold Partner Portal Licenses
- Publish featured documents to partner workspaces
- Get direct partner feedback on your content and sales tools
- Let partners subscribe to critical content
Partner extranets are filled with documents in complicated folder structures that make it challenging to find the content your partners are looking for. You want to get the right collateral and sales tools to your partner community, to make them productive and successful. But do you know which documents they use most frequently? And how do you find out which documents they like and which they feel need improvement?