Distribute any Visualforce app via AppExchange with the exciting new features in Winter '09

Package Your Favorite Visualforce User Interfaces via the Force.com AppExchange

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Install AppExchange applications with custom Visualforce UIs
• Expand the functionality of your AppExchange applications with Visualforce pages
• Break down and share elements of your applications as components for maximum customization
• Broaden the reach of your Web service by creating and distributing custom components

Winter ’09 introduces the ability to distribute Visualforce pages and components through the AppExchange. ISVs and developers can now publish and distribute their pages and component libraries through the AppExchange marketplace. Customers will now be able to install applications with advanced custom UIs that leverage Visualforce functionality.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

More Flexibility for Developers to work with Managed Packages

(Developer Edition)

• Save time by updating instead of creating a new package

With Winter ’09, we’ve increased the flexibility of managed packages to allow developers to further enhance their application in future versions. The following features can now be updated after the initial release:

• Enable reports and activities on previously released objects
• Upgrade custom reports types
• Update the Label field for many components after release
• Edit subscriber-controlled fields after release

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Easily Find the SaaS Applications You Need

(All Editions)

• Find apps that meet your business needs quickly and easily
• Compare apps across multiple dimensions, including price, support, and system requirements

With more than 800 preintegrated solutions on the Force.com AppExchange, you don’t want to miss the one that can transform your business. Our newly designed site makes it easy to locate applications and compare them to similar solutions, just as you might when looking for a book on Amazon.com.

• Compare apps side by side With the application comparison matrix, you can select up to three apps to review side by side, using criteria such as average star rating, price, app components, languages and editions supported, and system requirements.
• Narrow your search with multicategory selection With our new category structure, you can select multiple areas of interest to refine your search. For example, to see marketing solutions related to the financial services industry, simply check those two boxes to display relevant applications.
• Browse lists easily With app hovers, you can easily browse popular lists such as “ New Apps” and “Most Popular.”

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Associate Your Force.com Package with Multiple Listings

(For Partner)

• Allow partners to consistently track activity for their listing across multiple versions
• Allow partners to easily administer their apps across multiple exchanges

As part of the redesigned Force.com AppExchange, partners can associate multiple packages with a single listing. However, only one package can be installable or “live” at a time (per listing, per exchange). For example, instead of completely replacing the older package, you can simply associate a new version with your listing and “turn off” the older version. With this feature, partners can consistently track installs across multiple versions. In addition, the new AppExchange schema lets partners associate a package with a listing on another exchange. For example, if partners want to list on both the Japanese and the U.S. AppExchanges, they can associate a single package with listings on both exchanges.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Buy Salesforce CRM and Force.com AppExchange Applications Online (All Editions, U.S. only in this release)

• Buy Salesforce CRM licenses online or add users with just a few clicks
• Find, try, and buy AppExchange ISV applications
• Manage your Salesforce accounts and view orders, quotes, invoices, and contracts

With Force.com Checkout, you can easily manage your Salesforce CRM account online, such as accessing your contracts, invoices, and orders. You can also buy Salesforce CRM licenses, add new users, or buy select partner applications from the AppExchange directly through your Web browser.

• Manage your account You can manage your credit card, contact, and billing information online, thus ensuring that salesforce.com has your most current data.
• Buy new or add-on Salesforce CRM licenses You can now purchase additional seats of your favorite Salesforce CRM applications as well as other products and services from salesforce.com within seconds.
• Buy select AppExchange partner apps Starting today, a dozen of our top partner applications offering solutions in accounting, recruiting, supply-chain management, office productivity, and more will be available for purchase through Force.com Checkout. All applications on Force.com Checkout are built 100 percent natively on the Force.com platform, so you can enjoy the same reliability, security, and trusted infrastructure that’s behind our core Salesforce CRM products. The current set of partners includes Appirio, Callidus, CODA, Convio, DrivEnable, Datasul, Glovia/Fujitsu, Jobscience, Model Metrics, Riptide, StakeWare, and StraightThrough.

Visit the AppExchange today to experience the power of native applications in taking your business to the next level.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Package Your Favorite Visualforce User Interfaces via the Force.com AppExchange

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Install or package AppExchange applications with custom Visualforce UIs
• Expand the functionality of your AppExchange applications with Visualforce pages
• Maximize customization by sharing elements of your applications as components
• Broaden the reach of your Web service by creating and distributing custom components

Winter ’09 introduces the ability to distribute Visualforce pages and components through the AppExchange. ISVs and developers can now publish and distribute their pages and component libraries through the AppExchange. Customers will now be able to install applications with advanced custom UIs that leverage Visualforce functionality.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Tailor the User Experience by Including Lists in your Visualforce Page

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

In Summer ’08, Visualforce made it easy to override standard detail and edit pages with a highly tailored user experience. Standard and custom controllers make it easy to populate that user experience with data associated with a particular record ID.

With Winter ’09, Visualforce List Controllers provides that same easy process to create highly tailored, list-oriented user experiences that represent sets of records. Visualforce List Controllers includes the following functionality:

• Override a List View page and get the native filter from a predefined view
• Include pagination and mass actions with a single line of code
• Pass filters into the list page using any SOQL statement with object relationships up to five deep
• Make any page aware of list filter definitions to scope data
• Perform edit operations on multiple records
• Support for custom list buttons (see Visualforce Custom List Buttons below)
• Extend with Apex to leverage any SOQL

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Dynamically Choose a Template for a Visualforce Page

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Simplify coding of Visualforce pages
• Improve consistency of custom UIs
• Provide conditional structure and styles for differing user groups

Templates are a powerful way to share common page elements, structure, and styles across many Visualforce pages. Now, you can not only define a template in a Visualforce page, but dynamically choose a template, too. With Visualforce Dynamic Templates, you can define the look-and-feel of the portal pages in a Visualforce template and have the flexibility to point to different templates based on customer level: Platinum, Gold, or Silver.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Put an Enhanced List on a Visualforce Page

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Allow users to quickly customize, manage, and edit lists of records

The Enhanced List feature released in Summer ’08 is now available as a standard Visualforce component. Enhanced List Component allows users to manage list view data much easier with drag-and-drop customization, inline editing capabilities (if enabled in the organization), and powerful navigation options to work through large sets of records.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Minimize your Development Time by Connecting Custom Buttons to a Visualforce Page

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Minimize your development time by creating Visualforce custom buttons
• Easily create your own mass actions with Custom Buttons for list pages
  

With Visualforce Custom Buttons, you can now connect a custom button to a Visualforce page in addition to connecting it to a URL, S-control, or onClick JavaScript.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Use a Standard Visualforce Controller to Upload a File

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Leverage an out-of-the-box controller to upload files

With Visualforce Input File Component, developers can now use a standard controller instead of coding their own when they need a Visualforce page to accept a file attachment.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Get Visualforce Functionality on Mobile Devices

(Trial, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions. Professional and Enterprise Editions require a mobile license.)

• Make Visualforce features available on mobile devices via Web pages accessed through a wireless connection
• Deliver a “hybrid” mobile experience, combining reliable local client functionality with the broad capabilities of the Web
• Let administrators pull together select Visualforce elements or fields from various objects into a single screen that is optimized for mobile viewing

Visualforce Mobile fills the gap between the limitations of the current “object-only” mobile client technology and the near-limitless features of the Salesforce CRM desktop application.

The new tab functionality merges a client application’s performance with the Web’s flexibility to create a true “hybrid” mobile experience. Using a mobile browser, administrators can mobile enable tabs and other features previously available only on the desktop version of Salesforce CRM. This capability greatly extends the customizability of the Salesforce CRM Mobile service.

By creating a Visualforce page and mobilizing it, administrators can create any kind of form or wizard and make it instantly available as a tab in the mobile application. Administrators can also take advantage of specific features available on mobile Web browsers.

As wireless network coverage broadens and data capacity improves, Salesforce CRM Mobile will be redeveloped to more fully leverage the mobile Web. BlackBerry is the first platform to support this new capability, with other mobile platforms to follow.

Note: Generally available, but not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup and users must upgrade to the latest version of the Salesforce CRM Mobile client for BlackBerry.

Tailor and Localize Application Messages

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Display messages in the user’s preferred language
• Tailor messages in third-party applications

With Custom Application Messages, it is easier than ever for developers, ISVs, and administrators to create easy-to-use, multilingual apps that run on the Force.com platform. Customer Application Messages in the form of page text, help information, or error messages can be used in Visualforce pages, Apex, and formula fields. They are automatically displayed to end users in their preferred language.

For example, an administrator who installs a third-party Force.com AppExchange application can change an error message to direct users to a toll-free support number. Or, a developer can display a welcome message on a Visualforce page based on the user’s language setting, without writing language display logic or putting labels inside code.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Find and Review Critical Account Information Offline

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Access Custom Objects and Tabs Offline
• Update your briefcase contacts (new leads, new opportunities, account updates) offline using the new Admin Console

With Force.com Offline Custom Objects and Tabs, users can access their most critical data while disconnected from the Internet. Use the new Offline Admin Console for fine-grain control of the Offline Briefcase and other standard custom offline objects. Custom objects are now available offline on their own tabs with all related lists (previously, only custom objects with master-detail relationships to offline standard objects were supported).

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Get Better Desktop Integration

(Personal, Group, Enterprise, and Unlimited Editions)

• Improve usability of the Contact Association feature
• Improve performance

To make new users more successful and improve existing users’ productivity, salesforce.com is focusing on the most common user tasks to boost user productivity. This effort includes more efficient use of the Force.com Web Services API during login, resulting in a more responsive application. Users will experience improved startup times and be able to add emails and associate records more quickly.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Run Your Sites in Our Cloud

• Replace portions of an existing Web site with dynamic content
• Extend an existing Force.com app to your existing Web site
• Build new apps for your existing Web site
• Build and run your entire site on Force.com

Force.com Sites brings the speed and ease of Force.com to any user on any Web site. Now, you can securely publish any data, any app, anywhere. Force.com Sites uses Visualforce pages to extend your existing Force.com data and applications to any Web site so all your prospects, customers, and employees can access them. Force.com Sites opens up a world of possibilities for public applications like e-commerce sites, recruiting sites, and scheduling sites. With Force.com Sites, you can run your site on our service or integrate it with your existing Web infrastructure.

• Branded or custom domain names Choose a Force.com domain name or use any custom domain name that you own.
• Multiple sites per organization Every customer organization can have multiple sites, each with its own unique security model, top-level domain, and custom look-and-feel.
• One-click activation Sites can be enabled or disabled with a single click.
• Custom CRUD permission on org data Customers can set full CRUD on custom objects and read/create on standard objects.
• Restricted access based on IP Sites can be restricted based on IP ranges, which lets customers create intranet sites.
• Custom error messages All standard site and error pages can be customized using Visualforce pages.
• Authentication support Force.com Sites provides seamless integration with Salesforce CRM Customer Portal to enable authenticated access.
• RSS feeds Syndication feeds give users the ability to subscribe to changes within Force.com Sites and receive updates in external news readers.

Subscribe to Your Force.com Applications

• Push out information to subscribers of news feeds
• Simple setup, no coding required

You can now easily create news feeds for public sites. With Syndication Feeds, administrators can create news feeds to show the latest information that was added to an application. Users can subscribe to updates using the news readers of their choice, such as Google Reader or Outlook. It’s never been easier to stay on top of changes to custom Force.com applications.

For example, a VP of Recruiting could ensure employment candidates are notified whenever new jobs are posted to the organization’s public jobs site. By creating a public syndication feed and exposing it on the job site, the organization can automatically notify subscribers.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup. You must have Public Sites enabled to access this feature.

Get Dynamic and Flexible Programming with Apex Code

(Professional, 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 shows different information based on user-level access and dynamically enforces application permissions. With Dynamic Apex, you can build generic and flexible processes that employ Describe methods to dynamically inspect end-user permissions as well as generate dynamic SOQL, SOSL, and DML statements, providing highly flexible runtime behavior.

Leverage customizations
Incorporate and deploy customizations with familiar Describe classes.

Incorporate user permission awareness
Get the power of system-level access and enforce user permissions and constraints where desired.

Flexible programming
Interpret runtime behavior with Dynamic classes and methods, providing highly flexible and efficient processing logic.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Get Asynchronous Processing with Apex Code

(Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Execute customer business logic asynchronously
• Monitor the execution status of asynchronous Apex code
  

This feature brings the power and flexibility of asynchronous processing to the Force.com platform. By annotating Apex methods, developers can instruct the Apex runtime to execute methods asynchronously, decoupling processing logic from directly impacting end-user performance. This framework provides more flexibility when developing custom business logic and simplifies certain use cases, such as the execution of Apex code from Apex triggers.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Increase Flexibility when Querying

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Perform advanced queries without exporting data into an external database
• Simplify code written to emulate semi- and anti joins
  

With support for semi- and anti joins, SOQL will become more powerful, allowing users to write more expressive queries.

Semi joins
You can express WHERE conditions that depend on the result of child queries. You can also create joins based on polymorphic keys and perform joins if there is not a predefined relationship based on ID fields. Plus, you can perform arbitrary joins between objects, such as joins based on non-ID fields.

Anti joins
With anti joins, you can express conditions in which something is false. For example, an anti join could be used to return all job positions for which there is no related candidate record.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Empower Administrators to Do More without Code

(Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Define calculations or business logic based on Parent Account, Parent Case, etc.
• Display a user’s management chain without writing Visualforce or Apex code

With Winter ’09, salesforce.com makes cross-object formulas even more powerful by supporting self-relationships.

For example, a sales rep trying to determine an account’s chain of command can now see a contact manager’s name, title, phone number, and email on a Contact record or Contact report.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Run Tests in Apex as “Any” User

(Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Improve application test coverage
• Improve application quality

With Winter ’09, developers can explicitly set the running user context within their test execution. This feature gives developers the ability to programmatically create users as well as test and validate the corresponding user-specific sharing rules and scenarios. It also offers greater flexibility within text execution, providing simplified and expanded code coverage.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Improve Control and Flexibility for Users and Administrators

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Enable users to recall and resubmit requests without administrator intervention
• Improve an administrator’s control over what happens when a record is recalled

With Approval Workflow Recall Actions, you can take actions whenever an approval request is recalled. Recall Actions also makes it possible for the submitter to edit a Force.com record and resubmit it for approval, without the administrator “resetting” the record for resubmission. You can use Approval Workflow Recall Actions to reverse any field updates performed in the approval process or notify key people in the organization whenever a record is recalled.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Combine Flexible Data Modeling with the Efficiencies of Business Process Automation

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Perform workflow actions when a relationship is created between records
• Track tasks and events that are associated with the relationship between records

When Many-to-Many Object Relationships was released in Summer ’08, it became possible to relate records from one object with multiple records of another object, and vice versa. Now, with Winter ’0 9, you can associate activities and trigger workflow actions whenever such a relationship is created or modified.

Consider a recruiting application where there are many applicants, each of whom can be related to one or more job postings, and vice versa. With Winter ’09, whenever an applicant applies for a new job posting, you can trigger workflow actions such as email notifications and follow-up tasks for the recruiter and hiring manager.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Get Your Most Important Reports via Email, When You Want Them

(Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Push reports directly to users
• Eliminate the need for users to log into Salesforce CRM

With Schedule and Email Reports, you can set up a schedule and mail reports to any user with the appropriate permissions. For example, marketing managers could receive the status of their campaigns in a summary report every Friday.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Drive Higher Adoption and Use of Documents, Notes, Attachments, and Salesforce CRM Content

(All Editions, varies by Edition)

• Leverage separate storage allocations for files and data
• Improve reporting on file and data storage consumption
• Get detailed reports on top consumers of file and data storage

With Improved Storage Management, you can manage data and file storage separately to help use your storage allocations more effectively. This feature helps drive adoption of notes, attachments, documents, and Salesforce CRM Content.

Separate file and data storage
Instead of a general storage allowance, each Salesforce org now has separate storage allocations for data (i.e., Salesforce records) and files (notes, attachments, documents, and materials in Salesforce CRM Content). You can also buy separate blocks of add-on storage for records versus files. If you previously purchased general add-on storage, it will be upgraded with additional data and file storage allowances.

Increased file storage allowances
Previously, the 20Mb of storage customers received (120Mb for Unlimited Edition customers) was used for storing both data records and files. To meet customer demand for storing more files within Salesforce CRM, we are introducing an additional “file-only” storage quota at no additional cost. Each customer will receive an additional 100Mb of file-only storage to store attachments, notes, documents, and files in Salesforce CRM Content.

Summary file and data storage reporting
Salesforce.com now provides summary-level reporting on file and data storage consumption, so you can manage both allocations more effectively.

User and file-level detail storage reporting
In addition to summary-level reports, you can now see which individual users and specific files are consuming the largest portion of your storage allowance.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Manage Analytics Programmatically via the Force.com Web Services API

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Move reports between environments
• Audit report changes
• Mass edit/create/delete reports, CRTs, and dashboards

With Winter ’09, the Force.com Metadata API supports reports, dashboards, and custom report types.

Reports
You can package a set of reports, move it, or change a set of reports by changing the filter criteria or the filtered fields. The Report Metadata API lets you create, edit, and delete reports through the API just as you would with any other objects.

Dashboards
You can mass create, mass change, and mass delete dashboards and dashboard parameters.

Custom report types
You can modify report types, set them up automatically, or remove unused report types, including all related reports and dashboards.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.

Build any Application on a Full-Featured, Integrated Development Environment for the Force.com Platform

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Develop in a collaborative development environment
• Migrate configuration data between Salesforce CRM instances
• Support all new Metadata API types
• Get granular control of a project

The Force.com IDE is an Eclipse-based development tool for professional developers building Force.com native applications. It provides a rich coding environment for creating Apex and Visualforce, XML-based editing of metadata components, and integrated tools for testing, versioning, and deploying applications across environments.

As of Winter ’09, the Force.com IDE is generally available. It can be downloaded at no charge from the developer.force.com site.

Apex code
The Force.com IDE is the only tool you need to write and manage Apex classes and triggers. It locates syntax errors and displays inline auto-complete tips for Apex code methods. The Test Runner executes unit tests, links error messages to code, and displays debugs output and code coverage reports.

Visualforce
Edit Visualforce pages, components, static resources, and controllers

S-controls
Develop S-controls quickly with HTML syntax highlighting and merge field browser.

Configuration metadata
Download all metadata components in the Metadata API into your Force.com project, including custom fields, custom objects, layouts, applications, profiles, and more. Edit these components directly in the IDE, create new ones, and save them back to your Salesforce org.

Deployment
Edit and test your project in a Force.com Sandbox or Developer Edition org, then deploy the finished application into your production org. Projects are interoperable with the Force.com Migration Tool.

Code Share
Apply Force.com application lifecycle management best practices by integrating any Eclipse-enabled version control system. Teams can collaborate on the development, testing, and deployment of their platform-as-a-service (PaaS) applications.

Online Project Mode
Keep your local metadata files up to date with your Salesforce org to detect and resolve conflicting changes.

Schema Browser
View your Salesforce org’s schema and construct and execute SOQL queries from within the Force.com IDE. Similar to Apex Explorer, Schema Browser shows information about all standard and custom objects and fields.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Harness the Power of Sandbox for All Your Developers

(Enterprise and Unlimited Editions)

• Reduce development complexity
• Accelerate development efforts

Developer Sandboxes provide simpler and more flexible sandbox management and increase developer productivity. Developer Sandbox is a configuration-only sandbox, with the capacity to manually load up to 10MB of data (about 3,000 records). Customers have told us they want individual developers to have their own sandbox copies of production environments to develop their projects. To meet this need, all Unlimited Edition orgs (including existing customer orgs) now include 15 Developer Sandboxes. Additional Developer Sandboxes will be included with purchases of full and configuration-only sandboxes in both Unlimited Edition and Enterprise Edition. (Developer Sandboxes can be created and refreshed in the same way as configuration-only and full sandboxes.)

Note that Developer Sandbox replaces Apex Sandbox and has identical features and functionality. Existing Apex Sandboxes are now called Developer Sandboxes.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Promote Your Code and Configurations with Ease

(Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Work with setup configuration as XML metadata files
• Migrate configuration changes between orgs
• Create tools for managing org and application metadata
  

The Force.com Migration Toolkit is a Java/Ant-based command-line utility for moving metadata between a local directory and a Force.com org. The Force.com Migration Toolkit is especially useful in the following scenarios:

Multistage release processes
A typical development process requires iterative building, testing, and staging before releasing to a production environment. Scripted retrieval and deployment of components can make this process much more efficient.

Repeat deployments easily
Perform a scripted deployment to a staging environment to verify your changes and deployment process, and then repeat the same script for a reliable deployment into production.

Automate complex scripts that include setup migration
If you have a repetitive process that includes retrieval and deployment of organization setup, you can automate the sequence to reduce effort and increase reliability.

Note: Automatically visible to all users. No setup required.

Use Easy, Secure Single Sign-On

(Personal, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions)

• Improve the user experience with single sign-on across the enterprise
• Centralize user management in a single system
  

With Winter ’09, you can use the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard to provide single sign-on system access. This feature lets customers that invested in SAML implement single sign-on to Salesforce CRM easily and cost-effectively. Unlike with delegated authentication, customers do not have to deploy Salesforce-specific software to use SAML. Also, SAML never sends passwords to Salesforce, so it is inherently more secure than other authentication mechanisms.

Note: Not automatically visible. Feature is enabled, but requires some setup.