From Renaissance 2014, how to design APIs for enterprise mobile apps, and how to approach the Salesforce platform as native iOS developers.

1. API Design, Development
and Enterprise Apps
RENAISSANCE 2014
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
JANUARY 31, 2014
1.31.2014 - WWW.QUBOP.COM

2. Hello!
Evan Kirchhoff
COO, Qubop Inc.
evan@qubop.com
twitter: @theevank
www.qubop.com
twitter: @qubopinc
1.31.2014 - WWW.QUBOP.COM

3. ≠

4. OUTLINE
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce for native iOS developers
API design for enterprise apps
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5. IN A GOOD MOBILE APP,
API DESIGN IS DERIVED
FROM UI DESIGN
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6. IN MOBILE, YOUR UI
DESIGN DETERMINES
YOUR BUSINESS MODEL*
* SLIGHTLY CONTROVERSIAL TO CLIENTS
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7. What is Salesforce?
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8. =
?!
Mobile Back-end as a Service (MBaaS)
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9. The “Big 4” Salesforce elements
from a mobile app developer’s point of view
(BASED ON MARKETING TERMS THAT YOUR CLIENTS WILL KNOW)
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10. Our job is to “flatten” the platform
into a minimal set of APIs
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11. The Salesforce architecture & APIs
=
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Default apps running
on a general-purpose
database platform
with common APIs

12. The Salesforce architecture & APIs
=
=
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Different APIs
Different APIs

13. Example: the Sales Cloud technology stack
Lead Objects &
Opportunity Objects
DATABASE TABLES
SOQL
QUERY LANGUAGE
Apex
SERVER MIDDLEWARE CODE
VisualForce / HTML5
WEB UI AND PRESENTATION
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14. The Salesforce developer community is
primarily a web development community
...and extremely seperate from the
iOS developer community
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15. Salesforce for iOS
Developers
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16. Typical Salesforce “sales pipeline” model
SALES OPPORTUNITY
SALES LEAD
PROSPECTING (10%)
QUALIFICATION (20%)
PROPOSAL (50%)
NEGOTIATION (80%)
WON! or CLOSED
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17. Default Salesforce web paradigm
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18. Does Salesforce 1 (Nov 2013) affect
the world of native iOS developers?
(NOT THAT MUCH, SO FAR)
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19. The “Salesforce 1 app” (hybrid platform)
3RD PARTY WEB-TECHNOLOGY APPS PLUG INTO THE LEFT SIDE MENU
BUILT-IN ACCESS TO STANDARD SALESFORCE DATA TYPES
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20. Salesforce platform: what is interesting
to native iOS developers
Native SDK (OAuth, communication stack)
Rapid back end development
Automatic server-side optimization
Lots of free general business logic
Authentication, security, user roles
Valuable clients: $$$
1.31.2014 - WWW.QUBOP.COM

21. Sales Organization Manager (live demo)
NATIVE IPAD APP USING ALL OF THE “BIG 4” SALESFORCE ELEMENTS
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22. API Design for
Enterprise Apps
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23. Design the app UI first!
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24. The world’s smartest dumb terminal
EVEN IF BUSINESS LOGIC LIVES ON THE SERVER, THE CLIENT IS “THICK” AND MAY CONTAIN SUBSTANTIAL UI LOGIC
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25. Don’t design the UI based on the data structure
THE USER DOESN’T PERCEIVE THE APP THE WAY YOU PERCEIVE THE DATA
X
...AND THE SCREEN IS VERY SMALL
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26. Don’t be satisfied with
the stock APIs
THIS USUALLY MEANS THAT YOU’LL NEED TO WRITE MIDDLEWARE
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27. Sales Organization Manager:
our custom API calls from iOS
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28. Example: Opportunities Heatmap UI
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29. Example: Opportunities Heatmap UI
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32. (1) iOS connection to custom Apex endpoint

33. (2) Apex class written specifically to feed this heatmap UI
(MASHES UP LEAD AND OPPORTUNITY OBJECT DATA)
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34. (3) JSON response from Apex, converted to NSDictionary in iOS
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35. (4) Finally: render the circles and columns in iOS
“AMOUNT” = NUMBER OF DEALS IN THE COLUMN (DETERMINES CIRCLE RADIUS)
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36. Where should your code live?
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37. Business logic
vs. presentation logic?
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Data vs.
documents?

38. Example: Documents + server-based email = API
GOAL: THE SALESPERSON WANTS TO ATTACH COLLATERAL FROM SALESFORCE TO EMAIL
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39. Standard solution: use the iPhone native email client
SALESFORCE
DOCUMENT
STORAGE
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40. Better solution: create an API to send email +
attachments from the server
SALESFORCE
DOCUMENT
STORAGE
ALLOWS FOR QUEUEING LOGIC, LOW BANDWIDTH, OFFLINE CASE HANDLING
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41. Thanks!
Evan Kirchhoff
COO, Qubop Inc.
evan@qubop.com
twitter: @theevank
www.qubop.com
twitter: @qubopinc
1.31.2014 - WWW.QUBOP.COM