Salesforce.com calendar of important releases and events

There are so many dates announced by Salesforce.com for various releases, sandbox previews, maintenance windows, tours and events. Wouldn't it best if there is a community calendar which is updated by few trusted Salesforce.com community members. So this is an attempt to establish such a calendar and community process. send a message @cloudgofer on twitter if you would like to join. Feedback welcome !!



Calendar Addresses:
XML  ICAL  HTML 

Calendar ID:
cloudgofer.com_rnlhiom2gu6rjl891k75nie7m0@group.calendar.google.com

How to automate migration of distribution lists to google apps groups

One of the weak areas google apps has is the import of groups (aka distribution lists). There is no easy way to automate creation of groups in google apps.

Here are the steps to automate migration of groups (distribution lists) to google apps groups.

Step 1: Create a csv file of distribution list name and email ids in following format
name it: migrate.csv
distro1:emailid1, emailid2,emailid3
distro2:emailid4, emailid5,emailid6
distro3:emailid1, emailid3,emailid5

Step 2: Generate automation script file
use following awk script to generate automation script
create an awk script file , name it : gen.awk
copy following code into it.

# begining of the file

BEGIN {
    FS=":"
}
{ print "URL GOTO=https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/<domain name>/CreateGroup"
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=A ATTR=ID:createGroup"
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=NAME:c ATTR=ID:gn CONTENT="$1
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=NAME:c ATTR=ID:ge CONTENT="$1
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=TEXTAREA FORM=NAME:c ATTR=ID:gd CONTENT="$1
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:CHECKBOX FORM=NAME:c ATTR=ID:group-preset-team-internet CONTENT=YES"
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:SUBMIT FORM=ID:create ATTR=ID:createbtn"
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=TEXTAREA FORM=ACTION:Group ATTR=ID:add-members-textarea CONTENT="$2
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=SELECT FORM=ACTION:Group ATTR=ID:addMembersRole CONTENT=%MEMBER"
  print "TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:SUBMIT FORM=ID:addmember ATTR=ID:add-members-add-button" }

# end of the file

run following command on a unix prompt
awk -f gen.awk migrate.csv

Step 3: Install iMacros for Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863/

Step 4: Run iMacro
 
rename an existing macro or create a new one using record and save action in "rec" tab
click Edit macro (right click on macro name) , paste the text generated in step 2, close & save
click on Play (in play tab) to run the automated script to generate groups.

that's it !! you are done.

Salesforce.com Developer Certification (DEV401) Exam

Exam Objectives: Salesforce.com Certified Developer–Winter ‘11 Release Exam

· Describe the functionality of the Adobe FlashBuilder for Force.com IDE and Flex Framework for Force.com.

·  Describe the features, use cases, and considerations of Chatter analytics.

·  Describe the capabilities and considerations of the report builder.

·  Describe the use cases for the drill-to-detail dashboard components.

·  Describe the use cases for the selectable running user feature.

·  Describe the capabilities of the Improved System Log console.

·  Describe the capabilities of the new Visualforce Chatter components.

Winter ‘11 Release Notes:


Read Online:  Winter 11 Release notes (scribd)
Download: salesforce_winter11_release_notes.pdf

Practice Exam:

Salesforce.com certified developer practice exam

Making a career in Salesforce.com as a consultant

Salesforce.com has three distinct product areas Sales cloud Service cloud Custom cloud (force.com platform) In my opinion Sales and Service cloud areas do not require much development skills, custom cloud does require coding skills in Apex and Visualforce. Certification path: The path to certification for a certified consultant is explained here : http://www.salesforce.com/services-training/training_certification/certification/ for certified consultant (CON201) , you need to pass certified administrator exam (ADM201) there is a study guide on the website for each of these. you can start reading more about everything online as well as you can request basic book around Sales cloud by going to this link : https://www.salesforce.com/form/trial/freetrial-bookoffer.jsp?d=70130000000Cs47 for projects / freelancing: http://www.odesk.com/jobs/salesforce.com for applying for job at salesforce.com partners , goto: http://sites.force.com/appexchange/results?type=Services and sort by "certification" to sort by size of the organization. Use LinkedIn to see who is working there and apply through them. Search for blogs and help resource at www.cloudgofer.com , also there are some books which can help. Development with the Force.com Platform: Building Business Applications in the Cloud by Jason Ouellette Hope this helps, feel free add your suggestion and/or questions in the comments area below.

Google docs - save space on the top of the document

one of the drawbacks of using web based applications is the top area space wastage, with address bar , bookmarks toolbar and tabs occupying so much space at the top and that any additional space taken by application in top area just worsens the whole user experience of using web based application further more.

Google docs team can you please remove or have some option to hide the top area in the google docs. see attached image.

Update 12/1/2010: Google has release a option to hide that wasted space. Go to View -> Compact Controls

see image below to see where the menu command to hide the top space is located.

Free cloud computing resources

Here is a list of free offerings from some of the major and reputed cloud computing vendors.

• Force.com : Free edition gives you ability to build one free application , many websites, 100 user logins etc. to sign up go to : http://www.salesforce.com/platform/

• Google App Engine: Free hosting of Java or Python application, you can host your website on Google app engine having just basic html files as well. It allows you to host up to 10 applications for free: for more information visit: http://code.google.com/appengine/

• Amazon AWS (EC2): Amazon AWS recently added a free option to their EC2 hosting.  read more at http://aws.amazon.com/free/

If you know any other free offerings from other vendors, please add it to the comments section below and I will update this blog entry. thanks!

Some hand picked books to help you get started on using these services:

             

Salesforce.com tip : how to delete pages, objects, fields in force.com via IDE

you can delete almost anything which is accessible via IDE using destructiveChanges.xml

read more at : http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Propagating_Destructive_Changes
help doc: http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/daas/Content/daas_destructive_changes.htm

Salesforce.com tip : show bubble help text on visualforce page

to show bubble style help text on visualforce fields , use following syntax on tag


<apex:pageBlockSectionItem helpText="{!$ObjectType.Contact.Fields.Favorite_Game__c.inlineHelpText}" >