TehNrd

My posts have been lacking lately but in the next few weeks I plan on creating some super slick demos that mix jQuery and Force.com into a delicious concoction of wonderfulness. Before I do this I’d like to go over the basics of setting up jQuery to play nice with Force.com (or salesforce.com, all the same).

If all we need is jQuery, the first thing we need to do is download it here here: http://jquery.com/.

There will be two versions, one is considered production and the other development. These actually contain the same code but the production file removes all unnecessary spaces.

This smaller version allows the script to be downloaded quicker by users viewing the page and will provide a better user experience to those with less bandwidth.

jQuery lets you do a lot of sweet stuff, manipulate the DOM, change styles, basic animations, etc, but to provide an even richer user experience there is jQueryUI. This allows you to do all sorts of visual awesomeness with very little code.

jQueryUI can be downloaded here: http://jqueryui.com/download

When downloading jQueryUI you need to select theme (styles) and all the necessary components. For the sake of demoing and developing it makes sense download all of the components. Once again the reason to leave components out would be to decrease download size.

When you download jQueryUI you will be provided a zip with several files. This contains all sorts of demos and documentation but the only folders we care about are /css and /js. One very important thing to note when downloading jQueryUI is that it automatically downloads the regular jQuery (jQuery Core) to the /js folder.

Since we are going to upload these files as a .zip static resource to force.com I don’t even bother extracting the contents. Simply delete everything but the /js and /css folders. When this is done we should have a zip file called jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.zip (or whatever the most current version is). Next we head off to Force.com.

In Force.com navigate to Setup>Develop>Static Resources and hit the New button. Make the name jquery and upload the zip file. If this resource is going to be used with force.com sites be sure Cache Control is set to public.

Now create a new visualforce page called jQueryTest. At the very top of the page we need to include the correct script and styles that jQuery has provided. We can do this with the following Visualforce tags:

<apex:includeScript value="{!URLFOR($Resource.jquery, 'js/jquery-1.3.2.min.js')}"/>
<apex:includeScript value="{!URLFOR($Resource.jquery, 'js/jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.min.js')}"/>
<apex:stylesheet value="{!URLFOR($Resource.jquery, 'css/ui-lightness/jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.css')}"/>

With jQuery you will see a lot of examples including the $ symbol. This is basically a shortcut when calling jQuery functions. The problem is that force.com also includes a lot of javascript libraries that also may use this $ symbol as a shortcut and this can cause all sorts of problems. There is a simple fix as we can give jQuery it’s own special name.

var j$ = jQuery.noConflict();

Now where ever you would normally use $, use j$.

Finally we make sure it is all working correctly with this simple page. When you click on the link you should see a pop up alert. If you don’t something isn’t right so check for typos in the includeScript tags.

You can check out my working demo here: http://tehnrddemos-developer-edition.na7.force.com/jqueryTest

<apex:page >
    <apex:includeScript value="{!URLFOR($Resource.jquery, 'js/jquery-1.3.2.min.js')}"/>
    <apex:includeScript value="{!URLFOR($Resource.jquery, 'js/jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.min.js')}"/>
    <apex:stylesheet value="{!URLFOR($Resource.jquery, 'css/ui-lightness/jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.css')}"/>
 
     <script type="text/javascript">
         var j$ = jQuery.noConflict();
 
        j$(document).ready(function(){
            j$("#ninjaLink").click(function() {
                alert("NINJA STAR TO FACE!!!!!");
            });
        });
     </script>        
 
    <a id="ninjaLink" href="">NINJA ATTACK!</a>
 
</apex:page>

After this you are set to start making awesome sauce with jQuery and Force.com.

This is sort of a late notice but on October 1st there will be a Force.com user group in Seattle. If you are in the area and want to exchange ideas and best practices revolving around the Force.com platform please swing by.

Want to take a deeper dive into the technical capabilities of Salesforce? Would you like to meet other Force.com developers in the Seattle area? Interested in learning about new/different tools that will help you create and develop better solutions? A new Salesforce user group will be starting up on Thursday Oct 1. Meetings will be held on the first Thursday of every month.

We will try to cover a different range of topics at these monthly meetings such as:

• Summary of new functionality in the upcoming release
• Project spotlight where someone will demo their project and the technical details
• Best Practices
• 3rd Party development and integration tools
• Apex and VisualForce
• Open session to discuss specific questions you may have regarding your current projects

Time: 8-9am
Date: Oct 1, 2009
Location:

West Monroe Partners
1215 4th Ave Suite 1010
Seattle, WA 98161

Please contact Val Grasparil (vgrasparil@westmonroepartners.com) or Andrew Brown (abrown@westmonroepartners.com) if you have any questions.

Since it is in the morning, coffee and snacks will be provided. Please RSVP if you are planning on attending so we can make sure to have enough food for everyone.

Reach out directly to Val to RSVP. I’ve been told there is public parking available at the address above.

Update: Video posted below.

This is my first post in nearly three weeks and my first Force.com related post in nearly a month. Where have I been you may wonder? Only working on the coolest Force.com site in the world .  Haha, just kidding.  But yes, for the past 2 months I have been slowly chipping away on my entry for the Force.com Cloud Developer Challenge. So what did I build?

Gameforce - The Worlds 1’st online gaming site built upon the Force.com platform.

When I set out to build my entry I wanted to build something that had never been done before. We have all see the blogging, HR, accounting, shopping cart, content management, and many other traditional business apps. There is no doubt these can be super cool but in the end most of them have been done before. Salesforce.com and Force.com are typically viewed as a platform for business apps and I wanted to build something on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I hope I have succeeded with building an online gaming site.

The site consists of two games: blackjack and LineUp4 aka Connect 4.

Blackjack
Place your bets and play against the dealer.

LineUp4

A true online multiplayer game where two people can play against each other anywhere in the world. It also has the ‘Smack Talker’ which is live chat between the players. You can see more features listed on the about page located here.

This site may not have the coolest graphics or the trendiest web design but when it comes to taking the Force.com platform to the limit I have used every trick in the book that I know about. When checking out this site keep in mind it was built with 100% Force.com. There is no extra javascript, flash, or any other web technology.

Video update:
After seeing how cool some of the videos were that other people created showing of their site  I created one as well. It gives a great overview in about 5 minuets. The one feature I forgot to mention in the video is that if you are playing a game of LineUp4 and are not logged in, you can log in, and will be returned to the game right where you left off. The game state will be saved.

http://tehnrd.com/gameforce.swf (if the video is to large for your screen, right click on the video and select ‘Show All’)

Now we wait for the results of the contest. I’m hoping this site puts me in contention for the Mac Book prize. I’m sure there are going to be some great entries but I’m hoping for the best since this site is like nothing I have ever seen before. My current computer is also 5 years old so a new pc definitely wouldn’t hurt. With so many entries in this contest perhaps salesforce could give away a more than one Mac Book ?

Also, due to the very dynamic nature of this site and the fact that it is currently hosted on a developer edition account I fully expect to exceed the site limits if this site gets popular. I have mirrored this site an a Force.com Free Edition account located here but it does not have the log in ability.

And one more thing. Thanks to my awesome wife for putting up with me while I constantly snuck away to work on this site.

With Force.com sites now in GA it is possible to create public facing web forms and save directly to your salesforce.com database. You can do point of entry validation, auto fill fields based on the user, and all sort of other awesomeness. One problem with public facing forms is they are prone to spam, lots of spam. The best approach is to prevent the spam from even being submitted in the first place. This is usually done with some sort of CAPTCHA validation.

Ron Hess put together a great little article here on how you can use reCAPTCHA. It works great but (there is always a but) it requires setting up a web service callout, using javascript, and isn’t the the most straight forward CAPTCHA to setup. I am all about 100% salesforce.com. Javascript libraries and external services are great but if I can do the same thing with 100% Apex and Visualforce I’m all for that.

With this mindset I set out to create a CAPTCHA utility built 100% on the force.com platform. I think my results where pretty darn successful. It isn’t super fancy but I think it will get the job done……but then again it hasn’t exactly been tested against spam bots. Oh well, it’s still cool.

You can check out a working example here: http://tehnrd-developer-edition.na7.force.com/captcha

And here is the code, first the page:

<apex:page controller="captcha" >
 
    Enter only the <strong>black</strong> characters.
    <apex:outputPanel styleClass="container" layout="block" id="code">
        <apex:outputText value="{!char1}" styleClass="blackChar"/>
        <apex:outputText value="{!char2}" styleClass="redChar"/>
        <apex:outputText value="{!char3}" styleClass="blackChar"/>
        <apex:outputText value="{!char4}" styleClass="redChar"/>
        <apex:outputText value="{!char5}" styleClass="blackChar"/>
        <apex:outputText value="{!char6}" styleClass="redChar"/>
    </apex:outputPanel>
 
    <apex:form >
        <apex:inputText value="{!input}"/>
        <apex:commandButton action="{!validate}" value="Validate" rerender="result"/>
        <apex:commandButton value="Reset" rerender="code"/>
    </apex:form>
 
    <apex:outputPanel id="result">
        {!result}
    </apex:outputPanel>
 
    <style>
        .redChar{
            color: #C30000;
            font-size: 24px;
            padding:5px;
        }
        .blackChar{
            color: black;
            font-weight: bold;
            font-size: 24px;
            padding:5px;
        }
        .container{
            background-color: #E8E8E8;
            border-style: solid;
            border-width:1px;
            width: 150px;
            text-align: center;
        }
    </style>
</apex:page>

And next the controller:

public class captcha {
 
    List<String> characters;
    public String input {get; set;}
    public String result {get; set;}
    String char1;
    String char3;
    String char5;
 
    //In our contructor we will populate a list of strings with numbers and letters
    public captcha(){
        characters = new List<String>{'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h',
            'i','j','k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w',
            'x','y','z','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','0'
        };
    }
 
    //This methods simply returns a random number between 0 and the size of the character list
    public Integer randomNumber(){
        Integer random = Math.Round(Math.Random() * characters.Size());
        if(random == characters.size()){
            random--;
        }
        return random;
    }
 
    /*Here we have 6 get methods that return 6 random characters to the page.
    For chars 1,3, and 5 (the black characters) we are saving the the values so 
    that we can compare them with the user's input */
    public String getChar1(){
        char1 = characters[randomNumber()];
        return char1;
    }
    public String getChar2(){
        return characters[randomNumber()];
    }
    public String getChar3(){
        char3 = characters[randomNumber()];
        return char3;
    }
    public String getChar4(){
        return characters[randomNumber()];
    }
    public String getChar5(){
        char5 = characters[randomNumber()];
        return char5;
    }
    public String getChar6(){
        return characters[randomNumber()];
    }
 
    /*In the validate method we make sure that the 3 characters entered equal the three black characters: char1, char3, char5*/
    public void validate(){
        if(input.length() == 3 && input.subString(0,1) == char1 && input.subString(1,2) == char3 && input.subString(2,3) == char5){
            result = 'Whoohoo! You got it right.';
        }else{
            result = 'Come on...the letters aren\'t even disfigured.'; 
        }
    }
}

The next logical step would be turning this into a component but this should give you a pretty good start.