Visualforce & Force.com Canvas: Unlock your Web App inside Salesforce
1. Visualforce & Force.com Canvas
Unlock your Web App inside of Salesforce.com
Jay Hurst, Salesforce.com, Product Manager – Force.com Canvas
@extraidea
2. Safe harbor
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3. Speakers
Jay Hurst
Product Manager –
Force.com Canvas,
@extraidea
Join the conversation: #forcewebinar
4. Agenda
§ Review of Force.com Canvas
§ Demonstrate using a Force.com Canvas App in a Visualforce Page
§ Demonstrate using custom parameters in a Force.com Canvas App
§ Dynamically rendering record-specific content
§ Q&A
§ Next Steps
5. Apps, Apps, Everywhere
Companies have many applications across their org
§ Cloud Applications (Salesforce.com, Google Docs)
§ Hybrid Applications
§ Home Grown Solutions (Intranet, Task Management)
6. Introducing Force.com Canvas
PILOT platform service to allow for external applications to
be easily and securely integrated into Salesforce from their
native environment with little re-design.
§ Services Include
• JavaScript SDK
• Simplified Authentication (Signed Request or OAuth)
• Context Services (Including Custom Parameters)
• Cross Domain API Calls
• App Registration and Management
8. What are some examples of Canvas Apps
There are many examples of how Canvas Apps can be used
§ Existing Web Applications from Partners
§ Concur Trips, Event Applications
§ Internally Developed Applications
§ Intranets, Service Ticket Applications
§ Enterprise Systems with Web Front-Ends
§ SAP, Sharepoint
9. Force.com Canvas – You code it, we show it!
Regardless of your language of choice, JavaScript libraries allow
your app to connect with salesforce at a UI and API layer:
11. Force.com Canvas Usage Flow
1. User Clicks on the App from the Chatter 5
Tab (or VF Page)
6
2. The 3rd Party App responds with HTML that Chatter Tab
Salesforce.com
Database
is loaded into the salesforce UI if(conn
SELEC
WHERE
3. The user interacts with the 3rd party app print
4
4. The 3rd party app uses the Canvas Server-side JS
JavaScript SDK to make a call to a server
side JavaScript library 3
<script
var a=
var xl
5. The server side acts on the behalf of the
if(xls
user and posts to the salesforce database 1 2 Client-Side JS 3rd Party
6. Alternatively, the 3rd party app can Canvas Link (canvas-all.js) Database
Java C# JSP
communicate server-to-server with
PHP .NET C++
salesforce via the standard APIs
ASP VB CF Server
Web UI
Salesforce.com UI 3rd Party App
12. What is the Signed Request Access Method?
The signed request is the default (and recommended) access method.
§ When you click the Canvas app, we POST a signed request to your endpoint
§ You can verify the request was sent by salesforce and then view context info
§ Context contains data like:
• Scoped OAuth Token
• User Info (Name, email, ID, etc..)
• Company Info (Company name, ID, etc…)
• Environment Info (page is the canvas on, size of the iFrame)
• Useful Links
Salesforce.com Confidential
14. Force.com Canvas - Registration/Management Flow
Canvas Connected App
1. App is created with specified Basic Information
- Name
OAuth Module
- Callback URL
- Digital Signature
modules - Description
- Info URL
- Selected OAuth Scopes
Force.com Canvas
- Icon URL
Module
2. After creation app is available
- Contact Email - Canvas URL
- Contact Phone - Access Method
in creator org
3. If created in a namespaced DE
Published
(DE Org)
org, App can be published Creator Org
- Manageable inside org Install URL
§ Published Apps can be installed - Useable inside org
into any org with Canvas enabled Install
Subscriber Org
- Manageable inside org
- Useable inside org
Salesforce.com Confidential
15. Force.com Canvas – Visualforce Component
Add a Force.com Canvas App to any
Visualforce Page
§ Visualforce Tabs, Inline Visualforce
Pages, Standalone Visualforce Pages
§ Ability to specify Canvas height and
Width
§ Signed Request/Context delivers Page
and Record specific information
Salesforce.com Confidential
17. Force.com Canvas – Expanding the Warehouse App
Canvas App Walkthrough:
§ Explaining the idea of the Canvas Fulfillment App
§ Demo the app in the Canvas App Previewer / Chatter Tab
§ Create a Visualforce Page/Tab to display the Canvas App
§ Inline the App inside of the Invoice Statement object
§ Modify the App to dynamically render based on context
18. What is the Force.com Canvas Warehouse App
§ The Warehouse App is a walkthrough provided by salesforce which
explains the customizability of the salesforce.com app
• The app takes you through the declarative and integration capabilities of
salesforce.com
• The full workbook can be found at
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/workbook/forcecom_workbook.pdf
§ The Force.com Canvas App will represent a fulfillment center that your
warehouse app will use
• Picture salesforce.com as your sales center, and the Web App your fulfillment/
shipping center…Force.com Canvas allows you to interact with both apps
22. Combining the Fulfillment App with the Warehouse App
§ Fulfilment data now exposed inside of the Chatter tab
23. Exposing a Canvas App in a Visualforce Page
§ Spring ‘13 introduces the ability to drop a Canvas App in a Visualforce Page
• Use the new <apex:canvasApp /> tag
• The required information is:
– applicationName –The full name of the app
– namespacePrefix – The namespace of the Canvas App
– developerName – The developer name of the app (found on the app detail page)
• Optional information includes:
– height – The height of your canvas
– width – The width of your canvas
– border – The width of the border around your canvas
– scrolling – Indicates if the canvas should have scroll bars
– parameters – JSON string to pass in the Context sent to the app
25. Exposing a Canvas App in a Visualforce Tab
§ Extending the ability to add a Canvas App in a Visualforce Page, you can
also create a Visualforce Tab
26. Adding a Canvas App into a Record Detail Page
§ By adding a Canvas App to a Visualforce Page, you can also embed
the app in a Record Detail page
§ This will allow you to visually deliver content directly on your records
27. Passing Parameters to your Canvas App
§ Using the “parameters” element of apex:canvasApp alows you to pass
custom information to your Canvas App
§ This will allow you to dynamically render you app information
§ Ex – You can pass a Salesforce Record ID and display the
appropriate related record from the 3rd Party App
<apex:page sidebar="false" showheader="false" standardController="Invoice_Statement__c">
<apex:canvasApp developerName="denv_warehouse"
parameters="{'orderId':'{!Invoice_Statement__c.id}','name':
'{!HTMLENCODE(Invoice_Statement__c.name)}'}" width="800px" height="380px"
scrolling="false"/>
</apex:page>
28. Dynamically Rendering Content
§ By extracting the parameters from the signed request or context, you
can render specific data
§ Ex - Show record specific information inline
29. Force.com Canvas – Spring ’13 Enhancements
In today’s session we have:
§ Walked through the new features of Force.com Canvas in Spring ‘13
• Exposing a Canvas App on a Visualforce Page
• Setting the specific Canvas Size
• Dynamically rendering content based on custom parameters
§ Walked through some example in code on how to utilize the new
features
30. Where to now?
Force.com Canvas Resources can be found at
§ Force.com Canvas Developer Site - http://bit.ly/forcecanvas
§ Force.com Canvas Developer Guide - http://bit.ly/canvasdeveloperguide
§ Discussion Board - http://bit.ly/canvasdiscussionboards
§ Past Webinar
Heroku
§ Heroku Developer Site - https://devcenter.heroku.com/
Contact Us:
§ Email or tweet Jay – jhurst@salesforce.com/@extraidea
§ Tweet @forcedotcom with #forcewebinar