Perspectives on Salesforce.com

This was also posted to the new Arrowpointe Product blog. We are moving all product specific information to that new blog and keeping this blog focused on developer related information. Please subscribe (rss, email)

Geopointe has a number of under-the-cover features (and more to come) that allow you to integrate with the application.  One such feature is the ability to use the map as a means of populating a Lookup field.

Below is a video showing this feature in action.

Enabling the Feature

The feature is enabled through the use of a Custom Button that simply passes additional parameters across in the URL.  The URL in the video example is:

/apex/geopointe__Map?

Id={!Account.Id}

&wbRecordId={!Account.Id}

&wbField=Related_Account__c

&wbLookupObject=Account

&wbButtonText={!URLENCODE("Relate This Account to " & Account.Name)}

Let’s break it down

/apex/geopointe__Map?

Id={!Account.Id}

The above is the URL from the button included with the application. It is required to sent the user to the proper page in the proper context.

&wbRecordId={!Account.Id}

wbRecordId is the ID of the record we will be writing back to.

&wbField=Related_Account__c

wbField is the field on that record we will be populating.

&wbLookupObject=Account

wbLookupObject is the object type that we will be searching for and populating the lookup field for.

&wbButtonText={!URLENCODE("Relate This Account to " & Account.Name)}

wbButtonText is optional, but can be included if you want to customize the button’s text. It is recommended to use the URLENCODE function when specifying your text, especially if you are merging in data from the system.

This was also posted to the new Arrowpointe Product blog. We are moving all product specific information to that new blog and keeping this blog focused on developer related information. Please subscribe (rss, email)

We are pleased to announce the release of our newest application, Geopointe. Geopointe integrates Force.com with Google Maps and MapQuest and is the premier Force.com geo/mapping solution providing numerous ways for end-users, administrators and developers to take advantage of geo data and maps.

Highlights of Geopointe include (but is not limited to):

• Map any Salesforce object
• Perform proximity searching (show me what’s nearby me)
• Create custom data sets (queries), both personal and public ones
• Export your results to CSV (Excel) or KML (Google Earth)
• Obtain multi-point driving directions
• The Visualizer helps create dashboard-like summaries of your data
• Automated, Scheduled Geocoding processes your data at 1000+ records per minute
• Get cleansed address data
• Contains an “API” with global Apex methods, Visualforce Components and the ability to extend the application using custom buttons.
• All existing Arrowpointe Maps customers get a free license transfer to Geopointe for the same user count and expiration date as their current license with a goal to get users off of Arrowpointe Maps and onto Geopointe.

To learn more, you can:

• Visit the AppExchange Listing
• Visit the product page on our website
• Visit the YouTube Channel
• Follow us on Twitter
• “Like” Arrowpointe on Facebook

I’ve been reorganizing the way blogs and social media will be used for Arrowpointe and wanted to inform you about what’s changing.  A new application is being launched very soon and, once it is, I will be picking up the pace and getting back to the business of blogging.

Website Redesign
The Arrowpointe website was recently redesigned (new logo too).  There, you will find links to all that I am explaining in this post.  (you can also get a bit of preview information about the new application that will be launched)

Blogs
I have decided to separate content into 2 separate blogs.

• Developer Blog - This blog (subscribe) will be focused on broader force.com topics such as news, developer tips, etc., as opposed to Arrowpointe-specific product information.
• Company/Product Blog – A new blog was created on the company site that will focus on company news and announcements regarding Arrowpointe’s applications. While I transition, I will cross-post across the blogs, but over time product information will be put onto the company/product blog. You can subscribe to that blog via rss or email.

Social Media

• Our You Tube channel will be the best location to get video about our applications.
• Our Facebook page is a great place to find a collection of all our content from the web.
• Our Twitter feed will collect notifications about all our postings around the web as well as informal commentary about force.com, life on the web and other information that may be of interest. Our Facebook feed will post to Twitter, but not the other way around.

Arrowpointe has an application on AppExchange called Spam Check.  The application has tools to fight spam from getting into your Salesforce system.

All of Arrowpointe’s web-to-lead and web-to-case forms use it.  Below are the overall statistics since getting it setup.

95 spams caught, 64 legitimate submissions, and an overall accuracy rate of 93.711%.

You can run a free 30 day trial of Spam Check simply by installing the application from the AppExchange. Once installed, you will receive emails on how to get it setup.

If you install any of the above apps, they will not count towards your app/object/tab limits: