It said this will enable users to build the interface they want, however they want it, and significantly, deliver it to any device.
Visualforce is part of the Force.com platform, which is what Salesforce.com describes as its platform-as-as-service. The company has rebranded its multiple platform offerings, including the various Apex components, under the Force.com banner, so what was known as Apex Builder is now Force.com Builder and so on. Apex code retains its moniker. In addition, the various Salesforce Platform Editions have been rebranded as Force.com Platform Editions.
Force.com provides infrastructure services including database, logic, workflow, integration, and application exchange, which can be used to build applications that run inside the Salesforce.com environment. As the company’s CEO Marc Benioff said, we build the infrastructure so you can focus on the fun stuff, so you can do the innovative things.
In the Winter 08 edition, Force.com will also provide Visualforce, a user interface service that will enable customers to design application user interfaces to suit any type of function or user, on any type of screen. Applications can be created with user interfaces that are nothing like the Salesforce.com interface. We believe it is the most important breakthrough we’ve ever made, said Benioff.
Used in conjunction with the logic and workflow capabilities enabled through Apex code, Visualforce technology addresses the needs of different types of users and the variety of devices they might need. The Visualforce framework provides a page-based model and is built on html and web-presentation technologies. It comes with a component library to help with the implementation of common user interface elements and a controller model for creating new interactions between the elements.
Benioff said Visualforce represents a break with the concept of many applications with one interface. What if you…could deliver any application and any interface? What if you had lots of different types on interfaces you could store those interfaces on our platform? What if you could take any device, from a PC to a medical scanner, and deploy directly to that device and have it look just as it should look? What if Salesforce let you design any interface for any and every device? What if all interfaces were designed and delivered on Force.com? he said. You break out from [the concept of] tabs across the top of the page and can deliver anything you wanted on top, as a service. We would call that Visualforce.
It is the first of its kind and we call it User Interface-as-a-Service. We believe it is the last major piece of the platform. You can create any user user interface, for any device, and run it as a service, he added. That approach opens up lots of new opportunities for Salesforce.com and its partners and customers. He said this changes the way Salesforce-based applications can be used and extends them to previously inaccessible areas, enabling the right interface to be created for the job at hand.
David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum, said: Visualforce removes a major restriction on the appeal of Salesforce’s platform to third-party developers. Until now, any applications on the Salesforce platform had to look like Salesforce’s own applications. In contrast, Visualforce makes it possible to write ‘independent’ applications that look nothing like ‘traditional’ Salesforce applications and that can be aimed at a wider audience.
User interfaces have to be appropriate for the device and the task, so what works on a PC screen will not be appropriate on an Apple iPhone or a tablet PC, for example, or for applications running on specialist devices used on a factory shop floor or in a kiosk.
As Salesforce.com CTO Parker Harris pointed out, each device requires a different interface. A tablet differs from a PC interface because people want to use either fingers or a stylus, so the interface needs to be designed with a small number of large buttons, not small text boxes that require keyboard input. The iPhone represents another potential new interface for the business environment.
Although there is no way to add software, the resident Safari browser means it would be possible to use Visualforce to access the Salesforce.com database to get data and generate a style sheet for the iPhone that looks like other iPhone applications. The interface is delivered as a service, along with everything else. It just generates the page, said Harris.
Saleforce.com said Visualforce offers the ability create the right type of interface, enabling customers to do away with the conventional hierarchical tab-based user interface concept. It also frees users from the restrictions of the original browser-style interface. By using html, Ajax, and Adobe Flex technology, it will be possible to create rich, varied, and innovative user interfaces for business applications, bringing the innovation seen in many consumer web site to the business environment.
We believe our mission is to deliver the top piece of the stack, the User Interface-as-a-Service. It makes CRM lot better because you can rip apart pages and put them together as you want. It lets you take the user interface code and change it, it lets you deliver the service exactly as you want it, said Benioff. Code can be reorganized and restructured, making it possible to put customer contact and account details on the same page for example, and deploy such changes immediately.
Salesforce.com has componentized the user interface. It has taken apart 50 pre-built components such as fields, lists, views, headers, sidebars, input and output fields, and provided a way for customers to push and pull them around to create the interface that best meets the requirements of the task at hand.
According to Harris, Visualforce makes Salesforce.com services more personal. Last year the company opened up the code for the business logic, he said, this year it is opening up the code for the user interface.
Basil Fedynyshyn, vice president of platform management for the consumer credit group at Wells Fargo bank could see immediate potential benefits from using Visualforce. In the call center there is a struggle with Salesforce with the tabs, he said. You want to consolidate information into forms. Visualforce will enable us to tailor the interface to match the flow of the calls.
Visualforce also played a key part in the decision by UK-based financial software vendor Coda to build a new Coda application on the Salesforce platform, known as CODA 2go. CEO Jeremy Roche said the Salesforce platform would slash two years off the development cycle and reduce cost and time to market, but said Visualforce was the dealmaker regarding the decision.
Fellow SaaS player NetSuite was less complimentary about Salesforce.com’s news. The freedom that the Salesforce.com platform, including Visualforce, enables will increase the competition NetSuite faces. As a CRM player, Salesforce.com was not in direct competition with NetSuite, which offered a business application suite. But Salesforce’s advances are changing that.
Once again, the reality is that Salesforce.com is playing catch-up with NetSuite by announcing functionality new to them, but long available from NetSuite, said NetSuite in a statement. Visualforce is being positioned by Salesforce.com as a means to allow developers to build custom interfaces within the Salesforce.com environment. Great idea, that’s why we came up with the idea and launched SuiteScript UI Objects and Suitelets last October. Our partner community has been using these technologies to build vertical and value-added solutions for over a year; the new Visualforce tools won’t be available until early 2008. As part of Visualforce, Salesforce.com is touting that they will have a built-in visual editor for their proprietary APEX language. We think this is a negative, not a positive thing. We believe our approach of allowing developers to use JavaScript is actually better because developers can use the standards-based editor tools they are already familiar with.
Our View
Visualforce is an important step for Salesforce.com. Not only does it complete the platform and in doing so offer every aspect of application design, creation, and deployment as a service, but also it opens up new application opportunities in everything from vertical industries to specific devices not just for customers but for the all-important partner community. The multi-device aspect coupled with the SaaS (or UIaaS) model is particularly important because it provides access to everything from mobile devices to specialist hardware without the hassle of selecting and maintaining a mobile platform.
