Apex
Apex is a programming language used in Salesforce to develop custom functionalities and automate business processes within the Salesforce platform. It is an object-oriented language that is similar to Java while being unique to the Salesforce ecosystem.
How Is Apex Used?
Server Side Logic
Apex runs on Salesforce’s servers and is used for server-side logic, which means it can perform operations and handle data in the background without user interaction. It can perform functions such as: Read, Create, Edit, Delete. It can run standalone or be called by automation such as Flows.
Governor Limits
Salesforce enforces governor limits on Apex code to ensure that no single piece of code monopolizes shared resources. These limits help maintain the performance and stability of the Salesforce instance.
Integrations
Apex can be used to integrate with external systems using web services, HTTP requests, and other APIs.
What is the Benefit?
Apex provides several significant benefits in Salesforce that extend the platform’s flexibility and power.
Custom business logic, complex process automation, sophisticated calculations, and implementation of custom rules that go beyond standard Salesforce capabilities are all on the table. Batch processing with the Batchable interface enables the processing of large volumes of records asynchronously.
This is useful for operations that need to handle significant amounts of data without impacting the user experience. Lastly, the built-in testing framework allows you to write and execute unit tests. This ensures that your code is thoroughly tested and reliable before deployment to production environments.
Who is Impacted?
Developers
Written by Developers and Admins alike in Salesforce. They are responsible for setting up the code, testing the code and deploying the code.
End Users
Once written it can perform complex logic, create/edit records and perform business functions to add efficiencies to the day-to-day operations of a business and it’s users.