Page Comparison

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• 2 you need to know about - REST and SOAP

• See Rest API Vs SOAP API in Salesforce - Salesforce Stack Exchange for some links to some in depth documentation.

  • REST
    • Uses JSON
    • Readable, Name Value Pairs
    • Good for querying one record at time or retrieving a small subset of records. 
      • Can't have a transaction.
    • Developers don't need to know the full specification of the API, they can query it as they go. 
      • Eg Accounts/Contacts/Fields to see what fields are accessible. 
    • Uses nouns to find things. 
    • Uses verbs such as GET (query), POST (create) to do stuff or PATCH (to update a record). 
    • Apex REST
      • Can do multiple things on the one POST - eg Update the Account and Contact.
      • Almost a transaction.
    • Be careful with the security, the salesforce developer will have to write the security explicitly.
    • Now getting used much more because of the rise in mobile apps for Salesforce. 
  • SOAP
    • Uses XML
    • Requires the WSDL file to be downloaded to find out what the methods are that can be called. 
    • Still widely used in the Salesforce world. 
    • Mainly used for enterprise level access. 
• Features
  • there are a few scenarios that are not supported OOTB in Force.com – complex data queries (i.e. joins) via the API, custom logic or rules, and anonymous access.
• Others

  • Metadata API

    • using tools like Mavens Mate (See Modifying Salesforce via Text files MavensMate and Git for Non Developers). 

  • Tooling API

  • Chatter API

    • A lightweight REST API to just use Chatter. 

  • Streaming API

    • Replaces batch jobs.

    • Data is pushed to the API whenever it changes. 

    • Like push notifications on your phone.

  • Javascript Remoting
  • New Javascript thingy???
• Developers will have a definite opinion on which ones they will use.
  • Know enough to question them

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