Ever since the introduction of Apex SOA / Callouts last spring, I’ve wanted to revisit the GData integration sample code that was originally built using JavaScript. Now with the upcoming Google I/O developer event in San Francisco on our speaking calendar, I am putting the finishing touches on a great Apex to Google demo. In my Google I/O presentation, I will explain and demonstrate how you can quickly achieve a custom integration between your force.com platform apps and Google GData interfaces. Yes, Apex speaks REST, and you can learn how. Salesforce.com is honored to be one of the companies that Google has invited to speak at its upcoming, first-of-its-kind, developer gathering. Bing Yang from our R&D team will be speaking there too in another GData session that will cover authentication mechanisms. 

With the introduction of Salesforce for Google Apps, several integrations are already available out-of-the-box. However for a Force.com developer, it’s just the start.  What if you want to integrate your platform app with Google Spreadsheets or Calendars?  Well, the good news is that there are plenty of features in both force.com and Google to build a robust and high performance GData integration that is custom to your force.com app.

This is what CODA has done in CODA2go, their new force.com financials app — they include a feature to export your invoices into Google spreadsheets where you can edit them in a normal sheet format. 

If you haven’t already registered for I/O, please check out the sessions and speakers and get ready for a deep dive into various Google developer technologies, with a bit of force.com platform thrown in. Stop by the demo area and say hello!