Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide

Clouds with binary code floating aboveCloud with binary code floating above

No Results

Search Tips:

  • Please consider misspellings
  • Try different search keywords
PDF

Newer Version Available

This content describes an older version of this product. View Latest

Using a Developer or Sandbox Organization

You can run Apex in:
  • a developer organization: an organization created with a Developer Edition account.
  • a production organization: an organization that has live users accessing your data.
  • a sandbox organization: an organization created on your production organization that is a copy of your production organization.

Apex triggers are available in the Trial Edition of Salesforce; however, they are disabled when you convert to any other edition. If your newly-signed-up organization includes Apex, you must deploy your code to your organization using one of the deployment methods.

Note

You can't develop Apex in your Salesforce production organization. Live users accessing the system while you're developing can destabilize your data or corrupt your application. Instead, you must do all your development work in either a sandbox or a Developer Edition organization.

If you aren't already a member of the developer community, go to http://developer.salesforce.com/signup and follow the instructions to sign up for a Developer Edition account. A Developer Edition account gives you access to a free Developer Edition organization. Even if you already have an Enterprise, Unlimited, or Performance Edition organization and a sandbox for creating Apex, we strongly recommend that you take advantage of the resources available in the developer community.

You cannot make changes to Apex using the Salesforce user interface in a Salesforce production organization.

Note

Creating a Sandbox Organization

To create or refresh a sandbox organization:
  1. From Setup, click Sandboxes or Data Management | Sandboxes.
  2. Click New Sandbox.
  3. Enter a name and description for the sandbox. You can only change the name when you create or refresh a sandbox.

    We recommend that you choose a name that:

    • Reflects the purpose of this sandbox, such as “QA.”
    • Has few characters because Salesforce automatically appends the sandbox name to usernames on user records in the sandbox environment. Names with fewer characters make sandbox logins easier to type.

    Tip

  4. Select the type of sandbox environment you want.

    If you don’t see a sandbox option or need licenses for more sandboxes, contact Salesforce to order sandboxes for your organization.

    If you have reduced the number of sandboxes you purchased, but you still have more sandboxes of a specific type than allowed, you will be required to match your sandboxes to the number of sandboxes that you purchased. For example, if you have two Full sandboxes but purchased only one, you can’t refresh your Full sandbox as a Full sandbox. Instead, you must choose a Full sandbox to convert to a smaller sandbox, such as a Developer Pro or a Developer sandbox, depending on which types you have available.

    Note

  5. Select the data you want to include in your sandbox (you have this option for a Partial Copy or Full sandbox).

    For a Partial Copy sandbox, select the template you created to specify the data for your sandbox. If you have not created a template for this Partial Copy sandbox, see Creating or Editing Sandbox Templates.

    For a Full sandbox, you can choose to include Template-based data for a Full sandbox. For this option, you need to have already created a sandbox template. Then you can pick the template from a list of templates you’ve created. For more information, see Creating or Editing Sandbox Templates.

    For a Full sandbox, choose how much object history, case history, and opportunity history to copy, and whether or not to copy Chatter data. Object history is the field history tracking of custom and most standard objects; case history and opportunity history serve the same purpose for cases and opportunities. You can copy from 0 to 180 days of history, in 30-day increments. The default value is 0 days. Chatter data includes feeds, messages, and discovery topics. Decreasing the amount of data you copy can significantly speed up sandbox copy time.

  6. Click Create.

    The process may take several minutes, hours, or even days, depending on the size and type of your organization.

    Try to limit changes in your production organization while the sandbox copy proceeds.

    Tip