Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide

Getting Started
Introducing Apex
Apex Development Process
What is the Apex Development Process?
Using a Developer or Sandbox Organization
Learning Apex
Writing Apex Using Development Environments
Writing Tests
Deploying Apex to a Sandbox Organization
Deploying Apex to a Salesforce Production Organization
Adding Apex Code to a Force.com AppExchange App
Apex Quick Start
Writing Apex
Ways to Invoke Apex
Finishing Touches
Reference
Appendices
Glossary
PDF

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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, enter Sandboxes in the Quick Find box, then select Sandboxes.
  2. Click New Sandbox.
  3. Enter a name (10 characters or fewer) and description for the sandbox.

    We recommend that you choose a name that:

    • Reflects the purpose of this sandbox, such as “QA.”
    • Has only a few characters, because Salesforce 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 you want.

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

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

    Note

  5. Select the data to include in your Partial Copy or Full sandbox.

    For a Partial Copy sandbox, click Next, and then 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, click Next, and then decide how much data to include.

    To include Template-based data for a Full sandbox, select an existing sandbox template. For more information, see Creating or Editing Sandbox Templates.

    To include All data in a Full sandbox, choose whether and how much field tracking history data to include, and whether to copy Chatter data. 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 sandbox copy time.

  6. Click Create.

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

    Tip