Apex is an object oriented  programming language,  similar to Java and C#,  for building software as a service (SaaS) applications on top of Salesforce.com’s customer relationship management (CRM) functionality.  Apex gives developers access to Salesforce.com’s back-end database and metadata objects to create third-party SaaS applications. These 3rd party applications are offered for sale or free of charge in the Salesforce AppExchange marketplace, similar to the Apple and Android app stores.

Visualforce is a framework that includes a tag-based markup language,  similar to HTML or ASP.Net.

In the Visualforce markup language, each Visualforce tag corresponds to a user interface component, such as a section of a page or a field. The behavior of Visualforce components can be controlled by the same logic used in standard Salesforce pages, or developers can create  their own logic with controller classes written in Apex.

The Dev 501 class covers an amazing array of topics…just a few of which are APEX triggers, Force.com IDE Eclipse plugin, development sandboxes, SOQL queries, DML (data modeling language), deployment from sandbox to production organizations, consuming web services, and unit testing Apex classes.

Format of the class was lecture mixed with hands on exercises reinforced by formal questions answered out loud by attendees at the end of every lecture and exercise.  This was actually the most challenging formal training class I have attended since college…and also one of the best.

Two 0ther presentations at the meetup covered exception reporting by James Martucci an instructor at Salesforce, and the Salesforce partner portal  by Venkat Polisetti, Senior Applications Developer at Fiserv Bank Intelligence Solutions. Both presentations contained useful information that I should be able to apply at work over the next few weeks.

Props to Venkat Polisetti who runs these meetings and always does a great job lining up speakers, coordinating with event sponsors,  and communicating the specifics out to group members.

For learning to develop custom controllers using APEX Salesforce offers another 5 day class,  Dev-501 – Apex and Visualforce Controllers…which hopefully I’ll get to experience sooner rather than later.

So now I’ve got a week of in depth training…a Salesforce account with 10 seats…a couple of big projects on the horizon at work where I can apply my newly learned Force.com skills…which makes me all set for an interesting Fall I think.

I stayed at the Hampton Magestic 22 West Monroe…a short walk from where my class was held at Microtek. (see photos below).  This was an outstanding place to stay…conveniently located in the middle of the Theater and Financial districts and only a couple of blocks away from Grant Park and the lake. Clean, reasonably priced…great breakfasts every morning too! I’m staying here every time I’m in Chicago from now on!

Every day after class I went for a run along the shore of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River (see pics below). Even though it’s August the temp each day was pleasant with a cool breeze blowing in from the lake…pure heaven coming from Hotlanta…especially this Summer one of the hottest on record.  And I wasn’t alone there were hundreds of other runners, walkers, and bikers on the same paths with me…very cool!

I tried to sample some traditional Chicago food…a slice of pizza and a hot dog…other than these two “samples” I went with fish and chips every evening. It wasn’t the healthiest week of my diet this year that’s for sure but I survived!

One observation about Chicago I have to mention…NO SMOKING inside any building…not a bar or pub or anywhere! And no smoking within 15 feet of any entrance either so you weren’t forced to hold your breath as you entered buildings. What a great idea! Who knows maybe Atlanta will get up to speed on eliminating this health risk one of these days too! But I doubt it.

Last but not least (well maybe so I gained two Foursquare mayor ships in Chicago…Microtek and a small French restaurant along the Chicago river running path. It was a good week!

The "Bean" in Millenium Park was very cool!

The CTA blue line took me from O'Hare almost to my hotel door for only $2.25!!!

Street scene from the Microtek building at 230 Monroe Street

Fish and chips from Millers pub was absolutely yummy

The water fountains at millenium park were something different for sure!

Running path along the Chicago River

Cyrano's on the river along the running trail...I became mayor of this place!

Scene along the Chicago river running trail

Running path along Lake Michigan...cool breeze even in August.

Another scene along the Chicago River running path

Fantastic hot dog (Chicago Red Hot) at Halsted Street Deli

The "Bean" at millenium park

Everyone takes their pic in front of the Bean!

The presentations were great…focusing mostly on sales automation, lead strategy, and tools/resources for force.com developers…I took lots of notes….signed up for a free sales automation account at LoopFuse…and came away with tons of links to development tools that I will need to research. Some of the more interesting tools mentioned were Jitterbit and Talend, both of which are free open source data and application integration platforms. Oh and I learned a new technical term, “dirt bound,” as in “dirt bound system” or “dirt bound database.” Dirt bound is opposite from  ”Cloud Based” of course

Props to the presenters, Roy Russo co-founder of LoopFuse; Ernie Megazzini, founder and CEO of Redxlerant; and Bill McGinnis of Astadia Inc.

The whole meetup experience was very good. I attend a lot of meetups around Atlanta and this is one of the best.

Finally I have to mention the refreshments were outstanding…an amazing array of bagels, pastries, fruit, coffee, juice, etc. I was a little overwhelmed by the variety and quantity actually…felt like being a kid in front of a huge candy counter

I think I will be attending many future Salesforce User Group meetups!

Thanks to Venkat Polisetti for organizing and running the group.

News flash! If you have a medical practice that qualifies for $44,000 in economic stimulus incentives for adopting an EHR as specified in the HITECH Act…and you adopt a “free” EHR package…then obviously you get to pocket the entire $44,000.

Practice Fusion runs on Salesforce.com‘s cloud development platform, Force.com, the Cadillac of cloud app development platforms. And recently Dell, Inc. announced a partnership to bundle hardware with Practice Fusion’s SaaS solution including zero interest financing (for 3 months) for medical practices.

Unlike on premise client/server solutions a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution runs completely in the cloud. So you don’t have the expense of servers and even more importantly the people resources that are necessary to support the servers. Your annual savings with a SaaS solution can easily be 10′s of thousands of dollars over what you would pay for a solution requiring on premise hardware maintenance and support.

I took advantage of Practice Fusion’s academic program to signup for an account and have been reviewing their extensive library of youtube training videos.   The availability of these videos make learning Practice Fusion’s features a snap.

So who’s using a SaaS EHR solution? On their website they claim that over 30,000 physicians and practice managers in 50 states currently use Practice Fusion’s Electronic Health Record which sounds pretty impressive to me.

So what’s the catch? How do these guys make money? Well Practice Fusion is an ad-supported product. On their website they say “medical advertising placements are non-intrusive, completely private and never pop-up.” And if you really can’t stand the ads then  you can switch to an ad-free version for a $100 a month per practitioner at any time.