The powerful Force.com development platform has two unique technologies making a big impact on the functionality of the platform. Multi-tenant Architecture and Metadata-driven development model. Before going further, it is important to learn and understand these two technologies.
Multi-tenancy is an architecture in which a single instance of an application sharing common infrastructure and code base serves multiple users (tenants). Force.com platform allows developing multi-tenant applications. Users share the same instance and version of the application and all other resources. All users are running on the same code, same database schema, same hardware and operating system. Force.com platform users are given the ability to customize the application and data model. Each user's customization on top of the core application stays as a separate abstract and invisible to other users. Similarly, though the database is shared among users, their data is not seen by each other.
The Force.com platform uses a metadata-driven development model. In this model of development, the functionality of the application, how it looks and functions, is defined as metadata and stored in a database. That is, the application you build in the Force.com platform is not using any programming language. Instead, the "source code" for the application is considered as data and stored in the database. This includes everything - user interface, business logic, process automation rules, any custom code, data model configuration and anything and everything related to your application. When the application is accessed by the end user, the application is rendered simply by reading the metadata.
The application development using the platform's point and click method of development results into metadata. The platform also exposes metadata API to allow for programmatically managing the application. The API allows you to create and modify metadata components.
More exploring in future articles.
Happy cloud computing using Salesforce!
Multi-tenant Architecture
Multi-tenancy is an architecture in which a single instance of an application sharing common infrastructure and code base serves multiple users (tenants). Force.com platform allows developing multi-tenant applications. Users share the same instance and version of the application and all other resources. All users are running on the same code, same database schema, same hardware and operating system. Force.com platform users are given the ability to customize the application and data model. Each user's customization on top of the core application stays as a separate abstract and invisible to other users. Similarly, though the database is shared among users, their data is not seen by each other.
Metadata-driven Development Model
The Force.com platform uses a metadata-driven development model. In this model of development, the functionality of the application, how it looks and functions, is defined as metadata and stored in a database. That is, the application you build in the Force.com platform is not using any programming language. Instead, the "source code" for the application is considered as data and stored in the database. This includes everything - user interface, business logic, process automation rules, any custom code, data model configuration and anything and everything related to your application. When the application is accessed by the end user, the application is rendered simply by reading the metadata.
The application development using the platform's point and click method of development results into metadata. The platform also exposes metadata API to allow for programmatically managing the application. The API allows you to create and modify metadata components.
More exploring in future articles.
Happy cloud computing using Salesforce!
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