Salesforce.com Readies User Interface Development Toolset
Visualforce will provide a way for Salesforce.com ISVs, partners and customers to build graphical user interfaces for applications they assemble for the vendor's Force.com platform. Visualforce can be used to build user interfaces for apps running on any number of systems, including Windows PCs, Macs and mobile devices.
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, speaking Tuesday in Boston during a multi-city road show touting Force.com, said Visualforce should be generally available within 90 days. While Salesforce.com developers at the presentation said the service could be available within 60 days, Benioff half-jokingly said 90 days to be safe.
Saleforce.com is primarily known for its software-as-a-service offerings, including CRM, sales, marketing, call center management, partner management and content management applications. But for several years the company has sought to expand to become a supplier of technology for building and running on-demand applications. That effort began with the AppExchange online marketplace for applications built by Salesforce.com's ISV partners, followed by the Apex programming language and the Force.com brand for its overall platform efforts.
Salesforce.com demonstrated an early version of Visualforce at its Dreamforce conference last September, but provided no timeline for its availability.
Benioff said some 60,000 custom applications have been built on the Force.com platform. "You're going to see a wave of platform-as-a-service computing over the next decade the way you've [already] seen a wave of software-as-a-service applications," Benioff predicted. "We see this as the strategic direction of our company."