The FinancialForce.com API

FinancialForce.com provides programmatic access to your organization's information using a simple and secure application programming interface, the API. To use this document, you should be familiar with software development, Web services, and the Salesforce/FinancialForce user interface.

The API works with current SOAP development environments, including Visual Studio .NET, and Apache Axis.

Refer to the Salesforce Apex Developer's Guide for information on data type mapping and system fields.

Creating an API Class View

Always use the latest version of the API for each Apex class.

It is useful to set up an API class view:

1. Click Setup | Develop | Apex Classes.
2. Click Create New View.
3. Enter a view name of "FinancialForce API Classes".
4. Specify the relevant filter criteria: e.g. for FinancialForce Accounting:
   • Name | starts with | CODAAPI
   • Name | does not contain | Test
5. Click Add Filter Logic to set filter logic, such as 1 AND 2.
6. Select relevant fields to display, or accept the default.
7. Restrict visibility to this view, as appropriate.
8. Click Save.

This view will be available to you on all subsequent visits.

Viewing a list of FinancialForce API Apex Classes

To view a list of all the relevant Apex classes:

1. If necessary, create a new Apex class view called the "FinancialForce API Classes" as described in the related topic below.
2. Click Setup | Develop | Apex Classes.
3. From the View field, select the "FinancialForce API Classes" option.
4. A list of all relevant Apex classes is displayed.
5. Click the Apex class name to view its detail.

Alternative views

If you are only interested in viewing services, you might want to add another filter condition: Name | does not contain | Types

Grant Access to the API

Assign the necessary permission set or profile.

Using the API within Apex

If you are developing Apex classes, triggers or Visualforce controllers, you may call the FinancialForce Apex classes directly to integrate with FinancialForce. You do not need to go via the Web Services interface.

There is a Force.com platform restriction that means you can only use API calls in Visualforce controller constructors for reading data.

See "Documentation Resources for Force.com Developers" in the Salesforce Help for more information.