ForceNG

AngularJS Service for using the Salesforce REST APIs

ForceNG is a micro-library that makes it easy to use the Salesforce REST APIs in AngularJS applications. ForceNG allows you to easily login into Salesforce using OAuth, and to manipulate your Salesforce data using a simple API.

ForceNG is similar to ForceTK, but has no jQuery dependency, is implemented as an AngularJS service, and is using promises instead of callback functions.

The main target for ForceNG are applications running on your own server (Heroku or elsewhere) and Cordova/Mobile SDK apps.

Browser and Cordova without Code Changes

If you develop a hybrid application using the Mobile SDK, you often switch back and forth between running the app in the browser and on device: Developing in the browser is generally faster and easier to debug, but you still need to test device-specific features and check that everything runs as expected on the target platforms. The problem is that the configuration of OAuth and REST is different when running in the browser and on device. Here is a summary of the key differences:

	Browser	Mobile SDK
Requires Proxy	Yes	No
OAuth	Window Popup	OAuth Plugin

ForceNG abstracts these differences and allows you to run your app in the browser and on device without code or configuration changes.

Key Characteristics

No jQuery (or any other) dependency
Implemented as an AngularJS services and using promises
Plain JavaScript (ForceJS) and Angular Service versions
Complete OAuth login workflow
Works transparently in the browser and in Cordova using the Salesforce Mobile SDK OAuth plugin
Automatically refreshes OAuth access_token on expiration
Tightly integrated with ForceServer, a local development server that works as a proxy and a local web server to provide a streamlined developer experience
Simple API to manipulate data (create, update, delete, upsert)

Quick Start

To create and run a minimalistic sample app using ForceNG:

Create a directory anywhere on your file system, copy forceng.js in that directory, and create a file named index.html implemented as follows:

<html>
<body ng-app="miniApp">

<ul ng-controller="ContactListCtrl">
    <li ng-repeat="contact in contacts" href="#">{{contact.Name}}</li>
</ul>

<script src="cordova.js"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.3.14/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="forceng.js"></script>

<script>
    angular.module('miniApp', ["forceng"])

        .controller('ContactListCtrl', function ($scope, force) {
            force.login().then(function () {
                force.query('select id, name from contact limit 50').then(
                    function (contacts) {
                        $scope.contacts = contacts.records;
                        console.log($scope.contacts);
                    });
            });
        });

</script>
</body>
</html>

That's it! This is all you need to authenticate with OAuth, retrieve a list of contacts from Salesforce, and display that list in HTML.

The <script src="cordova.js"></script> line is there to support running the app in Cordova. Note that the cordova.js file does not have to be present in your directory: it is automatically injected by the Cordova build process. If you know you will never run your app in Cordova, feel free to remove that line.

Install force-server

Because of the browser's cross-origin restrictions, your JavaScript application hosted on your own server (or localhost) will not be able to make API calls directly to the *.salesforce.com domain. The solution is to proxy your API calls through your own server. You can use your own proxy server, but ForceNG is tightly integrated with ForceServer, a simple development server for Force.com. To install ForceServer, make sure Node.js is installed on your system, open a command prompt and execute the following command:
```
npm install -g force-server
```
or (Unix-based systems)
```
sudo npm install -g force-server
```
Run the application.

Open a command prompt, navigate to your sample app directory and type the following command:
```
force-server
```
This starts the ForceServer server on port 8200 and loads your sample app in your default browser. After authenticating against your developer org, you should see a list of contacts.

Starting in the Spring 15 release, some Salesforce REST APIs (like Chatter and sobjects) support CORS. To allow an app to make direct REST calls against your org, register the app domain in Setup: Administer > Security Controls > CORS.

Running in Cordova with the Mobile SDK

To run the same application in Cordova:

Install Cordova:

npm install -g cordova

On a Mac, you may have to use sudo:

sudo npm install -g cordova

Create a new application:

cordova create contactforce com.samples.contactforce contactforce

Navigate (cd) to the project directory
```
cd contactforce
```

Add the Salesforce Mobile SDK plugin:

cordova plugin add https://github.com/forcedotcom/SalesforceMobileSDK-CordovaPlugin

Delete the contents of the contactforce/www directory
Copy forceng.js and the index.html file created above in the contactforce/www directory

Create a file named bootconfig.json (the Salesforce Mobile SDK config file) in the contactforce/www directory and implement it as follows:

{
  "remoteAccessConsumerKey": "3MVG9Iu66FKeHhINkB1l7xt7kR8czFcCTUhgoA8Ol2Ltf1eYHOU4SqQRSEitYFDUpqRWcoQ2.dBv_a1Dyu5xa",
  "oauthRedirectURI": "testsfdc:///mobilesdk/detect/oauth/done",
  "oauthScopes": [
    "web",
    "api"
  ],
  "isLocal": true,
  "startPage": "index.html",
  "errorPage": "error.html",
  "shouldAuthenticate": true,
  "attemptOfflineLoad": false
}

For a production application, you should create a Connected App in Salesforce and provide your own Connected App ID and Callback URI.

Add a platform. For example, to add iOS:
```
cordova platform add ios
```
Build the project:
```
cordova build ios
```

Run the project. For example, for iOS, open the project (platforms/ios/contactforce.xcodeproj) in Xcode and run it in the emulator or on your iOS device. After authenticating against your developer org, you should see a list of contacts.

Note that you didn't change any code to run the app in Cordova. When running in Cordova, ForceNG automatically uses the Salesforce Mobile SDK OAuth plugin, and invokes REST services without using a proxy because the webview used in Cordova is not subject to the same cross domain policy restrictions.

Ionic Salesforce Template

Ionic is an open source SDK for developing hybrid mobile apps on top of AngularJS. The Ionic Salesforce Template is a starter application for building Ionic apps on top of the Salesforce platform. The template installs a starter application that uses ForceNG to authenticate and access the Salesforce REST APIs.

To create an application using the Ionic Salesforce Template:

Install Cordova and Ionic:

$ npm install -g ionic cordova

On a Mac, you may have to use sudo:

$ sudo npm install -g ionic cordova

Create the app:
```
$ ionic start myApp salesforce
```
To run the app in the browser:
```
cd myApp/www
force-server
```
To run the app on device, cd back to the project root directory and execute the following command:
```
ionic build ios    
```
Open the project (platforms/ios/myApp.xcodeproj) in Xcode and run it in the emulator or on your iOS device.

Other Sample

Contact Management with Bootstrap: A complete contact management sample (Retrieve, Create, Update, Delete) shipping with this repository

Using ForceNG in Visualforce Pages

Even though you should consider Visualforce Remoting or Remote Objects to avoid the governor limits related to the REST APIs, you can run ForceNG in Visualforce pages. To run a Visualforce page version of the sample above, upload forceng.js as a static resource and create a Visualforce page defined as follows:

<apex:page>
    
    <body ng-app="miniApp">
    
    <ul ng-controller="ContactListCtrl">
        <li ng-repeat="contact in contacts" href="#">{{contact.Name}}</li>
    </ul>
    
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.3.14/angular.min.js"></script>
    <script src="{!$Resource.forceng}"></script>
    
    <script>
        // Keep this in the VF page to capture the Session Id and store it in an Angular Constant
        angular.module('config', [])
        	.constant('SESSION_ID', '{!$Api.Session_ID}');
	</script>    
        
	<script>
        // This is typically in a separate file like app.js
        angular.module('miniApp', ['forceng', 'config'])

            .controller('ContactListCtrl', function ($scope, force, SESSION_ID) {
                force.init({accessToken: SESSION_ID});
                force.query('select id, name from contact limit 50').then(
                    function (contacts) {
                        $scope.contacts = contacts.records;
                        console.log($scope.contacts);
                    });
            });
    </script>

    </body>

</apex:page>

Notice that in this case, you don't have to login: you just initialize ForceNG with the existing session id.

API Reference

init()

Used to initialize ForceNG with non-default parameters. ForceNG is built to work out of the box with sensible defaults. You only need to invoke force.init() if you want to override these defaults:

Parameters:

appId

The Salesforce Connected App Id. For convenience, ForceNG uses a default connected app if the appId is not provided. The default connected app supports http://localhost:8200/oauthcallback.html as the OAuth callback URL to provide an out-of-the-box development experience using force-server. You need to create your own connected app with your own OAuth callback URL to run your application on a different server and port.

Default: 3MVG9fMtCkV6eLheIEZplMqWfnGlf3Y.BcWdOf1qytXo9zxgbsrUbS.ExHTgUPJeb3jZeT8NYhc.hMyznKU92.
oauthCallbackURL

The URL Salesforce calls back with an authenticated access token (or an error) at the end of the OAuth authentication workflow.

Default: The base URL the application was loaded from. For example, if you load the app from http://localhost:8200, the default OAuth callback URL is http://localhost:8200/oauthcallback.html. If you load the app from https://myserver.com/myapp, the default OAuth callback URL is https://myserver.com/myapp/oauthcallback.html
proxyURL

The URL of the CORS proxy server. This parameter is ignored when the app is running in Cordova or inside a Visualforce page.

Default: The base URL the application was loaded from. For example, if you load the app from http://localhost:8200, the default proxyURL is http://localhost:8200. If you load the app from https://myserver.com/myapp, the default proxyURL is https://myserver.com/myapp
useProxy

Default: false if the app is running in Cordova or in a Visualforce page, true if it's not

By default, ForceNG will automatically determine if it needs to use a CORS proxy: It won't use a proxy if the app is running inside a Visualforce page or a Cordova app, and will use the proxy in any other case. You can force ForceNG to always use a proxy by setting this value to true.

Starting in the Spring 15 release, some Salesforce REST APIs (like Chatter and sobjects) support CORS. To allow an app to make direct REST calls against your org, register the app domain in Setup: Administer > Security Controls > CORS. If you whitelist your domain and use APIs that support CORS, you can set useProxy to false.
loginURL

The URL for the login window that should be used as part of the OAuth process.

Default: https://login.salesforce.com
apiVersion

The version of the Salesforce API.

Default: v33.0

Use the following init parameters, if you don't need to authenticate the user because you already have an authenticated token. For example, if you are running the app from a Visualforce page. accessToken is the only required parameter in that scenario.

accessToken

Default: n/a

The authenticated access token
instanceURL

Default: n/a

The Salesforce instance URL
refreshToken

Default: n/a

The refresh token

Example:

force.init({
    appId: '3MVG9fMtCkV6eLheIEZplMqWfnGlf3Y.BcWdOf1qytXo9zxgbsrUbS.ExHTgUPJeb3jZeT8NYhc.hMyznKU92',
    apiVersion: 'v33.0',
    loginURL: 'https://login.salesforce.com',
    oauthRedirectURL: 'http://localhost:8200/oauthcallback.html',
    proxyURL: 'http://localhost:8200'
});

query()

Used to execute a SOQL statement

Example:

force.query("SELECT id, name FROM contact").then(
    function(result) {
        console.log(result.records);
    ), function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

create()

Used to create a record for a Salesforce object

Example:

force.create('contact', {FirstName: "Lisa", LastName: "Jones"}).then(
    function(response) {
        console.log(response);
    },
    function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

update()

Used to update a record

Example:

force.update('contact', {Id: "0031a000001x7DOAAY", FirstName: "Emma", LastName: "Wong"}).then(
    function(response) {
        console.log(response);
    },
    function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

del()

Used to delete a record

Example:

force.del('contact', "0031a000001x7DOAAY").then(
    function(response) {
        console.log(response);
    },
    function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

upsert()

Used to upsert a record

Example:

force.query("SELECT id, name FROM contact").then(
    function(result) {
    ),
    function(error) {
    });

retrieve()

Used to retrieve a single record

Example:

force.retrieve('contact', id, null).then(
    function(contact) {
        console.log(contact);
    },
    function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

apexrest()

Used to invoke a custom REST service endpoint implemented by your own Apex class.

Example:

force.apexrest("contacts").then(
    function(result) {
        console.log(result)
    ),
    function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

request()

The core method to invoke a REST services. Other functions (query, create, update, del, upsert, apexrest) are just convenience functions invoking request() behind the scenes. You can use request() directly to invoke other REST services that are not directly exposed through a convenience function.

Example:

force.request({path: "/services/data"}).then(
    function(result) {
        console.log(result)
    ),
    function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

Parameters:

path

The path of the service to invoke
method

The HTTP method to execute: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH

Default: GET
contentType

The request content type.
params

An object that will be turned into a query string appended to the request URL
data

An object representing data to be sent as the body of the request.

isAuthenticated()

Used to figure out if the user is authenticated, in other words ForceNG has an authenticated access token.

Example:

alert(force.isLoggedIn());

getUserId()

Used to get the authenticated user's id

Example:

alert("The current user is: " + force.getUserId());

discardToken()

Used to discard the authentication token.

Example:

force.discardToken();

chatter()

A convenience function to use the Chatter API

Example:

force.chatter({path: "/users/me"}).then(
    function(result) {
        console.log(result)
    ),
    function(error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

Parameters:

path

The path of the Chatter API service to invoke
method

The HTTP method to execute: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH

Default: GET
contentType

The request content type.
params

An object that will be turned into a query string appended to the request URL
data

An object representing data to be sent as the body of the request.

JavaScript Version

A plain JavaScript version (ForceJS) is available here.

Other Libraries

ForceNG was built based on the following requirements:

Client-side REST library
Minimalistic with no dependency
Full OAuth workflow
Browser and Cordova-based execution without code or configuration changes
Built the Angular way: implemented as an Angular service and working with promises instead of callbacks

Depending on your own requirements, you should also consider the following libraries:

ForceTK: Proven toolkit for Salesforce REST APIs. Leverages jQuery.
NForce: node.js REST API wrapper for force.com, database.com, and salesforce.com.
ngForce: A set of Angular.js modules that facilitate quick and sustainable Angular.js application development on the Force.com Platform.
JSForce: Integrate your JavaScript application with Salesforce in different scenarios

ccoenraets/forceng

ForceNG

AngularJS Service for using the Salesforce REST APIs

Browser and Cordova without Code Changes

Key Characteristics

Quick Start

Running in Cordova with the Mobile SDK

Ionic Salesforce Template

Other Sample

Using ForceNG in Visualforce Pages

API Reference

init()

query()

create()

update()

del()

upsert()

retrieve()

apexrest()

request()

isAuthenticated()

getUserId()

discardToken()

chatter()

JavaScript Version

Other Libraries