New Rollbase REST API and updates to SOAP API

REST API

This weekend we released the initial version of the Rollbase REST API. Documentation is available here:
http://www.rollbase.com/rest/docs/REST_API.pdf

The Rollbase REST API is designed to enable integration between the Rollbase platform and
external systems via REST calls. In order to use this API the client must have a valid Rollbase
user account with login credentials: username and password. These credentials must be supplied
as parameters to the login method, the first REST call to Rollbase, which is required to establish
an API session. This call will return a session id, which must be used as the first parameter in all
subsequent API calls. To end an API session, the logout method should always be used.

The Rollbase REST API uses the same permissions mechanism as the standard Rollbase user
interface. API users must have permission to view, create, update, or delete records in order to
perform these actions via API calls. Permissions cannot bet set via the API. They can only be set
by an Administrator using the Rollbase user interface in the Setup area.

Each REST method can be accessed through URLs of the form:
https://www.rollbase.com/rest/api/{method_name}

Parameters to methods can be supplied as URL parameters for GET calls or in the HTTP request
for POST calls. The Rollbase REST API will respond with an XML document containing the result
of the call or an error message.

Example of a GET call:
https://www.rollbase.com/rest/api/login?loginName=JohnSmith&password=welcome

Response with success:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<resp status="ok">
<sessionId>rest-433533393144236162</sessionId>
</resp>

Response with error:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<resp status="fail">
<err>Login session is not found</err>
</resp>

REST API Methods:

login
Performs a user login and initiates an API session. This method must be called prior to any other
API call to retrieve a session id.

logout
Terminates the specified API session. This method should be called to explicitly end each API session.

getObjectDef
Retrieves the full description of a Rollbase Object Definition as an XML document (the XML Schema Definition for the object definition document format can be found here: http://www.rollbase.com/webapi/wsdl/objectDescription.xsd

search
Performs a full-text search in the Rollbase database. The search query has the same syntax as
that used in the standard Rollbase interface. (For more information on search syntax, see the
Rollbase User Guide or the online Help system.)

getUpdated
Retrieves an array of record ids of a specified object type, which were either created or updated
within the given date/time interval.

getDataObj
Retrieves all field data for a given record.

getDataField
Retrieves the value of a single field from a specific record.

getBinaryData
Retrieves the binary data (file attachment) associated with a particular file field from a specific
record.

getRelationships
Retrieves an array of related record ids for a given object and one of its relationships.

create
Creates a new record via a POST request containing an XML document with object name and fields for
the new record.

update
Updates an existing record via a POST request containing an XML document with valid record id and data fields to be updated. You only need to include the fields that should be changed, all fields not included will remain unchanged.

delete
Moves the specified record to the Recycle Bin.

SOAP API Updates

Several updates have been made to the SOAP API since its initial release in March including fixes for setBinaryData and working with createdBy and updatedBy fields

SOAP API documentation is available here:
http://www.rollbase.com/webapi/wsdl/WebServicesAPI.pdf

WSDL available here:
http://www.rollbase.com/webapi/wsdl/rollbase.wsdl

Stay tuned for live examples and tutorials using the REST and SOAP APIs with PHP, Java and Excel.

Google App Engine: All-in-One Cloud Compute Platform for Developers

Google has just formally entered the race to build an all-encompassing cloud compute platform for developers with last night’s coverage of the new Google App Engine. Directly competitive with Amazon’s triumvirate S3, EC2 and SimpleDB, Google App Engine essentially combines all three core services (storage, compute and database) into one package with added differentiators that (A) allow developers to write code in Python versus packaging up entire environments in AMIs (Amazon Machine Images) required for EC2, and (B) allow integration of Google accounts for identity/authentication purposes.

Letting developers write directly on such an infrastructure in their language of choice will be critical for furthering adoption and Python is at least a decent start. But Google appears to be serious about adding support for other languages: "…we are providing a Python language runtime, which is our first supported language for server-side code"

So what does this mean for a do-it-yourself applications platform like Rollbase? Google App Engine is for developers, not business users -- we're focused on different markets. However, what this does potentially mean for the future of Rollbase and any other SaaS application, is that someday perhaps not so far off we’ll be able to port our entire underlying infrastructure (the part business users don't ever see and shouldn't ever have to worry about) to an all-in-one service like Google App Engine to deliver more dynamic scalability while significantly reducing operating costs. Add to that the benefits of being able to tightly integrate with Google Accounts for SSO, integrated email, calendaring, etc, and this could look real good for both end-user productivity and our bottom line. Certainly not the first to think this way, Salesforce and Google appear to have been working together on a similar integration for some time, albeit outside the context of App Engine.

For more on these topics see Early Analysis of Other’s Reactions to App Engine and Hurry, The Cloud Computing Platform Opportunity is Perishable!

Beta Pricing & Creating a Subscription Billing System with Rollbase and PayPal

Beta pricing is now available through August 1^st, 2008. All contracts established prior to this date will be honored for the duration of the contract term which is one year for customers who sign up online. For details on beta pricing, see Rollbase Pricing.

Among the many different Rollbase-native applications we’ve built internally to manage our systems and processes as well as our business itself (the  topic of a future post), the latest addition to this is our subscription billing application.

As a SaaS vendor and long-time believers in the SaaS model, we’ve seen and experienced first-hand how difficult it can be to manage subscription billing, particularly so when there are a large number of variables in pricing, terms, billing frequency and payment options. This is precisely why we’re seeing serious new entrants in the SaaS billing space such as Zuora, offering a very flexible solution to the problem with an equally impressive user experience.

While Zuora is on our roadmap for in-depth evaluation as we scale operations, for now PayPal’s subscription billing service has proven to be particularly suitable for integration with Rollbase using standard Portal functionality without requiring custom server-side development.

After a few days of building a new Rollbase application and associated portal, we are happy announce that our initial billing solution went live over the weekend, providing the following core capabilities:

• Automated Subscription Signup: A new Portal allowing customers to choose and customize Rollbase subscription details, and then route them through a secure PayPal process to sign up via credit card.
• Quote Management: Ability to create Quotes based on a large number of subscription and services variables, and automatically generate an Excel document to be signed by the customer. This is used in cases where a customer or partner licenses a large number of users, procures professional services, or prefers to pay by check or money order.
• Manual Subscription Signup: Ability to email Quote information as HTML with integrated PayPal content using custom pricing information from the Quote, allowing customers to sign up online via credit card directly from their email. This is used in cases where a non-standard subscription is required.
• Invoice Management: Ability to create Invoices from existing Quotes or from scratch and generate Excel versions to send to the customer. This is used to invoice for non-recurring payments such as professional services, or for customers who prefer to pay by check or money order. This also includes the ability to email Invoice information as HTML with integrated PayPal content allowing customers to perform one-time payments via credit card.

The entire subscription billing application was built using Portals, Document Templates, Template and Formula fields, Workflow Actions, and a number of other standard Rollbase features combined with PayPal’s subscription billing service.  Interested in learning more about how we built this in Rollbase? Contact us today.

Below are a few screenshots of the automated subscription signup process: from free trial to paid subscription. If you happen to be a Rollbase Trial customer ready to sign up, follow these steps to activate your subscription:

Step1. Login to your Rollbase account and click “Subscribe Now” in the bottom of your sidebar

Step 2. Select a plan and any additional items such as more Users, Records, Storage, etc (here you are taken to a Rollbase Portal page for creating a new object record we've called "Transactions")

Step 3. Confirm subscription details and make changes if necessary (here we use Formulas and merge fields to inject the right values into PayPal’s payment button HTML code displayed here using a Template field)

Step 4. Click “Subscribe” and submit credit card information (here you are taken to PayPal's secure payment system to complete the transaction)

Step 5. Allow up to 24 hours for subscription to be processed once payment has been received (here you are taken back to a specific portal page upon successful completion of the PayPal transaction)

April 5th Updates: Integration Connectors, Default Field Values, Multiple Sort By's

In addition to beta pricing and the new Rollbase billing application (more info in an upcoming post), this Saturday's update also included a number of new features such as:

Rollbase Connectors: Integration On-Demand

As the Rollbase platform evolves integration begins to take a more prominent role and the past few weeks have involved the design of an initial Connectors framework for packaging out-of-the-box integration capabilities for a number of external systems (third party SaaS apps, local or hosted enterprise apps, database and file servers, etc)

Connectors are prepackaged configurable integration modules built on top of the Rollbase Web API to communicate with various external systems. All Connectors can be configured to run periodically every N Days, Weeks, or Months.

While the design of Connectors, and the details of working with them is a topic for a future post, as of this update the initial Rollbase Connector framework is live with the following available connectors:

• Rollbase Inbound: Synchronize all Object records with an Object from another Rollbase account by creating a mapping between fields from an Object in the source account to your Object’s fields.
• Taleo Business Edition (TBE) Inbound: Synchronize candidate data from a Taleo Business Edition account with an object representing Candidates or Employees in your Rollbase account. A Premium level Taleo Business Edition account is required for this connector because it relies on the TBE Web API.
• FTP Backup: Automatically creates a ZIP backup of all your Rollbase object data and file attachments, and sends it to a specified FTP server. Parameters include an FTP server URL, username, password, and optional CD command to execute upon login ensuring your backup is placed in the right location.

The screenshot below shows a portion of the Taleo Business Edition connector configuration:

In order to use any of these connectors you must be a paying subscriber. For more information or for a demonstration contact our sales team at sales@rollbase.com or call 650-265-4282.

Default Field Values

Most field types now have a new property called Default Value which populates instances of that field with a specific value when displayed in New pages.

Suppose you have a Quote object with fields representing prices for particular products and services. When creating a new Quote you may want to pre-populate some of these fields with specific price and rate information. Perhaps you’d also like to automatically populate an expiration date for the quote. This is now possible with the new Default Value field property.

Some fields provide specific default value formats. For example, Date and Date/Time fields allow you to use "current date plus N days as default value for newly created records". They also allow you to use "current date plus N days as default value for updates and status changes" for use in cases where the field is not already populated:

As noted in a previous post, Picklists, Multi-Select Picklists, Radio Buttons, and Group of Checkbox fields provide their own unique default value(s) syntax.

Some field types do not include a default value property where it is typically not applicable: for example, Template, Formula, Shared Image, Image Upload and File Upload fields do not have a default value property.

Multiple Sort By's in Views and Reports

Now Views and Reports allow you to sort by up to three columns hierarchically. For example, you can now sort a Contacts view by Country, then State, then City: