Step-By-Step Guide to Get Started with Salesforce REST API using Java

http://www.asagarwal.com/2401/step-by-step-guide-to-get-started-with-salesforce-rest-api-using-java

How do you connect to Salesforce from an external application, say, for example Java? If you Google for the information, you will quickly learn that Salesforce provides different methods and different APIs. But what you will probably not find is a step-by-step
guide teaching you exactly how to do it. In this blog post, I have stitched together a complete step-by-step instructions with screenshots on how to download, install, configure and use Salesforce’s REST API to connect from a java program and execute some
basic transactions (query, insert, update, delete records). In less than 45 minutes, you will have a fully functional java program that will connect to Salesforce and execute transactions in Salesforce.

The guide includes downloading & installing necessary HttpClient and JSON frameworks that is required to work with Salesforce REST APIs. This is followed by referencing the JAR file in your java program, logging on to Salesforce from the java program, querying
and manipulating data. Here is an overview of steps that needs to be completed and is covered in the guide

Install Java
Install Eclipse
Install HttpClient
Install JSON Framework
Create Connected Apps in Salesforce
Setup REST Environment in Java
Create Java Program
Execute Transactions using REST API

(Once you are done with this, you may also want to explore my other blog post Step-By-Step
Guide to Get Started with Salesforce SOAP API using Java to learn how to get started with Salesforce SOAP API using Java )

Even if you are not a developer, you should be able to follow the guide and have working java program at the end of it. Sounds interesting? Download the following presentation and let’s get started…

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Java Code to Connect to Salesforce using REST API

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Java Code to Connect, Query, Insert, Update & Delete to Salesforce using REST API

Not only this, you can go a step further and use other RESTful APIs that Salesforce provides to extract and manipulate data and metadata. For a list of different APIs along with a brief explanation on which API should be used when, please navigate to URL https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=integrate_what_is_api.htm

Other References:

Salesforce REST API Developer Guide – https://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api_rest/
Setting Up Your Java Developer Environment –https://help.salesforce.com/help/pdfs/en/salesforce_developer_environment_tipsheet.pdf