So the other day I was writing some tests (TDD) and it felt like the most boring grind ever so I'll just stop writing tests first for a bit and see how that goes.

Gotta have fun, right?

Nchabazam: I don't know enough about Rails to say one way or the other, but what Shoe Lace wrote out is about how I think about it. At first, it sort of looked liked you passed a session map as function args.

With the way Shoe expressed the issue, I'm still not sure why changing your code around messed up the routes. I suspect you faced a poor design issue that I guess you'd implement differently now that you've seen it. It also appears that someone changed their mind about how the urls would look and how the pages would be pathed? If so, this is a bit different than deciding to change auth views.

I got a nice little project dumped on me today. Work currently uses Gmail as the company email program. It's not very bad, but they want to integrate with Sales Force. They figured I was the nerdiest person at the place, so I'd be the best person for the job.

I have no clue what to do or where to start. I feel like this whole thing is sort of wrong, but at the same time, I don't know any better solutions. It really is a complicated issue. The price of the software is sort of high, but it may well be reasonable especially considering the needs of the company. As far as I can tell, the needs are highly atypical.

What more do they want than to use gmail addresses for the user address in Sales Force?

Yeah, I should have put that in the OP... First off, there are multiple companies in the same house. Each company has portals for Amazon, eBay, Overstock, their own website, general business, etc etc etc. They also have (and this is allowed), multiple accounts on some of these portals.

They want to assign certain queues to each cs support person, which the documentation covers decently. Of course, there has to be auths and the ability to reassign messages across the team.

They also need analytics of totals and response times.

They also need "dumb" responses, and ways to push aside no-responses.

As far as I can tell, this software seems to hit most of these points.

I guess the best way to describe it is to think of it as creating a unified email client for 4 companies working together. * And these companies all sell very different products, so add that in, plus int'l......

Late to this party, but
tilts me hardcore.
is the one true way.

I take that back - the real best way are languages that let you
Someone posted www.notconstructive.com on hacker news a little while back - it was supposed to be an upcoming site for all of the questions not allowed on stackoverflow. Unfortunately, looks like it hasn't launched. Someone really should make a site like this.

u guise are all doin it rong

is obv the superiorest style.

Idk. I just do whatever my editor tells me to do.

The bar is set so low that even if it does nothing more than heat up the machine, I did a better job than anyone else could do.

You bring up an important point I only alluded to: Alternatives are not only welcomed, but fully embraced.

salesfolk and their friends seem to love salesforce, so i doubt you have many options. i just gather that it's a pain to work with as a developer.

No, they really aren't keen on using the thing. They just started with it, they aren't tech savvy, they aren't a salesperson company, and they are serious about pinching pennies.

They basically handed me full control. About the only option I won't consider is rolling my own.

hilarious idea, i love it.

every time (which is nearly every day) i come upon a SO post with a million upvotes which has been "closed as not constructive" i want to punch a mod.

it would even be ok if they just introduced a new close reason called, perhaps, "Discussion Complete" -- "This question has been thoroughly answered and we believe new responses won't add anything more to the discussion", or perhaps a new state "Non Active Discussion" where people could still respond but the thread wouldn't be bumped.

The "Not Constructive" thing is an obnoxious misnomer at best, and an anal-retentive power-tripping mod stick-in-the-eye at... well, that's probably what it actually is in most cases.

I'm reminded of how Tom Lord built a great source control system out of bash scripts alone.

that's how git started too

First off, it is Salesforce.com or Salesforce, not Sales Force.

Secondly, integrating Salesforce and gmail is trivial, that can't be what you are having an issue with, because even though I am essentially non-technical, I am 100% confident I would be successful at that in a not super efficient way.

There is a product that I am a huge fan of, and a user of that will sync gmail to salesforce, google calendar to salesforce, and also allow individuals to track the performance of emails, as well as share email templates with each other, and some other productivity enhancing tools for sales/support.

It is called Yesware, maybe check it out, because this is a copy paste of what it does: (disclosure I have friends working there)
Email Tracking
Custom Sales Templates
CRM Syncing
Tracking Reports
Activity Reporting
Sales Analytics
Share Templates
Custom Team Templates
Team Tracking Reports
Team Activity Reporting

haha i knew someone would call me out for that, but I gotta help our friend Dave out if he has become the go-to person before he says that to the wrong person

Do you also say "google.com" out loud when talking to people instead of "google"?

Can you give me some tips on how to pronounce "salesforce" and "sales force" differently out out loud?

I meant, and had originally put, "in writing" in my post. There is also a specific difference in why it is called "salesforce.com" and google is not called "google.com", but you obviously don't know what it is.

Don't let me stop you from using it as "sales force" tho shoe, its definitely a helpful way to quickly qualify someone's familiarity with the technology.

I had a talk about why sales-force and not some other software. They actually went through multitudes of CRMs, and it turned out that they all couldn't deliver.

Believe it or not, gmail integration is the first issue to solve. Some issue like that and no I wouldn't know since I've seen all of this like yeaterday. Give the spring chicken a little break.

Their logo says "salesforce" in different colors which leads me to believe their brand might just be salesforce but when I look up their stock it says salesforce.com however google is also called google inc but no one ever uses the inc in casual conversation.

I also read "before he says that to the wrong person" as actually saying it out loud, that's why I asked for you to clarify the difference in pronunciation because I didn't want to make a mistake when saying their company out loud.

Pretty sure you were trolling but neway, gmail salesforce integration should be super ez game, I'm very confused as to how they have failed so hard with so many CRMs before, but I have faith in you Dave

I would say I was at about 78% genuine and 22% troll.

What's so confusing about average computer illiterate not knowing how to read documentation and setting up salesforce?