7

What technology is behind Visual Workflows/ Process Builder?

See salesforce.com/video/303091, fwd to 38:28... per Josh Kaplan, none of the declarative tools compile into java bytecode instructions. They all have separate engines, non-Apex. Specifically Josh mentioned that 1) Flow, 2) "Process" (by which I assume he means Process Builder), and 3) rendering VisualForce for Lightning each have their own distinct engine.

So, what technologies are being used here?

|improve this question
  • Well I dont know exactly, but I believe it has to Apex in its unpolished form because it has to run on force.com platform. Also I have seen exceptions from process builder that throw ugly stack trace quoting native Apex namespaces. – Pranay Jaiswal Sep 13 '18 at 21:24
  • 1
    see salesforce.com/video/303091, fwd to 38:28... per Josh Kaplan, none of the declarative tools compile into java bytecode instructions. They all have separate engines, non-Apex. Specifically Josh mentioned that 1) Flow, 2) "Process" (by which I assume he means Process Builder), and 3) rendering VisualForce for Lightning each have their own distinct engine. So, what technologies are these based on? Lua? – krigi Sep 13 '18 at 22:46
  • It's kind of ambiguous in that he says "for Process and for Flow". We know from metadata that every Process has an underlying Flow representation so it seems reasonable to assume they are one engine. It's unclear whether he's saying Process/Flow doesn't compile to Java bytecode, or whether he's just saying it doesn't boil down to an Apex representation. But based on how Flow errors look I think it's more likely that an engine processes the Flow metadata at save time and each time it runs. – Charles T Sep 13 '18 at 23:09
  • At 38:26, the question posed to Josh is "do the declarative tools... do those compile to bytecode as well, behind the scenes, or are those totally a different animal" to which Josh replies "unfortunately not, ... ". Remember that in the context of this video about the new Apex Compiler, "bytecode" is "java bytecode". So, if the declarative engines do not compile into java bytecode (thus they are not and cannot be Apex), what technology is behind these engines? – krigi Sep 13 '18 at 23:22

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.