--- schema_version: "1" id: 438ed2021278d93798d571a64d0efe964cd8f0d0881445e91dc63ebc26f540a0 title: Work with Code collection: admin version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/platform/264-0-0/working_with_code.md canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.working_with_code.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 source_site: help.salesforce.com content_type: documentation content_hash: 38749024e3a29da30e3554c439658882703874d8d43c7cc91a706f55bb4f0caa description: This section contains information about the tools and techniques you can use when making changes to your organization by using code. products: - Salesforce Platform release: "264" --- # Work with Code This section contains information about the tools and techniques you can use when making changes to your organization by using code. - **[The Editor for Visualforce or Apex](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.pages_using_the_editor.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** When editing Visualforce or Apex, either in the Visualforce development mode footer or from Setup, an editor is available. - **[Source Code Editor](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.code_dev_console_view_code_editor.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** The Developer Console includes a Source Code Editor with a collection of features for editing Apex and Visualforce code. - **[Object Inspector](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.code_dev_console_view_quick_schema.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** The Object Inspector provides a read-only reference for the fields of a standard or custom object, and their data types. To open the Object Inspector, click **File** | **Open** and select the object you want to view. - **[Global Variables](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dev_understanding_global_variables.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** When you work with components such as custom buttons and links, formulas in custom fields, validation rules, flows, processes, and Visualforce pages, you can use special merge fields to reference data in Salesforce. - **[Valid Values for the $Action Global Variable](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dev_action_values.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** All objects support basic actions, such as new, clone, view, edit, list, and delete. The $Action global also references actions available on many standard objects. The values available in your organization may differ depending on the features you enable. - **[Apex Code Overview](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.code_about.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Apex is a strongly typed, object-oriented programming language that allows developers to execute flow and transaction control statements on the Salesforce Platform. Apex enables developers to add business logic to most system events, including button clicks, related record updates, and Visualforce pages. Apex code can be initiated by web service requests and from triggers on objects. - **[Visualforce](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.pages_about.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Visualforce is a framework that allows developers to build sophisticated, custom user interfaces that can be hosted natively on the Lightning Platform. The Visualforce framework includes a tag-based markup language, similar to HTML, and a set of server-side “standard controllers” that make basic database operations, such as queries and saves, simple to perform. - **[Lightning Component Framework](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.aura_overview.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** The Lightning Component framework is a UI framework for developing single-page web apps for mobile and desktop devices. - **[Lightning Types](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.lt_intro.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Lightning types are JSON-based data types used to structure, validate, and display data. While Salesforce provides a set of standard Lightning types, you can create custom Lightning types to customize the UI experience based on your business requirements. - **[Secure Your Code](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.securing_your_code.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** This section contains information about implementing security in your code. - **[Email Services](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.code_email_services.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** You can use email services to process the contents, headers, and attachments of inbound email. For example, you can create an email service that automatically creates contact records based on contact information in messages. - **[Custom Labels](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.cl_about.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Custom labels enable developers to create multilingual applications by automatically presenting information (for example, help text or error messages) in a user’s native language. Custom labels are custom text values that can be accessed from Apex classes, Visualforce pages, Lightning pages, or Lightning components. The values can be translated into any language Salesforce supports. - **[Defining Custom S-Controls](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dev_scontrol.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** S-controls provide a flexible, open means of extending the Salesforce user interface, including the ability to create and display your own custom data forms. #### See Also - [Custom Labels](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.cl_about.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Custom labels enable developers to create multilingual applications by automatically presenting information (for example, help text or error messages) in a user’s native language. Custom labels are custom text values that can be accessed from Apex classes, Visualforce pages, Lightning pages, or Lightning components. The values can be translated into any language Salesforce supports.") - [About S-Controls](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dev_about_scontrols.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Use s-controls to add your own functionality to your Salesforce organization. Whether you are integrating a hosted application of your own or are extending your current Salesforce user interface, use s-controls to store your code or refer to code elsewhere. Custom s-controls can contain any type of content that you can display in a browser, for example a Java applet, an Active-X control, an Excel file, or a custom HTML Web form.") - [Custom Metadata Types](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.custommetadatatypes_overview.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "You can create your own declarative developer frameworks for internal teams, partners, and customers. Rather than building apps from data, you can build apps that are defined and driven by their own types of metadata. Metadata is the information that describes the configuration of each customer’s organization.") - [Deploy Your Changes](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.deploy_overview.htm&type=5&language=en_US) - [Deploy Using the Ant Migration Tool](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.daas.meta/daas/forcemigrationtool_deploy.htm)