In Rememberance Through APEX #JoelKallmanDay

It was a sad day when I had heard Joel had passed.  I was gearing up for another day of working diligently on an APEX app for one of my customers when I saw the news.  I knew I had to do something by which to remember him.  I'm not the cleverest of APEX developers, but I do like to have fun and create a lot of our internal applications.  And if someone tells me they don't think APEX can accomplish a certain task, I have, for the most part, disproved that claim.

I ended up creating my own challenge at one point.  One of our internal applications required some creative thinking on our part, but we were successful in finishing the application and designing it the way we wanted.  Several internal groups became interested in this application and wanted it for their own.  I wanted to make sure our team got credit through a hidden Easter egg.  A little JavaScript, some SweetAlert2 magic, and an old gaming console cheat code got the job done.  It was the simplest of ideas but powerful for our team:

<script>

var code = [];

document.body.addEventListener('keydown', function(e) {

  code.push(e.keyCode);

  if (code.toString() === '38,38,40,40,37,39,37,39,66,65') {

    Swal({title:'Thank you',

          type: 'info',

          html:'MY THANK YOU NOTE HERE',

          width:600,

          heightAuto: false,

          showConfirmButton: false, 

          showCloseButton: true,

          onClose: () => {

            code = [];

          }});

  }

$(".swal2-popup").css('background-color', '#000');

$(".swal2-title").css('color', '#FFF');

});

</script>

And the success of that simple script sparked the idea to remember a great influence on the APEX community in the only way I knew how -- reuse my code and remember Joel in a small but powerful way.  Now, most of my applications today have this hidden tribute with a bit of a different message:

This is what I love about APEX.  The possibilities are endless.  I have been working with APEX for over 15 years and I know that I have only brushed the tip of the iceberg.  Joel was and is still a large part of this innovation.  And he really inspired me to become a better developer, think outside the proverbial box, and create endless possibilities.