External Data Integration: Easy & Efficient with Upsert and External IDs

Salesforce Data Integration Techniques

@DouglasCAyersdouglascayers.com

Doug Ayers Salesforce MVP

Senior Developer, GearsCRM

The Power ofUpsert & External IDs

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-oxrNbxQl3_u90rcINlDZAfUo4f8-bUP

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Doug Ayers Salesforce MVP

Senior Developer, GearsCRM Nashville Developer Group Leader

douglascayers.com @DouglasCAyers

Gold Salesforce Partner SI & ISVOver 60 Salesforce professionals100% Work RemotelyCommunities, Service Cloud, Integrations

Agenda

What is External Data Integration? Traditional Approach Introduce Upsert and External IDs Demo Concept by Populating Sandbox Best Practices How this fits with Master Data Management Questions

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Not System of Record How to Prevent Duplicates? How to Link Records?

External Data Integration

ERP OMSEMR

ExportRecords

VLOOKUP to Match

Insert Non-MatchesUpdate Matches

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Traditional Approach

ExportParentRecords

VLOOKUP to Match

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ExportExistingRecords

VLOOKUP to Match

Insert orUpdate

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Traditional Approach

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Traditional Approach

How you feel juggling all the files…

How you feelwhen it goes wrong…

TediousError Prone

Doesn’t Scale

Traditional Approach

Did he say “upsert”?? InsertAlways creates new records

UpdateMakes changes to records whose Salesforce ID you know

UpsertInserts or Updates based on existence of the recordMatches on External ID field to determine existence

First, you need External IDs

Supported Data Types Choose Record Identifiers New Super Powers

Customer Numbers Order Numbers

Searchable Indexed Improved Filter

Performance

Auto NumberNumberTextEmail

Setting Up External Ids

# @

Use Case: Populating Sandboxes

Create Salesforce Migration ID field in sandbox Unique, Case-Sensitive, External ID Export Data from Production Import Data to Sandbox Upsert matching on Salesforce Migration ID Map exported ID field to Salesforce Migration ID

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Demo!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1rkHv75YN8&index=2&list=PL-oxrNbxQl3_u90rcINlDZAfUo4f8-bUP

Upsert Benefits

Simplifies insert/update operations! Do not have to know Salesforce IDs! Do not have to export and match on

existing records! Helps prevent duplicates! Fewer API calls needed!

Can set lookup fields too!

Best Practices Mark External IDs as Unique

Use Compound Values for Uniqueness“Hospital-100Patient-123” “Hospital-200Patient-123”

Use Case: Multiple Source Systems

SystemA

SystemB

SystemC

Upsert asExternal ID

Master Record ID System A ID System B ID System C ID1001 A1 B10 C1111002 A2 B20 C222

Use Case: Multiple Source Systems

Benefits Mashups with Canvas apps Deep linking to related systems More context on layouts & reports

Map Other System IDs to Salesforce Too!

ResourcesTwitter: @douglascayers Blog: douglascayers.com Code: github.com/douglascayers Video: youtube.com/c/douglascayers

Further Reading My Blog Posts: Part 1 and Part 2 Blog posts by Jeff Douglas and Jitendra Zaa Data Import: Cleaning Up Your Import File Red Argyle: VLOOKUP Explained Salesforce University: Integrating with SOAP API Apex Developer Guide: Upserting Records Apex Developer Guide: Working with Large Data Volumes How do I use an External ID to import related records? Master Data Management Strategy for the Enterprise

Questions?

Thank Y u