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Salesforce

Bring accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities and other Salesforce objects, custom ones included, into your warehouse.

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Before you start

Salesforce signs sanda in through OAuth. That means an app registered in Salesforce, and a refresh token that lets sanda keep signing in without you. The form asks for the app's client ID and secret, and the refresh token.

  • A Salesforce edition with API access. Some editions include it only as an add-on, so ask your Salesforce admin if you are unsure.
  • A user for sanda. Use a dedicated integration user rather than a person's login, with the API Enabled permission and read access to the objects you want in sanda. sanda only ever reads. Whatever this user cannot see, sanda cannot sync.
  • An app that allows OAuth. In Salesforce Setup, create the app that sanda will sign in as. Salesforce calls it a connected app, or an external client app in newer orgs. Turn on OAuth for it, with a callback URL you control and the scopes Manage user data via APIs (api) and Perform requests at any time (refresh_token, offline_access).
  • The client ID and secret. Salesforce calls them the consumer key and the consumer secret. You find both in the app's details in Setup.
  • A refresh token. Authorise the app once as the integration user, using Salesforce's OAuth authorisation code flow. Salesforce sends an authorisation code to your callback URL. Exchange that code for tokens, and keep the refresh_token from the reply. If the app requires PKCE, add a code challenge to the authorisation request and the matching code verifier to the token request.

If your Salesforce is a sandbox, do the authorisation against the sandbox login address, and turn on Sandbox in the form.

Connect Salesforce

  1. Choose Salesforce. Go to Data · Connections, press New connection and pick Salesforce.
  2. Enter the app's keys. Put the consumer key in Client ID and the consumer secret in Client Secret.
  3. Enter the refresh token. Paste it into Refresh Token.
  4. Say if it is a sandbox. Sandbox sits under Advanced settings and opens off. Turn it on for a sandbox org.
  5. Choose how far back to load. Start Date is under Advanced settings. Enter a date as YYYY-MM-DD, or a date and time as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ. When it is empty, sanda loads the last two years.
  6. Continue. Press Continue, name the connection, and press Read schema. sanda signs in and lists the objects the integration user can read. If it fails, the message says why. See Troubleshoot connections.

The rest of the flow, naming the connection, setting a frequency and choosing streams, is the same for every source. See Add a connection.

What syncs

Each Salesforce object becomes a stream, and lands in your warehouse as its own table. The usual starting points are Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Task and User. The list also holds the other objects the integration user can read, custom objects included.

An org with a very large number of objects makes a long list. Filter Salesforce Objects under Advanced settings narrows it by object name.

Tips

  • Choose a start date. Leaving Start Date empty loads the last two years, but a fixed date makes the first load predictable. End Date stops loading at a chosen point, and is rarely needed.
  • Read the large objects incrementally. The first run reads every object you choose in full. Switch big ones such as Opportunity and Task to an incremental mode afterwards. See sync modes.
  • Leave Force to use BULK API off. It is under Advanced settings. Turning it on can leave some fields empty on some streams.
  • Watch for NA turning into null. Strings such as NA, N/A, NULL, None and NaN returned by the Salesforce Bulk API are treated as missing and arrive as null. Turn on Preserve "NA" and similar string values if NA is real data, for example North America.
  • Mind your API allowance. Salesforce caps how many API requests an org can make in a day, and syncs use some of them. If your org is close to its limit, sync less often. See sync schedules.

Configuration fields

What the connection form asks for. Required fields are marked; the rest are optional.

Field Type Required Description
Sandbox boolean No Toggle if you're using a Salesforce Sandbox. Default false.
Client ID string Yes Enter your Salesforce developer application's Client ID.
Client Secret string, secret Yes Enter your Salesforce developer application's Client secret.
Refresh Token string, secret Yes Enter your application's Salesforce Refresh Token used for becca to access your Salesforce account.
Start Date string No Enter the date (or date-time) in the YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ format. becca will replicate the data updated on and after this date. If this field is blank, becca will replicate the data for last two years.
End Date string No Enter the date (or date-time) in the YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ format. For streams synced incrementally, becca will replicate data updated before this date; the bound is exclusive, so a date-only value means midnight UTC and the named day itself is not included. Streams synced in full refresh mode ignore this field and replicate all data. If this field is blank, becca will replicate data up to the current time.
Force to use BULK API boolean No Toggle to use Bulk API (this might cause empty fields for some streams). Default false.
Stream Slice Step for Incremental sync string No The size of the time window (ISO8601 duration) to slice requests. Default P30D.
Lookback Window for Incremental sync string No The duration (ISO8601 duration) to re-read data from the source when running incremental syncs. This compensates for records that may not be immediately available when querying the Salesforce API due to eventual consistency delays. The connector will re-query this amount of time before the last cursor position on each sync. Increase this value if you observe missing records in your destination. Default PT10M.
Filter Salesforce Objects array No Add filters to select only required stream based on SObject name. Use this field to filter which tables are displayed by this connector. This is useful if your Salesforce account has a large number of tables (>1000), in which case you may find it easier to choose tables and speed up the connector's performance if you restrict the tables displayed by this connector.
Preserve "NA" and similar string values boolean No By default, string values such as "NA", "N/A", "NULL", "None" and "NaN" returned by the Salesforce Bulk API are treated as missing and synced as null. Enable this option to keep these values as literal strings (for example, "NA" meaning "North America"). Empty fields are still synced as null. Leaving this disabled preserves the connector's historical behavior. Default false.

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