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Whast is the best to load relational data into Salesforce?
I have a background in custom application development and data model design. I'm used to loading data with sql scripts or other programmatic means.
I'm not sure how best to load data into Salesforce. I have a brand new instance with data where we have a many-to-many relationship between a custom object and Accounts. I have to load in the Account data, and for each Account record, there are at least three entries in the custom object. From what I have seen, my only options are to load the Account records, and then get those Account IDs, and manually copy each record ID into a spreadsheet (at least 3 times) in order to relate those Account records to each of the custom objects. Then, load the entries for the custom objects, and get those IDs. Last, a very painful manual step of mapping the ID's of the appropriate custom objects to the IDs of the Account objects in the spreadsheet.
Example:
Account ID 123
Associated Custom Objects IDs 111, 222, 333
Account ID 456
Associated Custom Objects IDs 333,444,555,666
Account ID 789
Associated Custom Objects IDs 111,222,333,444,555,666,777,888,999
What is the best way to do this? Is there some 'database interface' that allows SQL-like script execution?
Links to tutorials, PDFs, etc appreciated!
I'm not sure how best to load data into Salesforce. I have a brand new instance with data where we have a many-to-many relationship between a custom object and Accounts. I have to load in the Account data, and for each Account record, there are at least three entries in the custom object. From what I have seen, my only options are to load the Account records, and then get those Account IDs, and manually copy each record ID into a spreadsheet (at least 3 times) in order to relate those Account records to each of the custom objects. Then, load the entries for the custom objects, and get those IDs. Last, a very painful manual step of mapping the ID's of the appropriate custom objects to the IDs of the Account objects in the spreadsheet.
Example:
Account ID 123
Associated Custom Objects IDs 111, 222, 333
Account ID 456
Associated Custom Objects IDs 333,444,555,666
Account ID 789
Associated Custom Objects IDs 111,222,333,444,555,666,777,888,999
What is the best way to do this? Is there some 'database interface' that allows SQL-like script execution?
Links to tutorials, PDFs, etc appreciated!
Some of them will allow you to relate your child object records to the parent object based on some criteria they have in common. Within salesforce you can also specify a custom field as an "External ID" which helps with loading in the child records.
So using your example:
Account ID 123
Associated Custom Objects IDs 111, 222, 333
As long as 111, 222, and 333 have a field that relates to Account_ID => 123, then you'll be able to accomplish this easily through the interfaces of the data loaders provided below.
Salesforce Data Loader
https://developer.salesforce.com/page/Data_Loader
Configero Data Loader (Native Salesforce Application)
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000009wRkqEAE
Informatica Data Loader (3rd party download, will let you connect directly to MySQL/SQL/Oracle DB)
http://www.informaticacloud.com/products/cloud-data-integration/data-loader-service.html
JitterBit Data Loader (3rd party download, will let you connect directly to MySQL/SQL/Oracle DB)
http://www.jitterbit.com/solutions/salesforce-integration/salesforce-data-loader/
All Answers
Some of them will allow you to relate your child object records to the parent object based on some criteria they have in common. Within salesforce you can also specify a custom field as an "External ID" which helps with loading in the child records.
So using your example:
Account ID 123
Associated Custom Objects IDs 111, 222, 333
As long as 111, 222, and 333 have a field that relates to Account_ID => 123, then you'll be able to accomplish this easily through the interfaces of the data loaders provided below.
Salesforce Data Loader
https://developer.salesforce.com/page/Data_Loader
Configero Data Loader (Native Salesforce Application)
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000009wRkqEAE
Informatica Data Loader (3rd party download, will let you connect directly to MySQL/SQL/Oracle DB)
http://www.informaticacloud.com/products/cloud-data-integration/data-loader-service.html
JitterBit Data Loader (3rd party download, will let you connect directly to MySQL/SQL/Oracle DB)
http://www.jitterbit.com/solutions/salesforce-integration/salesforce-data-loader/