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jcherianjcherian 

Excel Integration

Hi There,

We just installed SalesForce.com at our Company and our Sales Force needs to be able to export data from our Opportunities page into an excel spreadsheet which has most of the data fields contained on the Opportunities page. Furthermore, our salesforce needs to be able to modify the data in our excel spreadsheet (based on some computations-embedded within the spreadsheet) and then when satisfied, move the new figures back to salesforce.com.

What approach do you suggest we follow.

We are all new to SalesForce and its API's. We are planning on using the latest, 3.0 API and have Excel 2000. Open to development languages, if needed, though prefer VB or C#.

Any security issues with using .NET over Java.

Thanks in Advance,

Johns

GlennWGlennW

John;

I've spent a lot of time working exchanging data between salesforce and excel.  I think that the first thing you need to decide is if your application will be:

  1. An Excel based application (VBA) that reads and writes to salesforce.com via the API
  2. An external application that reads and writes XLS files and exchanges data with salesforce

Option 2 is definately the most flexable but if your data is very tightly integrated with Excel (internal macros, filters, etc) you may have not choice but to use option 1

If you're using option 1 your development platform is dictated by microsoft.  If you're using option 2 you should keep your development in .NET as there is a great deal of resources available to read XLS files.

You are more then welcome to test out our MassEffect product for salesforce (It's free to use while it's in beta).  This allows you to dump your update opportunity records from XLS (just make sure you include the Id field when you export them or use the tool to dump your entire opportunity table)

Cheers;
GlennW
www.demandtools.com

 
adamgadamg
If you want to program in VBA / Excel directly, we'll have some new (and much improved) sample code avaiable very soon. You might want to take a look at the current Excel integration at sforce.sf.net to get some ideas of what is possible..
jcherianjcherian

Hi Adam,

I updated my old add-in with a newer version and the new one does not seem to come up in Excel.  I have excel 2000. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Johns
jcherianjcherian

Hi Adam,

Also, can we access the source code of this existing program. If so how.

Thanks,

Johns

 
adamgadamg
Hmm - the source is available as an excel macro, so you should see it in there. Check your add-ins configuration, and if its not install, use that dialog to install it manually.
jcherianjcherian

Thanks Adam. I had to manually run the macro after pulling up the source code.

How safe is our data if we establish a connection from our Excel Spreadsheet sitting on our end user's desktop to import and export our data?

Alternatively, is it possible to provide a "WIL" on the SF opportunities page and then launch the excel spreadsheet. If so what are the security concerns here? Will the Excel spreadsheet have to be deployed at SF site? Also, are implementing "WIL" documented in the API's?

Thanks,

Johns