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Micky MMicky M 

Import Data from another system

Hi all,

 

Does anyone know how to or know where there's any documentation that will show me how to import data from another system to salesforce? I need to keep the links between tables as the data im importing is from a relational data base. I read something about external id but i dont want to reference another database i just want to get the data into salesforce and then use in there.

 

Thanks

   All

Navatar_DbSupNavatar_DbSup

Hi,

 

An external ID is a custom field that has the “External ID” attribute, meaning that it contains unique record identifiers from a system outside of Salesforce. When you select this option, the import wizard will detect existing records in Salesforce that have the same external ID. Note that this operation is not case-sensitive - for example, “ABC” will be matched with “abc”. However, there is an exception: if the custom field has the separate “Unique” attribute and the case-sensitive option for that attribute is selected, uppercase and lowercase letters will not be considered identical. For more information.

 

Did this answer your question? If not, let me know what didn't work, or if so, please mark it solved. 
Micky MMicky M

Hi,

 

I kind of knew that i think what im getting at is how do i actually use it, if i have a table that im going to import to an account object i mark my id as external and import my data. Then i have a table that im going to import to the opportunity object how do i link the opportunities to accounts? I tried creating another extenal id that matched the account external id but when i checked on salesforce they werent liked. so if i have something like:

 

Account

name   External ID

bob      UniqueID1

 

Opportunity

name   External ID

dave    UniqueID1

 

I thought they would match up ... am i just using this completely wrong?

 

Cheers
Micky MMicky M

Right all here's another bit of a clue as to what im doing wrong

 

I have an account and ive got an external id so

 

External_Id = bob

 

Then a number of opportunities

 

opp1, 2, 3 and 4 where their external id is set to bob. Now i thought the external id had to be the same as this is how it would match up. But now when i try and do an upsert and tell the data loader to match using my external id i get a duplicate id error. But if the external id's in the opportunity cant be the same then how do i link opps to accounts?

 

does that make sense?
markkofmanmarkkofman

Try using the tools provided by Salesforce or partners for that. Salesforce gives you 3 options:

 

1. Import Wizard

2. Apex Data Loader

3. API 

 

If you want more details, I have done a blog post on that 3 Tools to Import Data Into Salesforce

 

Hope it helps