Apex Code Development You need to sign in to do that
Don't have an account?
Thomas23 Using excel connector for the first time
Hi
I am about to use the excel connector for the first time. I have installed the application and i think i am good to go. I have clicked on the sforce table query wizard to sign in. (is this how i sign in with the app?) Think i just need to reset my security token.
I am concerned before i use this that if anything goes wrong is it easy to resort back to a previous version of my SF data? How do i back up my SF data before i use the app to make mass change to my dataset?
Thanks
There may be a data backup feature I'm unaware of, but in my experience it's easy -- just manual -- to protect your data.
Basically, before doing any bulk update pull down all the records you'll be changing and save that sheet as your backup. Then if something goes wrong, you just update back to the original set, and it's all reset. If something does go wrong, you can also keep the sheet up that you were just working on (Possibly save it to its own file as well, because certain actions can wipe out the list and that would cause difficulties) and use it to directly undo what you just did.
Doing any update on a small set of records (1-5) and then verifying the update did exactly what you wanted in Salesforce can also help with peace of mind and for finding potential problems.
All Answers
There may be a data backup feature I'm unaware of, but in my experience it's easy -- just manual -- to protect your data.
Basically, before doing any bulk update pull down all the records you'll be changing and save that sheet as your backup. Then if something goes wrong, you just update back to the original set, and it's all reset. If something does go wrong, you can also keep the sheet up that you were just working on (Possibly save it to its own file as well, because certain actions can wipe out the list and that would cause difficulties) and use it to directly undo what you just did.
Doing any update on a small set of records (1-5) and then verifying the update did exactly what you wanted in Salesforce can also help with peace of mind and for finding potential problems.
I will be editting my contacts. But what about opportunity records, emails, tasks & meetings?? I don't want to be in danger of effecting any of this data also.
How do i know that the excel connector will be set up correctly to just change data in the contacts area for example?
Sorry for being a total newbie but I have only just started to work with Salesforce within the past few months and when i was asked to start editing 4000 contacts i thought there must of be a faster method than doing this manually!
I want to be sure that i won't damage any data as i have read this tool can be dangerous!
The tool only touches the specific type of record that you set it up for, there's no danger to anything else.
The part that's most dangerous is that it can do bulk updates and doesn't keep a history of its changes, so if you're not careful about the update you run you can accidentally wipe out huge amounts of your data for the records you're working with. But it's not at all easy (I'm not even sure it's possible) to accidentally take out data for other record types without first setting up a table for them, which is something you intentionally do.
I guess for your case, the biggest thing to not do (That could mess up all the other record types, since they can reference the existing contacts) would be to accidentally delete the contacts instead of updating. Just read the verifications it asks, the connector is careful to warn you about what you're about to do. If it doesn't look like exactly what you're expecting, hit cancel and look at it more closely.