Salesforce is a cloud computing Software as a Service (SaaS) company that allows you to use cloud technology to connect more effectively with customers, partners, and potential customers.
Hevo uses Salesforce’s Bulk API to replicate data from your Salesforce applications to the Destination database or data warehouse, switching to Salesforce REST API for unsupported objects. To enable this, you need to authorize Hevo to access data from the relevant Salesforce environment.
Salesforce Environments
Salesforce allows businesses to create accounts in multiple environments, such as:
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Production: This environment holds live customer data and is used to actively run your business. A production organization is identified by URLs starting with https://login.salesforce.com.
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Sandbox: This is a copy of your production organization. You can create multiple sandbox environments for different purposes, such as one for development and another for testing. Working in the sandbox eliminates risk of compromising your production data and applications. A sandbox is identified by URLs starting with https://test.salesforce.com.
Prerequisites
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An active Salesforce production or sandbox account from which data is to be ingested exists.
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History tracking is enabled to track history objects.
Configure Salesforce as a Source in your Pipeline
Perform the following steps to configure your Salesforce Source:
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Click PIPELINES in the Navigation Bar.
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Click + CREATE PIPELINE in the Pipelines List View.
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On the Select Source Type page, under All Sources, click Edge, and then select Salesforce.
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In the Salesforce screen, do the following:
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Source Name: Specify a unique name for your Source, not exceeding 255 characters. For example, Salesforce Source.
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Configure your Salesforce app: Select the environment from which Hevo must ingest the data. This can be Production or Sandbox.
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Click AUTHENTICATE YOUR SALESFORCE ACCOUNT and perform the following steps to set up an account now:
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Log in to your Salesforce account.
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Click Allow to authorize Hevo to access the account.
You are redirected to the Salesforce screen.
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Click TEST & CONTINUE to test the connection to your Salesforce Source. Once the test is successful, you can proceed to set up your Destination.
Data Replication
Hevo loads all the objects associated with your Salesforce account. By default, Hevo ingests all the columns available in an object. However, you can select the columns to load on the Object Configuration page.
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Historical Data: The first run of the Pipeline ingests all available historical data for the selected objects and loads it to the Destination. Hevo utilizes Salesforce’s Bulk API for data replication and falls back to the REST API when the Bulk API is unsupported for an object
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Incremental Data: Once the historical load is complete, data is ingested according to the specified sync frequency. Hevo fetches only the data that has been modified since the last sync by checking for updates in the timestamp fields, in the following order: SystemModstamp, LastModifiedDate, CreatedDate, and LoginTime. These fields allow Hevo to identify the records that have been modified or created since the last sync. If the selected object does not contain any of these timestamp fields, Hevo fetches all records from the object during each incremental run.
Naming Convention
Hevo uses a set of naming rules to ensure that schemas, tables, and columns are compatible and standardized in the Destination system. These rules are applied in the following order:
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All accent marks, such as acute or grave accents, are removed from characters.
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Any character that is not a letter (A-Z, a-z), a digit (0-9), or an underscore (_) is replaced with an underscore. Spaces are also replaced with underscores.
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Strings containing a mix of letters and numbers are split at the point where letters change case or at the transition between letters and digits. Multiple words are joined using underscores. Consecutive uppercase letters are treated as part of the same word.
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If there are multiple underscores in a row, they are reduced to a single underscore.
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All uppercase letters are converted to lowercase.
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If a name starts with a number, an underscore is prepended to avoid starting the name with a digit.
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For table names, any underscore at the beginning of the name is removed if it is immediately followed by a letter.
Note: Schemas, tables, and columns are named according to these defined rules and then converted as needed based on the Destination’s specific naming conventions. For example, in Snowflake, a table name converted to lowercase will be changed to uppercase due to Snowflake’s default behavior.
The following table lists a few examples of how Hevo applies naming rules to your schema, table, and column names:
| Original Name | Converted Name | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Montréal report | montreal_report | Accent marks are removed. |
| first name | first_name | Space is converted to underscore. |
| total$amount | total_amount | Special character $ is replaced with an underscore. |
| data@location | data_location | Special character @ is replaced with an underscore. |
| userName | user_name | Mixed-case letters are split with an underscore at the transition from lowercase to uppercase. |
| user123 | user_123 | Alphanumeric string is split with an underscore at the transition from letters to numbers. |
| user__data | user_data | Multiple underscores are reduced to a single underscore. |
| PRODUCT | product | Uppercase letters are converted to lowercase. |
| 123id | _123id | Name starting with a number is prepended with an underscore. |
| _productTable | productTable | The leading underscore in table names is removed. |
Schema and Primary Keys
Hevo uses the following schema to upload the records in the Destination:
Data Model
Hevo supports ingesting data from more than 100 standard Salesforce objects, as well as custom objects that you may have created in your Salesforce account. Hevo also supports associated objects that relate to the standard objects.
The following table lists the most frequently used objects along with their descriptions:
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| Account | Contains information about a specific company, organization, or entity that you do business with. |
| Contact | Contains information about a company or a person associated with an account that can become a potential customer. |
| Opportunity | Contains information about a potential revenue-generating event, such as a sale or deal. |
| Lead | Contains information about a prospect or potential customer that has shown interest in your products or services. |
| Case | Contains information about a customer inquiry, issue, or support request. |
| Task | Contains information about a business activity, such as a to-do item. |
| Event | Contains information about a scheduled event, such as a meeting, call, or appointment. |
| User | Contains information about a user in your organization. |
| Campaign | Contains information about campaigns and tracks their efficiency with cost, revenue, and converted leads analysis. |
| Product2 | Contains information about a product your company sells. |
| Custom Objects | Contains information about custom objects, entities that support custom objects, and their standard fields, named with a suffix __c. Custom objects allow businesses to extend Salesforce functionality to store unique business data. |
| StandardObjectNameShare | Contains information about a model for all share objects associated with standard objects. This controls the sharing of records with users or groups. |
| StandardObjectNameHistory | Contains information about a model for all the historical objects associated with standard objects. This tracks changes made to standard objects over time. |
| StandardObjectNameOwnerSharingRule | Contains information about a model for all owner sharing rule objects associated with standard objects. This defines access permissions for records based on ownership. |
| StandardObjectNameFeed | Contains information about a model for all feed objects associated with standard objects. This allows tracking of record updates and collaboration activities. |
Additional Information
Read the detailed Hevo documentation for the following related topics:
Source Considerations
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Derived fields (or calculated fields) are fields that derive their value from other fields or formulas. Derived fields are not updated in the Destination during incremental loads even if their value changes due to a change in the formula or the original field.
In Salesforce, whenever any change occurs in an object, its SystemModStamp timestamp field is updated. Hevo uses this SystemModStamp field to identify Events for incremental ingestion. In the case of derived fields, a change in the formula or the original field does not affect the object’s SystemModStamp value, even though the derived field’s value may change. Due to this, such objects are not picked up in the incremental load. However, if another field in the object is updated alongside, then the incremental load picks up the derived field updates also.
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There may be a data count mismatch at the Destination due to records deleted in your Salesforce account. When a record from a replicable object is deleted in Salesforce, the IsDeleted column for it is set to True. Salesforce moves the deleted records to the Salesforce Recycle Bin, and they are not displayed in the Salesforce dashboard. Now, when Hevo starts the data replication from your Source, using either the Bulk APIs or REST APIs, it also replicates data from the Salesforce Recycle Bin to your Destination. As a result, you might see more Events in your Destination than the Source.
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If you disable a Pipeline for more than 15 days, Hevo cannot replicate the deleted data, if any, to your Destination. This is because Salesforce retains deleted data in its Recycle Bin for 15 days. Also, Salesforce purges the oldest records in the Recycle Bin every two hours if their count exceeds the limit for your organization. The record limit is 25 times your organization’s storage capacity. Therefore, to correctly capture the deleted data, you must run the Pipeline within two hours of deleting the data in Salesforce.
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To manage Salesforce’s API rate limits, Hevo handles rate limit exceptions. When the API limit is reached, Hevo continues syncing other objects while marking the rate-limited objects as failed. These failed objects are prioritized for syncing in the next cycle. This ensures that data replication continues without disruption, and users are notified of any rate limit issues at both the object or Pipeline level.
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Hevo primarily uses Salesforce’s Bulk API for data retrieval but switches to the REST API when necessary, especially for unsupported objects.
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Custom fields in Salesforce are mapped directly to corresponding fields in the Destination, following the appropriate conventions for field names and data types.
Limitations
- It is not possible to avoid loading the deleted data. Hevo loads the new, updated, and deleted data from your Salesforce account.