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Alteryx Designer Desktop Knowledge Base

Definitive answers from Designer Desktop experts.

The 'How to Guide' to the Salesforce Connector

JordanB
Alteryx
Alteryx
Created

 

The improvements in our salesforce connectors have been astronomical over the last year and now it is easier than ever to navigate the UI configuration screen and connect to your Salesforce Data.

 

From here in the Salesforce connector will refer to both the Salesforce Input and Salesforce Output

 

There are a few things you will need in order to use the salesforce macros

  • To use this tool you will need to have access to Salesforce.com
  • You will need permissions to either read Salesforce Input and/or write Salesforce Output
  • You will need the internal server salesforce.com URL (Find this here)
  • Your specific Username and Password
  • Your salesforce security token

Step 1: Find your salesforce.com URL

Step 2: Username and Password

  • Use the same username and password for salesforce.com
  • Type these into the respective text boxes

Step 3: Security Token

  • Please see this article to retrieve your security token

Step 4: Connect

  • Once you have entered all the information you should be able to connect and the configuration window will change to the Table and Optional parameters


Pic 1.png

 


Step 5: Choose a table and Output Fields

Once you choose a table it will automatically populate with the available output fields. In the drop down you will have the option to select multiple output fields if you would like.

 

Pic 2.png

 

Step 6: Record Limit and WHERE Clause (SQQL)

You can choose a record limit and choose to be more specific in your table search using the WHERE clause. For example, I may want to only look for a specific Account in the salesforce table, so the statement would look something like Account = ‘Jordan Barker’.

 

Pic 3.png

 

Step 7: You've done it! Run the workflow!

Once you have entered all of the necessary information you can now run the workflow and retrieve the Salesforce data.

 

Tips and Tricks

 

Check First

Make sure from your Salesforce Admin that you have the necessary permissions to read and/or write tables. If you do not have these permissions you will receive a salesforce error from the tool.

 

Try some sample data

Depending upon the amount of data you are pulling into Alteryx it might be worth just doing a test with some sample data. Once you have confirmed the configuration is working correctly leave the record limit box empty and it will return all records.

 

Change credentials

If you want to change your credentials please select the change credentials hyperlink on the second configuration screen in the tool.

 

Pic 4.png

 

Check your tables!

When using the Salesforce output tool all tables need to exist. This tool will not create new tables in Salesforce.

 

Password Expiry

If your password expires in Salesforce you will receive a pop-up error message in Alteryx. Currently, there is no Alias option for the Salesforce Connector therefore if you're password expires you will have to manually go and change it in each connector. This is something we are looking at internally to try and create an Alias for similar to that available with the database connections. 

 

For the time being the easiest alternative is to have your salesforce admin create a generic login and set this password to never expire. If this is not an option you can go to User Settings > Advanced > Disable Auto Config and this will allow you to change the password in your salesforce connectors without getting locked out and the error message popping up.

 

Common Issues

 

‘Error: Salesforce Output: The following fields are not members of the target table’

 

  • Please check that all the tables and output fields exist. As stated above the Salesforce Output tool will not create new tables or fields

 

‘Salesforce credential disappearing'

 

  • Please check to see if you have read/write/modify privileges for three directories that the connector uses.
  • C:\Program Files\Alteryx\bin\RuntimeData\Macros\Supporting_Macros,
  • Default macro directory (you can find the path in Options >> User Settings >> Edit User Settings >> Macros, take the search path from there)
  • Temp file directory (you can find the path in Options >> User Settings >> Edit User Settings >> Defaults, listed under “Default Temporary Directory”)?
  • Just right click on each one of those folders and select “Properties.” In there, just make sure in the General tab that read-only isn't selected.
  • You should also navigate to the Security tab to double check that your user group or username is listed with full access.
  • Please also check to make sure these directories aren't running out of space.

 

‘Access Denied’

 

  • Please check your permissions to the tables and output fields with your Salesforce Admin

 

‘Error Sending Request URL Using bad illegal format or missing URL’

 

  • Please use Salesforce.com and copy and paste the URL into the configuration window

 

'INVALID_LOGIN: Invalid username, password, security token; or user locked out' or 'Alteryx doesn’t support connecting to Salesforce without the security token'

 

 

  • Locate the SFDC plugin within your 10.6 installation (for admin this will be likely be C:\Program Files\Alteryx\bin\HtmlPlugins\SalesForceInput, for non-admin C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Alteryx\bin\HtmlPlugins\SalesForceInput) and make a backup of this folder to be able to revert if necessary
  • Overwrite the contents of the above folder with new files here

 

As always if you have any issues please do not hesitate to reach out to Support

Comments
asteryx
8 - Asteroid
Hi,
Have you seen the issue where the list of tables to choose from does not include all Salesforce tables? It's supposed to be possible to type in other table names and use them, but I've found that Alteryx ignores/doesn't respond when I try typing in table names that I know exist.
Any suggestions for this problem?

Thanks.
Rohit_Bajaj
9 - Comet

Hi Asteryx,

 

What I have seen in past is we can type the (full) table name, it might not work exactly like typing a part of the table name and getting the entire table name as a hint. But if one types the entire table name and then clicks somewhere outside in the workflow designer canvas/pane it has worked for me.

 

Thanks,

Rohit Bajaj

Vincent
6 - Meteoroid

Hello,

 

I'm new to Alteryx and have a question about pulling data from Saleforce. I was pull data from Salesforce objects, but our group mainly use the data from a few reports, which we built using quite a few custom fields. Is there a way to pull data from Salesforce reports?

 

Thanks,

Vincent

Rohit_Bajaj
9 - Comet

Hi Vincent,

 

Looking at the below post ... seems it is not readily available.

 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Salesforce-Input-import-custom-reports/idi-p/...

 

Thanks,

Rohit Bajaj

 

Vincent
6 - Meteoroid

Thanks Rohit. I contacted Alteryx sales and support teams and they confirmed that it is not available currently, but on the roadmap.

I have posted a new idea in the Allteryx Idea Center as they suggested. Please encourage folks who may need this capability to "Star" it:

 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Create-new-connector-to-pull-Salesforce-Repor...

 

 

Thanks all,

 

Vincent

TZChandler
8 - Asteroid

 

Sign into this website  (https://workbench.developerforce.com) and you can see all the tables you have access to. If you are not seeing them here you need permissions changes or in some cases licenses. 

 

For example, using the Alteryx SalesForce Read tool I do not see OpportunityLineItem however it does show up using this website.The Alteryx SalesForce.com tool can read the table when I explicitly type the table name in.

 

 

tpxmetsfan14
5 - Atom

Hi - does the Salesforce connector automatically default to using the '18 Digit ID?'

 

For example, the contact table has both an 'ID' field and an '18 Digit' ID' field. When using these fields in Salesforce directly:

 

ID = 15 Digits

18 Digit ID = 18 Digits

 

However, when using the Salesforce connector, the 'ID' field is now 18 digits long. Essentially, there is no 15 digit contact ID field available to use. Do you have any insight?

vijayasaharan
6 - Meteoroid

Hi 

How can we do achieve upsert functionality in salesforce environment?

 

Thanks

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

@tpxmetsfan14, I believe the 18-digit ID is the same as the 15-digit ID if you just remove the last three characters. The last three characters turn the 15-digit IDs into case insensitive values, so, for example, 123BbBbBbBbBbBb is treated as the same by some applications as 123bBbBbBbBbBbB, but with the 3 extra characters, these two will always be different regardless of case.

 

@vijayasaharan, It looks like the Salesforce output doesn't have upsert available: https://help.alteryx.com/10.0/HTML-SalesforceOutput.htm

I would investigate pulling all the data in to Alteryx first and deciding in your workflow what needs to be inserted and what needs to be updated and then send that into Salesforce appropriately. I haven't done this, so it's just an idea for you.

vijayasaharan
6 - Meteoroid

Thanks, I went ahead and did it (pull all data from salesforce, do a join with an external ID and do one insert and one update operation). It all worked out great.  

 

I have one more question. I would like to send an email once my process runs, I found the events window and I was able to get the basic email, but my question is how can I get some custom data. Lets say I inserted 40 records and updated 120 records. Is there a way I can do this?

 

Also how can I update a field in salesforce to indicate that this load complete in another table after the insert, how can I do this? I can not go add another salesforce output to the salesforce output. Any direction would be really.

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

Hi,

Your second question looks like something for a new thread - it's not related to the Salesforce connector.

Maybe someone else will chime in with an answer to your second question. I'm not  an expert on outputs - just trying this myself, now. My first guess is to use a Stop Until Done tool (or is there a newer version of that now?), but you still need to collect a relevant ID field from the first task so that the "complete" field refers to the correct event.

Good luck.

Rohit_Bajaj
9 - Comet
BCHEN
5 - Atom

Is anyone else getting an error when trying to install the SalesForce Input tool?Capture.PNG

JordanB
Alteryx
Alteryx

@BCHEN

 

Please contact support@alteryx.com with this error message.

 

Best,

 

Jordan

Analytics_Flow
5 - Atom

@JordanB wrote:

Change credentials


 

Password Expiry

If you're password expires in Salesforce you will receive a pop up error message in Alteryx. Currently there is no Alias option for the Salesforce Connector therefore if you're password expires you will have to manually go and change it in each connector. This is something we are looking at internally to try and create an Alias for similar to that available with the database connections. 

 

For the time being the easiest alternative is to have your salesforce admin create a generic login and set this password to never expire. If this is not an option you can go to User Settings > Advanced > Disable Auto Config and this will allow you to change the password in your salesforce connectors without getting locked out and the error message popping up.

 



Hi Jordan

Can you confirm whether this has been addresses yet please?

Best,

Steve

vijayasaharan
6 - Meteoroid
As a workaround,we have created an account and have set the password to not expire in salesforce . I know this is not an answer to your question, but just a suggestion.

Sent from my iPhone
JordanB
Alteryx
Alteryx

@Analytics_Flow this has not been addressed in the tool to date. Please feel fee to suggest this in the ideas section of the designer.

 

If a generic password (service account) option is viable I would suggest using this option.

 

Best,

 

Jordan

fpinchon
8 - Asteroid
@Analytics_Flow: If that helps, I came up with a hack that works very nicely to update all those connectors at once: http://insightsthroughdata.com/how-to-edit-salesforce-credentials-within-several-alteryx-workflows-a...
asteryx
8 - Asteroid

Thanks for the hack @fpinchon. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks useful. (And it also shows a security weakness of Alteryx!)

I believe the current version of the connector no longer does the thing where it tries to connect to SForce first, at least.

fpinchon
8 - Asteroid
@asteryx I would not call it a security weakness, since the password and the token are encrypted...
asteryx
8 - Asteroid

I shouldn't have been so brief - the reason I think it's a bit of a loophole, even though it's encrypted, is that if someone had access to the Alteryx file then they could log into Salesforce under someone else's account. The encryption doesn't prevent that. Or am I missing something?

fpinchon
8 - Asteroid

If someone gets access to your Alteryx file, that means they have access to your hard drive, so you may have a bigger problem on your hands...

But yes, credentials are sometimes included in the workflow, for SFDC connectors for instance.

However, other connectors are not much safer, since with access to your hard drive, someone could get to your ODBC connections and get access to all the systems you have configured as well, so I don't draw a big distinction here...

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

I see your point. Gonna stop beating this dead horse now. :)

 

ISUGraber
8 - Asteroid

The salesforce connector has to be one of the buggiest connectors I have ever used.  Are there any plans to improve it?  

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

@ISUGraber- I haven't experienced any significant buggy behavior with the Salesforce Connector. Maybe you could describe your issues and be more specific about improvements you'd like to see.

ISUGraber
8 - Asteroid

1)  If I need to make a minor change to my workflow these are the steps I must take.

               A)  Download workflow

               B)  Update all of my passwords with salesforce connectors.  Which is a multi-click endeavor for each object.

               C)  Copy workflow over to Alteryx server

                D)  Open workflow from server in 2 windows, delete all objects in one I am replacing, copy new workflow objects from old workflow into new one.

               E)  Update all of my passwords again.

               F)  Run and verify it works before uploading.

 

So if you could make it so I didn't have to re-enter my password several times that would be great.  Also, being able to update the workflow from my laptop would be awesome too.  Or even better, allow me to have 1 object that has my userid, password and token in it and that object passes that information to all of my other objects so I only have 1 place I have to change my passwords.  That would be even better.

 

I've had issues in the past where it decides it doesn't like me and I've had to re-enter my credentials several times before it does.  Next time that happens I'll try to send screenshots.  

ISUGraber
8 - Asteroid

@asteryx  on top of the above annoyances my Salesforce workflows are plagued with this annoyance.  I hit "Debug" and it lets me continue.  But this pops up every so often.  Although I'm not 100% sure it's salesforce's fault.AlteryxError.png

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

@ISUGraber- I don't have answers for you (I don't work for Alteryx), but it's good to see these on the forum so they know about them and so others who may have the same problems can contribute their experience.

As for the password issue, it looks like others in this thread have made some progress on work arounds. Otherwise, your comment sounds a bit like an idea worth submitting (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/idb-p/product-ideas).

And with the Alteryx crash, I would contact support about that (and post the result here). I haven't seen that happening.

 

Good luck.

ISUGraber
8 - Asteroid

Thanks @asteryx for a second I thought you did.  Then I thought your name reminded me of Asterisk and Obelisk.  But thanks for the tips I'll follow them.

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

Nice to see another fan of the Gauls out there, @ISUGraber.

bwoofa
7 - Meteor

Hi - Urgent help needed. I can connect to the input tool just fine but when I try connect to the output tool , the list of tables doesn't show up.

 

Screenshot_11.png

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

You may have done this already, but to cover all the bases, check these:

- copy the URL and paste it into a browser - you should be able to log in to the expected instance of Salesforce from there with the same user name

- double check your password and token - copy paste them from the input tool that works (and you can do the same with the URL and user name, too)

 

I believe the issue is with the connection to Salesforce. I doubt it's a write permission issue with your account since it's only trying to connect at this point.

 

bwoofa
7 - Meteor

@asteryx thank you - I have indeed tried that with no luck. Do you think It could be the tool itself. When I look at the GUI file it doesn't even feature the table select part. 

 

Screenshot_13.png

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

So - does your configuration get stuck at the credentials screen? Or do you see something like this - but without any tables in the dropdown:

SForce Output.PNG

My xml does look different than yours (I edited out some info):

SForce Output2.PNG

I'm not sure if we're looking at the same thing, though. The format is different. The above is from the second button on the config screen of the output tool. Where did you get the GUI file?

I'm using Alteryx 2018.3.

From your screen shot above, I believe you are not using the deprecated version of the Salesforce connector.

 

bwoofa
7 - Meteor

@asteryx I don't get to that screen on the output tool. I enter my credentials, hit connect and then nothing happens. Well that red box appears under connectScreenshot_11.png

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

Hmmm. I'm running out of ideas. Might be a case for Alteryx support, after all.

I am curious where your GUI file comes from. Did you get it from the same place I describe above (the icon that looks like "</>")?

If so, maybe you need to reinstall the Salesforce connector tools. Maybe the output tool got edited?? (I've never done that and I'm still unclear on whether doing so changes the tool or creates a copy.)

If not, can you explain what you're looking at there? (It probably won't help, but I'd just like to know. 🙂 )

 

I hope you figure it out (and then post your solution).

 

JordanB
Alteryx
Alteryx

@bwoofa I would log this with Alteryx Support

 

Best,

 

Jordan

bwoofa
7 - Meteor

THanks JordanB. Will do.

bwoofa
7 - Meteor

Ok this fix everyone is to use the classic URL and not lightning. I found this to be strange as the lightning URL worked for the input tool. Thank you for your kind help! I hope this helps someone else.

Torao
7 - Meteor

Hello, 

 

I have a question about this message: 

 

"Since the last time this tool was configured, the following fields have been dropped from the Salesforce object:"

 

After that there is a list of fields that I cannot find anyone.

A few fields that are in this list are used in my workflow, so now it doesn't work as the fields are missing. 

 

When I go to the SalesForce website, I still see the fields that I was downloading, but cant find them anywhere I looked in different tables in Alteryx. 

 

Any ideas why this happened? Or how to return the fields that I need? 

 

Thank you

JordanB
Alteryx
Alteryx

Hi @Torao  

 

I would verify this with your Salesforce Admin. The interface reflects what is being returned from the API call. 

 

Best,

 

Jordan

nganesha
5 - Atom

Hi, 

 

Could someone confirm if usage of these connectors are covered under some end-user licensing agreement and if yes, where could i find that?

 

thanks,

Navin

ifleischhacker
5 - Atom

Hi. I'm not sure if anyone can help me. I have the url, my credentials, and my security token ready to go after having downloaded the Sales Force input tool in the Alteryx Gallery. I do not see the ability to configure the url. The environment drop down shows a list of already configured database connections. When I went in to try to set this up in the advanced settings, I don't see anything there either. 

asteryx
8 - Asteroid

Hi,

Can you describe (or add a screenshot) of what you see when you try to configure the tool? Here's what I've got. If you click the link at the bottom that says "Change Credentials" you get to all the connection settings.

Sforce tool.PNG

AnnaBennett
5 - Atom

Hi, 

I have put my username, password, and security token in, select a report, or query builder (this is fine, I can chose the bits I need) but when I click run I get the following message:

 

Salesforce Input (1) HTTPSConnectionPool(host='login.salesforce.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /services/oauth2/token (Caused by SSLError(SSLError(1, '[SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:852)'),))

 

Could someone else point me in the direction of where I'm going wrong?

Thanks

Anna

ISUGraber
8 - Asteroid

@AnnaBennett  Did you fix your issue?  

I found that if I had trouble connecting in Alteryx I would double check and login to Salesforce itself with the ID I was trying to use.  Sometimes my token was expired o rmy password had expired.  I'd then go back and login to Alteryx.

AnnaBennett
5 - Atom

Hi @ISUGraber 

The login definitely works as using the depreciated tool works. 

I have reported to support and spoken to my local team and will feedback if I get a solution.

Thanks,

 

joeGade
10 - Fireball

@JordanB 

 

This Salesforce Input Tool Doest work in Enterprises or in the server , Please remove from the Gallery or Say that you cannot support Further. 

 

Alteryx Customers/Community please don't download and use it of you ware trying to use with Gallery. We tried all the Possible Scenarios to fix this but no luck. 

 

  • The connect works only on desktop. If a workflow is developed using this we cannot upload it to the server. The connector is created wit machine Encryption where it won't allow to upload to the server /Gallery. 
  • Connect won't show Custom Tables 
  • The connector will fail to upload if we write custom queries 
  • Connector fails to install in Proxy networks 
  • The connector has Login issues. 

Alteryx has to fix it before they publish to further so we don't waste anyone's time in debugging it further. 

  •  
londonhanson
Alteryx
Alteryx

Hi @joeGade!

 

We can in fact schedule this tool on the Gallery, but in order to do so, it requires a registry edit to both the Server and the client machines. Please contact Support if you would like assistance with this.

Christian_Holm
5 - Atom

Hi @JordanB  and @londonhanson,

I'm currently using the Salesforce Input tool to access a table on Salesforce in a Workflow.  

 

We are two analysts who use the workflow. If I setup the connection, I encounter no problem. But after I have saved the workflow and my colleague opens the workflow he gets the following authentication error.

Christian_Holm_1-1669298083080.png
Error: Salesforce Input (1): {'error': 'invalid_grant', 'error_description': 'authentication failure'}

When we then get the following error when we open the tool configuration window of the tool.
ErrorId: 385617779-113856

Christian_Holm_0-1669297917336.png

I'm running the 'v4.2.4' of the Salesforce input tool.