I have some tables from Postgres database to be integrated into Salesforce as external objects. I went through some video tutorials and documentations where I was recommended to use Salesforce Connect which supports providers with "OData" protocol support. Is it possible to integrate Postgres tables into Salesforce as external objects without Salesforce Connect?
Thanks.
Be careful with the phrase "external objects". To me, the use of those particular words implies the specific implementation of external data access/federation delivered with Salesforce Connect. I don't believe that there is any alternative if your goal is to create "real" external objects (named "objectname__x") within Salesforce.
There are, though, Salesforce integration solutions from the likes of Progress, Jitterbit, Mulesoft, and Informatica and others that can be used to access PostgreSQL, with varying degrees of coding being required. You won't get "external objects", but you will be able to access data residing off-cloud in a PostgreSQL database from your Salesforce system.
Hope this helps.
Currently the way to integrate data from external storages (Postgres in your case) without Salesforce Connect is implement your custom logic for synchronization using REST or SOAP API, Apex classes and triggers, Salesforce Workflows and Flows. Also you will need to implement appropriate interfaces on side of your data storage. Complexity of all these steps depends on complexity of your existing data model and infrastructure around it.
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I host my database on Azure. I would like to search data on the table in that database. I am trying to use B4I and the tech help their said I need to use REST API's. I am pretty sure I need to use ODATA. I have the auth token but I am not sure if this is even possible.
In order to query Azure SQL with an API you need to add a layer between it and the destination. As mentioned in this question, OData is a specification that can be implemented fairly easily as there are plenty of libraries that will take care of the bulk of the code for you.
As far as where to host the API, you have several options within Azure. The most common being App Services, Azure Functions, and Logic Apps.
I need to connect Salesforce to an external database we have, and constantly keep both the database and salesforce updated in as close to real time as we can get. I have tired Google searching possible solutions, but nearly all of them have been outdated by over a year. Any ideas?
Thank You!
Depending on your exact scenario it is quite difficult to give you a proper answer.
However off the top of my head I would suggest two Salesforce products.
Salesforce Connect
https://www.salesforce.com/products/platform/products/salesforce-connect/
Salesforce Connect allows you to connect to various data sources and turn the tables / objects of that data source into a SObject. For example MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle etc. There are limitations and thus it would be better to talk to a Certified Architect about such an implementation.
Heroku Connect
https://www.heroku.com/connect
Heroku Connect allows you to connect a Heroku data source with a Salesforce Object. The sync is not immediate but there are quite a few customisations inside the product to make the sync as "live" as possible. There are limitations and thus it would be better to talk to a Certified Architect about such an implementation.
Salesforce Connect has limitations.. It's good for presenting data via the interface, but if you need to act on the data and report on the data it might not be the best bet.
For close to real time hand coded sync, look at the streaming API, or using Salesforce Platform Events.
If you want to use an ETL tool, my organization has had decent luck with DBAmp, which is a Sql add on product and fairly inexpensive as compared to a lot of ETL tools ($1625 annually.) http://www.forceamp.com/ We're able to replicate the entire SF database offline in SQL with DBAMP, push changes to the offline Sql copy and upsert changes. It's also a good backup solution via offline full data copy. We got very good support from them as well when we encountered challenges.
Hope this helps.
Not sure if you are syncing one object or multiple objects but there are a few options that you have.
You can try the salesforce provided features Salesforce Connect which allows you to view and update data from your external source In salesforce but there are limitations with reporting and other considerations you should consider.
If you make use of Heroku, Heroku Connect is your best bet
You can also use a middleware ESB solutions like MuleSoft which can orchestrate keeping data in sync across multiple data sources and do batch loads, but depending on how often changes you want to keep an eye out for api limits for inbound calls to salesforce.
You can roll your own solution where you can use Outbound Messages in workflow (or triggers that initiates an apex class that calls out, but that is more cumbersome and you have to do custom error handling and retry logic which you get for free using outbound messages) to send changes from salesforce to your homegrown service that writes to you database and have you homegrown solution write back to salesforce using the soap or rest api. That would probably take you some time to build. You would also still need to be aware of API limits depending on how many updates are made on the non salesforce side.
You crate a Canvas App which displays data from your DB in Salesforce as a Tab and hook it up via SSO so users are auto logged in. But again there would not be reporting, or any salesforce features that you can take advantage of.
But I really think that you should spend some time to determine what system is your source of truth because that would determine how the data should be synced. You should also investigate if you really need the sync to be realtime or near realtime, or if you can manage with something like an hourly true up on the system that is not the source of truth.
I would like to use a REST API as a data source for tableau. Is this possible in any way? The API service returns standard JSON, and I would think that would be an ideal scenario for tableau. Rather than connecting to some backend database behind the API.
Thanks
The web data connector does this and is in beta right now as noted by inox. See: https://www.tableau.com/web-data-connector
"The Web Data Connector will allow you to create a connection to almost any data that is accessible over HTTP. This can include internal web services, JSON data, REST APIs, and many other sources. It will not be supported in the initial launch of Tableau 9.0. Beta participants will be able to use a dedicated product key to continue building and testing connectors until the Web Data Connector officially launches."
Also, you can use the Extract API to create Tableau Extracts from an API: https://www.tableau.com/learn/tutorials/on-demand/extract-api-introduction
A question regarding the integration of the document management system Alfresco into Oracle Application Express (APEX) based on CMIs-repository:
The aim is to use APEX as the portal-page and Alfresco showing it's results (document lists) based on search parameters coming form APEX.
A search result from a CMIS-query should be displayed in an APEX page-region.
Unfortunately I have no experience in this sector (REST, CMIS) - so any advice would be welcome!
A related question regarding user authentication and authorization via CMIS does also arise.
Has anyone out there implemented something like this or used these components together, yet?
The first thing that pops into my mind is making the choice where you want your communication with the repository to take place: client side or server side?
Alfresco supports Web Scripts, so I would be possible to create a javascript-heavy thick client which connects to your repository, get information about your files and redirect to their download links.
The alternative would be to design some way to connect to the repository from the database server. Again there are many ways to do this. You can connect to the repository during your page load and use PL/SQL regions to fire scripts that connect to your repository, get the data you want, and render your region with that information.
Another way would be to periodically check the repository for changes, and maintain a 'shadow copy' of the repository within your oracle database tables.
Of course all of these solutions have their own drawbacks.
I'm building a web application that will have access to PeopleSoft's database via jdbc.
Is it possible that I can use PeopleSoft's id/password for my custom application, so users accessing my website will not have to have another username/password?
Peoplesoft stores user details in the table PSOPRDEFN.
You will be able to verify the username against: PSOPRDEFN.OPRID.
The password field is: OPERPSWD.
Unfortunately the encryption function used for this field: hash() is available only from within peoplecode.
If you want to use a single sign on you should be able to do so by customizing the USERMAINT.gbl component perhaps in the saveprechange peoplecode, to save the password in a second field of your choice with an encryption algorithm that you can implement from JDBC as well.
If you want to reuse PeopleSoft security, you'd need to connect at a higher level than JDBC straight into the database. You could look at a component interface (codeable in Java) or send a SOAP message into PeopleSofts Integration Gateway - both methods would authenticate you against peopleSoft using its own security mechanisms.
The old way was to customize psuser.c to your needs and recompile as a new dll, used it your program, assuming you're on a Microsoft platform. As mentioned above, you could have a peoplesoft developer create a component interface ( or use the one that is delivered ). You can export wrapper Java or C/C++ code from a CI, a template. This code can then be used in an external program to call the CI. one way or the other, you have to interface with peopletools to call their decrypt for passwords.
Depending on how dynamic your business is, whether you add lots of employees each day, you could export psoprdefn using app messaging to another database. On the send, you could encrypt passwords however you like. But as you can surmise, this would not be real-time.
One thing I remember doing long ago was have a peoplesoft tech person develop a page the sole functionality of which was to call my java class and which obtained user/pswds as needed. Once I had them, I was good to go.
You can use the psjoa.jar , in that way you can signon via app.server using the same users and passwords in the psoprdefn table.
PeopleSoft has an LDAP integration ability but it has to be configured. If you are accessing via a Java wrapper around a component interface, a special account can be set up in PeopleSoft with access only to the underlying component, but the login/password would have to be passed into the component interface. This can be encrypted or sent over https.
PeopleSoft also has what it calls "row level" security - the ability to partition data sets so that for example your code could only access employee data within a specific business unit or accounting info for a particular line of business. This is all controlled within the PeopleSoft online security application.