Salesforce

Connect & Ingest data from Salesforce

Salesforce is a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. The Sling Salesforce connector extracts data from the Salesforce REST API, supporting standard objects like accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, cases, campaigns, and custom objects.

CLI Pro Required: APIs require a CLI Pro token or Platform Plan.

Setup

The following credentials and inputs are accepted:

Secrets:

• client_id (required) -> Your Salesforce Connected App Client ID

• client_secret (required) -> Your Salesforce Connected App Client Secret

• instance (required) -> Your Salesforce instance URL (e.g., mycompany.my.salesforce.com)

Inputs:

• anchor_date (optional) -> The starting date for historical data extraction (default: 1 year ago). Format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ

Getting Your Credentials

1. Log in to your Salesforce organization

2. Go to Setup > Apps > App Manager

3. Create a new Connected App with OAuth 2.0 enabled

4. Set OAuth Scopes:

   • api (Access and manage your data)

   • refresh_token (Offline access)

5. Copy your Client ID and Client Secret

6. Your instance URL is your Salesforce domain (e.g., mycompany.my.salesforce.com)

Important: Keep your Client Secret secure. Never commit it to version control.

Using sling conns

Here are examples of setting a connection named SALESFORCE. We must provide the type=api property:

sling conns set SALESFORCE type=api spec=salesforce secrets='{ client_id: xxxxxxxx, client_secret: xxxxxxxx, instance: mycompany.my.salesforce.com }'

Environment Variable

See here to learn more about the .env.sling file.

export SALESFORCE='{ type: api, spec: salesforce, secrets: { client_id: "xxxxxxxx", client_secret: "xxxxxxxx", instance: "mycompany.my.salesforce.com" } }'

Sling Env File YAML

See here to learn more about the sling env.yaml file.

connections:
  SALESFORCE:
    type: api
    spec: salesforce
    secrets:
      client_id: "xxxxxxxx"
      client_secret: "xxxxxxxx"
      instance: "mycompany.my.salesforce.com"

With anchor date for historical data:

connections:
  SALESFORCE:
    type: api
    spec: salesforce
    secrets:
      client_id: "xxxxxxxx"
      client_secret: "xxxxxxxx"
      instance: "mycompany.my.salesforce.com"
    inputs:
      anchor_date: "2020-01-01T00:00:00Z"

Replication

Here's an example replication configuration to sync Salesforce data to a PostgreSQL database:

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: salesforce.{stream_name}

streams:
  # Sync core CRM objects
  accounts:
  contacts:
  leads:
  opportunities:
  cases:
  
  # Sync additional objects as needed
  campaigns:
  products:
  orders:

Selective sync example:

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: crm.{stream_name}

streams:
  accounts:
  contacts:
  opportunities:
  opportunity_line_items:

Full refresh example for metadata:

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: salesforce.{stream_name}

streams:
  # Metadata endpoints (no incremental support)
  organizations:
  users:
  profiles:
  record_types:

Endpoints

Core CRM Objects

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
accounts	Account records	Yes
contacts	Contact records	Yes
leads	Lead records	Yes
opportunities	Opportunity records	Yes
cases	Case/ticket records	Yes

Activity & Campaign Objects

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
campaigns	Campaign records	Yes
campaign_members	Campaign member associations	Yes
events	Calendar events	Yes
tasks	Task records	Yes

Products & Pricing

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
products	Product2 records	Yes
pricebooks	Pricebook records	Yes

Orders & Contracts

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
orders	Order records	Yes
order_items	Order line items	Yes
contracts	Contract records	Yes

Opportunity Details

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
opportunity_line_items	Opportunity line items	Yes
opportunity_contact_roles	Contact roles on opportunities	Yes
opportunity_history	Opportunity field change history	Yes

Users & Org Structure

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
users	User records	Yes
user_roles	User role hierarchy	Yes
groups	Public groups and queues	Yes

Metadata & Configuration

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
organizations	Organization metadata	No
profiles	User profile definitions	Yes
record_types	Record type definitions	Yes

File & Content Objects

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
assets	Asset records	Yes
content_documents	File metadata	Yes
content_versions	File version history	Yes

Discovery

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
_sobjects	Available Salesforce objects metadata	No

Custom Objects

The connector automatically discovers and syncs custom objects in your Salesforce organization. Custom objects are dynamically extracted and named based on their Salesforce API names (e.g., Project__c becomes projects).

To discover available endpoints:

sling conns discover SALESFORCE

Incremental Sync

The Salesforce connector uses time-based incremental sync with the SystemModstamp timestamp:

• First run: Fetches all records from anchor_date (default: 1 year ago) to present

• Subsequent runs: Only fetches records modified after the last sync

• Update tracking: Uses SystemModstamp to detect changed records

The SystemModstamp field represents when a record was last modified in Salesforce, including:

• Direct record changes

• Child record changes

• Formula field recalculations

This ensures you capture both new records and updates to existing records.

Date Fields

All Unix timestamp fields are automatically converted to proper datetime columns. Standard timestamp fields like CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate, and SystemModstamp are handled appropriately.

Rate Limiting

Salesforce API has rate limits based on your license type:

• Standard: 1,000 API calls per 24 hours per user

• Unlimited/Performance: 4,000-10,000 API calls per 24 hours per user

The connector automatically:

• Uses conservative rate limiting (5 requests/second by default)

• Retries with exponential backoff on 429 (rate limit) responses

• Batches SOQL queries to minimize API calls

The connector uses SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) with pagination to efficiently extract large datasets while respecting rate limits.

Limitations & Disabled Endpoints

Some endpoints may be disabled by default due to Salesforce edition limitations (e.g., unavailable in Developer Edition):

• opportunity_team_members - Not available in all editions

• account_team_members - Not available in all editions

• quotes - Not available in all editions

These can be re-enabled if your Salesforce edition supports them.

Common Use Cases

Sync Core Sales Data

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: sales.{stream_name}

streams:
  accounts:
  contacts:
  leads:
  opportunities:
  opportunity_line_items:

Sync Customer Service Data

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: service.{stream_name}

streams:
  cases:
  assets:
  contacts:
  accounts:

Sync Marketing & Campaign Data

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: marketing.{stream_name}

streams:
  campaigns:
  campaign_members:
  leads:
  contacts:

Sync Orders & Contracts

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: orders.{stream_name}

streams:
  orders:
  order_items:
  contracts:

Sync Organizational Metadata

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: org.{stream_name}

streams:
  organizations:
  users:
  user_roles:
  groups:
  profiles:
  record_types:

Sync All Endpoints

source: SALESFORCE
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: salesforce.{stream_name}

streams:
  # Sync all available endpoints
  '*':

Troubleshooting

Authentication Issues

• Verify your instance URL is correct (e.g., mycompany.my.salesforce.com, not https://mycompany.my.salesforce.com)

• Ensure your Connected App is approved by your Salesforce administrator

• Check that your Client ID and Client Secret are correct

No Records Returned

• Verify the endpoint exists in your Salesforce edition (some are limited to specific editions)

• Check that your user has access to the objects you're trying to sync

• Verify your Salesforce API is enabled

Custom Objects Not Appearing

• Custom objects must be marked as "Queryable" in Salesforce

• Only custom objects are automatically discovered; ensure you're using the _sobjects endpoint to see available objects

If you are facing issues connecting, please reach out to us at [email protected], on discord or open a Github Issue here.