The ‘update’ function within the data loader does not allow you to specify an external ID. Well, as it turns out I needed to do just that.
The simple work-around is to simply not include a required field and then perform an upsert.
In my example, I was updating accounts via the external ID “OWNER ID”. By [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Tips & Tricks'
Perform an Update Using an External ID [Upsert without the Insert]
November 6th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Tips & Tricks
Associate One Gmail Account with Infinite Salesforce Usernames [Tips & Tricks]
October 7th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Tips & Tricks
Just by adding +identifier before the @ symbol on any Gmail or Google Apps email account, you can use an infinite number of email addresses that all drop into the same account.
e.g.
first.last@gmail.com
first.last+org1@gmail.com
first.last+org2@gmail.com
All of these messages will drop into first.last@gmail.com. You can apply filters via the identifier.
While I absolutely LOVE LastPass for my password management, I [...]
Tags: gmail·Google Apps·username
Enlist AutoIT to Perform Data Manipulation [Tips & Tricks]
August 27th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Tips & Tricks
When you work with data, sometimes you need your own personal data masseuse (I could use one for my back too!). Thoughts like “if only I could put all of these entries on one line“ or “now if only I could put a space in every 15 characters” or “if I have to hit the [...]
Tags: autoit·data manipulation
The Easy Way: Command Line & Data Loader [Tips & Tricks]
August 19th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Tips & Tricks
At first glance, I thought running the data loader through the command line would be complicated. Turns out it is actually quite easy. Essentially all you need to do is create the configuration through the UI and then blast away at the command line:
Create a new folder describing the job; I recommend creating the folder [...]
Batch find and replace Salesforce fields using Excel [Tips & Tricks]
August 6th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Tips & Tricks
Problem
Recently I needed to migrate opportunities from our legacy system into Salesforce. Being no stranger to the data loader, this is normally not a problem. The tricky part was that the opportunity needed to be linked to an external ID field on the account instead of the account ID, which cannot be accomplished with the [...]
Tags: data migration·excel·external id·formula·legacy system·multi-select·picklist
