Copy data from and to Salesforce using Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Analytics

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

This article outlines how to use Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse pipelines to copy data from and to Salesforce. It builds on the Copy Activity overview article that presents a general overview of the copy activity.

Supported capabilities

This Salesforce connector is supported for the following capabilities:

Supported capabilities	IR
Copy activity (source/sink)	① ②
Lookup activity	① ②

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

For a list of data stores that are supported as sources or sinks, see the Supported data stores table.

Specifically, this Salesforce connector supports:

• Salesforce Developer, Professional, Enterprise, or Unlimited editions.
• Copying data from and to custom domain (Custom domain can be configured in both production and sandbox environments).

You can explicitly set the API version used to read/write data via apiVersion property in linked service. When you are copying data to Salesforce, the connector uses BULK API 2.0.

Prerequisites

• API permission must be enabled in Salesforce.

• You need configure the Connected Apps in Salesforce portal referring to this official doc or our step by step guideline in the recommendation in this article.

  Important

  • The execution user must have the API Only permission.
  • Access Token expire time could be changed through session policies instead of the refresh token.

Salesforce Bulk API 2.0 Limits

We use Salesforce Bulk API 2.0 to query and ingest data. In Bulk API 2.0, batches are created for you automatically. You can submit up to 15,000 batches per rolling 24-hour period. If batches exceed the limit, you encounter failures.

In Bulk API 2.0, only ingest jobs consume batches. Query jobs don't. For details, see How Requests Are Processed in the Bulk API 2.0 Developer Guide.

For more information, see the "General Limits" section in Salesforce developer limits.

Get started

To perform the Copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

• The Copy Data tool
• The Azure portal
• The .NET SDK
• The Python SDK
• Azure PowerShell
• The REST API
• The Azure Resource Manager template

Create a linked service to Salesforce using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to Salesforce in the Azure portal UI.

1. Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then click New:

   • Azure Data Factory
   • Azure Synapse

   

2. Search for Salesforce and select the Salesforce connector.

   

3. Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

   

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define entities specific to the Salesforce connector.

Linked service properties

The following properties are supported for the Salesforce linked service.

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to SalesforceV2.	Yes
environmentUrl	Specify the URL of the Salesforce instance. For example, specify "https://<domainName>.my.salesforce.com" to copy data from the custom domain. Learn how to configure or view your custom domain referring to this article.	Yes
authenticationType	Type of authentication used to connect to the Salesforce. The allowed value is OAuth2ClientCredentials.	Yes
clientId	Specify the client ID of the Salesforce OAuth 2.0 Connected App. For more information, go to this article	Yes
clientSecret	Specify the client secret of the Salesforce OAuth 2.0 Connected App. For more information, go to this article	Yes
apiVersion	Specify the Salesforce Bulk API 2.0 version to use, for example, 52.0. The Bulk API 2.0 only supports API version >= 47.0. To learn about Bulk API 2.0 version, see article. A failure occurs if you use a lower API version.	Yes
connectVia	The integration runtime to be used to connect to the data store. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example: Store credentials

{
    "name": "SalesforceLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SalesforceV2",
        "typeProperties": {
            "environmentUrl": "<environment URL>",
            "authenticationType": "OAuth2ClientCredentials",
            "clientId": "<client ID>",
            "clientSecret": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<client secret>"
            },
            "apiVersion": "<API Version>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example: Store credentials in Key Vault

{
    "name": "SalesforceLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SalesforceV2",
        "typeProperties": {
            "environmentUrl": "<environment URL>",
            "authenticationType": "OAuth2ClientCredentials",
            "clientId": "<client ID>",
            "clientSecret": {
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
                "secretName": "<secret name of client secret in AKV>",
                "store":{
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service>",
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
                }
            },
            "apiVersion": "<API Version>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example: Store credentials in Key Vault, as well as environmentUrl and clientId

By doing storing credentials in Key Vault, as well as environmentUrl and clientId, you can longer use the UI to edit settings. The Specify dynamic contents in JSON format checkbox must be checked, and you must this configuration manually. The advantage of this scenario is that you can derive all configuration settings from the Key Vault instead of parameterizing anything here.

{
    "name": "SalesforceLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SalesforceV2",
        "typeProperties": {
            "environmentUrl": {
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
                "secretName": "<secret name of environment URL in AKV>",
                "store": {
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service>",
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
                },
            },
            "authenticationType": "OAuth2ClientCredentials",
            "clientId": {
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
                "secretName": "<secret name of client ID in AKV>",
                "store": {
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service>",
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
                },
            },
            "clientSecret": {
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
                "secretName": "<secret name of client secret in AKV>",
                "store":{
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service>",
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
                }
            },
            "apiVersion": "<API Version>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the Datasets article. This section provides a list of properties supported by the Salesforce dataset.

To copy data from and to Salesforce, set the type property of the dataset to SalesforceV2Object. The following properties are supported.

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to SalesforceV2Object.	Yes
objectApiName	The Salesforce object name to retrieve data from. The applicable self-hosted integration runtime version is 5.44.8984.1 or above.	No for source (if "query" in source is specified), Yes for sink
reportId	The ID of the Salesforce report to retrieve data from. It isn't supported in sink. There are limitations when you use reports. The applicable self-hosted integration runtime version is 5.44.8984.1 or above.	No for source (if "query" in source is specified), not support sink

Example:

{
    "name": "SalesforceDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SalesforceV2Object",
        "typeProperties": {
            "objectApiName": "MyTable__c"
        },
        "schema": [],
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<Salesforce linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        }
    }
}

Copy activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Salesforce source and sink.

Salesforce as a source type

To copy data from Salesforce, set the source type in the copy activity to SalesforceV2Source. The following properties are supported in the copy activity source section.

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the copy activity source must be set to SalesforceV2Source.	Yes
query	Use the custom query to read data. You can only use Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) query with limitations. For SOQL limitations, see this article. If query isn't specified, all the data of the Salesforce object specified in "objectApiName/reportId" in dataset is retrieved.	No (if "objectApiName/reportId" in the dataset is specified)
includeDeletedObjects	Indicates whether to query the existing records, or query all records including the deleted ones. If not specified, the default behavior is false. Allowed values: false (default), true.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromSalesforce",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Salesforce input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "SalesforceV2Source",
                "query": "SELECT Col_Currency__c, Col_Date__c, Col_Email__c FROM AllDataType__c",
                "includeDeletedObjects": false
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Salesforce as a sink type

To copy data to Salesforce, set the sink type in the copy activity to SalesforceV2Sink. The following properties are supported in the copy activity sink section.

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the copy activity sink must be set to SalesforceV2Sink.	Yes
writeBehavior	The write behavior for the operation. Allowed values are Insert and Upsert.	No (default is Insert)
externalIdFieldName	The name of the external ID field for the upsert operation. The specified field must be defined as "External ID Field" in the Salesforce object. It can't have NULL values in the corresponding input data.	Yes for "Upsert"
writeBatchSize	The row count of data written to Salesforce in each batch. Suggest set this value from 10,000 to 200,000. Too few rows in each batch reduces copy performance. Too many rows in each batch may cause API timeout.	No (default is 100,000)
ignoreNullValues	Indicates whether to ignore NULL values from input data during a write operation. Allowed values are true and false. - True: Leave the data in the destination object unchanged when you do an upsert or update operation. Insert a defined default value when you do an insert operation. - False: Update the data in the destination object to NULL when you do an upsert or update operation. Insert a NULL value when you do an insert operation.	No (default is false)
maxConcurrentConnections	The upper limit of concurrent connections established to the data store during the activity run. Specify a value only when you want to limit concurrent connections.	No

Example: Salesforce sink in a copy activity

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyToSalesforce",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Salesforce output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "<source type>"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "SalesforceV2Sink",
                "writeBehavior": "Upsert",
                "externalIdFieldName": "CustomerId__c",
                "writeBatchSize": 10000,
                "ignoreNullValues": true
            }
        }
    }
]

Data type mapping for Salesforce

When you copy data from Salesforce, the following mappings are used from Salesforce data types to interim data types within the service internally. To learn about how the copy activity maps the source schema and data type to the sink, see Schema and data type mappings.

Salesforce data type	Service interim data type
Auto Number	String
Checkbox	Boolean
Currency	Decimal
Date	DateTime
Date/Time	DateTime
Email	String
ID	String
Lookup Relationship	String
Multi-Select Picklist	String
Number	Decimal
Percent	Decimal
Phone	String
Picklist	String
Text	String
Text Area	String
Text Area (Long)	String
Text Area (Rich)	String
Text (Encrypted)	String
URL	String

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

Upgrade the Salesforce linked service

Here are steps that help you upgrade your linked service and related queries:

1. Configure the connected apps in Salesforce portal by referring to Prerequisites.

2. Create a new Salesforce linked service and configure it by referring to Linked service properties. You also need to manually update existing datasets that rely on the old linked service, editing each dataset to use the new linked service instead.

3. If you use SQL query in the copy activity source or the lookup activity that refers to the legacy linked service, you need to convert them to the SOQL query. Learn more about SOQL query from Salesforce as a source type and Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL).

4. readBehavior is replaced with includeDeletedObjects in the copy activity source or the lookup activity. For the detailed configuration, see Salesforce as a source type.

Differences between Salesforce and Salesforce (legacy)

The Salesforce connector offers new functionalities and is compatible with most features of Salesforce (legacy) connector. The following table shows the feature differences between Salesforce and Salesforce (legacy).

Salesforce	Salesforce (legacy)
Support SOQL within Salesforce Bulk API 2.0. For SOQL queries: • GROUP BY, LIMIT, ORDER BY, OFFSET, or TYPEOF clauses aren't supported. • Aggregate Functions such as COUNT() aren't supported, you can use Salesforce reports to implement them. • Date functions in GROUP BY clauses aren't supported, but they're supported in the WHERE clause. • Compound address fields or compound geolocation fields aren't supported. As an alternative, query the individual components of compound fields. • Parent-to-child relationship queries aren't supported, whereas child-to-parent relationship queries are supported.	Support both SQL and SOQL syntax.
Objects that contain binary fields aren't supported when specifying query.	Objects that contain binary fields are supported when specifying query.
Support objects within Bulk API when specifying query.	Support objects that are unsupported with Bulk API when specifying query.
Support report by selecting a report ID.	Support report query syntax, like {call "<report name>"}.

Related content

For a list of data stores supported as sources and sinks by the copy activity, see Supported data stores.