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Are you looking to integrate data from another system into Salesforce? I’ll show you how to use
Progress DataDirect Cloud to incorporate data from an external source (even those behind a
corporate firewall) into Salesforce, leveraging Salesforce Lightning Connect.
DataDirect Cloud provides access to data stored in a variety of systems and applications.
Salesforce simplifies the integration of these external data sources with Lightning Connect, using
OData technology, which makes it easy to fetch data, in real-time, without the need to duplicate
or change the data.
I’m logged into DataDirect Cloud, and have already configured an on-premise Oracle data
source. Now I want to be able to access data from this source, pulling it into Salesforce. I’ll walk
you through the steps. I Edit the data source connection and define the OData connection
parameters.
On the OData tab, I click Configure Schema to define which elements of the Oracle database I
want to expose through this connection.
From the Schema drop-down menu, I select the name of the data structure relevant to my
application.
DataDirect Cloud displays the tables and columns available. I can choose the ones I require or I
can Select All. I don’t need everything, so I select the tables containing Order and Inventory
information. Each selected table must contain a primary key. If a gold key icon appears in a
column or columns, DataDirect Cloud automatically detects the primary key as defined in the
source. For tables without the icon, I must identify the primary key by selecting the columns,
which are identified with a blue key icon. By default, DataDirect Cloud uses the table name to
generate a Singular value and a Plural value to identify each object, or you can define your own
values.
With my tables selected, I click Save & Close. DataDirect Cloud populates the Schema Map
based on my selections. I can now Update my data source.
For more details about OData parameters, watch the video Configuring a Progress DataDirect
Cloud data source for use with the OData API.
With the DataDirect Cloud data source definition OData enabled, I must construct a URL, or
OData URI, to supply to Salesforce to establish the connection. The structure for this is the base
URL, with the data source name appended to it, as you see here.
Now I’ll set up the connection in Salesforce to go through DataDirect Cloud to access the Oracle
data. I’m already logged into my developer account in Salesforce. Under Setup, I navigate to the
Build section, expand Develop, and select External Data Sources.
I click New External Data Source and enter the required information.
For Type, I select Lighting Connect: OData 2.0 from the drop-down menu.
Under the Parameters, I type the URL for my Oracle data source definition in the Server URL
field.
Copyright © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights Reserved.
I change the Format to JSON, which is the standard used by DataDirect Cloud.
Under Authentication, I set the Identity Type to Named Principle and the Authentication
Protocol to Password Authentication.
I enter my credentials to access DataDirect Cloud and click Save.
Now I can Validate and Sync, which automatically creates External Objects based on my Oracle
data source.
I select the necessary tables and click Sync.
Using my DataDirect Cloud connection to my local Oracle database, I have now mapped objects
that are available to a variety of Salesforce tools, including relationship lookups, record feeds, the
Salesforce1 app, SOSL and SOQL queries, and Salesforce APIs.
As a force.com developer or Salesforce Admin, you can now incorporate these objects to retrieve
the data in real-time, when and where you need them.
For other helpful videos on DataDirect Cloud, search our user assistance library.
This completes our look at how to use DataDirect Cloud to integrate data into Salesforce, using
Lightning Connect. Thanks for watching!
Copyright © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights Reserved.