Salesforce OData, External Objects & Lightning Connect

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Product Developer
Remedyforce
@Prasanna__d
April 18 / 2015
Prasanna Deshpande
OData, External Objects
& Lightning Connect

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Session outline
• OData
• Specification
• Designing
• External objects
• Advance External objects
• Lightning Connect
• Demo

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01
oData

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OData specification
From OData.org
OData is a standardized protocol for creating and consuming data APIs. OData builds on core protocols like HTTP and
commonly accepted methodologies like REST. The result is a uniform way to expose full-featured data APIs.
Standardization effort
This was proposed by Microsoft in 2009, OASIS standardized it 2014.

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OData block diagram

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OData over REST

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OData v2.0 URI – conventions
• Metadata of the service
• http://services.odata.org/OData/OData.svc/ and http://services.odata.org/OData/OData.svc/$m
etadata
• Query Examples
• http://services.odata.org/OData/OData.svc/Categories - Brings all categories
• http://services.odata.org/OData/OData.svc/Categories(1) – Brings category with key 1
• http://services.odata.org/OData/OData.svc/Categories(1)/Name - Brings Name for the category
with key 1

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OData adoption
• Microsoft
• SAP
• Red Hat
• IBM
• Salesforce

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OData developer libraries
• Java – Apache Olingo, odata4j
• .NET – WCF services, AdaptiveLINQ, OData client code
generator
• Javascript – ODatajs beta, datajs, JayData, node-odata
• C++ - ODatacpp
• Python - ODatapy

10. Producers -
• Cloud Drivers
• IBM DB2 & Infomix
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• SAP NetWeaver Gateway
• SharePoint
• SQL Server 2012
• Teiid (JBOSS)
• Team Foundation Server
• Windows Azure Table Storage
Consumers-
• ADO.NET Driver
• JDBC Driver
• Joomla
• Lightning Connect
• Drupal
• Excel Add-In
• Modern Browsers
• Telerik Reporting
OData Ecosystem

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External Objects
02

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What are External Objects
• An Alternative to ETL ▪ Extract-Transform-Load is very popular
for data synchronization
• Using External Objects for Integration Expose OData or
proprietary data in your Salesforce org
• Using the meta data model (EDM) exposed by OData service,
the platform can create a custom object & fields. This object
will have an extension __x which is differentiated from custom
object __c.

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What I can do with External objects

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External Objects Limits
• At max 100 external objects can be defined per org
• External objects are read-only
• Note, attachments, workflows, apex sharing rules, approval process, record level
security, field level security, triggers etc. are not supported
• Formula field cannot reference External objects
• Auto number, encrypted field, Text area, Formula, geolocation, master-detailed
etc. fieldtypes are not supported
More info here

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External Objects lookup fields
• Mainly two type of external lookup relationship
• External lookup relationship - An external lookup relationship links
a child standard, custom, or external object to a parent external
object
• Indirect lookup relationships - An indirect lookup relationship links a
child external object to a parent standard or custom object.

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03
Lightning Connect Demo

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Thank You
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Bring IT to Life.™

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Bring IT to Life

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20. • OData – http://odata.org
• OData URI conventions - http://www.odata.org/documentation/odata-
version-2-0/uri-conventions
• Slides referred - http://www.slideshare.net/metadaddy/odata-a-standard-api-
for-data-access , http://www.slideshare.net/developerforce/df13-using-
external-objects-for-integration-mt
• Tutorial - http://developerforce.github.io/lightning-connect-
tutorial/index.html
References:
18 April 2015 Twitter: @Prasanna__d20