Exploring the Salesforce REST API

Exploring the
Salesforce REST
API
Jay Hurst
Director, Product Management
@extraidea

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Many customers are facing a set of challenges around
building client applications against the Salesforce REST
API.
Raise your hand if you:
• Have used the REST API in Salesforce
• Have tried to build a client application using the REST API but have
faced issues with the number of round trips
• Have a need to design efficient APIs and want to reduce the number of
API round trips to the Salesforce server
Building Streamlined APIs

Bulk
REST
Metadata
SOAP
Tooling
Streaming
INTEGRATIONLAYER
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Integration Tools
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Builder
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& Content
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Framework
Translation
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Builder
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Builder
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& Firewall
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Builder
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Console
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Identity
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base
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Salesforce1 Mobile
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MOBILE SERVICES
Community
Builder
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Builder
App Cloud Gives You Tools for Building Any App
Full spectrum of capabilities from enterprise control to elastic flexibility

REST API
• Best suited for browser or mobile applications which do not
need to access high amounts of records
• Access data over REST
• XML or JSON
• Synchronous
• Authenticate with OAuth 2.0 (connected app)
https://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api_rest/

Anatomy of a REST API Call
https://na44.salesforce.com/services/data/v37.0/sobjects/Account/0010000000ABc12
Instance of Saleforce
API Type
API Version
API Subtype
Entity
Record ID

What is a Composite API?
• An API that is built by combining existing API functions
• A single request to an API can perform multiple functions
• Orchestration of the composite APIs allow developer
controlled business logic and functionality
• Responses from one API method can be directed as inputs into another method
• Multiple APIs can be used in a single call to improve performance
• Compositions are key for designing efficient API for use in
mobile development

Salesforce Composite Resources

Batching REST Resource
• Resource which accepts multiple REST calls to execute
• A single Batch REST request can execute up to 25 sub-requests
• Sub-requests contains the resource (URI) and the method to execute
• Each sub-request is an unrelated API call
• Sub-requests are executed serially, in order, and as the running user
• As each sub-request completes, the call is committed
• Has one optional parameter
• haltOnError - indicates if the batch should stop on any error that is encountered
• The response will be a JSON object of responses from the
sub requests

Batch REST API Diagram
/services/data/v37.0/sobjects/Account
/services/data/v37.0/sobjects/Contact
/services/data/v37.0/sobjects/Case
/services/data/v37.0/sobjects/Task
/services/data/v37.0/composite/batch

Example Batch Request
{"batchRequests" : haltonerror:true, [
{"method" : "POST",
"url" : "v34.0/sobjects/account/",
"richInput" : {"Name" : "NewName", "Industry" : "Tech"}},
{"method" : "GET",
"url" : "v34.0/sobjects/account/describe/"},
{"method" : "GET",
"url" : "v34.0/query?q=select id, name, industry from
account order by createddate desc limit 10"
}]
}

Example Successful Batch Response
{"hasErrors" : false,
"results" : [{
"statusCode" : 201,
"result": {"id" : "001B0000003xiArIAI”, "success" : true, "errors" : [ ]}
},
{
"statusCode" : 200,
"result": {"actionOverrides" : [ ], "activateable" : false, ...,
"undeletable" : true, "updateable" : true}
},
{
"statusCode" : 200,
"result": {"totalSize" : 10, "done" : true,
"records" : [{
"attributes" : {"type" : "Account”, "url" : "/services/data/v34.0/
sobjects/Account/001B0000003xiArIAI”},
...
}]
}
}]
}

Example Unsuccessful Batch Response
{"hasErrors" : true,
"results" : [{
"result" : [{"message" : "Required fields are missing: [Name]”,"errorCode" :
"REQUIRED_FIELD_MISSING",
"fields" : [ "Name" ]}],
"statusCode" : 400
},{
"result”:[{"message”:"Cannot access this resource in a batch request”,
"errorCode”: "INVALID_BATCH_REQUEST”}],
"statusCode" : 400
},{
"result" : [{
"message" : "nselect ids, name, industry from accountn^nERROR at Row:
1:Column:8nNo such column 'ids' on entity 'Account'. If you are
attempting to use a custom field, be sure to append the
'__c' after the custom field name. Please reference your WSDL or
the describe call for the appropriate names.”, "errorCode" :
"INVALID_FIELD"}],
"statusCode" : 400
}]}

TreeSave REST Resource
• Creates SObject trees with the same top level object type
• A recursive data structure that contains a root record, its data, and its child
records represented as other sObject trees
• The REST resource manages all of the ID creations and mapping
• Create an Account, Contact, Opportunity, and Note in a single call
• The request can contain the following:
• Up to a total of 200 records across all trees
• Up to five records of different types
• SObject trees up to five levels deep
• You can create 200 top level records, by only providing the top level

TreeSave API Diagram
/services/data/v37.0/composite/tree/Account

Using the TreeSave REST Resource
• The dev provides the record relations via a reference ID
• ReferenceId is used to link related records and to return errors
• Only Insert is supported
• Triggers, processes, and workflow rules fire separately for each of the
object levels
• EX – All triggers fire for all the top level records, then all fire for the second level
records, then third, etc…
• All records are rolled back on any error
• Error will indicate which referenceId had the error so that the developer can take
the appropriate action

Example TreeSave Request
{"records" :[
{"attributes" : {"type" : "Account", "referenceId" : "ref1"},
"name" : "SampleAccount”, "phone" : "1234567890”, "website" :
"www.salesforce.com", "numberOfEmployees”: "100”, "type" : "Analyst”,
"industry" : "Banking",
"Contacts" : {
"records" : [
{"attributes" : {"type" : "Contact", "referenceId" : "ref2"},
"lastname" : "Smith”, "title" : "President”, "email" :
"sample@salesforce.com" },
{"attributes" : {"type" : "Contact", "referenceId" : "ref3"},
"lastname" : "Evans”, "title" : "Vice President”, "email" :
"sample@salesforce.com”}]
}},
{"attributes" : {"type" : "Account", "referenceId" : "ref4"},
"name”: "SampleAccount2”, "phone”: "1234567890”, "website" :
"www.salesforce2.com", "numberOfEmployees”: "100”, "type" : "Analyst”,
"industry" : "Banking”}]
}

Example Successful TreeSave Response
{
"hasErrors" : false,
"results" : [ {
"referenceId" : "ref1",
"id" : "001B0000003xiAwIAI"
}, {
"id" : "001B0000003xiAxIAI"
}, {
"id" : "003B0000003l3L5IAI"
}, {
"id" : "003B0000003l3L6IAI"
} ]
}

Example Unsuccessful TreeSave Response
{
"hasErrors" : true,
"results" : [ {
"errors" : [ {
"statusCode" : "REQUIRED_FIELD_MISSING",
"message" : "Required fields are missing: [Name]",
"fields" : [ "Name" ]
} ]
} ]
}

Current Composite APIs on Salesforce
• There are a number of existing Composite resources
• The Batching REST resource allows for the sending of multiple REST calls in a
single round trip
• The calls are unrelated, simply reduces round trips
• The TreeSave REST resource allows creation of multiple records in a single call
• Limited to insert and all-or-none saves
• Apex REST can be used to build custom logic
• Requires complete design by the developer

Building a Composite API on Salesforce
• A new API which will be a combination of Batch and
TreeSave
• Outputs from one API call can be Inputs into another using the developer
assigned referenceId
• Ex - @Account1.id can be used in a later query, as a reference field, or in an action
• Friendly URLs will assist in navigating the resource hierarchy
• Ability to crawl the resource tree easily
• Ex - /services/data/v36.0/sobjects/Account/001X00000000123/Contacts will give you a list
of all Contacts on a the designated Account
• This will allow multiple CRUD operations to collections
• This will allow a simple layer of orchestration to the REST API

Composite REST API Diagram
/services/data/v37.0/query/?q=select id
from account limit 4
/services/data/v37.0/sobjects/Case/describ
e
/services/data/v37.0/tree/Account
Query
Describe

Composite API Request
{"compositeRequest" : [{
"type" : "rest", "method" : "POST",
"url" : "/v30.0/sobjects/Account",
"referenceId" : "Account1",
"richInput" : {"Name" : "Salesforce"}
},{
"type" : "rest", "method" : "PATCH",
"referenceId" : "Contact1",
"url" : "/v30.0/sobjects/Contact/0030000000AB3d",
"richInput" : {"accountId" : "@{Account1.Id}"}
},{
"type" : "rest", "method" : "GET",
"referenceId" : "ContactsOfAccount1",
"url" : "/v30.0/sobjects/Account/@{Account1.Id}/Contacts"
}]}

Example Successful Composite Response
[{
"id" : "001B000000E8mNSIAZ",
"success" : true,
"errors" : [ ]
},
null,
{
"totalSize" : 1,
"done" : true,
"records" : [ {
"attributes" : {
"type" : "Contact",
"url" : "/services/data/v37.0/sobjects/Contact/003B0000006dUZMIA2"
},
"Id" : "003B0000006dUZMIA2",
…
} ]
} ]

What did we Learn?
• What is the Salesforce REST API
• Existing Features that begin to support
composite actions
• Batching API
• TreeSave API
• Composite API
• Demos of existing resources

Exploring the Salesforce REST API

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