This presentation discusses OData, external objects, and Lightning Connect in Salesforce. It provides an overview of the OData specification and standard, how to design OData services, and how external objects and Lightning Connect allow integrating external data in Salesforce in a read-only manner. It demos Lightning Connect and notes limitations of external objects.

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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