Preforming Bulk data transactions with SalesForce using .Net C#

Question

I am new to SalesForce (3 months).

Thus far I have been able to create an application in C# that I can use to preform Inserts and Updates to the SalesForce database. These transactions are one at a time.

No I have the need to preform large scale transactions. For example updating thousands of records at a time. Doing them one by one would quickly put us over our allotted API calls per 24 hour period.

I want to utilize the available bulk transactions process to cut down on the number of API calls. Thus far I have not had much luck coding this nor have I found any such documentation.

If anyone could either provide some generic examples or steer me to reliable documentation on the subject I would greatly appreciate it.

FYI, the data I need to use to do the updates and inserts comes from an IBM Unidata database sitting on an AIX machine. So direct web services communication is not realy possible. Getting the data from Unidata has been my headache. I have that worked out. Now the bulk api to SalesForce is my new headache.

Thanks in advance.

Jeff

Answer 1

You don't mention which API you're currently using, but using the soap partner or enterprise APIs you can write records to salesforce 200 at a time. (the create/update/upsert calls all take an array of SObjects).

Using the bulk API you can send data in chunks of thousands of rows at a time.

You can find the documentation for both sets of APIs here

Answer 2

The answers already given are a good start; however, are you sure you need to actually write a custom app that uses the bulk API? The salesforce data loader is a pretty robust tool, includes a command line interface, and can use either the "normal" or bulk data API's. Unless you are needing to do fancy logic as part of your insert/updates, or some sort of more real-time / on-demand loading, the data loader is going to be a better option than a custom app.

Answer 3

(this is the SOAP code though, not the Salesforce "Bulk API" ; careful not to confuse the two)

Mighy be below code provide clear insight on how to do bulk insertion.

/// Demonstrates how to create one or more Account records via the API  

public void CreateAccountSample()
{
    Account account1 = new Account();
    Account account2 = new Account();

    // Set some fields on the account1 object. Name field is not set  

    // so this record should fail as it is a required field.  

    account1.BillingCity = "Wichita";
    account1.BillingCountry = "US";
    account1.BillingState = "KA";
    account1.BillingStreet = "4322 Haystack Boulevard";
    account1.BillingPostalCode = "87901";

    // Set some fields on the account2 object  

    account2.Name = "Golden Straw";
    account2.BillingCity = "Oakland";
    account2.BillingCountry = "US";
    account2.BillingState = "CA";
    account2.BillingStreet = "666 Raiders Boulevard";
    account2.BillingPostalCode = "97502";

    // Create an array of SObjects to hold the accounts  

    sObject[] accounts = new sObject[2];
    // Add the accounts to the SObject array  

    accounts[0] = account1;
    accounts[1] = account2;

    // Invoke the create() call  

    try
    {
        SaveResult[] saveResults = binding.create(accounts);

        // Handle the results  

        for (int i = 0; i < saveResults.Length; i++)
        {
            // Determine whether create() succeeded or had errors  

            if (saveResults[i].success)
            {
                // No errors, so retrieve the Id created for this record  

                Console.WriteLine("An Account was created with Id: {0}",
                    saveResults[i].id);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Item {0} had an error updating", i);

                // Handle the errors  

                foreach (Error error in saveResults[i].errors)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Error code is: {0}",
                        error.statusCode.ToString());
                    Console.WriteLine("Error message: {0}", error.message);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch (SoapException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(e.Code);
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    }
}

Answer 4

Please find the small code which may help you to insert the data into salesforce objects using c# and WSDL APIs. I stuck to much to write code in c#. I assigned using direct index after spiting you can use your ways.

I split the column using | (pipe sign). You may change this and also <br>, \n, etc. (row and column breaking)

Means you can enter N rows which are in your HTML/text file. I wrote the program to add order by my designers who put the order on other website and fetch the data from e-commerce website and who has no interface for the salesforce to add/view the order records. I created one object for the same. and add following columns in the object.

Your suggestions are welcome.

private SforceService binding;                    // declare the salesforce servive using your access credential

try
                {
                    string stroppid = "111111111111111111";
                    System.Net.HttpWebRequest fr;
                    Uri targetUri = new Uri("http://abc.xyz.com/test.html");
                    fr = (System.Net.HttpWebRequest)System.Net.HttpWebRequest.Create(targetUri);
                    if ((fr.GetResponse().ContentLength > 0))
                    {

                        System.IO.StreamReader str = new System.IO.StreamReader(fr.GetResponse().GetResponseStream());
                        string allrow = str.ReadToEnd();
                        string  stringSeparators = "<br>";

                        string[] row1 = Regex.Split(allrow, stringSeparators);
                        CDI_Order_Data__c[] cord = new CDI_Order_Data__c[row1.Length - 1];

                        for (int i = 1; i < row1.Length-1; i++)
                        {
                            string colstr = row1[i].ToString();
                            string[] allcols = Regex.Split(colstr, "\\|");

                                cord[i] = new CDI_Order_Data__c(); // Very important to create object
                                cord[i].Opportunity_Job_Order__c = stroppid;
                                cord[i].jobid__c = stroppid;
                                cord[i].order__c = allcols[0].ToString();
                                cord[i].firstname__c = allcols[1].ToString();
                                cord[i].name__c = allcols[2].ToString();
                                DateTime dtDate = Convert.ToDateTime(allcols[3]);
                                cord[i].Date__c = new DateTime(Convert.ToInt32(dtDate.Year), Convert.ToInt32(dtDate.Month), Convert.ToInt32(dtDate.Day), 0, 0, 0); //sforcedate(allcols[3]); //XMLstringToDate(allcols[3]);
                                cord[i].clientpo__c = allcols[4].ToString();
                                cord[i].billaddr1__c = allcols[5].ToString();
                                cord[i].billaddr2__c = allcols[6].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].billcity__c = allcols[7].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].billstate__c = allcols[8].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].billzip__c = allcols[9].ToString();
                                cord[i].phone__c = allcols[10].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].fax__c = allcols[11].ToString();
                                cord[i].email__c = allcols[12].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].contact__c = allcols[13].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].lastname__c = allcols[15].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].Rep__c = allcols[16].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].sidemark__c = allcols[17].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].account__c = allcols[18].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].item__c = allcols[19].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].kmatid__c = allcols[20].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].qty__c = Convert.ToDouble(allcols[21]);
                                cord[i].Description__c = allcols[22].ToString();
                                cord[i].price__c = Convert.ToDouble(allcols[23]);
                                cord[i].installation__c = allcols[24].ToString(); 
                                cord[i].freight__c = allcols[25].ToString();
                                cord[i].discount__c = Convert.ToDouble(allcols[26]);
                                cord[i].salestax__c = Convert.ToDouble(allcols[27]);
                                cord[i].taxcode__c = allcols[28].ToString();
                        }
                        try {
                            SaveResult[] saveResults = binding.create(cord);

                      }
                      catch (Exception ce)
                      {
                            Response.Write("Buld order update errror" +ce.Message.ToString());
                            Response.End();
                      }

                       if (str != null) str.Close();
                   }