Why do we use external ID in Salesforce?
The ‘External ID’ field may be used to reference an ID from another, external system. External IDs are searchable in Salesforce and you can also use the Upsert API call with the External ID to refer to records when making changes via Data Loader.
What are external IDs?
External ID in Salesforce is a custom field that has the “External ID” attribute checked meaning that it contains unique record identifiers from a system outside of Salesforce. When we select this option the import wizard will detect existing records in Salesforce that have the same External Identification.
How does upsert work with external IDs in Salesforce?
When the upsert operation is performed, Salesforce will automatically look up the related account id by matching on a record whose External ID field equals the value in your file. The Excel VLOOKUP magic is done automatically for you by Salesforce!
How to insert or update a record using an external ID?
You can use the sObject Rows by External ID resource to create records or update existing records (upsert) based on the value of a specified external ID field. If the external ID is not matched, then a new record is created according to the request body.
How do you use an identifier on a contact?
Launch the program then click the Upsert button then choose the object whose records you’re loading. In this example, we’re upserting contacts. On the next screen, the program will ask which field on the contact to use as the identifier. You can choose between the standard id field or any external id field that may exist on the contact object.
What is the status code for external ID?
The request uses updates.json to specify the updated field values. In API version 45.0 and earlier, the HTTP status code is 204 (No Content) and there is no response body. If the external ID value isn’t unique, an HTTP status code 300 is returned, plus a list of the records that matched the query.