Importing & Manipulating Data

Data Import Wizards

There are now two import wizards in Salesforce:

  1. Import Accounts & Contacts
    • This wizard is specifically designed to accept pre-formatted data from common contact data sources (Outlook, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc.).
      • Up to 50,000 records can be imported each session.
        [sc:link id=https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewHelpDoc?id=faq_data_import_wizard_how_many_records.htm&language=en_US text=”How many records can I import?”]
        [Could / Short / Salesforce.com]
  2. Data Import Wizard
    • This is a general-use wizard and can import records into the following objects:
      • Accounts
      • Contacts
      • Leads
      • Solutions
      • Custom Objects
    • [sc:link id=http://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/ARIjWm2qrDkJVJxEhReFug text=”Data Import How To Series”]
      [Should / ~15m / Salesforce.com]

In 2015, Salesforce revamped the existing data import wizards, launching the wizards above.  The existing “legacy” import wizards were retired completely in the Winter ’16 release.

Data Manipulation Wizards

The following [sc:linkbox id=http://beta.certifiedondemand.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2015-08-15_15-23-04.png text=”wizards”] are available through the user interface:

[table id=40 /]

Note that many standard objects are not supported by several of the wizards.  For instance, you cannot mass transfer opportunities (although the account transfer wizard will allow you transfer opportunities related to an account).

Data Loader

The data loader is purely a data manipulation tool.  It gives the administrator a great deal of flexibility (almost all objects and data can be accessed) but provides little to no guidance in how to achieve a specific task (e.g. using the Import Accounts & Contacts wizard will automatically establish the relationship between an imported contact and an account; this relationship needs to be established within the data via a Salesforce ID or an External ID when using the data loader).

As of the Summer ’15 Release, the Data Loader is now available for Windows and Mac (previously not available for Mac).

Where to get the Data Loader

  1. Navigate to Setup –> Data Management –> Data Loader
  2. Download & Install

1-24-2013 12-36-37 PM

Data Loader Operations

[table id=39 /]

Wizards vs. Data Loader

The Data Loader is a desktop tool that uses the API to interact with Salesforce data.  Your computer is requesting and making the changes to Salesforce data, whereas when using the import wizards you upload a file and it is then processed server-side by Salesforce.  This is important for a few reasons:

  • You need the API in order to use the Data Loader (typically Enterprise Edition or higher, or a cost for lower editions).
  • The wizards offer options that are not available via the Data Loader (e.g. disable workflow rules when loading data — workflow rules will always be triggered by the Data Loader).
  • The permissions are different.  Access to the wizards are driven by specific permissions (e.g. ‘Import Personal Contacts’ and ‘Import Leads’ permissions on profile/permission set), while Data Loader permissions are driven by the global ‘API Enabled’ permission on profile/permission set.
  • The import wizards can load files with up to 50,000 records per job.  Transfer wizards can transfer up to 250 records at a time.  The Data Loader, however, can process up to 5 million records per job.  Therefore, if you need to process large volumes of data (e.g. create 250k accounts or transfer 10k accounts), use the Data Loader.
  • An administrator can save mapping using the Data Loader and even schedule jobs on a local server

Other Data Manipulation Tools

[table id=45 /]

Note:  The above tools are used for data manipulation.  For data cleansing tools, see [link id=4171].

69 thoughts on “Importing & Manipulating Data”

  1. Hi John,
    how come i do not see Import My Accounts & Contacts under My Settings > Import? I use a developer org and our training org. Is this something we need to activate? I only see Data Import Wizard on both envts.

    Jobelyn

  4. There are some WordPress errors at the end of this page. I don’t know if you had intended more content on this page or these are just errors that need to be removed.

  7. In your statement- The wizards offer options that are not available via the Data Loader (e.g. the ability to specify which lead assignment rule to process)

    I guess we can specify the assignment rule ID in the Data Loader. Can you please confirm if your above statement is correct?

    1. I believe you can trigger the lead assignment rule with data loader- removed that segment. There is some automation (e.g. matching on name) that the import wizard can do though, and data loader cannot.

  8. HI Jhon

    Thanks for all the content much appreciated.
    I was wondering if you could help.
    Lets say you wanted to integrate 2 databases, so contact object in SF whilst the other is FTP source with a flat file which which has contacts.
    I wanted to import the external ids by matching the names from the FTP source into the the Contacts in salesforce. If the names match then upsert and i would map over the the external ID.

    From then on, i would use the external ID to match and upsert since the ID is already.

    Jhon in your experrience how is this process typically done via an ETL tool? Whats the process of integrating an sql database lets say or FTP source with a flat file with an object in salesforce. Most importantly how would I map the records in the other database to salesforce if salesforce does not have the ID’s from the other database. The simplest way I could think of was the above scenario.
    Would be grateful for your advice or from other members thanks.

    1. Typically an ETL tool- yes. You’d need an intermediate tool that could interface with FTP (direct to another database such as SQL is often easier). The mapping between the fields and the actions that are processed would all be determined by the ETL tool.

      In the config for the ETL job, you would want to specify the action (UPSERT) with the mapping to the external ID. Specifying the UPSERT action would then allow you to match the ID of the source (FTP or SQL for example) to the custom external ID field. Hope that makes sense!

  10. In the note : “Note that many standard objects are not supported by several of the wizards. For instance, you cannot mass transfer opportunities (although the account transfer wizard will allow you transfer opportunities related to an account).”

    What is the account transfer wizard? It does not appear in your ‘transfer wizard list’. Is this perhaps the same as the Import Account/Contacts wizard?

  11. In the section “Each of the import wizards has slightly different options for preventing duplicate records”
    when I test this via my dev org and go to Setup > Personal Setup > Import > Import My Accounts & Contacts I do not see the screen that you provided in order to manage duplication.
    How can I do this?

    1. Ignore the above.
      On further video watching I realized they meant the Setup page of the workflow rule itself (in order to deactivate it so it does not trigger) and not, as I thought any setup associated with the Data loader itself.

  15. Hi, Minor spelling mistake

    Under section 1
    Import Accounts and Contacts

    How many contat and business account records can I import?

    Should read

    How many <> and business account records can I import?

  16. In my Dev Org when I browsed into Mass Transfer / Delete /Update Addresses the displayed options/links are different than what has been recorded here. My Dev Org shows:
    Mass Transfer: Accounts, Leads, Macros, Streaming Channels.
    Mass Delete: Accounts, Leads, Activities, Contacts, Cases, Solutions, Products, Reports.
    Mass Update Addresses: accounts, contacts, contracts (active & inactive), leads, orders (active & draft).
    Is this a recent change in Salesforce or different editions showing choices ?

  17. I think it is worth noting that end users have the ability to ‘Import My Accounts & Contacts’ (up to 500) without access to the setup menu. A couple other differences between the Data Loader & Import Wizards are worth pointing out such as handling of duplicates (Import Wizard can dedup), Import Wizard asks whether to disable workflow & validation rules. Data Loader can save field mapping and set up a schedule.

    1. Just to confirm:
      validation rules run when Data Loader and Import Wizards are used, but only the Import Wizard gives you the option of turning VR off?

    3. Hi Bruce,
      Does this mean that there is a difference between import by end-user and import by administrator via the Import individual wizards?
      According to the documentation it says import wizard is up to 50K?

    4. Bruce, disregard my question above, I found the reply just now and later in this section by John, it is indeed 500 for users and 50K for administrators.

  18. Since you are discussing ‘data manipulation’ in a broad sense, you might as well include the other 2 data wizards ‘ Mass Reassign Acct Teams’ and ‘ Mass Reassign Oppty Teams’.

  19. In addition to the objects that you have listed that can be imported via the user interface
    Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Solutions and Custom Objects, the object ‘Articles’ also has a object specific import wizard.

  20. It seems that another reason to use Data Loader–even if your job is smaller, is if you want to load something that Data Import Wizard doesn’t support–all the rest besides Account/Contact, Lead, Solutions, Custom Objects. Is this something that might weigh into a test answer? I saw a Quizlet card that asked what you could do with Data Loader, Import 50,000 or less was a wrong answer. But you would use it for less if you wanted/needed to. Right?

  21. Hi John
    I attempted the exam few months ago and remember a question i couldn’t answer.
    Tried searching for it but no luck. Hope you can help. Thanks

    Q) What happens if while importing, Wizard or Data Loader comes across an error.

    1)No impact on Importing process and it keeps going
    2)The import interrupts and stops
    3) Import resumes after fixing the error from the point where it stopped

    1. If you get an error in processing with the data loader, those errors are handled on a line by line basis. For example, if you are updating 1000 records – and 600 of them have errors, then 400 will be processed. The process doesn’t stop when an error is detected, but those 600 lines with errors will not have any impact in system.

          1. This question is similar to one still on the test but it pertains to a validation error. And one of answers was it would continue but not import those with the validation error. Is that correct?

  23. I am using a Developer edition.

    When trying to import a bunch of users into my Org, I assigned the License Type = Chatter Free.
    However during the import, get an error “License Limit Exceeded”.

    I cannot assign a Salesforce license either since there are only 2 available.
    How do we go about importing users to the Org please ?

    1. Daniel- good question. I haven’t specifically tested this, but I would be surprised if an API-based change to data did not also feed Chatter. I know for certain that API-based changes do update field history tracking. If you get a chance to test that I’d love to know the results.

  25. Is there any reason why the Import Wizard covers the objects that it does? Why not import all standard objects, for example? I’m finding it hard to memorize because it seems so random.

    Thanks,
    Kaira

    1. Some aspects of Salesforce are a bit random. They likely developed organically based on customer needs and priorities at the time that seem random years later.

      I wouldn’t worry about memorizing everything though – I high doubt that you will be asked a question where you need to know that a specific data wizard doesn’t work on X object. The questions will be more focused around what methods exist and generally speaking what the best approach would be.

Leave a Reply