Integrating Salesforce.com With WebFOCUS

By Clif Kranish

Salesforce.com is the worldwide leader in on-demand or software-as-a-service (SaaS) customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. Companies of all types and sizes turn to salesforce.com for fully integrated, completely customizable, on-demand applications that improve key customer-facing processes across the enterprise.

Now, with Information Builders’ IWAF (iWay Adapter Framework) Adapter for Salesforce, you can use Salesforce applications as a data source for integration with other internal and external systems and for Business Intelligence.

The IWAF adapters use Java, so if you don’t have at least the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed, you will need to get that from java.com and add its location to your path. Then be sure you have a DataMigrator or WebFOCUS Server Release 7.7.03M gen 689 or later. Two additional open-source programs are required, and you can obtain them from Information Builders Technical Support.

Once you are ready to start, the first step is to add the IWAF adapter. From the Data Management Console, using an administrator user ID, connect to your server and expand Adapters, Available, Procedures, IWAF. Right-click on IWAF and click Configure, OK, Restart Java Services and OK.

Next, under Adapters, Configured, select IWAF and right-click, and then select Add Adapter. A dialogue appears that shows all the available IWAF adapters. Select iwsforce and click Next. Now you can select the type of adapter, which for this example is service. (The other choice is event, which allows you to capture a change made to a Salesforce business object whenever it occurs.) Then click Next and enter your Salesforce user ID, password and security token. Click Configure, Restart Java Services and OK.

Now we’re ready to create a synonym for a Salesforce business object. Expand Adapters, IWAF, iwsforce. Right-click on CON01 and select Create Synonym. The Select Synonym Candidates for IWAF window opens (Screen 1). Here you see a list of all the Salesforce business objects. Expand Account to see a list of the methods for the object.

Screen 1

Select Create_Account and click on Create Synonym. The Create Synonym for IWAF window opens. Use the defaults and click on Create Synonym. The message “Created Successfully” appears and you can click Open First Synonym.

Screen 2

Note that IWAF synonyms are procedure-based like those for database stored procedures or Web services. Input and output parameters are clearly identified in the hierarchical structure of the metadata. See Screen 2.

To see the salesforce data, right-click under Name and select Sample Data. A dialogue appears with the names of the input parameters. At least one must be supplied.

Screen 3

Click the checkbox for INPUT.ISDELETED (Screen 3) and type “false” under Value to display all the active records. Click Sample Data. A report appears. See Screen 4.

Screen 4

Once you have created the synonym, a Salesforce business object can be used as a source for a DataMigrator flow either alone or joined to other data sources.

Screen 5

DataMigrator can copy data from any local data source to Salesforce business objects (using a Create or Update method). See Screen 5.

Any Salesforce business object can be used as a source for WebFOCUS reports using a Retrieve method. An input parameter is used to restrict the records retrieved. All aggregation, sorting and filtering operations can be performed on the retrieved answer set. See Screen 6.

Screen 6