External ID is defined as a custom field that has an external ID attribute, which means it holds different record identifiers outside the salesforce. The external IDs can be used to avoid duplicate records.
What is the external ID in Salesforce?
In Salesforce, the external ID is basically a custom field that we mark as unique in order to identify the records uniquely while the data is coming from an external source.
This field mainly refers to an ID from another system. When it is checked as internal, it is automatically indexed. The field type for the external ID should be any one of the numbers, auto-number, email, or text. An object can only have seven external field IDs.
Custom fields marked as unique also count against an object limit of seven external ID fields.
We learned what Salesforce is, and we will understand why we use an external ID in Salesforce.
Why do we use an external ID in Salesforce?
The external ID in Salesforce frequently produces a unique ID, so it should be unique to every record.
When we import the custom object under the data import wizard, the external ID is used to prevent the import from creating duplicate records.
External ID is a custom field with an external ID attribute, which we marked as unique to identify the records uniquely when the data is coming from an external source.
The upset call method is used to match against the external ID fields while importing the external source.
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How to Update Records using an External ID in Salesforce
Here, we are updating records using an external ID in Salesforce.
Here are the following steps:
1. First, go to the setup, enter the Data Import wizard in the Quick Find box, and then select the Data Import Wizard option.
2. After selecting the Data import wizard, Click on the launch wizard option to import your data in easy steps.
3. After clicking on the launch wizard option, import your data into the salesforce page is open. Select the custom object. Here, we are clicking on the USA Students custom object.
4. After selecting the custom object, then update the existing records, and you can see that in the match by column, there are only two item names and Salesforce.com IDs. There is no external ID from which we can match our records.
5. To add the external ID in the match by column, select the custom object. Here, we are selecting the USA Student object and then clicking on the field and relationships.
6. After Selecting Fields & Relationships, click on the field that you want to make as an external ID. Here we are selecting the student email field and clicking on the edit option.
7. After clicking on the Edit option, go to the General options section, select the unique and external ID checkbox, and click on the Save button.
8. Again, go to setup and enter the data import wizard in the quick find box. Then, click on the launch option. The import your data page will open again. Now again, select the USA Student object, then click on update existing records, and after that, click on the match by option.
This time, the three options are visible in the list. The first is name, the second is salesforce.com ID, and the third is Student email (External ID).
9. Select the student email(external ID) option from the match and then choose the CSV file to update the records using an external ID. After that, click on the next option.
10. Edit the field mapping of the USA Student object. Under the edit column, click on the map option and map the student name.
11. After clicking on the map option, the map your field dialogue box is open. Now select the field from which we can map our object and click on the map button.
12. After mapping the object, we can review the import information. After reviewing the information, click on the Start import option.
13. After importing the information, the congratulation dialogue box is open. Click on the OK button.
14. After clicking on the on button, the bulk data load jobs page is open, inside which we can see that the external ID field is present.
In this way, we have learned how to update records using an external ID in Salesforce.
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Conclusion
I hope you read the entire article and get the complete idea of updating records using an external ID in Salesforce. I have also explained all the steps of updating records using an external ID in Salesforce.
You may also like to read the following Salesforce tutorials.
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- How to Mass Transfer Records in Salesforce
- Update Records using Quick Action in Salesforce
I am Bijay Kumar, the founder of SalesforceFAQs.com. Having over 10 years of experience working in salesforce technologies for clients across the world (Canada, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc.). I am a certified salesforce administrator and expert with experience in developing salesforce applications and projects. My goal is to make it easy for people to learn and use salesforce technologies by providing simple and easy-to-understand solutions. Check out the complete profile on About us.
