Solve Data Handling Challenges with Data Mappers
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Define common challenges in reading, transforming, and writing Salesforce data.
- Explain how Data Mappers simplify data integration and manipulation.
This module covers Omnistudio, which uses the standard runtime, and focuses on using the standard designers.
For details about similar features in Omnistudio for Managed Packages and package designers, see Omnistudio Data Mappers in Omnistudio for Managed Packages.
See Which Version of Omnistudio Do You Have? for help deciding if this badge is right for you.
Before You Start
Before you start this module, consider completing this recommended content.
Manage Salesforce Data with Data Mappers
Your business processes often need to read Salesforce data, make changes, and update records—sometimes from different objects.
For example, imagine that a customer calls a service rep at your company. That service rep needs to update the customer’s order status and account information in Salesforce. To best serve the customer and save time, the service rep wants to handle that process from a single page. How can you handle the data in that business process?
You can create your own Apex classes and actions to get the data you need. But the mapping and processing code can be difficult and time-consuming to write, even for experienced developers.
Fortunately, Omnistudio Data Mappers can help. They give you declarative tools to read, transform, and write Salesforce data without the need for complex code.
In this module, you learn the basics of Data Mappers and how they work. You start in this unit with what Data Mappers can do.
Explore Data Mapper Functionality
Omnistudio Data Mappers are a key part of Omnistudio. They help you quickly create complex rules to get, modify, and save Salesforce data with clicks, not code in the declarative Data Mapper Designer.
Data Mappers can:
- Get data from one or more Salesforce objects with field mappings and data manipulation during retrieval, without using Apex or Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) code.
- Transform and restructure data, and change specific values or formats, such as converting data from JSON to XML.
- Provide data to documents, such as DocuSign templates or PDFs.
- Write data to one or more Salesforce objects by creating and updating records, and even connecting new related records like contacts and accounts.
Data Mappers are integral to other Omnistudio components. They can be included in Integration Procedures, which bundle data processing steps. Integration Procedures can use Data Mappers’ data extraction, loading, and transformation capabilities in complex workflows. Data Mappers can also provide data for Flexcards, delivering information needed for user interfaces. In Omniscripts, too, Data Mappers can get, transform, and write data from and to Salesforce objects.
How does this work in a data flow? Check it out.
- First, a Data Mapper gets data. For example, an Omniscript calls an Omnistudio Data Mapper Extract to retrieve JSON-formatted data from Salesforce. To edit an account, the Data Mapper Extract can return details like the account name, phone number, and website.
- Next, the Omniscript captures changes and new information from the user. A service rep might update an account’s phone number or add a new website.
- Finally, a Data Mapper saves the new or changed data. The Omniscript calls an Omnistudio Data Mapper Load to write data to Salesforce from the Omniscript’s JSON-formatted data. The updated account phone number is saved back to the account.
Data Mappers are even reusable across Omnistudio projects, saving you development time. If you create a Data Mapper for a common data need—like retrieving account data—you can reuse it in any Omnistudio project that needs that data.
How do you build a Data Mapper? You use the Data Mapper Designer. In the next unit, you tour the Data Mapper Designer to learn more about how Data Mappers are constructed.