Examine an Integration Use Case

Learning Objectives 

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe the challenge of keeping new or updated accounts in Salesforce in sync with customers in NetSuite.
• Explain how to use MuleSoft Composer to sync new or updated accounts in Salesforce with customers in NetSuite.
• Prepare to create a flow.

Before You Start

This module builds on MuleSoft Composer Installation and Configuration, so make sure you've completed it before you continue. Recall from that module, you need to have the MuleSoft Composer User permission set if you want to build and run integration flows. 

In this module, we assume you’re an authorized MuleSoft Composer user. If you’re not a MuleSoft Composer user, that’s OK. Read along to learn how they perform the steps. Don’t try to follow the steps in a Trailhead Playground, because MuleSoft Composer isn't available in the Trailhead Playground.

In this unit, you step into the role of admin for Northern Trail Outfitters (NTO), an outdoor and recreational gear retailer. First, you examine an integration challenge faced by NTO, and then you learn about a MuleSoft Composer integration solution. Finally, you learn how to prepare to create your flow.

Integration Challenge

Let’s take a look at an integration challenge NTO is facing. For best customer relationship management, your sales team at NTO uses Sales Cloud to manage and maintain accounts. The team also uses NetSuite to manage and maintain customers. 

Currently, the sales team is performing these tasks manually. Every time there’s a new or updated account, a sales rep first creates or updates the account with relevant details in Sales Cloud. Next, the rep determines if a corresponding customer exists in NetSuite.

• If the customer doesn’t exist, the rep creates a new customer with relevant account details, including its associated account ID, in NetSuite. Then, the rep updates the account with its associated customer’s internal ID in Sales Cloud.
• If the customer exists, the rep updates the customer with its associated account details in NetSuite.

This process is time-consuming and highly error-prone, so the team wants to automate it.

Integration Solution

As a solution, you need to automate the integration between Sales Cloud and NetSuite to achieve near real-time integration. To do this, you use MuleSoft Composer to create an integration flow that automatically syncs new or updated accounts in Salesforce with customers in NetSuite. Specifically, the flow must perform the following tasks.

1. Find any new or updated account in Sales Cloud.
2. Determine if a corresponding customer exists in NetSuite.
3. If the customer doesn’t exist in NetSuite:
   1. Create a new customer with relevant account details, including its associated account ID, in NetSuite.
   2. Update the account with its associated customer’s internal ID in Sales Cloud.
4. If the customer exists, update the customer with its associated account details in NetSuite.

To implement the solution using MuleSoft Composer, you perform these flow creation tasks.

• Prepare to create a flow.
• Design and test a flow.
• Activate a flow.
• Monitor and troubleshoot a flow.

You learn how to perform these tasks in the rest of this module.

Prepare to Create a Flow

Ready to get started?

First, gather all required information about the systems and assets your flow is going to use. The following table describes the systems the flow needs to connect to and the information you need for those systems. 

As a best practice, use a test environment for these systems and data when you design and test your flows. After you’re done with testing, run the flows using your production systems and data.

Next, you learn about the prerequisites for your Salesforce and NetSuite environments.

Prerequisites for the Salesforce Environment

First, it’s assumed that you have a sandbox org and a production org to build and run flows that sync with Salesforce. 

Note: If you don’t have a sandbox org to design and test your flows, you can use a developer org.

Follow these steps to sign up for a free developer org.

1. Go to https://developer.salesforce.com/signup.
2. Enter your contact information.
3. Enter a unique username.
4. Click Sign me up, and wait for your welcome email.
5. In the welcome email, click the link to set your password.

Next, when you create a connection to Salesforce using MuleSoft Composer, you’re prompted to grant MuleSoft Composer permissions. Ensure your Salesforce accounts for both your sandbox and production orgs are ready to grant MuleSoft Composer the following permissions.

• Access the identity URL service.
• Manage user data via APIs.
• Perform requests at any time.

Finally, to capture a new customer’s internal ID in a Salesforce account, ensure a text custom field called NetSuite Customer ID is created for the Account object in the NTO org. Here’s an example of NetSuite Customer ID for Account in the NTO org.

To learn how to create custom fields, see Customize a Salesforce Object.

Prerequisites for the NetSuite Environment

MuleSoft Composer’s NetSuite connector enables NetSuite users with the administrator role to perform integration tasks between NetSuite and other MuleSoft Composer–supported systems. Before you use MuleSoft Composer to create a connection to NetSuite, ensure that your NetSuite user has been assigned the NetSuite administrator role.

First, to capture its associated account ID for each new customer, you must create a free-form text custom field called Salesforce Account ID for the Customer entity in NetSuite. Follow these steps.

1. Log in to NetSuite using your username and password.
2. Click Customization | Lists, Records, & Field | Entity Field | New.
3. Populate the field with the following values.
   • Label: Salesforce Account ID
   • Type: Free-Form Text
4. In the Applies To tab, select CUSTOMER.
5. In the Display tab, select Main from the SUBTAB picklist, and then click Save.
6. Click Lists | Relationships | Customer | New. The Salesforce Account ID appears.
   

Then, to be able to view internal IDs in NetSuite, click Home | Set Preferences, select the Show Internal IDs checkbox, and then click Save.

Next, when customer data is populated in NetSuite, your flow needs to use these two fields of the Customer entity: Custom Form and Primary Subsidiary. So you find out the values your NetSuite instance uses for these fields and their associated internal IDs in order to configure relevant steps of your flow. Follow these steps.

1. Click Lists | Relationships | Customer | New. The Customer form appears. In this example, the value of the Custom Form field is Standard Customer Form.
   
2. Click Customization | Forms | Entry Forms. In this example, the internal ID of Standard Customer Form is -2. You use this internal ID for Standard Customer Form in your flow.
   
3. Go back to the Customer form.
4. Scroll down to the Primary Subsidiary field and select the first available value from the Primary Subsidiary picklist. In this case, it’s Honeycomb Mfg.
5. Click the Open icon next to Honeycomb Mfg. The Subsidiary form appears. In this example, the ID at the end of this Subsidiary URL is equal to 1. You use this internal ID for Honeycomb Mfg in your flow.
   

Finally, let’s find out values for a NetSuite connection.

NetSuite Connection Parameters

When you create a connection to NetSuite using MuleSoft Composer, you must specify values for the following parameters. 

Connection Display Name

The connection display name is any name of your choice.

Account

To find your NetSuite account, follow these steps.

1. In NetSuite, click Setup | Integration | SOAP Web Services Preferences.
2. Copy the account ID into a text file of your choice and save it.

Consumer Key and Consumer Secret

To generate a consumer key and consumer secret for a NetSuite connection, follow these steps.

1. Click Setup | Company | Enable Features.
2. Click SuiteCloud.
3. Scroll down to the Manage Authentication section and select the Token-based Authentication checkbox.
4. Click I Agree on the SuiteCloud Terms of Service page.
5. Click Save.
6. Click Setup | Integration | Manage Integrations | New.
7. Configure your integration as follows and then click Save to generate a consumer key and consumer secret.
   • Name: Composer Integration
   • State: Enabled
   • Token-based Authentication: selected
   • TBA: Authorization Flow: deselected
   • OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Grant: deselected
   • User Credentials: deselected
     
     
8. Copy the consumer key and consumer secret into the text file and save it.

Token ID and Token Secret 

To generate a token ID and token secret for a NetSuite connection, follow these steps.

1. Click Setup | Users/Roles | Access Tokens | New.
2. Configure the access token as follows, and then click Saveto generate a token ID and token secret.
   • Application Name: Composer Integration
   • Token Name: Composer Integration - [yourusername], Administrator
3. Copy the token ID and token secret into the same text file. You use all the values in this text file when you configure a NetSuite connection using MuleSoft Composer.

You’ve taken the first steps to prepare to create your flow with MuleSoft Composer. In the next unit, you learn how to design your flow.

Resources 

• Trailhead: MuleSoft Composer Basics
• Trailhead: MuleSoft Composer Installation and Configuration