I am looking into integrating student enrollment/registration data from Modern Campus (Lumens) into Salesforce EDA. Because we do not currently have an enterprise middleware platform (like MuleSoft or Boomi) in place, we are planning on using an automated nightly CSV export dropped onto a secure SFTP server. Has anyone successfully mapped Lumens data into the EDA Interactions staging object using a flat-file method? I would love to hear any recommendations for lightweight, budget-friendly ETL tools (or native Salesforce workarounds) you used to automate the SFTP pickup and ingestion. Any insights, lessons learned, or object mapping tips would be greatly appreciated!
Greetings, @Carissa Hansen
I have a few clarifying questions that will hopefully paint a clearer picture of your volumes and technical constraints.
1. What is the average and peak volume of student registration records expected in each nightly CSV file? (If it's under 50,000 records daily, native/free workarounds are highly viable; if it's much larger, API limits and processing times become a major factor).
2. Is the nightly export a "delta" file (only new/changed records) or a "full system extract" of all active enrollments?
3. Do you have an on-premise server or a secure VM available that can run scheduled scripts? (If yes, you can actually automate the Salesforce Data Loader CLI for free using a script to pull from SFTP and push to Salesforce).
4. Are you restricted to entirely cloud-hosted solutions, or are powerful open-source desktop/server ETL tools on the table?
5. Does the Lumens CSV output match the formatting required by the EDA Interaction object, or will it require significant data transformation (e.g., splitting names, parsing strings, changing date formats)?
6. Do you already have a shared unique key (like a Lumens Student ID) populated on your existing Salesforce Contact records to facilitate the EDA matching rules?
7. Do you have a developer on staff who can write Apex, or are you looking for a strictly declarative (no-code) configuration?
Be well - Katende