Need help on this one.
I have a custom object where I am importing a file from an external source. I would like to link the custom object to the Contact Object to pull data from Contact Object. The Unique ID I want to use is an ID number and not the name. At this time, I am using a lookup field but of course that uses name.
What is the best way to pull the appropriate name from the Contact Object without using the name?
Here are the issues we are running into:
1. When there are duplicate names in the Contact Object, the system pulls the first name listed. For example, if there are two Jim Smith, it pulls the first one in the system.
2. If name is not an exact match in the file with the Contact Object, it will not load.
I've tried the Data Import Wizard thus far. We plan to try a batch load with Data Loader next.
Any advice? What are we missing? Thanks!
Hi James,
What I'm hearing is that you have a custom object, that has a Lookup(Contact) field on it? I'm not sure if you are getting stuck importing it with the correct Contact linked, or if you are having trouble after it's imported.
If you're dealing with the import file, you should always be using the Contact's ID. This is the number that starts with "003..." and is unique to that Contact. Once the file is imported, when you look at a record of your custom object, it will show the name of that Contact that you linked. When you are looking at a lookup field on a page layout that is linked to another record, Salesforce shows the Name of that record, (even though technically it's linked through the record ID) for convenience of recognition.
Does this help?
