External objects – Objects in Salesforce

External objects function much like custom objects, with the distinction that they are linked to data residing beyond your Salesforce organization. Every external object is dependent on an external data source definition, facilitating the connection to data stored in an external system. Each definition of an external object corresponds to a data table within this external system, while the fields of an external object correspond to the columns within that table. External objects are searchable, and users can interact with this data also. Simply put, external objects are special types of Salesforce custom objects that can display data stored outside of Salesforce. Sounds cool? That’s because it is! But what makes this “coolness” even cooler? There are lots of benefits to using external objects. Let’s list here the most important:

• Data storage savings – External objects prove most advantageous in scenarios where there’s a huge volume of data that you either can’t or prefer not to store within your Salesforce organization. Sometimes you just do not need to keep millions of records in Salesforce when they are already kept in your other system. You just need to give users access to them directly from your CRM.
• Quick access to important data – In most cases, you only require access to a limited dataset at any given point in time. Through on-demand access to record data, external objects consistently mirror the real-time status of external data. This obviates the need for maintaining a redundant copy of this data within Salesforce, preventing the squandering of storage and resources on data synchronization.
• Better user experience – The next important fact is that when using external objects, users do not need to go out of Salesforce to check external data. This means fewer clicks for the users and a less distracted user experience.
• You can create Salesforce reports based on an external object’s data – Yes, you can use Salesforce reporting capabilities to create reports and dashboards that will show your external data. Cool, isn’t it?!

Of course, there are some important limitations related to external objects as well. Let’s list a few of the most important ones:

• Security – You can’t use sharing rules to control object access
• Limitation to 200 objects – Each organization can have up to 200 external objects
• SOSL and OData limits – You need to check existing limits if you are planning new custom development involving external objects

Besides all the advantages and limitations of external objects, there is one general thing that is very important: you will need to pay more to get external objects! Yes, external objects are a Salesforce feature for which you need to pay additionally, and they are available with Salesforce Connect and Files Connect licenses.

Okay – so, we already know what external objects are used for and how fun they are. Now, let’s see how to create one.