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Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use Salesforce data in ColdFusion.
Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Salesforce data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with Salesforce data from within a ColdFusion markup file.
About Salesforce Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from Salesforce has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access to custom entities and fields means Salesforce users get access to all of Salesforce.
- Create atomic and batch update operations.
- Read, write, update, and delete their Salesforce data.
- Leverage the latest Salesforce features and functionalities with support for SOAP API versions 30.0.
- See improved performance based on SOQL support to push complex queries down to Salesforce servers.
- Use SQL stored procedures to perform actions like creating, retrieving, aborting, and deleting jobs, uploading and downloading attachments and documents, and more.
Users frequently integrate Salesforce data with:
- other ERPs, marketing automation, HCMs, and more.
- preferred data tools like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
- databases and data warehouses.
For more information on how CData solutions work with Salesforce, check out our Salesforce integration page.
Getting Started
To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce and Adobe ColdFusion.
Configuring the Connection
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (Data Source Name). This is the last step of the driver installation process. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: Login, OAuth, and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.
If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication.
SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and TokenUrl connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for more information.
Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table
After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import Salesforce Salesforce data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:
- From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
- Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button.
- From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData Salesforce Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration.
- Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataSalesforceODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
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Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot")
for ColdFusion.
The following code queries the data source:
<cfquery name="SalesforceQuery" dataSource="CDataSalesforceODBC"> SELECT * FROM Account </cfquery>
And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:<cftable query = "SalesforceQuery" border = "1" colHeaders colSpacing = "2" headerLines = "2" HTMLTable maxRows = "500" startRow = "1"> <cfcol header="<b>Industry</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Industry"/> <cfcol header="<b>AnnualRevenue</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="AnnualRevenue"/> ... </cftable>
Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:<html> <head><title>CData Software | Salesforce Account Table Demo </title></head> <body> <cfoutput>#ucase("Salesforce Account Table Demo")#</cfoutput> <cfquery name="SalesforceQuery" dataSource="CDataSalesforceODBC"> SELECT * FROM Account </cfquery> <cftable query = "SalesforceQuery" border = "1" colHeaders colSpacing = "2" headerLines = "2" HTMLTable maxRows = "500" startRow = "1"> <cfcol header="<b>Industry</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Industry"/> <cfcol header="<b>AnnualRevenue</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="AnnualRevenue"/> ... </cftable> </body> </html>
- Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Salesforce data!
As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element.
For example:
SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name =
Get Started Today
Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce and start building Salesforce-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.