Using Snowfakery with Salesforce

Snowfakery recipes that generate Salesforce records are just like any other Snowfakery recipes. You use SObject names for the 'objects'. There are several examples in the Snowfakery repository

Using Snowfakery within CumulusCI

The process of actually generating the data into a Salesforce org happens through CumulusCI.

CumulusCI is a tool and framework for building portable automation for Salesforce projects. It is created by the same team that creates Snowfakery.

The easiest way to learn about CumulusCI (and to learn how to install it) is with its Trailhead Trail.

CumulusCI's documentation describes how to use it with Snowfakery. Here is a short example:

$ cci task run generate_and_load_from_yaml -o generator_yaml examples/salesforce/Contact.recipe.yml -o num_records 300 -o num_records_tablename Contact --org qa
...

You can (and more often will) use generate_and_load_from_yaml from within a flow captured in in a cumulusci.yml.

If you have CumulusCI configured and you would like to test this, you can do so by running some tests that are in the Snowfakery repo itself.

The Snowfakery repo itself has a cumulusci.yml so it is a CumulusCI project. You can learn how to set up your own CumulusCI project by studying it

# clone the repo
$ git clone https://github.com/SFDO-Tooling/Snowfakery.git
# change working directory
$ cd Snowfakery
# run a specific test task
$ cci task run generate_opportunities_and_contacts
# run all of the test tasks and flows
$ cci flow run test_everything
...

Record Types

To specify a Record Type for a record, just put the Record Type’s API Name in a field named RecordType.

# tests/cci/record_types.yml
- object: Account
  fields:
    name: Bluth Family
    RecordType: HH_Account
- object: Account
  fields:
    name: Bluth Corporation
    RecordType: Organization
- object: Account
  fields:
    name: The Windors
    RecordType: HH_Account
- object: Account
  fields:
    name: The Firm
    RecordType: Organization

Creating and Referencing Person Accounts

There are several features planned for the Salesforce Plugin, but the one supported currently is for Person Accounts.

You can use Person Accounts like this:

- plugin: snowfakery.standard_plugins.Salesforce
- object: Account
  fields:
    FirstName:
      fake: first_name
    LastName:
      fake: last_name
    PersonMailingStreet:
      fake: street_address
    PersonMailingCity:
      fake: city
    PersonContactId:
      Salesforce.SpecialObject: PersonContact

This will generate a placeholder object in your recipe which can be referred to by other templates like so:

- object: User
  fields:
    Username:
      fake: email
    ...
    ContactId:
      reference: Account.PersonContactId

CumulusCI will fix up the references during data load. If you run into errors, please verify that the Account object is being loaded before the others that refer to the PersonContactId. If not, you may need to write a CumulusCI '.load.yml' to ensure that it does.

The Salesforce.SpecialObject function cannot currently be used for any other SObject or in any other context. It must always generate a PersonContact in the PersonContactId field.

There is also an alternate syntax which allows nicknaming:

...
- object: Account
  fields:
    PersonContactId:
      Salesforce.SpecialObject:
        name: PersonContact
        nickname: PCPC
- object: User
  fields:
    ContactId:
      reference: PCPC

ContentVersions

Files can be used as Salesforce ContentVersions like this:

- plugin: snowfakery.standard_plugins.base64.Base64
- plugin: snowfakery.standard_plugins.file.File
- object: Account
  nickname: FileOwner
  fields:
    Name:
      fake: company
- object: ContentVersion
  nickname: FileAttachment
  fields:
    Title: Attachment for ${{Account.Name}}
    PathOnClient: example.pdf
    Description: example.pdf
    VersionData:
      Base64.encode:
        - File.file_data:
            encoding: binary
            file: ${{PathOnClient}}
    FirstPublishLocationId:
      reference: Account