[SalesForce] Is it possible to not use an ExternalId field for Database.Upsert

I'm trying to upser a list of Asset records via Database.upsert(List, externalIdField, boolean) and on the externalIdField, I want to pass the standard field 'SerialNumber'.

List<Database.UpsertResult> upsertAssetResult = Database.upsert(finalAssetList, Asset.SerialNumber, false);

However, an error occurred saying an External Id custom field OR a Standard Indexed field must be used.

Invalid field for upsert, must be an External Id custom or standard indexed field: SerialNumber

Now if you go to the Asset standard object, you will see that SerialNumber is an INDEXED standard field and if we believe the error message, it can be used.

Am I missing something? OR is the error message is incorrect and that only External Id custom fields are allowed?

Thanks.

Best Answer

The error message is phrased confusingly. It means there's three qualities that must be met for the field to be used:

Must be an External Id
Must be custom or standard
Must be indexed

This doesn't really express much more than that it has to be an External Id.

For clearer discussion, see Upserting Records and the Upsert SOAP call. The nomenclature there is explained as

On custom objects, this call [upsert] uses an indexed custom field called an external ID to determine whether to create a new record or update an existing record. On standard objects, this call can use the name of any field with the idLookup field property instead of the external ID.

(More on idLookup).

Unfortunately, you cannot upsert using any indexed standard field.

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Add a custom field to multiple objects

Assuming all the objects are already created, you could create a file that simply contains the one field definition you need, copy it, and deploy it. I'd say this task is probably easiest with Ant, but you could conceivably do it in an IDE as well.

First, set up your package.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <types>
        <members>*</members>
        <name>CustomObject</name>
    </types>
    <version>38.0</version>
</Package>

And in your objects folder, create a CustomObject__c.object file with the following contents (adjust to suit your own needs):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<CustomObject xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
<fields>
        <fullName>Comments__c</fullName>
        <description>Add your comments about this object here</description>
        <inlineHelpText>This field contains help text for this object</inlineHelpText>
        <label>Comments</label>
        <length>32000</length>
        <type>LongTextArea</type>
        <visibleLines>30</visibleLines>
</fields>
</CustomObject>

Next, just copy the file over and over again:

$ cp CustomObject__c.object CustomObject2__c.object
$ cp CustomObject__c.object CustomObject3__c.object
  ... as many more as you need

Finally, do your deployment:

ant deploy

Here's a pre-configured repo that you can use to get started.

[SalesForce] Dynamic field for Database.Upsert

The signature of Database.upsert() is

public static Database.UpsertResult[] upsert(sObject[] recordsToUpsert, Schema.SObjectField externalIdField, Boolean allOrNone)

While the Boolean parameter is optional, you must provide a value of type Schema.SObjectField for the second parameter.

You can obtain such values dynamically via the Describe API given string input:

String myFieldName = 'Account';
String myObjectName = 'Name';

Schema.SObjectField f = Schema.getGlobalDescribe().get(myObjectName).getDescribe().fields.getMap().get(myFieldName);

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Add a custom field to multiple objects

[SalesForce] Dynamic field for Database.Upsert

Related Topic