This library allows you to load, edit and query the objects in any Salesforce instance using Django models. The integration is fairly complete, and generally seamless for most uses. It works by integrating with the Django ORM, allowing access to the objects in your SFDC instance (Salesforce .com) as if they were in a traditional database.
Python 3.8 to 3.12, Django 2.1 to 5.0. (Tested also with Python 3.13b1)
Use with Django 5.0 or 4.2(LTS) currently requires an enteprise license key DJSF_LICENSE_KEY until August 2024 unless you accept the AGPL license and install our otherwise identical package "django-salesforce-agpl" instead. The license keys are available to sponsors. Both versions will be unlocked automatically in Django-salesforce 5.1 when a key will be required for Django 5.1. Use with pre-release Django versions is free.
Install, configure a Salesforce connection, create a Salesforce model and run.
Install django-salesforce:
pip install django-salesforceAdd a Salesforce connection to your
DATABASESsetting:'salesforce': { 'ENGINE': 'salesforce.backend', 'CONSUMER_KEY': '', # 'client_id' in OAuth2 terminology 'CONSUMER_SECRET': '', # 'client_secret' 'USER': '', 'PASSWORD': '', 'HOST': 'https://test.salesforce.com', }In the example above, all fields should be populated as follows:
CONSUMER_KEYandCONSUMER_SECRETvalues are for the app used to connect to your Salesforce account. Instructions for how get these are in the Salesforce REST API Documentation. Key and secret can be created on web by:- SalesForce Lightning > Setup > Apps > App Manager > New Connected App or by Salesforce Classic > Setup > App Setup > Create > Apps > Connected apps > New.
- Click "Enable OAuth Settings" in API, then select "Access and manage your data (api)" from available OAuth Scopes.
- Other red marked fields must be filled, but are not relevant for Django with password authentication. ("Callback URL" should be a safe URL that maybe doesn't exist now, but its path is under your control and doesn't redirect. This would be important if you activate other OAuth mode later.)
- SalesForce Lightning > Setup > Identity > OAuth and OpenID Connect Settings: Ensure that the "Allow OAuth Username-Password Flows" option is checked. This is important if you use USER/PASSWORD below, and is not the default since Summer '23.
USERis the username used to connect.PASSWORDis a concatenation of the user's password and security token. Security token can be set by My Settings / Personal / Reset My Security Token or an new token is received by email after every password change. Security token can be omitted if the local IP address has been whitelisted in Security Controls / Network Access.HOSTishttps://test.salesforce.comto access a sandbox, orhttps://login.salesforce.comto access production or your domainhttps://MyDomainName.my.salesforce.com.
Add
salesforce.router.ModelRouterto yourDATABASE_ROUTERSsetting:DATABASE_ROUTERS = [ "salesforce.router.ModelRouter" ](This is important for switching between 'salesforce' database for models derived from SalesforceModel and 'default' database for normal models with tables created by migrations, especially for 'django.contrib'.)
Add the
salesforceapp to yourINSTALLED_APPSsetting:INSTALLED_APPS = { "django.contrib.auth", "django.contrib.contenttypes", ... ... "salesforce" }(This is necessary for running Salesforce extensions in the command
inspectdb --database=salesforcein development, otherwise it is not important.)Add a setting
DJSF_LICENSE_KEY = "Your Name or Company / email //our.signature=="if you need it for Django 5.0 or 4.2.Verify that everything important is configured correctly by running the command
python manage.py check --database=salesforce. You get eventualy the important information about problems related to the previous steps. (clearly without tracebacks)That is useful again after you define your database model or if you customize your configuration later and e.g. you configure multiple Salesforce databases.
Define a model that extends
salesforce.models.Model(aliasSalesforceModel) or export the complete SF schema bypython manage.py inspectdb --database=salesforceand simplify it to what you need. The full models file is about 1.5 MB with 500 models and the export takes 2 minutes, but it is a valid models module that works without modification. The output of commandinspectdbcan be restricted by a list of table_names on the command line, but also ForeignKey fields to omitted models must be pruned to get a valid complete small model.You're all done! Just use your model like a normal Django model.
If an error occurs in a request to Salesforce, review the received error message that is exactly copied between braces
{...}from the Salesforce response to a Python exception to assist debugging.See also: Information on settings up Salesforce connected apps if necessary.
Note about permissions: Administrator profile are only required to run the full suite of unit tests of this framework; otherwise, as long as the account has rights to read or modify the chosen object, everything should work properly. Introspection by
inspectdbdoesn't require any additional object permissions.
Salesforce alias If you want to use another name for your Salesforce DB connection, define
SALESFORCE_DB_ALIASin your settings file:SALESFORCE_DB_ALIAS = 'salesforce' # default
Timeout settings To override the default timeout of 15 seconds, define
SALESFORCE_QUERY_TIMEOUTin your settings file. It can be one number or better a tuple with a short value for connection timeout and a longer value that includes time for running a query. It never need be longer than 30 seconds:SALESFORCE_QUERY_TIMEOUT = (4, 15) # default (connect timeout, data timeout)
Automatic stupid admin Create a normal Django
admin.pymodule for your Salesforce models and you can register a minimalistic admin for all omitted Admin classes:from salesforce.testrunner.example.universal_admin import register_omitted_classes # some admin classes that you wrote manually yet # ... # end of file register_omitted_classes(your_application.models)
This is a rudimentary way to verify that every model works in a sandbox, before hand-writing all admin classes. (Foreign keys to huge tables in the production require a customized admin e.g. with search widgets.)
Lazy connect By default, the Django ORM connects to all DBs at startup. To delay SFDC connections until they are actually required, define
SF_LAZY_CONNECT=Truein your settings file. Be careful when using this setting; since it won't fail during the application boot, it's possible for a bad password to be sent repeatedly, requiring an account reset to fix.Configurable Primary Key Salesforce doesn't allow you to define custom primary keys, so django-salesforce will add them automatically in all cases. You can override only capitalization and use a primary key
Idby configuringSF_PK='Id'in your project settings if you prefer Salesforce capitalized field name conventions instead of Django defaultid.
Multiple Inheritance from Abstract Models - Many Salesforce models use the same sets of fields, but using a single inheritance tree would be too complicated and fragile. Proxy models and mixins are also supported.
Testing - By default, tests will be run against the SFDC connection specified in settings.py, which will substantially increase testing time.
One way to speed this up is to change the SALESFORCE_DB_ALIAS to point to another DB connection (preferably SQLite) during testing using the
TESTsettings variable. Such simple tests can run without any network access. Django unit tests without SalesforceModel are fast everytimes. Special read only fields (withsf_read_only=...) that are updated only by SFDC e.g.last_modified_dateneed more parameters to be possible to save them into an alternate database, e.g. byauto_now=Trueor to play withnull=Trueordefault=....Multiple SFDC connections - In most cases, a single connection is all that most apps require, so the default DB connection to use for Salesforce is defined by the
SALESFORCE_DB_ALIASsettings variable. This behavior can be also configured byDATABASE_ROUTERS, replacing the use of salesforce.router.ModelRouter.Non SF databases - If
SALESFORCE_DB_ALIASis set to a conventional database, the tables defined by the SF models will be created bymigrate. This behavior can be disabled by adding a Meta class withmanaged=False.Custom Managers - When creating a custom manager for a model, the manager must be a descendant of
salesforce.manager.SalesforceManager.In most cases, switching DB connections with
.using(alias).will be sufficient, but if you need to call a method on your custom manager, you should instead use.db_manager(alias)to select a DB while returning the correct manager, e.g.Contact.objects.db_manager(alias).my_manager(params...)Automatic Field Naming - Most of database columns names can be automatically deduced from Django field name, if no
db_columnis specified:last_name = models.CharField(max_length=80) # db_column='LastName' FirstName = models.CharField(max_length=80) # db_column='FirstName' my_bool = models.BooleanField(custom=True) # db_column='MyBool__c'
Fields named with an upper case character are never modified, except for the addition of the namespace prefix or the '__c' suffix for custom fields. If you want models with minimal db_column then read Running inspectdb.
Query deleted objects - Deleted objects that are in trash bin are not selected by a normal queryset, but if a special method
query_allis used then also deleted objects are searched. If a trash bin is supported by the model then a boolean fieldIsDeletedcan be in the model and it is possible to select only deleted objectsdeleted_list = list(Lead.objects.filter(IsDeleted=True).query_all())
Migrations - Migrations can be used for an alternate test database with SalesforceModel. Then all tables must have Meta options
db_tableand fields must have optiondb_column, which is done byinspectdbwith default settings. Models exported by introspectioninspectdbdo not specify the optionmanagedbecause the default value is True.There is probably no reason now to collect old migrations of an application that uses only SalesforceModel if they are related to data stored only in Salesforce. Such old migrations can be easily deleted and a new initial migration can be created again if it would be necessary for offline tests if that migrations directory seems big and obsoleted.
Exceptions - Custom exceptions instead of standard Django database exceptions are raised by Django-Salesforce to get more useful information. General exceptions are
SalesforceErroror a more general customDatabaseError. They can be imported fromsalesforce.dbapi.exceptionsif database errors should be handled specifically in your app.
Foreign key relationships should work as expected, especially relationships from child to parents are well supported in querysets, but mapping Salesforce SOQL to a purely-relational mapper is a leaky abstraction and some knowledge about limitations of SOQL is useful. Some rejected queries should be usually rewritten to two simpler queries. For the gory details, see Foreign Key Support on the Django-Salesforce wiki.
Some Salesforce fields can not be fully used without special attributes, namely read-only fields and some default values. Further details can be found in Introspection and Special Attributes of Fields
The ultimate goal of development of this package is to support reasonable new features of the Salesforce platform and of new Django versions, but for now here are the potential pitfalls and unimplemented operations:
- Large Objects — Since the entire result set needs to be transferred over HTTP, and since it's common to have extremely high column counts on full object queries, it's assumed that users will create models that are specific to their individual applications' needs. It is especially important if migrations should be created. Migrations on the full models module are really slow. (Models that have been included with this library are very simplified only for example and documentation purposes and for tests.)
- Inheritance — When using the default router, all models Salesforce must extend salesforce.models.SalesforceModel. The model router checks for this to determine which models to handle through the Salesforce connection.
- Database Migrations —
migratewill create new tables only in non-SF databases (useful for unit tests); SFDC tables are assumed to already exist with the appropriate permissions. (A very incomplete implementation of migrations in Salesforce has been in a development repository around for two years. I am satisfied for my purposes. Development for better general usability is the main reason why am I trying to get sponsors.) - Unsupported methods: Queryset methods
union(),difference(),intersection()anddistinct()are e.g. not supported because SOQL doesn't support corresponding operators: UNION, EXCEPT, INTERSECT and DISTINCT.
The last most important:
- v5.0.2: Removed support for Python 3.7 and Django 2.0
- v4.2: Some new features or versions implemented after June 2023 can require a license key (sponsorship) or to accept the AGPL license. (AGPL is fine for exclusive open source contribution or for education, but impossible if you do not share all your source codes.) Removed support for Python 3.6
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