Salesforce to MySQL Integration: 2 Easy Methods

While Salesforce provides its analytics capabilities, many organizations need to synchronize Salesforce data into external databases like MySQL for consolidated analysis. This article explores two key methods for integrating Salesforce to MySQL: ETL pipeline and Custome Code. Read on for an overview of both integration methods and guidance on choosing the right approach.

Methods to Set up Salesforce to MySQL Integration

You can easily connect your Salesforce account to your My SQL account using the following 2 methods:

Method 1: Using Hevo Data to Set Up Salesforce to MySQL Integration

Hevo Data takes care of all your data preprocessing needs and lets you focus on key business activities and draw a much more powerful insight on how to generate more leads, retain customers, and take your business to new heights of profitability.

It provides a consistent & reliable solution to manage data in real-time and always has analysis-ready data in your desired destination. 

Hevo can integrate data from Salesforce to MySQL in just 2 simple steps:

• Authenticate and configure your Salesforce data source as shown in the below image. To learn more about this step, visit here.

• Configure your MySQL destination where the data needs to be loaded, as shown in the below image. To learn more about this step, visit here.

Method 2: Using Custom Code to Set Up Salesforce to MySQL Integration

This method requires you to manually build a custom code using various Salesforce APIs to connect Salesforce to MySQL database. It is important to understand these APIs before learning the required steps.

APIs Required to Connect Salesforce to MySQL Using Custom Code

Salesforce provides different types of APIs and utilities to query the data available in the form of Salesforce objects. These APIs help to interact with Salesforce data. An overview of these APIs is as follows:

• Salesforce Rest APIs: Salesforce REST APIs provide a simple and convenient set of web services to interact with Salesforce objects. These APIs are recommended for implementing mobile and web applications that work with Salesforce objects.
• Salesforce REST APIs: Salesforce SOAP APIs are to be used when the applications need a stateful API or have strict requirements on transactional reliability. It allows you to establish formal contracts of API behavior through the use of WSDL. 
• Salesforce BULK APIs: Salesforce BULK APIs are tailor-made for handling a large amount of data and have the ability to download Salesforce data as CSV files. It can handle data ranging from a few thousand records to millions of records. It works asynchronously and is batched. Background operation is also possible with Bulk APIs.
• Salesforce Data Loader: Salesforce also provides a Data Loader utility with export functionality. Data Loader is capable of selecting required attributes from objects and then exporting them to a CSV file. It comes with some limitations based on the Salesforce subscription plan to which the user belongs. Internally, Data Loader works based on bulk APIs. 

Steps to Connect Salesforce to MySQL

Use the following steps to achieve Salesforce to MySQL integration:

Step 1: Log in to Salesforce using the SOAP API and get the session id. For logging in first create an XML file named login.txt in the below format.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">

<env:Body>

<n1:login xmlns:n1="urn:partner.soap.sforce.com">

<n1:username>your_username</n1:username>

<n1:password>your_password</n1:password>

</n1:login>

</env:Body>

</env:Envelope>

Step 2: Execute the below command to login

curl https://login.Salesforce.com/services/Soap/u/47.0 -H "Content-Type: text/xml; 
charset=UTF-8" -H "SOAPAction: login" -d @login.txt

From the resultant XML, note the session id. This session id is to be used for all subsequent requests.

Step 3: Create a BULK API job. For doing this, create a text file in the folder named job.txt with the following content.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<jobInfo xmlns="http://www.force.com/2009/06/asyncapi/dataload">

<operation>insert</operation>

<object>Contact</object>

<contentType>CSV</contentType>

</jobInfo>

Please note that the object attribute in the above XML should correspond to the object for which data is to be loaded. Here we are pulling data from the object called Contact.

Execute the below command after creating the job.txt

curl https://instance.Salesforce.com/services/async/47.0/job -H "X-SFDC-Session: sessionId" -H "Content-Type: application/xml; 
charset=UTF-8" -d @job.txt

From the result, note the job id. This job-id will be used to form the URL for subsequent requests. Please note the URL will change according to the URL of the user’s Salesforce organization.

Step 4: Use CURL again to execute the SQL query and retrieve results.

curl https://instance_name—api.Salesforce.com/services/async/APIversion/job/jobid/batch

-H "X-SFDC-Session: sessionId" -H "Content-Type: text/csv; 

SELECT name,desc from Contact

Step 5: Close the job. For doing this, create a file called close.txt with the below entry.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<jobInfo xmlns="http://www.force.com/2009/06/asyncapi/dataload">

<state>Closed</state>

</jobInfo>

Execute the below command after creating the file to close the job.

curl https://instance.Salesforce.com/services/async/47.0/job/jobId -H "X-SFDC-Session: sessionId" -H "Content-Type: application/xml; 
charset=UTF-8" -d @close_job.txt

Step 6: Retrieve the results id for accessing the URL for results. Execute the below command.

curl -H "X-SFDC-Session: sessionId" https://instance.Salesforce.com/services/async/47.0/job/jobId/batch/batchId/result

Step 7: Retrieve the actual results using the result ID fetched from the above step.

curl -H "X-SFDC-Session: sessionId" https://instance.Salesforce.com/services/async/47.0/job/jobId/batch/batchId/result/resultId

This will provide a CSV file with rows of data. Save the CSV file as contacts.csv.

Step 8: Load data to MySQL using the LOAD DATA INFILE command. Assuming the table is already created this can be done by executing the below command.

LOAD DATA INFILE'contacts.csv' INTO TABLE contacts

FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' 

ENCLOSED BY '"'

LINES TERMINATED BY 'rn' 

IGNORE 1 LINES;

Alternately, instead of using the bulk API manually, the Salesforce Data Loader utility can be used to export CSV files of objects. The caveat here is that usage of certain Data Loader functionalities is restricted based on the user’s subscription plan.

There is also a limit to the frequency in which data loader export operations can be performed or scheduled.

Limitations of Using Custom Code Method

• As evident from the above steps, loading data from Salesforce to MySQL through the manual method is both a tedious and fragile process with multiple error-prone steps.
• This works well when you have on-time or a batch need to bring data from Salesforce. In case you need data more frequently or in real-time, you would need to build additional processes to successfully achieve this. 

Conclusion

In this blog, we discussed how to achieve Salesforce to MySQL Integration using 2 different approaches. Additionally, it has also highlighted the limitations and challenges of using the custom code method.

Visit our Website to Explore Hevo

A more graceful method to achieve the same outcome would be to use a code-free Data Integration Platform like Hevo Data. Hevo can mask all the ETL complexities and ensure that your data is securely moved to MySQL from Salesforce in just a few minutes and for free.

Want to give Hevo a spin? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich Hevo suite firsthand. Check out our pricing to choose the right plan for you!

Let us know your thoughts on the 2 approaches to moving data from Salesforce to MySQL in the comments.