This project demonstrates the interaction between a Heroku app and Salesforce, using Heroku Connect. The app is a single-file Python Flask application.

This project assumes that you have a Salesforce Developer Edition environment and a Heroku account. Once those pre-requisites are met, follow the instructions below.

These instructions will create a Heroku app, deploy this project into the app, and configure the app.

1. Click the Deploy to Heroku button below. You will be directed to a Heroku app deployment page. If you'd like to keep these instructions open, right-click on the button and click Open Link in New Tab instead.

   

2. Choose a unique name for your app. If you leave it blank, Heroku will generate a unique name for you.

3. Click the Deploy app button at the bottom of the screen.

4. Once the build and deployment are complete, click the View button at the bottom of the screen.

These instructions will connect the app's Heroku Connect add-on to your desired Salesforce environment.

1. On the welcome page of your app, click the Connect Salesforce Environment button. Keep this tab open.

2. On the Heroku dashboard page for your app, click the Heroku Connect row in the Add-ons table.

3. Click the Setup Connection button in the upper-left corner.

4. The DATABASE_URL row within the Database Config Vars table should be highlighted. Click the row anyway (Heroku cannot detect that it is auto-selected for some reason). Your app expects the schema to be named "salesforce", so leave that setting alone.

5. Click the Next button in the upper-right corner.

6. The environment should be set to Production and the API version should be set to the latest Salesforce version. At the time of this writing, the latest API version is 43.0. Click the Authorize button in the upper-right corner.

7. Type in the username and password for your Salesforce Developer Edition environment to which you'd like to connect. Click the Log In button.

8. Once the environment has been authorized, you should be redirected back to Heroku, on your Heroku Connect add-on page. Keep this tab open.

These steps will ensure that your Salesforce environment can receive record changes from the Heroku app. A new field is created that is used by Heroku during the write-to-Salesforce process.

1. Login to your Salesforce environment (most likely, you will use login.salesforce.com).

2. Open the Setup Menu. This is done by clicking the gear in the upper-right corner, then clicking the Setup dropdown.

3. Click the "Object Manager" tab.

4. Click the Contact link in the Contact row.

5. Click the "Fields & Relationships" tab in the sidebar.

6. Click the New button in the upper-right corner.

7. Select the Text radio button.

8. Click the Next button in the lower-right corner.

9. Use the following settings:

   • Field Label: External Contact Id
   • Length: 32
   • Field Name: External_Contact_Id
   • Description: This field is used by Heroku Connect to sync changes back to Salesforce. It should never be modified within Salesforce.
   • Help Text: This is an internal field. You probably don't want to change this value.
   • Required: Leave unchecked
   • Unique: Check. Ensure the "Treat ABC and abc as duplicate values (case insensitive") radio button is selected.
   • External ID: Check
   • Default Value: Leave blank

10. Click the Next button in the lower-right corner.

11. Click the Visible column checkbox at the top of the table twice to select-all profiles, then de-select-all profiles. Select visibility for:

    • Standard Platform User
    • Standard User
    • System Administrator

12. Ensure no profiles in the Read-Only column are checked.

13. Click the Next button in the lower-right corner.

14. Click the Add Field column checkbox at the top of the table to de-select-all layouts. Then, select only the "Contact layout" row.

15. Click the Save button in the lower-right corner.

These steps will map your Salesforce environment Contact sObject to the Heroku app's PostGreSQL database.

1. Return to the tab with your app's Heroku Connect add-on page. Click the "Mappings" tab.

2. Click the +Create Mapping button in the lower-right corner.

3. Select the "Contact" row from the table of sObjects.

4. In the "Salesforce -> Database" section, check the Accelerate Polling checkbox.

5. In the "Database -> Salesorce" section, check the Write database updates... checkbox. From that setting's dropdown, select External_Contact_Id__c as the unique identifier.

6. In the "Mapped Fields" section, ensure the following fields are checked (It is OK if additional fields are selected due to Heroku Connect auto-selecting them):

   • Email
   • FirstName
   • LastName
   • Phone
   • Title

7. Click the Save button in the upper-right corner.

8. After a short time, the Heroku Connect mapping you just created should register a number of mapped fields, SF rows, and DB rows.

1. Return to the tab that has your app and refresh the page. You should now see a table containing contacts from your environment!

2. To view a contact, select their contact row.

3. To edit a contact, change the contact's information and click the Save button. You should receive confirmation that the record was saved into the database.

4. To verify that the change was synced, login to your Salesforce environment. Click the "Contacts" tab and locate the contact that you changed. Verify that the information was updated.