Integrating Office applications with Salesforce.com - Part I

Integrating Office applications with Salesforce.com - Part I

Posted on May 05, 2009 0 Comments

As a regular reader of this blog, you probably remember we discussed at various occasions the ability to query, update and create Microsoft Office documents, using the DataDirect Integration Suite. But wait... all those examples were based on Microsoft Excel? As you expect, nothing prevents you from querying other formats, like Microsoft Word documents.

As we’ve discussed before, DataDirect XQuery, an integral part of DataDirect Integration Suite, allows to integrate diverse systems, in a simple and declarative way. For example, it also offers the ability to easily access web services.

In this new series we will show how to retrieve your business data from a Microsoft Word documents, and use that information to update your salesforce.com system. We’ll access salesforce.com through its web service interface.

Let’s consider a fairly simple scenario. The sales representatives at your company, compile their reports in Microsoft Word form, when flying home, on the train, wherever. Back in the office, the trip report is processed, and the salesforce.com system updated. No need to manually enter all the data in salesforce.com, no more error-prone copy/paste. Everything is handled through an automated system.

The Microsoft Word document could look as follows.

And after processing, we have the following account information in our salesforce.com system. Note that it does not only include the general account details, but also one or more contacts, and has the trip report attached as a note. In other words, multiple records are inserted and updated. And the process actually behaves conditionally. For example, if the account does not yet exist go through the creation of a new account, but if it exists only the new trip report needs to be added to the account.

In this series we’ll build step by step such solution, sharing concrete and fully functional code.

Enjoy!

Marc Van Cappellen

View all posts from Marc Van Cappellen on the Progress blog. Connect with us about all things application development and deployment, data integration and digital business.

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