Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide

Getting Started
Writing Apex
Ways to Invoke Apex
Invoking Apex
Apex Transactions and Governor Limits
Using Salesforce Features with Apex
Actions
Approval Processing
Chatter Answers and Ideas
Chatter in Apex
Moderate Chatter Private Messages with Triggers
Communities
Email
Salesforce Knowledge
Lightning Connect
Lightning Connect Overview
Lightning Connect Adapters
Lightning Connect Custom Adapter
Get Started with the Apex Connector Framework
Key Concepts About the Apex Connector Framework
Considerations for the Apex Connector Framework
Apex Connector Framework Examples
Salesforce1 Reporting API via Apex
Force.com Sites
Support Classes
Territory Management 2.0
Visual Workflow
Integration and Apex Utilities
Finishing Touches
Reference
Appendices
Glossary
PDF

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Lightning Connect Overview

Lightning Connect provides a seamless view of data across system boundaries by letting your users view and search data that’s stored outside your Salesforce organization. For example, perhaps you have data that’s stored on premises in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Instead of copying the data into your organization, use external objects to access the data in real time via Web service callouts.
Available in: Developer Edition

Available for an extra cost in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions

Traditionally, we’ve recommended importing or copying data into your Salesforce organization to let your users access that data. For example, extract, transform, and load (ETL) tools can integrate third-party systems with Salesforce. However, doing so copies data into your organization that you don’t need or that quickly becomes stale.

In contrast, Lightning Connect maps Salesforce external objects to data tables in external systems. Instead of copying the data into your organization, Lightning Connect accesses the data on demand and in real time. The data is never stale, and we access only what you need. We recommend that you use Lightning Connect when:
  • You have a large amount of data that you don’t want to copy into your Salesforce organization.
  • You need small amounts of data at any one time.
  • You want real-time access to the latest data.

Even though the data is stored outside your organization, Lightning Connect provides seamless integration with the Force.com platform. External objects are available to Salesforce tools, such as global search, lookup relationships, record feeds, and the Salesforce1 app. External objects are also available to SOSL and SOQL queries, Salesforce APIs, and deployment via the Metadata API, change sets, and packages.

For example, suppose that you store product order information in a back-office ERP system. You want to view those orders as a related list on each customer record in your Salesforce organization. Lightning Connect enables you to set up a lookup relationship between the customer object (parent) and the external object (child) for orders. Then you can set up the page layouts for the parent object to include a related list that displays child records.

Example

This screenshot shows how Lightning Connect can provide a seamless view of data across system boundaries. A record detail page for the Business_Partner external object includes two related lists of child objects. The external lookup relationships and page layouts enable users to view related data from inside and from outside the Salesforce organization on a single page.
  • Account standard object (1)
  • Sales_Order external object (2)
External object record detail page with standard object Account related list and external object Sales_Order related list