Two-way sync with salesforce (java)

Question

We would like to start using salesforce for managing sales contacts, but there is also some business functions regarding contacts that we would like to retain in our current system.

As far as I can see, that means that we're going to need a two-way sync? Ie, when anything changes on salesforce, we need to update it on our system and vice versa.

I'm suggesting some kind of messaging product that can sit in the middle and retry failed messages, because I have a feeling that without that, things are going to get very messy? Eg, when one or other service is down.

The manager on the project would like to keep it simple and feels that using messages rather then realtime point-to-point calls is overkill, but I feel like without it we're going to be in for a world of pain.

Does anyone have any experience with trying to do two-way syncs (actually even one-way suffers from the same risks I think?)

Many thanks for your insights..

Answer 1

I can't speak for your system, but on the side Salesforce API, take a look at the getUpdated() and getDeleted() calls, which are designed for data replication . The SOAP API doc has a section that goes into detail about how to use them effectively.

Answer 2

We use Jitterbit to achieve two way sync between Salesforce and billing system. The Salesforce has a last-modified field and so does our biling system (you system should have this, if not, add a timestamp field to the table in its SQL storage). The only important thing is to chose one of the keys as primary (either SF_ID or other system's key) and create that key field in another system as it will be used for conflict resolution. The process is simple and multistep, load all modified SF data into flat file, load all modified secondary system data into another flat file, look for conflicts by comparing two files over a common key field, notify admin on conflicts, if any, and propagate all non-conflicting changes to another system. We run this process every 10 minutes and we store the last timestamp on both systems between cycle runs so that we only take records that were modified between two cycles.

In case two users edit at the same time, you will either encounter a confict and resolve it manually or you will get the "last-saved-wins" outcome.

You also have to cater for new provisions, on SF side use upsert instead of update (using external or SF key depending on which you chose above), on your other side it depends on the system.