Tag: Query Builder

If you’ve ever been asked to mass update Salesforce records, you’ve likely run into The Record ID Problem.

It goes like this:

• A business team sends you a spreadsheet full of updated Salesforce data
• You’re the Salesforce Admin or Analyst expected to upload it
• But the spreadsheet? It doesn’t have Record IDs—and Salesforce Bulk API requires them for updates

---

Why Spreadsheets Are Often Missing Record IDs

People love working in Excel or Google Sheets. It’s fast, flexible, and familiar.

Here’s a real-world example:

A Marketing Manager downloads lead records from Salesforce, enriches them with firmographic data from a third-party source, and sends you the updated spreadsheet. Now they want you to push those updates back to Salesforce.

But there’s a problem: the Record IDs are missing.

To fix this, most Salesforce Admins have to:

• Export the Lead object from Salesforce, including Record IDs
• Manually insert the retrieved IDs into the original file i.e. use Excel’s VLOOKUP to match on a unique field like Email or Cell Phone

This problem is so common that Salesforce Support even published a video tutorial: How to Prepare Your CSV File Using Vlookup in Excel

How Data I Am Solves It

Let’s say you get a spreadsheet from Marketing with updated Lead data—but no Record IDs.

Here’s what happens in Data I Am, our AI-powered Fix & Load tool:

1. Create an Update job and upload the spreadsheet 
2. Data I Am’s AI auto-detects the target object e.g., Lead
3. Next, choose an option:
   • “CSV has IDs” , or
   • “Fetch IDs from Salesforce”
4. If you choose to fetch IDs, simply select a match column (e.g., Cell Phone), and Data I Am will retrieve and insert the corresponding Record IDs directly into your file.

During the match process, Data I Am flags:

• Multiple ID rows – where the match column returns more than one record in Salesforce
• Missing ID rows – where no matching record is found

Then you simply run the job. Done. ✅

Optionally, Data I Am lets you:

• “Preview Record IDs” and download the enriched “CSV with IDs”.
• “Download problem rows” file with multiple or missing IDs for further review.
• On the “Data Fixes” screen, AI automatically identifies and corrects common issues. For example: If a column like Revenue contains non-numeric formats (e.g., "$100M" or "USD20,000"), they are normalized to standard numeric values (100000000.00 and 20000.00).

Isn’t that magical! R.I.P., Excel VLOOKUP!

---

TL;DR

Salesforce Bulk API requires Record IDs to update records. But spreadsheets from business users often don’t include them. Data I Am fixes that—automagically.

✅ Fetches missing Record IDs
✅ Cleans messy spreadsheets before loading
✅ Handles edge cases e.g., rows that match multiple IDs

---

Try It Free

👉 dataiam.com
📩 Or email our co-founder Zeb at TryNewThings@dataiam.com for a live walkthrough.

---

About the Author

Zeb Mahmood has spent his career unlocking business value by moving, fixing, and loading data—first as an engineer, then as a product leader, and now as a cofounder.

With 2 decades in product management, 9 years at Salesforce, and hands-on experience in early-stage startups, he’s learned a simple truth: data is the lifeblood of every business. But when it’s messy or trapped in spreadsheets, it can’t drive impact.

That’s why Zeb cofounded Data I Am — a Fix & Load AI built for Salesforce Admins and data handlers who just want their data to work. No frustration. No failed imports. Just clean, reliable data that loads seamlessly into Salesforce and delivers results.

Zeb believes great products don’t win on tech alone — they win through empathy. Empathy for users, buyers, partners, and the people building the product every day.

Let’s be honest—querying related objects in Salesforce isn’t exactly fun.

If you’ve ever tried pulling a report of Opportunities along with Account names and the Owners’ aliases, you’ve probably ended up with multiple browser tabs open for SOQL dot notation help, a couple of manual VLOOKUPs, and maybe even a silent prayer.

We’ve been there. So we made it better.

We’re thrilled to announce a major upgrade to our Extract functionality (a.k.a. Salesforce Query Builder) in Data I Am:

You can now query related objects in Salesforce—with just a few clicks!

What Are Related Objects in Salesforce?

Salesforce data is stored in a web of related objects—like linked database tables. A few examples:

• A Contact belongs to an Account
• An Opportunity is tied to both an Account and an Owner
• A Case links to a Contact and an Account

Also see: Object Relationships Overview by Salesforce

---

How to Query Related Objects with Data I Am

Until now, if you wanted to export data with related fields, you had to export one object at a time, merge them in Excel using VLOOKUP, and hope nothing breaks.

But now you can: choose your base object, then select related fields across related objects—visually and with zero SOQL (yes, no guessing the dot-notation syntax).

✅ Select any standard or custom Salesforce object
✅ Browse related objects and pick the fields you want
✅ Preview your result set before full extraction

It’s clean, intuitive, and designed for Salesforce admins, analysts, and consultants who just want the data—without the SOQL and spreadsheet drama.

⚠️ Like native SOQL and most third-party tools, you can go up the relationship chain — from child to parent (e.g., Opportunity → Account → Owner). However, you can’t yet go down (e.g., Account → all Contacts). We’re working on a way to support that for you — even though SOQL itself doesn’t natively allow it.

Example: Query Related Salesforce Data

Let’s say your manager asks for a list of open Opportunities that includes:

• Opportunity Name
• Account Name
• Owner’s Alias

In Data I Am, just:

1. Select the Opportunity object and the Name field
2. From Related Objects:
   • Choose Account → Name
   • Choose Owner → Alias
3. See the auto-generated SOQL:
   SELECT Name, Account.Name, Owner.Alias FROM Opportunity
4. Preview result set → Run job → Done!

Also see the blog post: Visual Query Builder

Modern Data I Am vs. Clunky Old Data Loaders

With this latest enhancement, Data I Am is now more functionally capable than any leading data loader in the market. (Not bragging — just stating the facts.)

Unlike traditional tools, Data I Am includes smart, AI-powered capabilities like:

✅ Flagging and fixing invalid picklist values
✅ Fetching missing Record IDs
✅ Correcting inconsistent data formats
✅ Previewing (and downloading) cleaned data before loading

Want to see how Data I Am compares to Salesforce Data Loader (desktop) and MuleSoft dataloader.io? Check out our side-by-side feature comparison — a.k.a. the “truth table” — right here: https://dataiam.com/#data-loaders-side-by-side 

---

✅ TL;DR

You can now query related objects in Salesforce using the Data I Am Query Builder—a visual, no-code way to quickly extract Salesforce data from related objects.

No SOQL scribbling → SOQL with dot notation is generated for you

No VLOOKUP dance → Select related fields visually

No trial-and-error guessing → Preview the result set before exporting

Try it FREE at: dataiam.com
Or email our co-founder, Zeb, at TryNewThings@dataiam.com for a live walkthrough.

---

About the Author

Zeb Mahmood has spent his career unlocking business value by moving, fixing, and loading data—first as an engineer, then as a product leader, and now as a cofounder.

With 2 decades in product management, 9 years at Salesforce, and hands-on experience in early-stage startups, he’s learned a simple truth: data is the lifeblood of every business. But when it’s messy or trapped in spreadsheets, it can’t drive impact.

That’s why Zeb cofounded Data I Am — a Fix & Load AI built for Salesforce Admins and data handlers who just want their data to work. No frustration. No failed imports. Just clean, reliable data that loads seamlessly into Salesforce and delivers results.

Zeb believes great products don’t win on tech alone — they win through empathy. Empathy for users, buyers, partners, and the people building the product every day.

Salesforce users have long sought easier ways to build Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) queries. Feature requests like this IdeaExchange post highlight the demand for a query builder that’s more usable and intuitive.

While Salesforce does offer tools like the Query Editor, they come with several limitations:

• Limited or no support for browsing custom objects or fields
• No visibility into field data types or relevant operators
• Limited or no support for related objects
• No generation of date literals for date/datetime fields

Data I Am addresses these gaps with a no-code SOQL query builder, available at app.dataiam.com.

Generate SOQL Queries with Confidence

Data I Am offers a visual query builder designed for Salesforce admins and business users who want to build valid, reliable SOQL queries—without handwriting SOQL.

Key capabilities:

Browse standard and custom objects

Explore objects and fields—both standard and custom—through a clean, point-and-click interface.

Data type–aware filtering

Only relevant operators are shown based on each field’s data type. For example:

• =, <, > for numeric fields
• CONTAINS, STARTS WITH, ENDS WITH for text fields

Date literal support

For date fields like LastModifiedDate, the builder presents Salesforce-supported date literals such as YESTERDAY, LAST WEEK, LAST QUARTER, and more—removing the need to look up syntax.

Relationship navigation

Easily access fields from related objects (e.g., pulling Contact fields while querying Account records).

Syntax Validation

Perform client-side SOQL syntax validation before submitting the query to Salesforce; avoid unnecessary API errors or quota waste.

Data Preview

Preview the result set before executing full query.

Part of a Feature-Rich Data Loader

The query builder is part of the broader Data I Am platform, which also includes:

• Insert, update, upsert, and delete operations (lookup coming soon)
• AI-powered field mapping between CSV columns and Salesforce fields
• CSV file restructuring to enable 1-to-1 column-to-field mappings
• Automated data fixes for invalid picklist values, missing Record IDs, and formatting errors

Together, these capabilities allow non-engineers (e.g. Salesforce administrators) to handle complex data loads and extracts—filling important functionality gaps left by native Salesforce Data Loader and many third-party tools.

Try It and Tell Us What You Think

Data I Am is continuously evolving based on user feedback. Have suggestions or feature requests? Reach out at TryNewThings@dataiam.com.

To try the query builder, sign up for free access →

---

About the Author

Zeb Mahmood has spent his career unlocking business value by moving, fixing, and loading data—first as an engineer, then as a product leader, and now as a cofounder.

With 2 decades in product management, 9 years at Salesforce, and hands-on experience in early-stage startups, he’s learned a simple truth: data is the lifeblood of every business. But when it’s messy or trapped in spreadsheets, it can’t drive impact.

That’s why Zeb cofounded Data I Am — a Fix & Load AI built for Salesforce Admins and data handlers who just want their data to work. No frustration. No failed imports. Just clean, reliable data that loads seamlessly into Salesforce and delivers results.

Zeb believes great products don’t win on tech alone — they win through empathy. Empathy for users, buyers, partners, and the people building the product every day.