How objects connect

posted Dec 10, 2010, 8:12 AM by Ezra Kenigsberg   [ updated Mar 26, 2011, 3:11 PM ]
Just finished presenting "Data Done Right" at Dreamforce, and decided to draw attention to some of the goodies on the "Tools and Tips" side of the site.  So I'll post every weekday, or until I get tired, something useful for all the data folk out there:

#DataTipOfTheDay 2010-12-10

Q: "How do all the objects in Salesforce connect to each other?"

A: Great question! The usual way geeks diagram these relationships is with an ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram). Can't spell NERD without it.

The junior-varsity way to create an ERD: go to http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api/Content/data_model.htm, which shows how all the standard objects and fields connect to each other.

The varsity way to create an ERD: go to Jeff Douglas's blog post about installing SchemaSpy: http://blog.jeffdouglas.com/2010/05/12/running-the-force-metadata-jdbc-driver-for-schemaspy/

The paid-professional-athlete way to create an ERD: buy DreamFactory's SnapShot (http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a03300000021uE2AAI)
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