Getting Started With dotConnect for Salesforce

Below are some resources to help you maximize your experience with dotConnect for Salesforce.

dotConnect for Salesforce is a high-performance ADO.NET data provider with ORM support, offering fast and encrypted access to Salesforce data for application development.

EF Core, Dapper, NHibernate ORM support
Local SQL engine with support for SQL-92
Broad compatibility with various .NET platforms and versions
Full compliance with ADO.NET
Integration with Visual Studio

Code examples

using Devart.Data.Salesforce;

namespace SalesforceConsoleApp {
  class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      string connectionString =
        "Authentication Type=UserNamePassword;" +
        "Host=salesforce.com;" +
        "User [email protected];" +
        "Password=;" +
        "Security Token=;" +
        "License Key=**********;";

      using (var connection = new SalesforceConnection(connectionString))
      {
        connection.Open();
        Console.WriteLine(connection.State); // Prints: Open
      }
    }
  }
}

PM> Install-Package Devart.Data.Salesforce

using System;
using Devart.Data.Salesforce;

namespace SalesforceConsoleApp
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string connectionString =
        "Authentication Type=UserNamePassword;" +
        "Host=salesforce.com;" +
        "User [email protected];" +
        "Password=;" +
        "Security Token=;" +
        "License Key=**********;";

      using (var connection = new SalesforceConnection(connectionString))
      {
        connection.Open();
        Console.WriteLine(connection.State); // Open

        string soql = "SELECT Id, Name, Industry, BillingCity FROM Account LIMIT 15";
        using (var cmd = new SalesforceCommand(soql, connection))
        using (var reader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
        {
          Console.WriteLine("Id\t\t\t\tName\t\t\tIndustry\tBillingCity");
          Console.WriteLine("----------------------------------------");

          while (reader.Read())
          {
            Console.WriteLine(
              $"{reader["Id"]}\t{reader["Name"],-24}\t{reader["Industry"],-12}\t{reader["BillingCity"]}");
          }
        }
      }

      Console.WriteLine("\nPress any key to exit...");
      Console.ReadKey();
    }
  }
}

PM> Install-Package Devart.Data.Salesforce

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Devart.Data.Salesforce.EFCore;

namespace EfCoreSalesforceDemo
{
  // Map to Salesforce Account object
  public class Account
  {
      public string Id { get; set; } = "";
      public string Name { get; set; } = "";
      public string? Industry { get; set; }
      public string? BillingCity { get; set; }
  }

  public class SalesforceContext : DbContext
  {
    private readonly string _connectionString;
    public SalesforceContext(string connectionString) => _connectionString = connectionString;
    public DbSet<Account> Accounts => Set<Account>();

    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
        => optionsBuilder.UseSalesforce(_connectionString);

    protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        var e = modelBuilder.Entity<Account>();
        e.ToTable("Account"); // Salesforce object
        e.HasKey(a => a.Id);  // Primary key
        e.Property(a => a.Id).HasColumnName("Id");
        e.Property(a => a.Name).HasColumnName("Name");
        e.Property(a => a.Industry).HasColumnName("Industry");
        e.Property(a => a.BillingCity).HasColumnName("BillingCity");
    }
  }

  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      // Fill in Password, Security Token, License Key
      var connectionString =
        "Authentication Type=UserNamePassword;" +
        "Host=salesforce.com;" +
        "User [email protected];" +
        "Password=YOUR_PASSWORD;" +
        "Security Token=YOUR_TOKEN;" +
        "License Key=**********;";

      using var db = new SalesforceContext(connectionString);

      Console.WriteLine("Fetching first 15 accounts...\n");

      var accounts = db.Accounts
                        .OrderBy(a => a.Name)
                        .Select(a => new { a.Id, a.Name, a.Industry, a.BillingCity })
                        .Take(15)
                        .ToList();

      Console.WriteLine("Id\t\t\t\tName\t\t\tIndustry\tBillingCity");
      Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------------");

      foreach (var a in accounts)
        Console.WriteLine($"{a.Id}\t{a.Name,-24}\t{a.Industry,-12}\t{a.BillingCity}");

      Console.WriteLine("\nDone. Press any key to exit...");
      Console.ReadKey();
    }
  }
}

PM> Install-Package Devart.Data.Salesforce.EFCore

using System;
using System.Data;
using Devart.Data.Salesforce;

namespace SalesforceConsoleApp
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string connectionString =
        "Authentication Type=UserNamePassword;" +
        "Host=salesforce.com;" +
        "User [email protected];" +
        "Password=;" +
        "Security Token=;" +
        "License Key=**********;";

      using (var connection = new SalesforceConnection(connectionString))
      {
        connection.Open();
        Console.WriteLine(connection.State); // Open

        string soql = "SELECT Id, Name, Industry, BillingCity FROM Account LIMIT 15";

        using (var adapter = new SalesforceDataAdapter(soql, connection))
        {
          var table = new DataTable("Account");
          adapter.Fill(table);

          Console.WriteLine("Id\t\t\t\tName\t\t\tIndustry\tBillingCity");
          Console.WriteLine("---------------------------------");

          foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
          {
            string id = row["Id"].ToString();
            string name = row["Name"]?.ToString() ?? "";
            string industry = row.IsNull("Industry") ? "" : row["Industry"].ToString();
            string city = row.IsNull("BillingCity") ? "" : row["BillingCity"].ToString();

            Console.WriteLine($"{id}\t{name,-24}\t{industry,-12}\t{city}");
          }
        }
      }

      Console.WriteLine("\nPress any key to exit...");
      Console.ReadKey();
    }
  }
}

PM> Install-Package Devart.Data.Salesforce

using System;
using Devart.Data.Salesforce;

namespace SalesforceConsoleApp
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string connectionString =
        "Authentication Type=UserNamePassword;" +
        "Host=salesforce.com;" +
        "User [email protected];" +
        "Password=;" +
        "Security Token=;" +
        "License Key=**********;";

      using (var connection = new SalesforceConnection(connectionString))
      {
        connection.Open();
        Console.WriteLine(connection.State); // Open

        // Begin a transaction
        var tx = connection.BeginTransaction();

        try
        {
          // 1) Insert Account
          string insertAccountSql =
            "INSERT INTO Account (Name, Industry, BillingCity) " +
            "VALUES (@Name, @Industry, @BillingCity)";

          using (var insertAccount = new SalesforceCommand(insertAccountSql, connection))
          {
            insertAccount.Transaction = tx;
            insertAccount.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Name", "Contoso (TX Demo)");
            insertAccount.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Industry", "Technology");
            insertAccount.Parameters.AddWithValue("@BillingCity", "Warsaw");
            insertAccount.ExecuteNonQuery();
          }

          // 2) Get the new Account Id
          string getAccountId =
            "SELECT Id FROM Account WHERE Name = @Name ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC LIMIT 1";

          string accountId;
          using (var getIdCmd = new SalesforceCommand(getAccountId, connection))
          {
            getIdCmd.Transaction = tx;
            getIdCmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Name", "Contoso (TX Demo)");
            accountId = Convert.ToString(getIdCmd.ExecuteScalar());
          }

          // 3) Insert a related Contact
          string insertContactSql =
            "INSERT INTO Contact (FirstName, LastName, Email, AccountId) " +
            "VALUES (@FirstName, @LastName, @Email, @AccountId)";

          using (var insertContact = new SalesforceCommand(insertContactSql, connection))
          {
            insertContact.Transaction = tx;
            insertContact.Parameters.AddWithValue("@FirstName", "Jane");
            insertContact.Parameters.AddWithValue("@LastName", "Doe");
            insertContact.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Email", "[email protected]");
            insertContact.Parameters.AddWithValue("@AccountId", accountId);
            insertContact.ExecuteNonQuery();
          }

          // Commit all operations atomically
          tx.Commit();
          Console.WriteLine("Transaction committed.");
        }
        catch
        {
          // Roll back all changes on any failure
          tx.Rollback();
          Console.WriteLine("Transaction rolled back.");
        }
      }

      Console.WriteLine("\nPress any key to exit...");
      Console.ReadKey();
    }
  }
}

PM> Install-Package Devart.Data.Salesforce

using System;
using Devart.Data.Salesforce;

namespace SalesforceConsoleApp
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string connectionString =
        "Authentication Type=UserNamePassword;" +
        "Host=salesforce.com;" +
        "User [email protected];" +
        "Password=;" +
        "Security Token=;" +
        "License Key=**********;";

      using (var connection = new SalesforceConnection(connectionString))
      {
        try
        {
          connection.Open();
          Console.WriteLine($"Connection: {connection.State}"); // Open

          // Intentionally trigger an error: omit required field Name
          string sql = "INSERT INTO Account (Industry) VALUES (@Industry)";
          using (var cmd = new SalesforceCommand(sql, connection))
          {
            cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Industry", "Technology");
            cmd.ExecuteNonQuery(); // Should throw
          }
        }
        catch (SalesforceException ex)
        {
          Console.WriteLine("SalesforceException caught");
          Console.WriteLine($"ErrorCode: {ex.ErrorCode}");
          Console.WriteLine($"Message  : {ex.Message}");
          if (ex.InnerException != null)
            Console.WriteLine($"Inner    : {ex.InnerException.Message}");
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
          Console.WriteLine("General exception caught");
          Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
        }
      }

      Console.WriteLine("\nPress any key to exit...");
      Console.ReadKey();
    }
  }
}

PM> Install-Package Devart.Data.Salesforce

How-to articles

.NET Connection Strings for Salesforce

Learn how to set up connection strings properly when working with dotConnect for Salesforce in .NET applications.

Connect to Salesforce in .NET

Explore how to establish a connection between .NET applications and Salesforce using ADO.NET.

Connect to Salesforce with EF Core

Find out how to connect Salesforce to your application using EF Core and ADO.NET.

Connect to Salesforce With Dapper

Learn how to integrate Salesforce with .NET Blazor applications using EF Core and ADO.NET.

Connect to Salesforce in Blazor

Learn how to connect C# to Salesforce using Dapper for fast and efficient data access.

Connect to Salesforce in MAUI

See how to build .NET MAUI applications and perform CRUD operations with Salesforce using ADO.NET.

Documentation

Licensing

A detailed technical reference on embedding license information - a required resource for applications built with dotConnect for Salesforce.

DataAdapter features

A guide to using the SalesforceDataAdapter class for interacting with Salesforce data in a disconnected architecture.

Parameters

An overview of SQL query parameters and their synchronization, along with practical insights into working with stored procedures.

SQL translation

Since remote execution is significantly faster than client-side processing, using translatable SQL ensures optimal query performance.

Read the full documentation

Getting Started With dotConnect for Salesforce

Below are some resources to help you maximize your experience with dotConnect for Salesforce.

Code examples

How-to articles

Documentation

Licensing

DataAdapter features

Parameters

SQL translation

dotConnect Universal

FAQ