Create a Salesforce Data Dictionary with AbstraLinx
Nov 26th, 2020,
A data dictionary is a definition of metadata, i.e. data about the database. Data dictionaries are very important as they contain detailed information about the contents of a database, such as the names of fields, their data types or formats, and text descriptions. A data dictionary allows a better understanding and using of the data. (Wikipedia definition of a data dictionary)
A Salesforce data dictionary is a document that describes all fields metadata. This data dictionary can help everyone from management, admins, analysts, and developers to understand and use Salesforce data fields.
In this article, we will see how to generate a Salesforce data dictionary using AbstraLinx.
Connect your Salesforce org to AbstraLinx
First of all, you need to connect your Salesforce org with AbstraLinx to extract your metadata.
Step1
Download AbstraLinx and install it (Download for Free).
Step2
After installation, open the application and go to the menu "Manage connections" and create a new connection to your Salesforce. For more details about how to configure a new connection, read this step-by-step tutorial.
Step3
After you setup a connection with your Salesforce, you can now easily reverse engineer your organization. Read more about How to reverse engineer a Salesforce organization.
Let's build the data dictionary
Step4
To generate a Data dictionary
1. Select “Tools | Generate Data Dictionary” from the Tools menu.
2. Select the following options as needed and then click OK.
• Output: Select a Directory to save the data dictionary.
• Export type: Specify the format of the generated data dictionary document. Available format are HTML and CSV.
• Fields to export Specify the fields to export.
3. Click “OK” to generate the data dictionary then open it.
4. The generated data dictionary document contains an advanced search that allows you to easily find any objects
5. It is also possible to export the document in XML, JSON, CSV, SQL, TXT, and MS-EXCEL format.
A powerful metadata discovery software for Salesforce
Empower your team with a simple and powerful tool built to be used by Salesforce administrators, developers, or consultants while configuring and managing a Salesforce organization.
