Work with External Data Sources

An external data source specifies how to access an external system. Salesforce Connect uses external data sources to access data that's stored outside your Salesforce organization. Files Connect uses external data sources to access third-party content systems. External data sources have associated external objects, which your users and the Lightning platform use to interact with the external data and content.

• Define External Data Sources
  Create external data sources to connect to content and data that is stored outside your Salesforce org.
• Validate and Sync an External Data Source
  After you configure an external data source, synchronize it to map its tables with external objects in your Salesforce org. The content and data of external objects appear in federated search, together with your Salesforce content and data.
• Define External Objects
  Tables in external systems map to external objects in Salesforce, combining all your data and content for users in your org.
• Validate External Object Connections
  After you configure an external data source, run the validator tool on each external object to test and troubleshoot its connections. The tool tests for ID uniqueness and the ability to sort and filter results. Validator is available for external objects from Apex and Odata data sources.
• Grant Access to Authentication Settings for External Data Sources
  For external data sources that use per-user authentication, grant users access through permission sets and profiles, so users can set up and manage their own authentication settings for accessing the external system.
• Store Authentication Settings for External Systems
  You or your administrator can set up and manage your authentication settings for external systems. With valid authentication settings, you can access external systems from within your Salesforce org.
• External Object Relationships
  External objects support standard lookup relationships, which use the 18-character Salesforce record IDs to associate related records with each other. However, data that’s stored outside your Salesforce org often doesn’t contain those record IDs. Therefore, two special types of lookup relationships are available for external objects: external lookups and indirect lookups.