Generate Synthetic Data and Seed to a Sandbox Environment

Create and configure an anonymization template, or edit an existing anonymization template. This is the template that will be used to generate the required, synthetic data.

1. Add each object for which you need to generate synthetic data.
2. Per object, make sure that all mandatory fields and all relevant, non-mandatory fields have the necessary replacement value in their Replace with field. If not, configure the field’s replacement value. Display all mandatory fields to verify that they are configured with a replacement value by using either of these template toolbar Show options: Mandatory or Mandatory & Skipped.
   

   Important Mandatory fields display an asterisk after their field name.

   For mandatory fields, you can’t select the Skip option in the Replace with field, when using the anonymization template to generate synthetic data, because mandatory fields require a value for successful record insertion in the Salesforce sandbox destination.

   The object field Fill if Empty option doesn't apply to generating synthetic data and its setting is ignored.

   For template create and configure details, review the knowledge base articleWork with Anonymization Templates for Salesforce.

3. Create a Generate template.

   For template create details, review the knowledge base article Creating a Seeding Template for Salesforce. Take note that in step 4d, Type of template, you must select the Generate option.

4. Configure or edit the Generate template:
   1. Add object nodes: root object nodes, any child object nodes, and any optional parent object nodes.

      The default number of records to be created per node is 100. The User object and the KAV (knowledge article) object are not supported for creating fake data. Therefore, these objects don’t appear in Generate template root/parent/child object selection drop-downs.

      Each node’s three dots menu has these options:

      • Remove - remove the object node from the template
      • Limit - modify (increase/decrease) the number of records to be generated for the object node
   2. In the Anonymize Template field, select an anonymization template. The selected template is used to generate the necessary synthetic data. The generated data is the data that'll be seeded into the selected destination (a sandbox).
   3. Make sure that your Generate template and your selected anonymization template contain the identical objects.

   For template configure details, review the knowledge base article Building the Nodes Seeding Template. For node context menu details, review the knowledge base article Node Context Menu - Nodes Template (Salesforce). For template edit details, review the knowledge base article Editing a Nodes Template for Salesforce.

5. Run a Generate (seeding) job:
   1. In the Template Builder tab of the Seeding UI, open your Generate template.
   2. Click Generate. The Generate dialog opens containing both the General tab and the Automations tab.
   3. In the Destination field of the General tab, select a Salesforce sandbox into which the generated, synthetic data will be seeded.
   4. In the Automations tab click the arrow next to an automations group to display that group's list of automations and select the automations you want to disable. Use the tab’s Search for field or its Show field's drop-down to filter and find automations to disable. The tab shows the number of automations you have selected and the number of automations that are not available to choose. You can't choose automations that can't be disabled outside of the sandbox and can only be disabled manually in the sandbox.
   5. Click Generate.

      This button is disabled when no anonymization template is selected in the Anonymize Template field. This button is also disabled if there already is a Generate (seeding) job being run that is using the selected, sandbox destination.

   The generate-seed process begins, and you are transferred to the UI's Recent Seeds tab. During the Generate (seeding) job, the current object and the number of records for that object are displayed. You can view the total number of records that will be seeded.

   For information about the Recent Seeds tab and seeding job reports, review the knowledge base article Recent Seeds Information and Seeding Job Reports (Salesforce).