Salesforce integration is an important activity for Salesforce professionals and concerns almost every Salesforce professional working in an organization. When you go for an interview for the post of a Salesforce Administrator, Architect, Consultant, and especially a Developer, you would be expected to be well-versed with Salesforce integration services.
Here are some of the most important and basic Salesforce integration questions and their answers you should know to get a job as a Salesforce professional:
What do you mean by Salesforce integration?
Salesforce integration is the process of connecting the functionality of Salesforce with another application to expand its functionality. It involves integrating data between the two applications in a way that users get to work on a single unified platform. It relieves Salesforce users from reconciling data between different platforms and switching between them while working. Salesforce integration involves the integration of data, business logic, and presentation of the two applications to provide a seamless experience to the users.
What are the different ways of carrying out Salesforce integration?
Here are three of the most common ways of carrying out Salesforce integration:
- User Interface Integration – This method of Salesforce integration involves combining the user interfaces of two or more apps to create composite applications with hardly any rework done on either of the apps’ UIs.
- Business Logic Integration – This integration involves using Apex Web Services or Apex Callouts for Outbound for handling a scenario where business logic is spread across multiple applications to implement end-to-end business processes.
- Data Integration – As the name suggests, this integration makes use of SOAP and REST APIs for integrating data between two or more applications to provide an integrated platform to the users. Here, the focus is on data synchronization where one of the integrated applications acts as a primary source for a specific business object.
What do you mean by a Protocol?
Protocol refers to a set of mutually accepted and implemented rules present at both the ends of the communications channel during integration for appropriate exchange of information between the concerned apps.
What are the different APIs available in Salesforce?
The different APIs available in Salesforce include:
- SOAP API
- REST API
- Apex REST API
- Apex SOAP API
- Tooling API
- Bulk API
- Streaming API
- Chatter REST API
- User Interface API
- Metadata API
- Analytics REST API
What do you mean by web services?
Web services refer to functionality or code that helps you carry out Salesforce integration. The services are open standard web applications that interact with other apps for exchanging data for the purpose of Salesforce integration. They can be used for converting existing applications into web applications with ease and efficiency.
When should you use REST API for Salesforce integration?
REST API provides developers with robust and simple REST-based web services to carry out Salesforce integration. With its ease of development and integration, REST API should be used for projects on mobile applications and web projects.
There may be certain projects for which you may require REST API along with other Salesforce APIs to obtain the desired results. If you are willing to build a user interface for Chatter, Salesforce Communities, or recommendations, use Chatter REST API. If the integration requires the processing of several records, use Bulk API.
When should you use SOAP API for Salesforce integration?
SOAP API can be used for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting Salesforce records. It can also be used for performing searches within the platform with any language that supports web services. For example, SOAP API can be used for integrating Salesforce with your company’s ERP or finance platforms to streamline your business processes. It can also be used to deliver sales and support information to your company portals in real-time and populate important business systems with valuable customer information.
What do you mean by WSDL?
WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language. It is an XML document that is used for describing a web service. It is derived from Microsoft’s SOAP and IBM’s NASSL (Network Accessible Service Specification Language). WSL can replace NASSL and SOAP for expressing business services in the UDDI registry.
You can use WSDL with SOAP and XML Schema for providing web services over the internet. A client program that is connected to a web service can read WSDL for determining the functions available on the server. All special data types used are embedded in the WSDL file as an XML schema.
There are two different types of WSDL used in Salesforce – Enterprise WSDL and Partner WSDL.
What is the difference between Enterprise and Partner WSDL?
The Enterprise WSDL is strongly typed and bound to a specific configuration of your Salesforce org. It changes if specific modifications are carried out to your Salesforce org.
On the other hand, Partner WSDL is loosely typed and can be used for reflecting against any configuration of your Salesforce org. As this WSDL is static in nature, it does not change when modifications are carried out to your Salesforce org.
How would you generate a WSDL file?
Here are the key steps to create a WSDL file:
- Go to “Setup” and click on “Develop” followed by “Apex Classes”
- Click on Apex Classes
- Click on the “Generate WSDL” button
- Save the file as .wsdl within your system
What are remote site settings used for?
Remote site settings are used for authorizing the endpoint and allowing you to access external website resources from your Salesforce application. These websites can be accessed using Visualforce pages, Apex Callout, and XmlHttpRequest calls.
What are the different ways to undertake XML parsing?
The two different ways of undertaking XML parsing are:
- XML streams
- XML DOM
What do you mean by JSON?
JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is a text that is more lightweight as compared to XML. Developers can convert any JavaScript object into JSON and send it to the server.
The Final Word
These were some of the most fundamental questions about Salesforce integration with their answers to help you prepare for your next interview.
Published by Chitiz Agrawal
2 years ago 
