Salesforce Workbench offers Salesforce administrators and developers a powerful web-based set of tools that can be used to interact with organizations using Salesforce.com via Force.com and other application programming interfaces (APIs). The tool enables developers and administrators to perform many functions and supports data manipulation for large files with over five million records. In this post, we’ll look at what exactly Salesforce Workbench offers users and how it can be used effectively in organizations that use Salesforce, such as:

• Editing records
• Conducting queries
• Data operations
• Password management
• Data migration

Before we discuss these tips in more detail, here’s a quick overview of Salesforce and Salesforce Workbench. 

What Is Salesforce? 

Salesforce is an industry-leading customer relationship management (CRM) solution used by businesses in many market sectors. The cloud-based software enables companies to improve customer and partner interaction to promote growth and brand loyalty. The many Salesforce integrations make it possible to connect Salesforce to the other tools and technologies your company already uses, creating a cohesive digital foundation. 

There are many Salesforce training opportunities and Salesforce certifications to help professionals in various fields master their use of the platform and demonstrate their expertise. 

What Is Salesforce Workbench?

Salesforce Workbench is a collection of tools developed by Ryan Brainard and distributed under the Open Source BSD License. In addition to Force.com, Workbench supports the Partner, Bulk, Rest, Streaming, Metadata, and Apex APIs. Workbench provides a simple and intuitive user interface from which admins and developers can describe, query, manipulate, and migrate data and metadata in Salesforce.com organizations directly in their web browsers.

Workbench provides advanced features that allow testing and troubleshooting Force.com APIs. Workbench lets administrators easily remove user information such as profiles, roles, and permission sets. Zip files can be uploaded that can be used to perform insertions, deletions, or updates to binary files. An individual record returned from a query can be modified by clicking on its ID.

Salesforce Workbench integrates cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protection to keep data safe from attempts by hackers to trick users into changing information. Users need to update the CSRF SECURITY SETTINGS in the config/overrides.php to change the default setting for enhanced security.

The Workbench tool is supported by the open source community and is not supported by Salesforce.com. 

The Best Ways To Use Salesforce Workbench

Users log into Workbench using their Salesforce credentials and can choose the Production or Sandbox version of the tools. Production should be used by users who want to access the Developer Edition of Workbench. Let’s look at some of Workbench’s features and functionality that can help developers and administrators work more productively and efficiently.

Editing Records

All types of records can be edited directly from within Workbench. The tool allows users to add or remove all system permissions from a profile without clicking each record field. Updating numerous fields at once can save administrators a lot of time, especially when multiple records are in play.

Constructing Queries

Workbench lets users create SOQL and SOSL queries with a point-and-click interface that displays the query text. This feature is a great learning tool that can help users quickly get up to speed with building Salesforce queries. The tool also makes it easy to extract the results of your query to a CSV file that can be used for updating data.

Data Operations

Workbench can streamline the types of data operations performed by Data Loader. This includes updates, inserts, deletes, and other operations that require an admin to modify files or records. Workbench allows users to upload a CSV file and manipulate it to customize record fields to perform mass updates.

Password Management

Salesforce Workbench lets admins set the password of another user to a specific value. Rather than simply resetting the password and relying on the end-user to create a viable password, the password can be defined to help the user access Salesforce. End users will need to set a new password after logging in to Salesforce.

Data Migration

Developers often need to migrate data when working with Salesforce. This process can be tedious with standard Salesforce functionality. Workbench simplifies the process and makes it easy to retrieve and deploy data. Data can be retrieved using CSV files or an unpackaged XML manifest file and stored in a .zip file. The .zip file can then be uploaded easily using the Workbench’s deploy feature.

Optimizing Your Salesforce Implementation

Let Argano be your company’s strategic partner and help build the foundation for its digital transformation. Argano can help your company with a new implementation of the Salesforce CRM platform or assess your current environment and suggest an optimization strategy. In either case, the resulting solution will enable your business to reach new heights.

Argano’s experience with Salesforce implementations is well-documented with over 120 Salesforce and more than 35 CPQ certifications. We have delivered more than 400 successful Salesforce implementations with an extensive knowledge base, continuous training, and proven best practices. Argano’s solutions will help grow your business and enhance customer relationships. Get in touch with Argano today and learn how we can optimize your Salesforce environment.