# Omnata with Salesforce Connect (External Objects)

### Salesforce Connect Adapter <a href="#salesforce-connect-adapter" id="salesforce-connect-adapter"></a>

Omnata Connect is a [custom adapter](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_connector_custom_adapter.htm) for Salesforce Connect which allows tables and views from a Snowflake account to be accessed as [External Objects](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.object_reference.meta/object_reference/sforce_api_objects_external_objects.htm).

Whenever an External Object is accessed, the adapter creates a SQL query, executes the query in your data platform via a REST API call, and translates the result back into native Salesforce data types.

External Objects virtualise queried data on-platform without replicating it.

### Using External Objects <a href="#overall-considerations" id="overall-considerations"></a>

External Objects behave very similarly to Standard and Custom Objects, but do not offer identical functionality for some platform features.

To understand the differences, refer to [Salesforce Platform Features Supported by Salesforce Connect](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.platform_connect_considerations.htm\&type=5) in the Salesforce docs.

### Architecture <a href="#architecture" id="architecture"></a>

The below diagram outlines how Omnata fits between Salesforce and your cloud data warehouse.

![Omnata runs inside your Salesforce instance as a native app](/files/fxfYbzKZ08L5j66LbTei)

### Use Cases <a href="#use-cases" id="use-cases"></a>

* Displaying a list of related records on a Salesforce object page
* Displaying the field values of individual records
* Creating reports using standard Salesforce reporting functionality
* Incorporating data from cloud data warehouse tables into Salesforce Flows
* Incorporating data from cloud data warehouse tables into Einstein chatbot responses

### Supported Data Types <a href="#supported-data-types" id="supported-data-types"></a>

Per the Salesforce [documentation](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_enum_DataSource_DataType.htm), the following data types are supported by Salesforce Connect:

| Salesforce Data type   | Description                  |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| BOOLEAN\_TYPE          | Boolean                      |
| DATETIME\_TYPE         | Date/time                    |
| EXTERNAL\_LOOKUP\_TYPE | External lookup relationship |
| INDIRECT\_LOOKUP\_TYPE | Indirect lookup relationship |
| LOOKUP\_TYPE           | Lookup relationship          |
| NUMBER\_TYPE           | Number                       |
| STRING\_LONG\_TYPE     | Long text area               |
| STRING\_SHORT\_TYPE    | Text area                    |
| URL\_TYPE              | URL                          |


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