Salesforce

Configure exceptional multi-channel and multi-thread customer experiences in Pendula with data directly from your CRM.

Pendula for Salesforce Integration

Learn how to create Pendula flows for your Salesforce org

Pendula for Salesforce Integration Overview

Connect your Salesforce org to Pendula

Pendula authenticates with Salesforce using the OAuth 2.0 protocol. OAuth 2.0 is a standard for authorising applications to talk to each other.

Salesforce user permissions

The Salesforce user account that is used to authenticate your Pendula tenant with your Salesforce org requires a Salesforce user license, with the following permissions.

System Permissions

Permission	Use
API Enabled	Required to use the Salesforce REST API
Customize Application	Required to create Outbound Message definitions for flows
Manage Custom Permissions	Required by the Customize Application permissions
View Roles and Role Hierarchy	Required by View Setup and Configuration permission
View Setup and Configuration	Required to list objects that can be used to create a Record-Triggered Flow
Modify Metadata Through Metadata API Functions	Required to read, create and update Flows and Outbound Message definitions

App Permissions

Permission	Use
Enable System Mode Flow Activation	Required as Flows run in System context
Manage Flow	Required by Enable System Mode Flow Activation permission

Object Permissions

Objects that are used in a Pendula flow require the following permissions.

Permission	Use
Read	Required to list the objects fields
Create	Required to create a record of the object type from the Create Record action
Edit	Required to update a record of the object type from the Update Record action
View All Records	Required to read records of the object type from the Get Record action/Scheduled Trigger
Field Permissions	Read permission is required for any field to be returned from Get Record action/Scheduled Trigger/Event Trigger. Edit permission is required for any field to be updated from Update Record Action.

Pendula4E Object Permissions for Activity Sync

The following permissions are required so that records in these objects can be created and updated by the activity sync service and triggers.

Object	Permissions
Pendula4E__Message_Event__c	Read, Create, Edit, Delete, View All Records, Modify All Records, View All Fields Read Access, Edit Access to all fields
Pendula4E__Message_Recipient__c	Read, Create
Pendula4E__Message__c	Read, Create, Edit, Delete, View All Records, Modify All Records, View All Fields Read Access, Edit Access to all fields Record Type Assignments: Inbound SMS, Outbound Email, Outbound SMS

Recipient matching

Your selected Contact, Lead, User or Person Account objects require Read, View All Records, Read Access to the following fields:

Id
MobilePhone
Email
PersonMobilePhone (for Person Accounts only)
PersonEmail (for Person Accounts only)

Connect your Pendula tenant

To connect to a Salesforce org from Pendula:

Log into your Pendula tenant with the user that has the correct Salesforce permissions.
Select Integrations from the main menu. The integrations page shows:
1. Active connections: applications you have already connected to Pendula
2. Setup connection: applications you can connect to Pendula
Click the Salesforce tile under the Setup connection heading. This opens the page where you can enter the details of your new connection.
Enter salesforce-integration (case sensitive) as the Name to identify this connection. This value is used as the API Name, and is also the name that can be selected within a flow to choose a particular connection - e.g. Production or Sandbox.
Enter a Description to make it easier to identify this connection from the list.
Select either Production or Sandbox from the Environment drop-down.
Click Connect. If you are not logged into your Salesforce org, this will take you to the login screen so you can log into your org.
Click Allow in the Salesforce window to allow Pendula access to your org.
You will be redirected back to Pendula. Click Save connection.

Authentication is now established with your Salesforce org, and the connection is added to your Active connections list.

How to

Salesforce event trigger

Setting up the trigger

The Salesforce event trigger can be configured to trigger a Pendula flow when:

A record is created
A record is updated to meet condition requirements
A record is created or updated to meet condition requirements

The trigger does not support "record updated every time a record is updated and meets the condition requirements" — i.e. using IsChanged trigger conditions. This prevents unwanted triggering of flows and communications when users within Salesforce update records. To support IsChanged flows, see the Advanced use cases and known workarounds below.

The event trigger supports the majority of standard, special and custom objects associated with the connected Salesforce organisation. It supports the following additional triggering criteria:

None (trigger the flow on the creation or update of any record of that type of object)
Any condition is met (OR)
All conditions are met (AND)
Custom condition logic is met, e.g. 1 AND 2 AND (3 OR 4)

The flow will fire only from data in the triggering object and include all available fields on that object (including custom fields). To bring more data in for use within the flow — for example, related records such as the Contact object — use the Get record in Salesforce action.

Adding criteria

The event trigger currently does not support visualising system values associated with any fields from SFDC (for example, picklist values). You must enter the correct values when building the criteria that will trigger the flow.

The format of the fields used in configuring criteria will need to adhere to the SFDC API formats:

Field types in Salesforce →

Date-specific fields in Salesforce →

To configure a boolean field you must enter true or false into the value field.

For picklist and boolean fields (apart from is null), the value is not case-sensitive.

How to add and find IDs for ID fields

For specific record IDs: Access the required record ID in your web browser. The URL displayed in the browser address bar contains both the Salesforce instance and the Record ID.

Salesforce Classic example

URL: http://na1.salesforce.com/5003000000D8cuI Record ID: 5003000000D8cuI

Lightning Experience example:

URL: https://na1.lightning.force.com/lightning/r/Case/5003000000D8cuIQAA/view?0.source=alohaHeader

Record ID: 5003000000D8cuIQAA

Using the `is null` operator

The Get Salesforce records trigger supports the use of the is null operator. The value must be set to true or false, and is case-sensitive. This operator will only work on nullable fields in Salesforce.

Activating the Pendula flow

Upon activation of a Pendula flow with the Salesforce event trigger, an SFDC flow with the type ‘Record-Triggered Flow’ will be created and activated.

You will see the associated Pendula flows in your SFDC flows list as:PendulaFlow{{PendulaFlowID}}-{{Flow Version}}.

Editing the Pendula flow

You can edit flows using the Salesforce record event trigger as normal in Pendula.

Activating a new version of the Pendula flow will create a new SFDC flow in Salesforce with the updated version number (PendulaFlow{{PendulaFlowID}}-{{Flow Version}}).

For the previous Pendula flow version that has been replaced or terminated, the corresponding SFDC flow will then be deactivated but not deleted. This is best practice in SFDC, allowing an audit trail of all flows created to remain in the Salesforce org and support troubleshooting where required.

Troubleshooting

If the SFDC flow fails to be created after you have configured the trigger, the Pendula flow will display in the ‘Error’ state. This usually is because of the flow entry criteria you have configured. Check the syntax of the criteria value carefully and ensure that it uses the correct format. See below for the correct Salesforce formats.

The format of the fields used in configuring criteria will need to adhere to the SFDC API formats:

Field types in Salesforce →

Date-specific fields in Salesforce →

Advanced use cases

Pendula supports the ability to modify an SFDC flow directly for more advanced use cases. The SFDC flow name cannot be changed.

If you modify the flow in SFDC but then activate a new version of the Pendula flow, you must make the same changes to the new SFDC flow created from the new Pendula flow version.

Examples of advanced use cases that require editing the SFDC flow directly:

Using a formula to define a record change from a value on a parent object (i.e. number of days since DATE() on the parent object)
If you are receiving a DLM error (details below) and have a requirement to use Asynchronous paths in SFDC
To include a Run Asynchronously path to access an external system after the original transaction for the triggering record is successfully committed.
To trigger a flow every time a record is updated and meets the condition requirements - i.e. using "IsChanged" trigger conditions supported by SFDC flows
For using ‘fast field updates’ supported by SFDC flows
To trigger a flow when a record is deleted (Note: this may cause unexpected behaviour if the deleted record/s merge fields do not pass their value through as a result of the record being deleted)

Current known limitations & workarounds

Pendula is regularly releasing updates and fixes for limitations where possible and appropriate. We will continue to update the list below as more capability becomes available.

Limitation	Workaround (if applicable)
Criteria value validation: the event trigger currently does not support visualising system values associated with any fields (for example, picklist values). You must enter the correct values when building the criteria that will trigger the flow.	The format of the fields used in configuring criteria will need to adhere to the SFDC API formats: Field types in Salesforce → Date-specific fields in Salesforce → For picklist and boolean fields (apart from `is null`), the value is not case-sensitive.
Date literals: The event trigger does not support date literals or date formulas. (e.g. or TODAY). They are supported if writing formula criteria in triggered events.	SFDC recommends using a formula field if date literals are required to trigger the flow.
Operators: the following operators are supported on the event trigger: equal to not equal to greater than greater than or equal to less than less than or equal to starts with ends with contains is null The type of field does not filter operators. The incorrect operator with field type (e.g. less than on a string) may error the flow or cause expected results.	Note that `is null` is a boolean operator and supports `true` and `false` values. These are case-sensitive.
Polymorphic fields: Polymorphic fields, e.g. Owner (User, Group), are not currently supported and won't be available as a field from Salesforce.
IsChanged: "record updated every time a record is updated and meets the condition requirements"	For `IsChanged` use cases where the field is being edited from nothing to a value, specify is `is null` equals `false` on the field being edited.
Geolocation fields: Geolocation fields cannot be selected as criteria in the event trigger and are not available as merge fields in subsequent nodes in the flow. This is due to a known Salesforce issue.	Salesforce suggest creating separate custom fields for latitude and longitude, and using a Salesforce trigger or flow to populate these fields when a geolocation field is updated.
Excluded field types: Compound fields cannot be selected as criteria in the event trigger and are not available as merge fields in subsequent nodes in the flow. Subclass fields can be selected and are available unless they are one of the following types: `textarea` (not supported by SOQL WHERE clauses) `encryptedstring` (not supported by SOQL WHERE clauses) `location` (excluded due to a known Salesforce issue) `time` (excluded due to a known Salesforce issue)	Note that some fields may or may not be included in related* merge fields later in the flow. Values for fields of type "Time" or "Location" can be retrieved by using the Get Salesforce record node after the event trigger.
Excluded fields: These fields cannot be selected as criteria in the event trigger and are not available as merge fields in subsequent nodes in the flow: `Case__BusinessHoursId` `WorkOrder__BusinessHoursId` `User__CallCenterId` `User__UserPermissions` `User__UserPreferences` `User__EmailPreferences*`

How to

Salesforce scheduled trigger

Scheduled flows are set to trigger at a specific point in time.

This can be once-off, or set to repeat hourly, daily, on specific days, weekly, or monthly, with an optional end date.

Similar to an event-triggered flow, a scheduled flow has criteria that still must be met; however, you have control over when it will trigger and send.

Setting up the trigger and adding criteria

On the Settings tab, select the triggering object for your campaign.

The Add criteria section allows you to specify your flow criteria by referencing fields that coincide with any objects that share a one-to-one relationship with the object you have selected for your triggering object. To set a rule, search for (or browse) and select the relevant field name from the Field dropdown.

You can add additional data from SFDC using the Get Salesforce record action in a subsequent node in the flow.

Select the desired Operator and Value to complete your rule.

Click on the Add rule button to further segment recipients. Adding more than one rule also allows you to specify whether the flow should trigger based on all or any of the rules outlined.

You can also create a group of rules by clicking on the Add group button. Once more than one rule is added to a group, you can apply an all or any to your group of rules. This allows you to nest a series of any statements within your all statements, for example, all Contacts with a Status equal to Current, with Region equal to either NSW OR QLD

The ‘record count’ above the criteria builder shows you how many records match the criteria you have selected. If you do not add any rules to your contact filters, the flow will send to ALL records based on the selected object.

The format of the fields used in configuring criteria will need to adhere to the SFDC API formats:

Field types in Salesforce →

Date-specific fields in Salesforce →

To configure a boolean field you must enter true or false into the value field.

For picklist and boolean fields (apart from is null), the value is not case-sensitive.

How to add and find IDs for ID fields

For specific record IDs: Access the required record ID in your web browser. The URL displayed in the browser address bar contains both the Salesforce instance and the Record ID.

Salesforce Classic example

URL: http://na1.salesforce.com/5003000000D8cuI Record ID: 5003000000D8cuI

Lightning Experience example:

URL: https://na1.lightning.force.com/lightning/r/Case/5003000000D8cuIQAA/view?0.source=alohaHeader

Record ID: 5003000000D8cuIQAA

Create a campaign schedule

On the Schedule tab, select the date and time you would first like the flow to run. You can enter manual dates and times following the format 27/02/2021 or 09:25 (24hr time only) or by clicking on the icons on each field.

By default, the Timezone field will be populated using the timezone of your browser. You can edit this by clicking on the field and then searching for your preferred option.

Add a recurring schedule by clicking the Repeats toggle.

You can set the flow to repeat:

Every hour
Every day
On specific days (e.g. Mondays and Wednesdays)
Every week
Every month

Note that you cannot set the schedule to repeat on the 29th, 30th, or 31st of the month, as not all months have those dates. The node will display an error.

By default, the flow will continue to trigger indefinitely based on the chosen frequency until it is deactivated. Alternatively, you can also add an optional end date by clicking ends on and adding your preferred date.

Scheduled flows are a great way to automate any repetitive or consistent communications that should be sent on a regular basis. Common examples include a happy birthday SMS, 24hr appointment reminders and monthly invoice or payment notifications.

Activating the Pendula flow

Unlike event-triggered flows, scheduled flows do not create a corresponding SFDC flow in your Salesforce org. Upon activation of the scheduled flow, Pendula creates a SOQL query that will call to SFDC every time the schedule runs.

Each time the scheduled trigger creates a flow, the number of experiences created will match the number of matching records for the query at that point in time:

On Tuesday at 9.00am, there are 200 records that match the SOQL query in the trigger. The flow will create and send 200 experiences.
On Wednesday at 9.00am the query matches 150 records, the flow will create and send 150 experiences, and so forth.

Using Salesforce formulas

You can use SFDC Date Literals and Date Formulas in your query. Read more about using these formulas here.

Using the `is null` operator

The Salesforce scheduled trigger supports the use of the is null operator. The value must be set to true or false, and is case-sensitive. This operator will only work on nullable fields in Salesforce.

Screenshot 2025-02-05 at 4.39.44 pm.png

Using the `like` operator

You can use the like operator with supported formulas in your query. The like operator matches single characters and patterns found anywhere in a string—beginning, ending, or somewhere in-between.

Screenshot 2025-02-05 at 4.29.44 pm-unbranded.png

Use case	Formula
Find any values that start with `a`	`a%`
Find any values that end with an `a`	`%a`
Find any values that have `or` in any position	`%or%`
Find any values that have `r` in the second position	`_r%`
Find any values that start with `a` and are at least 2 characters in length	`a_%`
Find any values that start with `a` and are at least 3 characters in length	`a__%`
Find any values that start with `a` and end with `o`	`a%o`
Match any single character in the string. For example, to filter on a list of countries, a pattern of `_a_a___` will return Bahamas and Jamaica.	Underscore (`_`)
Match any pattern in the string. Starting a pattern with a percent sign returns all words that end with the specified characters. The percent sign indicates that any number of characters can precede the specified ones. Ending a pattern with a percent sign returns all the words that begin with the specified characters. Any number of characters can follow the specified ones. To match a pattern anywhere in a string, the pattern must start and end with a percent sign. For example, to filter on a list of countries, a pattern of `%a%a%`returns Bahamas, Jamaica, Slovakia, and Trinidad and Tobago.	Percent sign (`%`)
Include a literal percent sign or underscore in a pattern	Escape with a backwards slash (`\`)

Additional wildcard characters and regular expressions aren’t supported.

Editing the Pendula flow

You can edit flows using the Salesforce scheduled trigger as normal in Pendula. See this article for more details on editing active flows.

Troubleshooting

A schedule must be set in the future for a flow to be activated successfully. Before you activate a flow, double-check the trigger schedule on the ‘Schedule’ tab of the node configuration screen.

If a selected schedule cannot be achieved - e.g. if you select an Ends date that is before the first repeat - the flow will go into an ERROR state. To resolve this, edit the flow and select a date range that can be scheduled.

The query for the schedule must display the record count on the trigger node for the flow to trigger correctly. Check the syntax of the criteria value carefully and ensure that it uses the correct format. See below for the correct Salesforce formats.

Field types in Salesforce →

Date-specific fields in Salesforce →

Current known limitations & workarounds

Pendula is regularly releasing updates and fixes for limitations where possible and appropriate. We will continue to update the list below as more capabilities become available.

Limitation	Notes
Excluded field types: Compound fields cannot be selected as criteria in the scheduled trigger and are not available as merge fields in subsequent nodes in the flow. Subclass fields can be selected and are available unless they are one of the following types: `textarea` (not supported by SOQL WHERE clauses) `encryptedstring` (not supported by SOQL WHERE clauses)	Note that some fields may or may not be included in related* merge fields later in the flow.
Excluded fields: These fields cannot be selected as criteria in the scheduled trigger and are not available as merge fields in subsequent nodes in the flow: `Case__BusinessHoursId` `WorkOrder__BusinessHoursId` `User__CallCenterId` `User__UserPermissions` `User__UserPreferences` `User__EmailPreferences*`
Operators: the following operators are supported on the scheduled trigger: equal to not equal to greater than greater than or equal to less than less than or equal to like is null The type of field does not filter operators. The incorrect operator with field type (e.g. less than on a string) may error the flow or cause expected results.	Note that `is null` is a boolean operator and supports `true` and `false` values. These are case-sensitive.
Polymorphic fields: Polymorphic fields, e.g. Owner (User, Group), are not currently supported and won't be available as a field from Salesforce.
Record limits: Flows that use the Salesforce scheduled trigger node should be limited to 25,000 records to ensure timely execution of the experiences.

How to

Get Salesforce record

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Salesforce Managed Package: Pendula Console & Activity Sync

Learn how to add the Pendula for Enterprise managed package to your Salesforce org, and send and receive messages with the Pendula Console

How to

Setting Permissions for the Pendula Console

The Pendula Console allows users to create, send, and receive 1:1 SMS messages using the contact details available on their Salesforce records.

By default, the Pendula SFDC Managed Package is installed with no access permissions for the Pendula Console, for all non-admin SFDC users. This is to allow you to configure the permission sets in the way that best suits your organisational structure and access principles.

As a guide to best practice for Console user permissions, Pendula recommends setting up the following permission sets:

Pendula Console Composer: this user can create, send and view 1:1 messages with customers that are sent from Pendula via the Console.
Pendula Console Viewer (read-only): this user can view 1:1 messages with customers that are sent from Pendula via the Console.

This article will guide Salesforce Administrators through the process of creating the above user permissions in the Salesforce Setup menu.

Relevant objects

The Console component is currently supported on the Contact object.

To update the permissions for Console users, you will be enabling and editing their ability to create and/or view the following records on those objects:

Console Messages (Pendula4E__Console_Message__c)
Messages (Pendula4E__Message__c)
Message Events (Pendula__Message_Event__c)
Message Recipients (Pendula4E__Message_Recipient__c)

Create a new permission set

From the Setup screen, in the Quick Find box on the left-hand side, type Permission Sets. Click on Permission Sets under the Users section.

Click on the New button to create a new permission set. You will be taken to the permission set creation page.

Fill in the following details:

Label: Enter a name for the permission set (e.g., "Pendula Console Composer").
API Name: This will automatically populate based on the label you provide, but you can modify it if necessary. The API name must be unique and can’t contain spaces.
Description: Optionally, add a description to provide context about what this permission set is for.
Session Activation Required: In some orgs you may have this option.
User License: Choose the type of user license that this permission set will apply to. If you want it to be available to all users regardless of license type, select "No License Required" or “None”.
Check the Enabled box if visible to indicate that the permission set is currently active.
Click on Save.

Configure object setting permissions

Assigned Apps

Under the Assigned Apps menu, hit the Edit button and add Pendula4E.Pendula (Pendula4E__Pendula4E_Lightning) to the Enabled Apps list.

Hit Save.

Object settings: Console Message

Under the Object Settings menu, in the list of objects, select the Console Messages (Pendula4E__Console_Message__c) object. From the next screen, hit Edit.

Update the permissions as per the below, for either the Console Composer or Console Viewer permission set.

Tab settings

Permission Name	Pendula Console Composer	Pendula Console Viewer (read-only)
Available	✅ True (checked)	✅ True
Visible	✅ True	✅ True