The following article describes how to connect your Salesforce CRM with Arlo.
It also explains how to synchronise historical data and how to run a manual synchronisation.
In order to install the Arlo for Salesforce connector you will need:
- Access to Salesforce.
- Access to Arlo (if you don’t already have an Arlo platform, you can sign up for one).
- Appropriate permissions to install and configure an installed package on Salesforce.
- Ability to assign permissions to other users, if required.
Important: Ensure Salesforce is Registered
- Navigate to Setup > Sites and click on Sites.
- Select the Checkbox and then click on Register My Salesforce Site Domain.
The new plugin can be installed directly into your Salesforce using this package link if you are logged in:
https://login.salesforce.com/packaging/installPackage.apexp?p0=04tIT000001dX7N
Select Install for All Users
Press Install
Grant Access
Press Continue. This install process may take a few minutes. Depending on the install time, you will be directed to the Installed Packages screen in Salesforce, or be given a message to say you will be emailed when the install is complete. If you have an error during the install process, it may be due to one of the following errors:
Add The Online Activity Object (Existing Connections Only)
If you are trying to set up a connection to Arlo and already have a version of the Salesforce plugin installed in your Salesforce account, you’ll need to manually connect the OnlineActivity Mapping, before you can connect to Arlo - if you don’t do this, you’ll hit the below error. If you aren’t connected to Salesforce, you can skip this step.
In Salesforce
Go to Setup > Object Manager
- Search for Arlo Field Mapping and select it.
- Open Fields and Relationships
- Open the Object Type field
- In the Values section, press New
- Type OnlineActivity (one word, case sensitive) and press Save.
There is a setting within Salesforce that can cause bulk syncs to become stuck in a queued state. We recommend updating this setting before configuring the plugin and completing your first sync.
Go to Setup > Apex Settings and set the Default Minimum Enqueue Delay to 5 (or above) and press Save.
Install Error (Old Version Installed)
If the package detects an old plugin is still installed, it will throw this error. You will need to fully uninstall any old BETA versions of the plugin.
Important: If you have had a legacy version of the plugin installed (Pre Version 4.0), you will need to follow these instructions instead.
Once the plugin has been installed on Salesforce, you’ll need to connect to Arlo. You can do this by following these instructions:
1. Search Arlo in Salesforce
2. Click the Arlo Connection Tab.
3. For Do You Have An Arlo Platform? - Select Yes
Enter your Platform URL
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Check and select the initial settings you would like to use on initial connection.
For the Import records into Salesforce setting, we recommend using the Since this date option and including at least 3 months worth of data.
Important: Arlo data will be treated as the master upon initial sync. This means that if a contact is found in Salesforce with the same first name, last name, and email address, or organisation with the same name as an Arlo record, the Salesforce record will be updated with any additional information from the Arlo record (excluding empty fields). Arlo will not pass an empty record to Salesforce and overwrite an existing value. If you need Salesforce data to be the master on the initial sync, please contact us.
Press Connect to Arlo - This will take a few seconds to take you to the Arlo login page.
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Enter your Arlo administrator credentials for the account you want to use to connect to Salesforce.
Note: It can take up to 5 minutes for the Webhook key to populate in Salesforce which establishes the connection between the two systems. If you can still not see the webhook key, follow these steps.
You will be redirected to the standard Salesforce Auth page. Head to Arlo by searching for the Arlo 2.0 app in your installed apps list.
Important: If you need to make changes to the integration settings, those you set when you initially connected, you can do that by selecting the Arlo Connection tab, in the Synchonization settings section. In that tab, you can also run a manual synchronisation of records by using the Sync Records button in the top right-hand corner.
- Go to the Salesforce Setup > Object Manager and search for Arlo Connection
- Open the Arlo Connection Result
- Select Page Layouts
- Press Page Layout Assignment on the top right.
Press Edit Assignment
- Highlight all items and in the dropdown select Arlo 2 Connection Layout
Press Save
Logout of Salesforce for the changes to take effect.
- Login to Salesforce and open the Arlo 2.0 app.
- You should see a screen that has the following settings (with your own platform details).
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Press Edit in the top right and fill in the following settings:
Named Credential = arlo
Conflict Master = Any option
Enabled = True
Default Owner = Select the user in the list
Select your Synchronisation Settings and ensure Reset System Settings is enabled.
Important: If you have imported opportunities into Salesforce previously, we recommend that you don’t run a historic bulk sync as this will create duplicates. Instead, set the sync from date to yesterday - and run a manual sync for the other entities once the initial sync has been completed.
Press Save
Go to Settings > Setup > Named Credentials
- Select the Arlo Credential
Press Edit and then Save - You will be redirected to the Arlo login page to connect the two systems.
Enter your Arlo administrator credentials for the account you want to use to connect to Salesforce.
Note: It can take up to 5 minutes for the Webhook key to populate in Salesforce which establishes the connection between the two systems. If you can still not see the webhook key, follow these steps.
If you would like to prevent Salesforce from being able to make changes to contact and organisation records in Arlo, you can turn off the outbound sync. To do this:
In Salesforce, open the Arlo Connections setting page
Select Disable Outbound Sync
Press Save
The Arlo Connection Tab should have a webhook key displayed if it is successfully connected to Salesforce. If after five minutes from authenticating the webhook key has not populated, you can follow these steps to reset it:
Go back to the Arlo Connection Settings Page, select the Reset System Settings and Reset Webhook checkboxes and press Save - This will reset the Webhook initialization.
Keep an eye on the Webhook key and it should populate within a few minutes.
Upon successful connection to Arlo, you will need to recheck your Arlo field mappings. Field mappings can be viewed and configured in the Arlo Connector Settings.
We tried to maintain as many original field mappings as possible with the new plugin, but some field mappings will have changed, particularly Arlo ID fields.
1. Click on the Field Mappings tab.
2. Select the entity you would like to configure mappings for.
To add a new mapping, scroll to the last field and click the edit icon. Select the Arlo field from the list, then select the Salesforce field from the list and press Save.
Note: Fields can take a few seconds to be displayed when selecting from the dropdowns. If the field mapping cannot be completed, an error message will be displayed with the reason.
You can disable custom field mappings. This can be useful if you want to temporarily stop the flow of data between two fields.
To do this, on the field you would like to disable, select the pencil in the Disable column, then Save.
You can delete custom field mappings. This can be useful if you want to permanently stop the flow of data between two fields.
To do this, on the field you would like to disable, press Delete and confirm the field deletion.
We recommend that you check any Page Layouts/Views/Reports or Workflows that reference Arlo fields/data in Salesforce.
We tried to maintain as many original field mappings as possible, but some field mappings will have changed, particularly Arlo ID fields.
Views/reports or workflows that refer to fields that have mappings that no longer exist with the new connection will not have any new data changes applied to them.
The easiest way to test this is to make a change in Arlo and see if it appears in Salesforce where you expect it to.
If it does, the field mapping is still active and has been retained through the plugin migration.
If it does not, the field mapping is no longer active and you will need to replace the field with the newer version (you can see all new field names in the field mapping overview tables).
If you need to change your page layouts to show the new Arlo fields:
In Salesforce go to Setup > Object Manager
- Use the Quick Find to the following object, e.g. Course. Note: We recommend you repeat these steps for the following: Course, Registration, Elearning.
- Open the relevant record type and select Page Layouts.
- Press Page Layout Assignment on the top right.
Press Edit Assignment
- Highlight all items and in the dropdown select Arlo 2 Connection Layout - Hint: Ctrl+Click Each Header to Select an entire column.
- Press Save
- Logout of Salesforce for the changes to take effect.
We’ve built a robust sync log mechanism into the new plugin so it’s easy to identify what’s happening with your sync, right down to individual records.
Sync Log statuses include:
Queued
In Progress
Skipped - Superseded
Skipped - Records Match
Skipped - Not in Sync Scope (should be for Templates only)
Completed - Successful
Completed - Failed
Completed - Duplicates Found
Individual records (e.g. contacts/accounts) have slightly different sync statuses than the logs above.
They are as follows:
Not Yet Included in Sync
Never Sync
Sync Required
Sync In Progress
Sync Completed Successfully
Sync Completed With Errors
If you do not want specific records to be synchronised with Arlo, you can update the Sync Status of that individual record to ‘’Never Sync’’
If a record fails synchronisation, it will try a maximum of 3x (each time 2 seconds apart). After this point, it will require a manual sync.
You can open the log and view the error message. Requeue the sync using the Status dropdown if the error has been resolved.
Note: Making the change to resolve an error will usually trigger a new webhook so generally you won’t need to requeue these.
If you notice a record stuck during synchronisation as ‘’In Progress’’ for an extended period of time for any reason you can change the Status back to “Queued’’ and it will retry the synchronisation. This will also happen automatically at least once an hour.
Example:
If an Arlo contact is created or updated and there are two existing Salesforce contacts with the same first name, last name, and email address, the synchronisation will fail and you can choose which Salesforce contact to connect to.
1. Open the log of the record that failed:
2. Press Find Duplicates, then select the duplication you wish to synchronise
3. Select the one you would like to synchronise the record to, and press Finish.
At times a Salesforce record may be updated to match the details of another Salesforce record that is already connected to Arlo (e.g. a contact or account). After updating, the record will not be able to synchronise with Arlo as duplicate records cannot exist in Arlo..
If you want to ensure that records in Salesforce cannot be edited to become duplicates that will fail synchronisation, you can add a duplicate and matching rule in Salesforce on the objects required with the below criteria.
If you see the following error and cannot resolve it using the duplicate management feature, you may have Salesforce rules blocking the entity synchronisation.
To resolve this, you will need to turn off the alerting in Salesforce.
1. Go to Salesforce > Settings > Setup
2. Search Duplicate Rules
3. Open the standard Contact and Account rules
4. Press Edit
5. Make sure Alerts are disabled for Create and Edit and press Save.
6 . Requeue the errored record for synchronisation from the Sync logs.
If you have (or need) custom solutions running on any of the Arlo Objects, e.g. You want to set up a trigger on a sync log failure to send somebody an email, then you will need to create the arlo__arlo_Connection__c object
These are all the fields you will need:
arlo__Arlo_Connection__c ac = new arlo__Arlo_Connection__c(); ac.arlo__Synchronize_Contacts__c = true; ac.arlo__Synchronize_Leads__c = true; ac.arlo__Synchronize_Lead_to__c = 'Opportunity'; ac.arlo__Synchronize_Organisations__c = true; ac.arlo__Synchronize_Events_and_Registrations__c = true; ac.arlo__Synchronize_Only_Active_records__c = false; ac.arlo__Default_Owner__c = [SELECT id FROM user WHERE profile.name = 'System Administrator' AND isactive = true LIMIT 1].id; ac.arlo__Synchronize_Arlo_Invoices__c = true; ac.arlo__Synchronize_Elearnings_and_Registrations__c = true; ac.arlo__Platform_Name__c = 'testPlatform'; ac.arlo__Webhook_Key__c = 'testPlatform'; ac.arlo__Named_Credential__c = 'Arlo'; insert ac;
The following hierarchy is followed when information is synchronised between Arlo and Salesforce.
Organisation 0100
Contact 0200
Event 0300
OnlineActivity 0400
Registration 0500
To trigger a manual sync you can do so within the Arlo connection tab. On this tab, press the Sync records button, found in top right hand corner. You can then choose which type of records you would like to sync (or all) and the date you would like these records to sync them from.