From Salesforce to Laravel: A Guide to Successful Lead Management Integration

This blog post will examine how to integrate lead management from Salesforce to Laravel successfully.

1. Create a Salesforce Developer Account

The first step in integrating Salesforce's lead management into your Laravel application is to create a Salesforce Developer account. This account will give you access to the Salesforce API, essential for integrating with Laravel.

To create a Salesforce Developer account, visit the website and sign up for a free account. Once you've made your account, you must create a new connected app in Salesforce. This app will give your Laravel application access to the Salesforce API.

2. Install the Salesforce SDK for Laravel

You must install the Salesforce SDK for PHP to integrate Salesforce's lead management into your Laravel application. This SDK provides tools and libraries that allow you to interact with the Salesforce API from your Laravel application.

To install the Salesforce SDK for PHP, you can use Composer, a dependency manager for PHP. In your Laravel application's root directory, run the following command:

composer require omniphx/forrest

This command will install the Salesforce SDK for PHP in your Laravel application.

The package will automatically register the service provider and Forrest alias for Laravel >=5.5. For earlier versions, add the service provider and alias to your config/app.php file:

// Omniphx\Forrest\Providers\Laravel\ForrestServiceProvider::class
'Forrest' => Omniphx\Forrest\Providers\Laravel\Facades\Forrest::class

3. Configuration

You will need a configuration file to add your credentials. Publish a config file using the artisan command:

php artisan vendor:publish

This will publish a config/forrest.php file that can switch between authentication types and other settings.

After adding the config file, update your .env to include the following values (details for getting a consumer key and secret are outlined below):

SF_CONSUMER_KEY=YOUR_SF_CONSUMER_KEY
SF_CONSUMER_SECRET=YOUR_SF_CONSUMER_SECRET
SF_CALLBACK_URI=YOUR_SF_CALLBACK_URI

SF_LOGIN_URL=https://login.salesforce.com
# For sandbox: SF_LOGIN_URL=https://test.salesforce.com

SF_USERNAME=YOUR_SF_USERNAME
SF_PASSWORD=YOUR_SF_PASSWORD

4. Setup

Creating authentication routes

In this case, we will use the Web Server authentication flow

Route::get('/authenticate', function()
{
    return Forrest::authenticate();
});

Route::get('/callback', function()
{
    Forrest::callback();

    return Redirect::to('/');
});

5. Basic usage

After authentication, your app will store an encrypted authentication token which can be used to make API requests.

Query a record:

Forrest::query('SELECT Id FROM Account');

Sample result:

(

    [totalSize] => 2

    [done] => 1

    [records] => Array

        (

            [0] => Array

                (

                    [attributes] => Array

                        (

                            [type] => Account

                            [url] => /services/data/v48.0/sobjects/Account/0013I000004zuIXQAY

                        )

                    [Id] => 0013I000004zuIXQAY

                )

            [1] => Array

                (

                    [attributes] => Array

                        (

                            [type] => Account

                            [url] => /services/data/v48.0/sobjects/Account/0013I000004zuIcQAI

                        )

                    [Id] => 0013I000004zuIcQAI

                )

        )

)

If you are querying more than 2000 records, your response will include the following:

(

    [nextRecordsUrl] => /services/data/v20.0/query/01gD0000002HU6KIAW-2000

)

Call Forrest::next($nextRecordsUrl) to return the next 2000 records.

Here's an example of how to retrieve all leads from Salesforce:

$leads = Forrest::query('SELECT Id, FirstName, LastName, Email FROM Lead')->records;

foreach ($leads as $lead) {
    // Do something with the lead data
}

6. Create Leads in Salesforce

In addition to retrieving leads from Salesforce, you can also create new leads in Salesforce using the API. Here's an example of how to create a new lead in Salesforce

$newLead = [
    'FirstName' => 'John',
    'LastName' => 'Doe',
    'Email' => '[email protected]',
    'Company' => 'Example Company'
];

$response = Forrest::create('Lead', [
'method' => 'post',
'body' => $newLead
]);

if ($response->success) {
    echo 'New lead created with ID: ' . $response->id;
} else {
    echo 'Error creating lead: ' . $response->errors[0]->message;
}

7. Update a Salesforce lead

Update a record with the PUT method; if the external Id doesn't exist, it will insert a new one.

$externalId = 'XYZ1234';

Forrest::sobjects('Lead/External_Id__c/' . $externalId, [
    'method' => 'put',
    'body'   => [
        'Name'  => 'Dunder Mifflin',
        'Phone' => '555-555-5555'
    ]
]);

Conclusion

In this blog post, we've explored how to integrate lead management from Salesforce to Laravel successfully. Following these steps, you can leverage Salesforce's powerful lead management capabilities in your Laravel application. With access to the Salesforce API, you can retrieve, create, and update leads in Salesforce, providing a seamless experience for your team and customers.