Special Sync Adjustments: Sharing Various Salesforce Objects as Calendar Items & One-way Synchronization Patterns¶
Syncing custom as well as standard Salesforce objects (e.g. Tasks) as MS Exchange calendar items¶
The latest LinkPoint Connect(ME) updates include a possibility to set special patterns for calendar items synchronization.
Note
Please note that presently this feature is only available for major Enterprise customers. It can be enabled by request sent to our Support team including a detailed description of your specific use preferences.
Using this feature, a custom Salesforce object, a Task or another standard object can be handled by LinkPoint Connect(ME) to be synced as an MS Exchange/Office 365 calendar item. Note that this syncing can only be done in one direction: from Salesforce to MS Exchange, and not the other way. In addition, when a custom object gets synced to MS Outlook, it is assigned a custom MS Outlook category that reflects the object type which it is based on.
Requirements and limitations:
- the target custom or standard object(s) should have a Date field or two Date/Time fields
- several extra custom fields must be added to the object to enable all event syncing mechanisms
- recurring events synchronization is not supported for these scenarios
One-way Synchronization¶
By default LinkPoint Connect(ME) synchronization of MS Exchange/Office 365 or Gmail calendar items, Tasks, and Contacts is two-way: items within synchronization scope assigned the custom Salesforce category in MS Outlook are mirrored on both sides (with certain exceptions for Calendar items). That is, if an object is modified on either side, these changes are conveyed to the other side so the items remain identical.
However, to meet the customers’ specific preferences, in the latest LinkPoint Connect(ME) updates advanced one-way synchronization options were introduced for calendar items. Previously, one-way syncing was used in some custom configurations to make events “read-only” on the Salesforce side (set as single source of truth) – that is, non-modifiable by LinkPoint Connect(ME) synchronization when changes were made to their matching objects in MS Exchange.
Note
Please note that presently this feature is only available for major Enterprise customers, by request sent at to our Support team including a detailed description of your specific use preferences.
1. Mail server → Salesforce upsyncing
With this feature enabled, changes (modification, deletion) made to events through your email client and LinkPoint Connect(ME) Sidebar will override any changes made to them directly in Salesforce. You can make use of this feature if, for example, if you do not manage events through Salesforce. With this setting enabled, any changes made to records in Salesforce will be replaced with data up-synced from your email client.
Important
Note that events created in Salesforce will be down-synced to your MS Exchange/Office 365/Gmail calendar, but modifications or deletions of events in Salesforce will be reverted on the following sync session. For example, if you create and sync a Salesforce event with MS Exchange/Office 365 and then correct something about it or delete it in Salesforce, your corrections will not be kept. As a workaround you can make the necessary corrections in the corresponding event (or delete and event) in MS Outlook and these changes will be up-synced to Salesforce.
2. Salesforce → Mail server downsycing
Tip
Also refer to this article to learn how to disable down-syncing for specific item types.
This option enables one-way transferring of item changes (creation, modification, deletion) from Salesforce to MS Outlook, while event updates made in MS Outlook will not be kept or conveyed to Salesforce. For example, this feature can be used to perform one-way spreading of information about an all-org public event among the employees via Salesforce.
Note
Processing of the one-way updates as well as reverting of changes on either side according to specified priority is carried out on LinkPoint Connect(ME) synchronization sessions, not instantly.
Additionally, in the latest LinkPoint Connect(ME) updates there is a new special setting that enables auto-sharing of only outbound (sent) emails in Salesforce, but not inbound (inbox) ones.
Also note that in the latest LPC updates the Global setting ServiceEventDeletionStrategy was introduced to make it possible to perform automatic deletion of calendar items from MS Exchange calendar by LPC Sync if they were deleted from Salesforce calendar by the users.
We would love to hear from you