External Services is a Salesforce integration method that lets you seamlessly connect external web services to your Salesforce org without coding. In today’s world, customers expect integrated experiences across multiple platforms and services. External Services facilitates this by declaratively integrating external APIs and computations into Salesforce using industry standards like OpenAPI. This allows you to …
Here are highlights from article Introducing Salesforce External Services | Salesforce Ben
1. Benefits of External Services:
– Less boilerplate code: External Services generate Apex classes for API operations, encouraging code reusability and minimizing duplication.
– Streamlined development process: Importing the OpenAPI specification allows for quick creation of integrations and automatic generation of Apex classes and methods.
– Elimination of redundant code: Standardized integration with external APIs eliminates the need for repetitive code for handling HTTP requests, authentication, and parsing responses.
– Compatibility with Flows: External Services can be directly invoked through Flows, making them accessible to administrators and consultants without coding knowledge.
– Maintainability: Updating the External Service definition in Salesforce automatically regenerates Apex classes, ensuring code alignment with API changes and easier maintenance.
2. Structure of External Services:
– Register an external web service and submit its OpenAPI specification.
– Operations of the service are defined in the specification.
– Named credential is used for endpoint URL and authentication details.
– Operations are converted into invocable actions for use in Salesforce tools like Flow Builder.
3. Integration capabilities of External Services:
– Declarative integration method for connecting external web services to Salesforce org.
– Supports integration with specialized external services like credit scoring, eligibility checks, payments, mapping, notifications, and omnichannel retail.
– Uses industry standards like OpenAPI for seamless integration.
4. Usage considerations of External Services:
– Requires understanding of the external service’s API and its OpenAPI specification.
– Limited to services that provide OpenAPI specifications.
– May require configuration and setup of authentication methods and named credentials.
– May require handling of rate limits and API call limits imposed by the external service.
5. Limitations of External Services:
– Limited to OpenAPI-supported services.
– May not support all functionalities of the external service’s API.
– May have limitations on the size and complexity of the API specification.
– May have limitations on the number of operations that can be imported.
You can read it here: https://sfdc.blog/rsWCJ
Source from salesforceben(dot)com