Creating an external object from an external database table

If your tenant resides in a database marked as external, you can create object definitions that map to an existing table in that database. Follow these steps to create an external object from an external database table:

  1. On the application home page, click + in the application menu bar.
    The What do you want to create? dialog opens.
  2. Select A new Object (with Tab) from an External Metadata.
  3. Click Next.
  4. Select the table to use as the basis for your new external object. This can be any table other than the following:
    A Platform table (name starts with RB_)
    A system table (name starts with ~)
    A table used by an existing external object
  5. For the selected table, optionally select the text column to be used as the Record Name field.
    If no column is selected, Platform creates the name from the Record Name Template or from the object's single name if no template is provided.

  6. If desired, specify a single numeric unique column as the table's primary key.
  7. Click Next.
  8. If you have not specified a primary key, select one or more columns from the Available list and move them to the Composite PK list with the right arrow. Reorder the Composite PK list as desired with the up and down arrows.

  9. Specify the usual object definition attributes:
    Singular Name
    Plural Name
    Integration Name
    Optional Description
  10. Map columns in the selected table to new fields in the newly created external object. This is similar to creation of fields while importing data from a CSV file, Excel, MS Access database, or Salesforce.com object.

    Each database column can be mapped to a field in newly created external object. These fields will be added to the following pages: View, New record, and Edit. If you do not map column to a new field you can create fields from unused columns later.