Salesforce Known Pitfalls Skill

Salesforce Known Pitfalls

Overview

The 10 most common and costly mistakes when integrating with Salesforce, with real error messages and correct patterns.

Pitfall #1: SOQL N+1 Query Pattern (Most Common)

Anti-Pattern

// Query accounts, then query contacts for each = N+1 API calls
const accounts = await conn.query('SELECT Id, Name FROM Account LIMIT 100');
for (const account of accounts.records) {
  // 100 extra API calls! (plus 100 extra SOQL queries in Apex)
  const contacts = await conn.query(
    `SELECT Id, Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE AccountId = '${account.Id}'`
  );
}
// Total: 101 API calls for what should be 1

Correct Pattern

// Single relationship query — 1 API call
const accounts = await conn.query(`
  SELECT Id, Name,
    (SELECT Id, FirstName, LastName, Email FROM Contacts)
  FROM Account
  LIMIT 100
`);
// accounts.records[0].Contacts.records → child contacts

Pitfall #2: Ignoring API Limits (Org-Wide Shared Pool)

Anti-Pattern

// This integration uses 80,000 API calls/day
// Sales team uses 60,000/day
// Total: 140,000 > 150,000 limit → everyone gets blocked

Correct Pattern

// 1. Check limits before batch operations
const limits = await conn.request('/services/data/v59.0/limits/');
if (limits.DailyApiRequests.Remaining < estimatedCalls) {
  throw new Error('Insufficient API calls remaining');
}

// 2. Use sObject Collections (1 call = 200 records)
await conn.sobject('Contact').create(contacts); // batch of up to 200

// 3. Use Bulk API for 10K+ (separate limit pool)
await conn.bulk2.loadAndWaitForResults({ object: 'Contact', operation: 'insert', input: csv });

Pitfall #3: SOQL Injection

Anti-Pattern

// User input directly in SOQL — injectable
const name = req.query.name; // Could be: "'; SELECT Id FROM User; --"
await conn.query(`SELECT Id FROM Account WHERE Name = '${name}'`);

Correct Pattern

function escapeSoql(value: string): string {
  return value.replace(/\\/g, '\\\\').replace(/'/g, "\\'");
}
await conn.query(`SELECT Id FROM Account WHERE Name = '${escapeSoql(name)}'`);

Pitfall #4: SELECT FIELDS(ALL) (Performance Killer)

Anti-Pattern

// Fetches ALL fields — 200+ columns on Account, massive payload
const result = await conn.query('SELECT FIELDS(ALL) FROM Account LIMIT 100');

Correct Pattern

// Select only what you need — 5-10x faster, much less data transfer
const result = await conn.query('SELECT Id, Name, Industry, AnnualRevenue FROM Account LIMIT 100');

Pitfall #5: Hardcoded Salesforce Record IDs

Anti-Pattern

// IDs are different across sandbox and production!
const adminProfileId = '00e5f000001abc';     // Works in sandbox...
const queueId = '00G5f000002def';            // ...breaks in production
await conn.sobject('Case').create({ OwnerId: queueId, ProfileId: adminProfileId });

Correct Pattern

// Look up by name, not by ID
const queue = await conn.query("SELECT Id FROM Group WHERE Name = 'Support Queue' AND Type = 'Queue'");
const queueId = queue.records[0].Id;

const profile = await conn.query("SELECT Id FROM Profile WHERE Name = 'System Administrator'");
const profileId = profile.records[0].Id;

Pitfall #6: Not Handling Partial Success in Bulk Operations

Anti-Pattern

const results = await conn.sobject('Contact').create(contacts);
console.log('Done!'); // Ignoring that some records may have failed

Correct Pattern

const results = await conn.sobject('Contact').create(contacts);
const failures = results.filter(r => !r.success);
if (failures.length > 0) {
  console.error(`${failures.length}/${results.length} records failed:`);
  for (const failure of failures) {
    console.error(`  ${failure.errors.map(e => `${e.statusCode}: ${e.message}`).join('; ')}`);
  }
}

Pitfall #7: Using test.salesforce.com for Production

Anti-Pattern

// Sandbox login URL used for production — silently connects to sandbox
const conn = new jsforce.Connection({
  loginUrl: 'https://test.salesforce.com', // WRONG for production
});

Correct Pattern

const conn = new jsforce.Connection({
  loginUrl: process.env.SF_LOGIN_URL, // 'https://login.salesforce.com' for prod
  // OR: 'https://test.salesforce.com' for sandboxes
});
// Always use environment variables — never hardcode login URLs

Pitfall #8: Not Using External IDs for Upsert

Anti-Pattern

// Without External ID: create duplicates on every sync run
await conn.sobject('Account').create({ Name: 'Acme Corp', Industry: 'Tech' });
// Run again → duplicate Account created!

Correct Pattern

// With External ID: upsert is idempotent — safe to retry
await conn.sobject('Account').upsert({
  External_ID__c: 'CRM-ACME-001',  // Custom External ID field
  Name: 'Acme Corp',
  Industry: 'Tech',
}, 'External_ID__c');
// Run again → updates existing record, no duplicate

Pitfall #9: Missing Error Handling for UNABLE_TO_LOCK_ROW

Anti-Pattern

// Record locking is COMMON in Salesforce — this crashes on contention
await conn.sobject('Account').update({ Id: accountId, Name: 'New Name' });
// Error: UNABLE_TO_LOCK_ROW → unhandled, crashes the process

Correct Pattern

async function updateWithRetry(objectType: string, data: any, maxRetries = 3) {
  for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await conn.sobject(objectType).update(data);
    } catch (error: any) {
      if (error.errorCode === 'UNABLE_TO_LOCK_ROW' && attempt < maxRetries) {
        await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000 * attempt)); // Backoff
        continue;
      }
      throw error;
    }
  }
}

Pitfall #10: Polling When CDC Is Available

Anti-Pattern

// Poll every 5 minutes — wastes 288 API calls/day even when nothing changed
cron.schedule('*/5 * * * *', async () => {
  const changes = await conn.query(`
    SELECT Id, Name FROM Account WHERE LastModifiedDate >= ${fiveMinAgo}
  `);
  // Usually returns 0 records — wasted API call
});

Correct Pattern

// CDC — only fires when data actually changes, zero wasted API calls
conn.streaming.topic('/data/AccountChangeEvent').subscribe((event) => {
  // Only called when an Account is actually created/updated/deleted
  handleAccountChange(event);
});

Quick Reference Card

| Pitfall | Detection | Prevention | |---------|-----------|------------| | N+1 SOQL queries | High API call count, loop with .query() | Use relationship SOQL | | API limit exhaustion | REQUEST_LIMIT_EXCEEDED | Monitor /limits/, use Bulk API | | SOQL injection | String concatenation in .query() | Use escapeSoql() | | SELECT FIELDS(ALL) | Slow queries, large payloads | Select only needed fields | | Hardcoded IDs | Different behavior in sandbox vs prod | Query by Name, use External IDs | | Partial failure ignored | Silent data loss | Check .success on every result | | Wrong login URL | Connected to wrong org | Use SF_LOGIN_URL env var | | No External ID | Duplicate records on re-sync | Add External_ID__c, use upsert | | No retry for LOCK_ROW | Random crashes under load | Retry with exponential backoff | | Polling over CDC | Wasted API calls | Use Change Data Capture |

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