SalesForce is an interesting beast. You gotta work within its limits, and it is great within them. As soon as you want to venture outside of the normal flow, things get complicated.

They suck  into SalesForce, but never out – it’s designed as a lobster trap for your information.

Weirdly, there’s not much on the SalesForce AppExchange that helps you easily back up your data on site. There are some tools that help you easily back up to another cloud, but little that helps you get your data back within your own walls.

Still, there’s a little layer over the SalesForce API in Python called simple-salesforce. Here’s a quick script I threw together to help put all your data into csv files.

	from simple_salesforce import Salesforce, SalesforceMalformedRequest
	from argparse import ArgumentParser
	from csv import DictWriter
	from datetime import date
	from pathlib import Path
	production_instance = 'yourinstance.salesforce.com'
	parser = ArgumentParser(description="Backs up all Salesforce objects to csv files")
	parser.add_argument("username", help="User to authenticate as. Should be part of an 'integration_user' profile or some profile with no ip range restriction")
	parser.add_argument("password", help="Password for the user")
	parser.add_argument("security_token", help="Any API authenticating user needs to supply a security_token. You must log in as the user to get the security token from their profile")
	parser.add_argument("instance", help="The instance to connect to")
	parser.add_argument("datadir", help="The directory to store csv files in")
	parser.add_argument("--objectNames", help="Space separated names of SalesForce objects or by default we backup all queryable objects", nargs='*')
	args = parser.parse_args()
	#create a subdirectory with todays date
	datapath = Path(args.datadir) / date.today().isoformat()
	try:
	datapath.mkdir(parents=True) #in python 3.5 we can switch to using exist_ok=True
	except FileExistsError:
	pass
	#log into salesforce
	sf = Salesforce(username=args.username,password=args.password, security_token=args.security_token, sandbox=(production_instance!=args.instance), instance=args.instance)
	#get a list of queryable object names we will need to backup
	if args.objectNames:
	names = args.objectNames
	else:
	#get a description of our global salesforce instance, see layout:
	# https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_rest.meta/api_rest/dome_describeGlobal.htm
	description = sf.describe()
	names = [obj['name'] for obj in description['sobjects'] if obj['queryable']]
	#for every object we'll need all the fields it has that are exportable.
	for name in names:
	salesforceObject = sf.__getattr__(name)
	# so get a list of the object fields for this object.
	fieldNames = [field['name'] for field in salesforceObject.describe()['fields']]
	# then build a SOQL query against that object and do a query_all
	try:
	results = sf.query_all( "SELECT " + ", ".join(fieldNames) + " FROM " + name )['records']
	except SalesforceMalformedRequest as e:
	# ignore objects with rules about getting queried.
	continue
	outputfile = datapath / (name+".csv")
	with outputfile.open(mode='w', encoding='utf_8_sig') as csvfile:
	writer = DictWriter(csvfile,fieldnames=fieldNames)
	writer.writeheader()
	for row in results:
	# each row has a strange attributes key we don't want
	row.pop('attributes',None)
	writer.writerow(row)
	"""
	This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.
	Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or
	distribute this software, either in source code form or as a compiled
	binary, for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and by any
	means.
	In jurisdictions that recognize copyright laws, the author or authors
	of this software dedicate any and all copyright interest in the
	software to the public domain. We make this dedication for the benefit
	of the public at large and to the detriment of our heirs and
	successors. We intend this dedication to be an overt act of
	relinquishment in perpetuity of all present and future rights to this
	software under copyright law.
	THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
	EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
	MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
	IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
	OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
	ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
	OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
	For more information, please refer to <http://unlicense.org>
	"""

view raw SalesForceBackup.py hosted with by GitHub