---
schema_version: "1"
id: 3ab401484e5c43ec3a4d3167caaf1de761a15d0586f179fbc8a74c35c54bf7a6
title: Tips for Salesforce Direct Data Queries
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/analytics/264-0-0/bi_dashboard_step_sf_direct_limitations.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=analytics.bi_dashboard_step_sf_direct_limitations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 90db0fc2fde0bdde3fb954e6673a60f9bd8c9a094e94dfabdfce7b42a9f023ff
description: Direct Data is an option for querying live Salesforce data without having to set up replication or create datasets. With Direct Data, you can query Salesforce objects in the dashboard designer’s explorer and edit Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) queries in the query editor.
products:
  - CRM Analytics
  - Cross Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Tips for Salesforce Direct Data Queries

Direct Data is an option for querying live Salesforce data without having to set up replication or create datasets. With Direct Data, you can query Salesforce objects in the dashboard designer’s explorer and edit Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) queries in the query editor.

Direct Data is available only in the dashboard designer. Click **Create Query**, and then select the Salesforce Direct tab. Select an object and the dashboard designer’s explorer opens with the object’s data ready to explore.

![Select a Data Source box](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/bi/images/bi/bi_dashboard_widget_select_a_data_source_sf_direct.png)

![Important](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/images/icon_important.png)

Important Direct Data widgets aren’t automatically refreshed but are updated when the dashboard is refreshed.

Take the following into consideration.

- For best performance, use Direct Data only where data changes often and scheduled dataflows aren’t frequent enough. Queries on Salesforce objects with a large number of records could increase query time. Use filters to limit the data that’s queried. For example, rather than querying all cases opened, query only cases opened within a defined period of time.
- Direct Data is accessible only in the dashboard designer. After a Direct Data widget is added to a dashboard, you can select **Explore** from the widget’s dropdown and open a Direct Data exploration in a new tab. However, saving custom queries on Direct Data lenses isn’t supported.
- In the explorer, these features aren’t available:
    - Compare tables
    - Totals and subtotals in tables
    - Conversational querying
    - Suggested charts
    - Drilling into data by hour, minute, or second
    - Applying filters based on aggregated measures or Boolean logic
    - Conditional formatting in bar charts
    - Filtering in the repeater widget
    - Compact Form v1.0
- These sharing options aren’t available from a Direct Data widget: Download as CSV and Download as Excel.
- These actions aren’t available from a Direct Data widget: Annotate, Set Notification, and Subscribe.
- Direct Data queries are run in user context, and the current user’s permissions, field-level security, and sharing rules apply. Security predicates and inherited sharing rules aren’t available.
- Advanced custom SQL queries containing subqueries or Common Table Expressions (CTE) don’t always work as expected
- Dashboards with direct data queries aren’t supported in Experience Cloud.

Maximum limits on CRM Analytics API calls and on queries apply to Direct Data.

- Maximum concurrent CRM Analytics API calls per org is 100.
- Maximum CRM Analytics API calls per user per hour is 10,000.
- Maximum concurrent queries per organization is 50 per platform.
- Maximum concurrent queries per user is 10.

#### See Also

- [Get Started with Data Integration](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=analytics.bi_integrate_get_started.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "In CRM Analytics, data integration involves gathering and preparing the Salesforce and external data you want to analyze. External data is data that resides outside of the Salesforce org that you use for Analytics, such as data from another Salesforce org, outside applications, spreadsheets, and databases. After integrating the data, you prepare it into datasets. Data preparation is the process of transforming your data into a form that’s meaningful and valuable to the people consuming it. For example, you can define data preparation logic that combines data from two data sources and cleans up inconsistencies, such as differently formatted dates and codes. Users then explore and visualize datasets through CRM Analytics lenses and dashboards.")