The Seeding and Anonymize applications let you copy data between Salesforce orgs and mask sensitive information. These applications support software development, testing, and training efforts.
The Seeding application provides businesses with the ability to effectively, consistently, reliably, and repeatedly seed (copy) specified data from a Salesforce sandbox or production org and populate that data into a different Salesforce sandbox or production org. The Anonymize application provides businesses with the ability to mask specified sandbox data, using a sophisticated suite of anonymization features. Performing data seeding and/or data anonymization are essential tasks supporting a businesses’ need to develop software, to test software, and also to train people to use the software. Together, these two powerful products significantly contribute to the business objectives of shortening development release cycles, delivering high-quality software solutions, reducing/avoiding costly re-work, and protecting (masking) sensitive, critical, and personally identifiable (PII) information.
This guide outlines the essential tasks to define, configure, and use Seeding and Anonymize in your Salesforce environment.
- Define Your Business Use Case
Identify which Salesforce production orgs or sandboxes to use as data sources or destinations for seeding jobs. Determine the most suitable seeding templates, whether pre-defined templates (starter, CPQ, FSL, nCino) or custom Levels or Nodes templates. And determine which sandboxes need anonymization along with the object field types to be anonymized. Seed relevant data from production orgs or sandboxes into Developer, Developer Pro, Partial, and Full sandboxes, and even into production orgs. - Activate Your Backup & Recover Platform
Prepare to manage and protect your Salesforce data when you activate the Backup & Recover platform during Seeding and Anonymize onboarding. Make sure to sign in or activate your Backup & Recover Platform before onboarding Seeding and Anonymize. - Create a Levels Seeding Template
Levels templates for Salesforce provide a more streamlined approach to managing complicated hierarchy structures compared to Nodes templates. By reducing complexity and automating relationship creation, Levels templates offer simpler seeding without requiring full knowledge of the data source structure. Create and configure a Levels template by adding root objects and selecting up to four hierarchy levels. - Create a Nodes Seeding Template
Craft Nodes templates for Salesforce to precisely populate data objects, tailoring data seeding to your organization's needs. Manually add root, child, and optional parent objects for targeted seeding, offering greater control but requiring deeper knowledge of the data hierarchy. - Create an Anonymization Template and Execute an Anonymize Job
Create and configure an Anonymization template for Salesforce by specifying objects and sensitive fields with replacement values. Use the Anonymization template to mask sandbox data in a standalone anonymize job, or reference the Anonymization template in a seeding template to anonymize the source data prior to it being seeded. - Additional Resources for Seeding and Anonymize
When using Salesforce Seeding and Anonymize, review these resources.