SurveyMonkey Apply offers a way to reference an existing action from another action. This occurs in the field mapping of a push or pull action.
To reference an existing action:
The mapping of lookup fields follows a SurveyMonkey Apply object sync with the Salesforce object. Because of this, any lookup fields you plan on syncing to should be optional in Salesforce. If not, the initial sync will fail because we can't provide the lookup field in the original sync.
For more information on Lookup and Master-Detail relationships see: Relationships Among Objects
You cannot reference a Master-Detail field or required Lookup field when using the “Salesforce object from existing action” SM Apply field in the field mapping section.
Let’s say you have an application with a form asking for contact information from an applicant and their former boss. In Salesforce, you want to keep track of the applicant as a “Client” record, and the former boss as a custom “boss” record. You also want the boss record to have a field that points to the applicant, ensuring that there is a link between the two. In this configuration you would need two actions.
Action 1 (Applicant)
Field Mappings
| Apply Field | Salesforce Field |
| Application owner email | Client email |
Action 2 (Boss)
Field Mappings
| Apply Field | Salesforce Field |
| Form question [what was your former boss’ email?] | Boss email |
Relationships
| Apply Action | Salesforce Field |
| Action 1 | Applicant |
In this example, when the applicant completes their application, a client record will be created with the applicant’s email, and a boss record will be completed with the boss’ email (The applicant entered that information when filling out the application form). The boss record will ALSO have a link to the client that was created for the applicant. In this way, when going through your boss records in Salesforce you will be able to see which applicant belongs to which boss.
A junction object in Salesforce is an object that links two or more Salesforce objects. It will have a Lookup OR Master-Detail Relationship with references to the two related objects.
We have the ability in SM Apply Salesforce to map Junction objects using lookup fields.
For more information on junction objects see: Creating a Many to Many Relationship
You cannot reference a Master-Detail field or required Lookup field when using the “Salesforce object from existing action” SM Apply field in the field mapping section.
Like the Lookup Field example, let’s say you want to keep track of an applicant’s former bosses, but instead of one boss, you want 3 bosses. You could use the same technique as above and add the applicant to each boss record. However, there is another way you can link these items together. Instead of having the boss reference the applicant, you can use a custom object to reference the applicant AND all of the bosses. The configuration would look something like this:
Action 1 (Applicant)
Field Mappings
| Apply Field | Salesforce Field |
| Application owner email | Client email |
Action 2 (Boss 1)
Field Mappings
| Apply Field | Salesforce Field |
| Form question [what was your former boss’ email?] | Boss email |
Action 3 (Boss 2)
Field Mappings
| Apply Field | Salesforce Field |
| Form question [what was your former boss’ email?] | Boss email |
Action 5 (ApplicantBossJunction)
Relationships
| Apply Action | Salesforce Field |
| Action 1 | Applicant |
| Action 2 | Boss 1 |
| Action 3 | Boss 2 |
| Action 4 | Boss 3 |
Now, when the application syncs to Salesforce, a new "ApplicantBossJunction" is created, and that record will reference each of the newly created bosses as well as the newly created client.
NOTE: "ApplicantBossJunction" is custom Object name used for this example.