Workarounds for tSalesforceOutputBulkExec NPE in case of empty flow

[TRF]

With TDI 6.3.1, having an empty flow as input cause tSalesforceOutputBulkExec to fail with a null pointer exception.

It was not the case with 6.2.x and previous versions.

Fortunately, there is at least 2 workarounds I want to share with anyone concerned by Salesforce integration.

1- store the flow in a tHashOutput, then link it to a  tHashInput with a conditional link and finally, link the tHashInput  to tSalesforceOutputBulkExec:

 

The conditional expression is the following:

((Integer)globalMap.get("tHashOutput_12_NB_LINE")) > 0

Use this workaround for a flow of limited size else you risk to encounter a memory exception.

Also tick the "Clear cache after reading" option for tHashInput component if you don't need to reuse the content anymore after this operation.

2- replace the tSalesforceOutputBulkExec component by a tSalesforceOutputBulk linked to a tSalesforceOutputExec with a conditional link:

In this case, the conditional expression is:

((Integer)globalMap.get("tSalesforceOutputBulk_1_NB_LINE")) > 0

No limitation regarding the flow size with this solution as tSalesforceOutputBulk use a file (the same as for tSalesforceOutputBulkExec), so you may prefer it if you have to manage huge flows.

Advantage, for these 2 solutions compared to tSalesforceOutputBulkExec is you have fewer calls to the Salesforce Bulk API (because you will not make calls for empty flows anymore).

Hope this will help you.

[vapukov]

really not only tSaleForce have problems with empty flow, many components have similar "issue"

I use second way - count records (or check file exists in some cases) + runIf trigger