The ability to easily import data into Salesforce is one of the application's key benefits. With Winter ’06, the import wizard is extended to custom objects and solutions. Additional new capabilities include new matching options and enhanced field- and relationship-mapping options.

• Duplicate Prevention
The same great duplicate prevention capabilities that were introduced in Summer ’05 have been extended and enhanced with solution and custom object import wizards. In addition to name and Salesforce ID, you can match on an external ID field (see below).

• External ID Matching
External ID is a new flag available for a custom text, number, or email field that will place a custom index on the field and expose it to the import wizards and the API for matching. With this field you can prevent duplicates or set lookup fields.

• Increased Row Limits
The row limit for all organization-level imports has been increased to 50,000 records.

• Custom Lookup and Master/Detail Field Support
The same matching for duplicate prevention supports lookup fields. Use your External ID on the related object or just its Name field to establish your relationships — no more doing VLOOKUP in Excel.

• Record Types on Import
Administrators can manage new record types on custom objects by importing data with a specified record type. Apply it to all records in the import or just the records that are new.

• New Mapping Approach
Field mapping presents a list of the columns in your file rather than all the fields in Salesforce, making data management of a small set of fields much easier to perform. The same great auto-mapping is supported if you use Salesforce labels for your column headers.

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, all new features refer to the organization-level custom object and solution import wizards used by administrators, not to the personal import wizard.