You edit dataflow steps either in the Dataflow Editor's visual canvas or in the JSON editor. The JSON view is faster once you know the action vocabulary; the visual editor catches reference errors before you save.
- Open the Dataflow Editor
In CRM Analytics, go to Data Manager, then Dataflows and Recipes, pick your dataflow, then Edit. The canvas opens with each existing step as a node.
- Add a new step
Click the action you need from the left rail (Filter, Augment, Compute Expression, etc.) and drop it onto the canvas. The editor inserts an empty step skeleton with placeholder parameters.
- Connect the source
Drag from the previous step's output port to the new step's input. The editor wires the source parameter for you. For augment, drag two source connections: one for the left stream and one for the right.
- Configure parameters
Open the step and fill in its action-specific parameters. computeExpression needs a column name, a type, and a SAQL expression. filter needs a saqlFilter clause. augment needs the join keys and a prefix for the added columns.
- Validate and save
Click Update Dataflow. The editor validates the JSON, surfaces missing references, and warns about unregistered outputs. Fix any red flags before continuing.
- Run on demand to verify
From the Data Manager, click Run Now next to the dataflow. Watch the Job Monitor for per-step row counts and timing. Confirm your new step's output looks right before relying on it in a dashboard.
Pulls rows from a Salesforce object via the Bulk API. Use complete: false for incremental loads on large tables.
Left-outer join of two streams on configurable keys. Adds the right stream's fields to the left with a prefix.
Adds a calculated column whose value is a SAQL expression evaluated per row. Equivalent to a formula field at the dataflow layer.
Narrows rows using a saqlFilter clause. Runs after augments and computes, so you can filter on joined or derived fields.
Persists the output of a stream as a dataset. Includes optional row-level security predicates and dataset sharing.
- Dataflows are deprecated for new ingestion since 2023. Build new pipelines in Data Prep Recipes unless you are extending an existing dataflow.
- sfdcDigest queries count against your Bulk API limits. A nightly full extract on a multi-million-row object can dominate your daily Bulk usage.
- Incremental sfdcDigest relies on SystemModstamp. Records updated by background jobs that suppress SystemModstamp will be missed by incremental runs.
- Filtering happens on whatever fields exist at that point in the graph. Place filters after augments and computes if you need to filter on joined or derived columns.