Cloud Infrastructure,  Data Engineering,  Python,  Salesforce

Query Salesforce with Python

  • Christopher Mortimer

    Christopher Mortimer

    Specialising in data

    More posts by Christopher Mortimer.

    Christopher Mortimer

Christopher Mortimer

•4 min read
Query Salesforce with Python

Query SalesForce objects with Python

Ever found yourself exporting data from Salesforce using the Web UI over and over again. Ever wished you could just automate the process with scripts and then setup a job schedule and never click through the Salesforce Web UI again? Maybe you will find this useful?

The source code for this blog post is here: https://github.com/mortie23/sf-de/tree/master/eng/sf/sf-extract. If you are simply interested in the example usage and already have a Salesforce organistaion and user with a security token, then skip to Example Usage

Setting Up a Salesforce Developer Edition for API Access

The first step is getting an API user set up. We can use a Salesforce Developer Edition account to create a user specifically for API use and then get an API key (security token).

Step 1: Sign Up for Salesforce Developer Edition

  1. Go to https://developer.salesforce.com/signup.
  2. Fill in your details and create your account.
  3. Check your email and verify your Salesforce Developer account.

Step 2: Log Into Your Developer Org

  • Visit https://login.salesforce.com and sign in with your new Developer account.
  • Click the ⚙️ gear icon → Setup to access the admin panel.

sfde 01 setup

Step 3: Create a New Standard User for API Access

To keep your main account separate from scripts, it’s best to create a dedicated API user:

  1. In Setup → Quick Find, search Users → click Users.
  2. Click New User.

sfde 02 users

  1. Fill in the required fields:
    • First Name / Last Name: API User
    • Email: your accessible email
    • Username: unique across all Salesforce orgs
    • Alias: e.g., apiuser
    • User License: Salesforce (standard)
    • Profile: Standard User
  2. Save the user.

sfde 03 user settings

You would have gotten an email to the new users email inbox.

sfde 04 welcome email

Step 4: API Access

For a Standard User, API access is usually enabled by default.

Step 5: Get the Security Token

Salesforce requires a security token for API login from outside their UI:

  1. Log in as the new Standard User.
  2. Click your avatar → Settings.

sfde 04 api user settings

  1. In Quick Find, search Reset My Security Token.

sfde 05 my security token

  1. Click Reset Security Token → Salesforce emails it to you.

sfde 06 reset token

You will get an email with the security token in the email.

sfde 07 email token

sfde 08 the token

Example usage

Setup your Python environment.

# Create a Python virtual environment
python3 -m venv ~/venv/sfde
# Activate the environment
source ~/venv/sfde/bin/activate
# Install poetry into the virtual environment
pip install poetry
# Use poetry to install the dependencies 
poetry lock && poetry install

Add you environment variables (if you need step by step guide on setting up a developer SalesForce org and creating the credentials read above) in a new .env file:

SALESFORCE_USERNAME=your_salesforce_username
SALESFORCE_PASSWORD=your_salesforce_password
SALESFORCE_SECURITY_TOKEN=your_salesforce_security_token

Run the Python script to execute the queries

python3 app.py --query all
2025-05-05 14:47:40,042 - INFO - Successfully connected to Salesforce
2025-05-05 14:47:40,051 - INFO - Executing query: 
select
  count(Id)
from
  account
2025-05-05 14:47:40,553 - INFO - Query returned 1 records
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'AggregateResult'}), 'expr0': 14})
2025-05-05 14:47:40,559 - INFO - Executing query: 
select
  count(Id)
from
  contact
2025-05-05 14:47:40,908 - INFO - Query returned 1 records
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'AggregateResult'}), 'expr0': 21})
2025-05-05 14:47:40,915 - INFO - Executing query: 
select
  Id
, name
from
  contact
2025-05-05 14:47:41,194 - INFO - Query returned 21 records
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>hQAE'}), 'Id': '<>hQAE', 'Name': 'Rose Gonzalez'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>iQAE'}), 'Id': '<>iQAE', 'Name': 'Sean Forbes'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>jQAE'}), 'Id': '<>jQAE', 'Name': 'Jack Rogers'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>kQAE'}), 'Id': '<>kQAE', 'Name': 'Pat Stumuller'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>lQAE'}), 'Id': '<>lQAE', 'Name': 'Andy Young'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>mQAE'}), 'Id': '<>mQAE', 'Name': 'Tim Barr'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>nQAE'}), 'Id': '<>nQAE', 'Name': 'John Bond'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>oQAE'}), 'Id': '<>oQAE', 'Name': 'Stella Pavlova'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>pQAE'}), 'Id': '<>pQAE', 'Name': 'Lauren Boyle'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>qQAE'}), 'Id': '<>qQAE', 'Name': 'Babara Levy'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>rQAE'}), 'Id': '<>rQAE', 'Name': 'Josh Davis'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>sQAE'}), 'Id': '<>sQAE', 'Name': 'Jane Grey'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>tQAE'}), 'Id': '<>tQAE', 'Name': 'Arthur Song'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>uQAE'}), 'Id': '<>uQAE', 'Name': 'Ashley James'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>vQAE'}), 'Id': '<>vQAE', 'Name': 'Tom Ripley'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>wQAE'}), 'Id': '<>wQAE', 'Name': "Liz D'Cruz"})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>xQAE'}), 'Id': '<>xQAE', 'Name': 'Edna Frank'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>yQAE'}), 'Id': '<>yQAE', 'Name': 'Avi Green'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/<>zQAE'}), 'Id': '<>zQAE', 'Name': 'Siddartha Nedaerk'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/?'}), 'Id': '?', 'Name': 'Jake Llorrac'})
OrderedDict({'attributes': OrderedDict({'type': 'Contact', 'url': '/services/data/vM.m/sobjects/Contact/&'}), 'Id': '&', 'Name': 'Shane Warne'})
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