Turn Spreadsheets Into Objects with the Lightning Object Creator

We are excited to announce Lightning Object Creator is now generally available! As you may know, Lightning Object Creator is a new tool that turns spreadsheets into apps with just a few clicks.

With the Lightning Object Creator, it only takes a few steps to translate the columns of a spreadsheet into fields, define field types and import all the spreadsheet data. Take spreadsheets from Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or comma-separated value (CSV) files, and turn them into apps. Allowing your newly converted object to have all the same productivity tools our users love like reports, chatter, and global search.

NOTE: This is going live on a rolling basis, and most production orgs won’t see this appear in production until tomorrow, Thursday, August 8, 2019. You will be able to see it in your sandbox(es) today (August 7 2019) or if you go to this link: object-creator.salesforce.com.

How it works

Turning spreadsheets into custom objects is as easy as three simple steps. You can access the creator UI from the Create button on any page in Setup or from the Navigation Items tab inside a Lightning app. To start, upload an Excel or CSV file or choose a file using one of our integrations with Microsoft Office 365 and Google Cloud.

Next, Salesforce will automatically detect the fields and and populate all its record data. You can customize the Salesforce field name and field type or leave them as suggested. Additionally, you can choose to add a particular field to a page layout directly within the mapping screen without going into the Page Layout editor.

Finally, you have granular control of the object’s permissions including enabling chatter for the object, allowing search and reporting.

That’s it! By clicking finish, you have now turned rows and columns of static data into an interactive data object with all the benefits of a cloud-hosted application.

Why Stop at Object Creation?

By creating custom objects, you now have unlocked the ability to plug data into a wide range of builder tools from process automation to mobile app development, including: Lightning Flow, Lighting App Builder, Lightning Schema Builder, Lightning Components from AppExchange.

Lightning Object Creator is available today in Lightning Experience and in Contact, Manager, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions. Get started by uploading a spreadsheet — and turning it into a custom object with data already filled in!