Apex Data Loader in Linux environment?

Question

According to a requirement, we have to do data loading to Salesforce.com in Linux environment. In Windows, the Apex data loader works fine for data loading. Apex data loader is written in Java so it should work in Linux. How can we run the Apex data loader in Linux or is there any alternative application for data loading for Linux?

Answer 1

I thought that kernel of Data Loader is a JAR file so if your server is running on Java, you could easily ditch the GUI of application written for Windows.

1. Have a look at Data Loader User Guide, especially chapters about running it from a command line and in batch mode. In the worst case you could even roll out your own program that will use WebServices API exactly like Data Loader does (with reuse of the JAR or written from scratch).
2. Added option for this would be to use "bulk API", designed for mass inserts. The guide for this is extremely technical and contains tons of useful info (including code of sample Java app).
3. There's "Excel connector" and build of "LexiLoader" for MacOS but I don't think this helps a lot in your case.
4. Last but not least - please consider the Salesforce partners, their AppExchange applications etc. I don't want to do marketing here but on my past project, we were pleased with a tool from "Relational Junction" (it was working on Unix server, easy to configure, connected with Oracle database, allowed us to pretty much do a proper Extract-Transform-Load process to and from Salesforce).

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