This week, I had a chance to update documentation and explore Salesforce External Client App configuration. There have been so many changes to Salesforce connected apps in terms of integration and commercial requirements. It is daunting for customers and partners.
What is Changing from Salesforce
- 3rd party tools that use the deprecated “Connected App” functionality will no longer gain the ability to connect to new Salesforce orgs in Spring 2026. Partners will need to upgrade, or get left behind. We are going to fork DataTools Pro app to no longer use Salesforce for federated access to DataTools Pro.
- Integrated apps will need to join Salesforce App Exchange where fees are collected. This is going to cause a ton of friction and headache for vendors. DataTools Pro is already integrated into the AppExchange so this does not impact us.
What about Internal Built Apps?
This is an area that’s genuinely confusing and murky, so I decided to jump right into it by building our new customer and partner portal. It sets me up where Salesforce the system of record for customers, but events and activity related data are linked only by a single external UID.
The portal integrates with our support Slack, Salesforce, OpenAI, Stripe, and the DataTools Pro app. After running this experiment, it’s easy to see why Salesforce is scrambling to control and monetize the data within Salesforce.
When you build a portal / community in Salesforce, you are building for a point in time that has passed. We have opened up our portal for anyone to login via magic link to poke around and will rollout our new DataTools Shop in 2026!
https://portal.datatoolspro.com
We are moving to a more traditional federated login configuration with Google and Microsoft / Entra, and expanding our enterprise-specific SSO support.
Learn how to Setup Salesforce External Client Apps
If you are interested in the nitty gritty details of configuring Oauth for External Client APps, I have updated our Azure DataFactory tutorial to explain the process
