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  • Allows to store and manage a massive amount of data on the Salesforce platform
  • Provides consistent performance for a billion records or more, and are accessible with a standard set of APIs to your org or external system
  • This includes data such as historical event data, web log files, and archival data
  • Once you create a Big Object, you can correlate it with your core customer data using tools such as SOQL and Async SOQL
  • Metadata API must be used to define or add a field to a custom big object. We can’t do it through the UI
  • You can create up to 100 big objects per org
  • Supports only object and field permissions
  • No transaction support
  • Can’t use triggers, flows, processes, and the Salesforce app
  • SOQL relationship queries are based on a lookup field from a big object to a standard or custom object in the select field list (not in filters or subqueries)

Standard and Custom Big Objects

Standard
  • Defined by Salesforce and are included in Salesforce products:
    • Example: FieldHistoryArchive - part of Field Audit Trail Product: To store up to 10 years worth of archived field history data, helping you comply with industry regulations related to auditing and data retention
Custom
  • Defined and deployed by you through the Metadata API
    • Create an object file that contains its definition, fields, and index, along with a permissionset to define the permissions for each field, and a package file to define the contents of the object metadata
    • The fields defined in a big object’s index determine the big object’s identity and its ability to be queried

Use Cases

  • Provide 360° View of the Customer
  • Auditing and Tracking - long-term view of your users’ Salesforce usage for analysis or compliance purposes
  • Historical Archive - historical data for analysis or compliance purposes

Querying Big Objects

  • Subset of standard SOQL: when the query will return a small amount of data, don’t want to wait for the results, or need the results returned immediately for use in Apex.
  • Async SOQL: Schedules and runs queries asynchronously in the background
    Can run multiple queries in the background while monitoring their completion status
    Efficient way to process the large amount of data in a big object.

Defining Custom Big Objects - Old way

Defining Custom Big Objects - New way

Resources