How To Test Outbound Messages in Salesforce

I have published a newer version of this blog post at URL https://www.asagarwal.com/how-to-send-outbound-message-from-flow-in-salesforce/. The blog post below has been left as it is for history. Please navigate the URL mentioned above for the latest version.

This is quite helpful for those who are not already aware of this. If you are integrating Salesforce with other systems using workflow and Salesforce’s native outbound message feature, how do you test the same. For example, you have configured the workflow rule and the outbound message and now you would want to make sure that when the workflow evaluation criteria and rule criteria is met, the outbound message is getting triggered. You may also want to know the format and the structure of the message that is being sent. This may be required by the team on the receiving side of the outbound message so that they know how to process it.

Ok, here is the trick. Navigate to URL https://requestbin.com/ and click on ‘Create a RequestBin’. (Click on the images below to view in full screen)

Create a RequestBin

This will give you a new Unique Bin URL. Copy the RequestBin bin URL

Copy the RequestBin Bin URL

Now all you need to do is in your outbound message endpoint use this RequestBin URL

Use this RequestBin URL in Outbound Message

And then execute a transaction that will cause the Workflow rule to fire and send the outbound message. Once the outbound message is sent, switch back to the RequestBin browser window, refresh the page and you will see that the outbound message sent by Salesforce has landed here (the text highlighted in blue below is the data that was sent from Salesforce based on the columns selected in outbound message definition)

Review the Outbound Message in RequestBin

Now, since RequestBin cannot return an acknowledgment back to Salesforce on the receipt of the outbound message, Salesforce will keep resending the outbound message for the next 24 hours. So if you keep refreshing the RequestBin browser window, you will notice that the same message is landing again and again. To stop Salesforce from resending the same message over and over again, just delete the message from Outbound Message Queue in Salesforce.

Delete Outbound Message from Queue

Ain’t this useful?

16 thoughts on “How To Test Outbound Messages in Salesforce”

    1. Thank you. I tried 3 other end points and got 403 Forbidden messages. It’s nice to see that there is one dedicated for Salesforce.

  1. For everyone who has troubles with (403)Forbidden error.
    Yes, looks like requestb.in banned Salesforce OM, however I couldn’t get a response from John Sheehan , who most probably knows the answer to this question (if RequestB bans Salesforce Outbound Messages or not). I ended up using putsreq, I have written about that in my post
    https://patlatus.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/putsreq-vs-requestb-for-testing-salesforce-outbound-messages/ as well as this tool is suggested by many other posts on this topic.
    I probably understand why requestb banned SFDC OM. I guess it is because there is no way to define correct response in RequestB, so SFDC keeps sending OM until it receives correct success response messages, however SFDC can’t receive correct message from requestb since users cannot configure it there and therefore requestb might be flooded by traffic if users are not deleting failed OM in SFDC.
    You should be aware that if you don’t configure correct message for putsreq, its owner can also ban SFDC OM, so if you use putsreq please configure correct response.

  2. Pingback: PutsReq vs. Requestb for testing Salesforce Outbound Messages | patlatus

  3. Hi, is it possible to check if the outbound message user actually is allowed to send messages? I would like to update the campaign object if the outbound message user is not allowed to send outbound messages. Thanks

  4. Hey asagarwal

    > Now, since RequestBin cannot return an acknowledgement back to Salesforce on the receipt of the outbound message

    If you use PutsReq http://putsreq.com instead of RequestBin you may be able to fake the acknowledgement receipt using the response builder to avoid Salesforce resending the message.

  5. Anand Durga Prasad

    Great post !

    Could you tell me how we can provide authentication when we are hitting 3rd patry end points through outboud message?

    1. Hi Anand, you can’t have authentication in outbound messages as such. However you can secure the communication between Salesforce and 3rd Party end points using a combination of the following methods

      Cheers,
      Ashish

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