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Cloud Elements Query Language

The Cloud Elements Query Language (CEQL) is a query language used by Cloud Elements to standardize searching across all of our different elements. Many APIs support some form of searching in their APIs but they’re almost all different, so we have standardized a common way to search across all of our elements. Cloud Elements translates the CEQL to the endpoint’s searching syntax, however at times, CEQL supports more than the endpoint.

CEQL in Salesforce Sales Cloud

When querying in Salesforce Sales Cloud, keep the following in mind:

The Salesforce bulk chunking mechanism allows you to use bulk on large data sets without limitations. If you use an orderBy clause, chunking is disabled. If chunking is enabled, it may take longer to get all the data. Also, be aware that Salesforce has daily upload and download limits.
Use CEQL to query the following endpoints:
- GET /campaigns
- GET /accounts
- GET /accounts/{accountId}/activities
- GET /accounts/{accountId}/notes
- GET /accounts/{accountId}/tasks
- GET /users
- GET /{objectName}
- GET /{objectName}/{objectId}/attachments
- GET /{objectName}/{objectId}/{childObjectName}
- GET /opportunities
- GET /opportunities/{opportunityId}/activities
- GET /opportunities/{opportunityId}/notes
- POST /bulk/query
- GET /contacts
- GET /contacts/{contactId}/activities
- GET /contacts/{contactId}/notes
- GET /contacts/{contactId}/tasks
- GET /leads
- GET /leads/{leadId}/activities
- GET /leads/{leadId}/notes
- GET /leads/{leadId}/tasks
- GET /reports/{id}

CEQL represent the "where" portion of a typical query that can include many other components like field selection, sorting, and pagination. Take a look at GET requests or POST /bulk/query in the API docs for any element to see how you can structure your queries. Here are some examples from QuickBooks Online, MailChimp, and Salesforce Sales Cloud. CEQL in API Docs

The easiest way to make queries is through the API docs, but when you integrate your code with Cloud Elements you'll need to understand how to structure queries with CEQL.

You compose queries with available query elements field selection, sorting, and pagination. Each element allows different components of the query, but inmost situations you can use some common parts. The most common components include the object name, CEQL expression, field selection, field sorting, and pagination. Here's how you might construct a query:

<object name>?where <expression>&<select fields>&<sort fields>&<page size (limit)>&<page offset (offset)>

An example query with all components:

/contacts?where=Department!='Procurement'&fields=username&orderBy=MailingCity asc&page=1&pageSize=10

Query Reference

Query Component	Example	Description
Object name	/contacts?where=Department!='Procurement'&fields=username&orderBy=MailingCity asc&page=1&pageSize=10	The name of the object to search.
CEQL query the "where" expression	/contacts?where=Department!='Procurement'&fields=username&orderBy=MailingCity asc&page=1&pageSize=10	The expression or expressions specifying what to search and what objects to return in our result set. See Valid CEQL Operators. This is made up of a left hand side (LHS), an operator and a right hand side (RHS).
Select fields	/contacts?where=Department!='Procurement'&fields=username&orderBy=MailingCity asc&page=1&pageSize=10	The field or fields to return in your result set. Field selection is available only for elements where the resource supports selecting fields. When not available, you can use a common resource to filter the fields that you receive in a response.
Sort fields	/contacts?where=Department!='Procurement'&fields=username&orderBy=MailingCity asc&page=1&pageSize=10	The field or fields to sort your result set. Include `asc` to sort ascending, and `desc` for descending.
Pagination	/contacts?where=Department!='Procurement'&fields=username&orderBy=MailingCity asc&page=1&pageSize=10	`page` is the offset to begin your results. `pageSize` is the maximum number of results to return.

Valid CEQL Operators

Operator	Descriptions
AND	TRUE if all the conditions separated by AND is TRUE
OR	TRUE if any of the conditions separated by OR is TRUE
=	Equal to
!=	Not equal to
<	Less than
>	Greater than
<=	Less than or equal to
>=	Greater than or equal to
LIKE	TRUE if the operand matches a pattern
IN	TRUE if the operand is equal to one of a list of expressions
IS NULL	TRUE if a NULL value is found