Web-to- lead and get back ID in response

Question

I am creating a web lead by doing a curl like so

   //set POST variables
    $url = 'https://www.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.WebToLead?encoding=UTF-8';
    $fields = array(
            'last_name'=>urlencode($ch_register_last_name),
            'first_name'=>urlencode($ch_register_first_name),
            'street'=>urlencode($ch_register_street),
            'city'=>urlencode($ch_register_city),
            'state'=>urlencode($ch_register_state),
            'zip'=>urlencode($ch_register_zip),
            'description'=>urlencode($ch_register_event_city),
            'email'=>urlencode($ch_register_email),
            'phone'=>urlencode($ch_register_phone),
            'Event_City__c' => urlencode($ch_register_event_city), // custom fields
            'Register_DOB__c' => urlencode($ch_register_dob),
            'Register_Emergency_Contact__c' => urlencode($ch_register_emergency_name),
            'Register_Emergency_Phone__c' => urlencode($ch_register_emergency_phone),
            'Register_Release__c' => urlencode($ch_register_agree),
            'No_Text__c' => urlencode($ch_register_no_text),
            'Under_18__c' => urlencode($ch_register_under_age),
            'Volunteer_Option__c' => urlencode($ch_register_volunteer_option),
            'Register_Release_Name__c' => urlencode($ch_register_signiture),
            'Register_Release_Date__c' => urlencode($ch_register_signiture_date),
            'lead_source' => 'Outreach Volunteer',
            'oid' => $ch_register_salesforce_id, // insert with your id 
            'retURL' => urlencode('thank-you/'), // sending this just in case
            'debug' => '0',
            'debugEmail' => urlencode(""), // your debugging email
    );

    //url-ify the data for the POST
    foreach($fields as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }
    rtrim($fields_string,'&');


    //open connection
    $ch = curl_init();

    //set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST,count($fields));
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string);

    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);

    //execute post
        $result = curl_exec($ch);

    //close connection
        curl_close($ch);

Is there any way to get the ID of the lead created in a response??? I need the ID after this lead is created for another part of the code (send that lead an Adobe echoSign agreement). And unfortunately the only way to connect the two in SF is this way, I can't just send the form to the email or else they live separately in SF.

Thanks! Any option would be great. I dont have to use the web-lead way if there is a better way from their API. Just need the ID in a response. I just feel like its possible since when I have debug on I get an email with the ID in the email

Answer 1

Web to Lead is an asynchronous process. When you send a lead to that address, it won't be processed until sometime later. This allows salesforce.com to collect leads even when a database is down for maintenance, instead of disrupting customers' ability to capture leads.

If you want the ID back, you have to use another process. These have already been described both on this forum and elsewhere, so I won't go in to great detail. Just do a search for "web 2 lead api" or something like that. Three easy possibilities are to use the SOAP API, REST API, or create a public anonymous Sites API (keep in mind, you'll have to build your own security for that solution).

You'll also have to engineer a way to preserve leads that are generated until services are available in the event of a maintenance window or authentication issue.