Upserting a record using ExternalID is giving an error

Question

I have an object of type Contact with an External ID field called my_external_id_field

when i call: https://instance/services/data/v41.0/sobjects/Contact/my_external_id_field/012443

with a patch method (if i use post it complains it's not allowed) with a .json file, i get the error:

"The my_external_id_field field should not be specified in the sobject data"`, "errorCode:INVALID_FIELD"

What could be the reason?

I just want SF to check if a record with this id of 012443 exists. If so, update it with the sent .json, if not - create it with the sent .json.

Answer 1

You must not put the external ID field/value in the JSON; it is specified by the URL you're hitting. Simply remove that bit from your file and it should work.

Here's an example using Accounts:

PATCH /services/data/v41.0/sobjects/Account/External_Id__c/12345
...

{ "Name": "Test Account A", "Industry": "Technology" }

When this transaction completes, External_Id__c will be set to 12345.

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