Transformation Spec limitation in Bulk API v1.0

Question

We're using Transformation Spec feature of the bulk api when uploading records:

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_asynch.meta/api_asynch/asynch_api_mapping.htm

This allows us to map Csv Headers to Salesforce Fields without changing the file. However, there is an undocumented limit of 4000 bytes for the Transformation Spec. Due to this length limit, users can't import the necessary number of columns in the file.

Can we work around this?

Can we document this?

Can we increase this?

Answer 1

Likewise we ran into this too - verified with tests.

Can we work around this?

Our workaround is to rename all the headers in our file to the corresponding Salesforce field name and bypass the transformation spec altogether.

Can we document this?

This question appears to be the only documentation of this issue out there.

The most insidious part of this issue is there is no indication that only the first 4k bytes of the spec were taken. The rest of the fields fail to update silently. This has caused hours of lost productivity. An error does occur ("field not found") when the 4k limit ends up truncating a field name.

Can we increase this?

As of now, no. Thanks to @sfdfox for the link, I've submitted a feature request to up the limit (or at least document) this limitation.

Answer 2

Can we work around this?

Not that I can tell. The documentation doesn't say, and the general rule is "if the documentation doesn't say, you can't."

Can we document this?

Contact @salesforcedocs on Twitter.

Can we increase this?

There doesn't appear to be a knowledge article or an entry in Features You Need to Contact Support to Activate. So, presumably, if it is possible, nobody knows about it. You could always just ask, though. Worst case scenario, they say no. I'll also try asking my usual channels, but no guarantees of a response.