Salesforce: Using Data Loader from Command Line to get Name from ParentId

Question

I'm using the data loader from command line to extract all the FeedItems that were created on a particular day, every day.

My question is that how can I utilize the command line to get the Names of the parent object from FeedItem.parentID? I'm thinking that using the command line to do this is not possible. If my assumption is correct, could you guide me toward an automated solution?

Getting the names from IDs is easy using apex code, but having some apex class run on a daily basis and having it export a log file outside of Salesforce is not. In fact, I have not been able to figure out if that is possible at all.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I experienced a similar issue performing the lookup to field on User through Owner using version 23 of the Apex Data Loader. It looks like a bug in either the dataloader or version 23 of the api. I switched back to the version 22 dataloader and this issue went away (for Owner.Email). Trying an older version may work for this as well. It can sometimes be hard to find older version of the dataloader, here is a link to version 22: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/667068/ApexDataLoader.exe

Answer 2

This query gets the Name of the parent object:

SELECT Id, ParentId, Parent.Name FROM FeedItem

EDIT: Apparently the data loader chokes on Parent.Name, thought it does support these relationship queries in general.

Have you considered a scheduled job to make a call to an external server to submit the data?