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Felix KdtFelix Kdt 

Migration Tool - unsupported Metadata API component types

Hi,


we are using the migration tool and Ant for the deployment. Today I wanted to retrieve and deploy only Search Layouts for two custom objects. This should be possible as Search Layouts are a supported component type. That is what the documentation says (http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/daas/Content/daas_package.htm#component_types).

 

But in contrast to the documentation it was not possible to retrieve the Search Layouts for my custom object because the component type is not known to the meta data API:
[sf:retrieve] package.xml - Unknown entity:SearchLayouts

 

I also tried to list all components for that metadata type using <sf:listMetadata> but got a similar error message:
com.sforce.ws.SoapFaultException: INVALID_TYPE: Unknown type:SearchLayouts

 

At last I did a describe metadata types using <sf:describeMetadata> and found out that the component type SearchLayouts is not listed in the result file.

 

I did some tests for other 'supported component types' according to the documentation and found out that it's the same for the following types. They all are NOT supported:

  • Picklist
  • SearchLayouts
  • Weblink
  • and so on (you can check that out by your own)

 

It would be great if Salesforce could enable the functionality for all component types that are listed in the documentation. Or remove this types from the doc.

 

Thanks
Felix

Best Answer chosen by Admin (Salesforce Developers) 
JonPJonP

Hi Felix,

 

All of these types are fully supported by the Metadata API, but the documentation page you reference may be a little confusing.

 

- "WebLink" is a valid metadata type with a fullname. You can specify a WebLink by name in package.xml, which will return a .object file for the containing object but with only the WebLink definition inside.

- "SearchLayouts" are defined as properties of a CustomObject and cannot be separately downloaded. More specifically, they're implemented as "additional fields" meaning that you only see them in the .object file if you've added extra fields to the default Search Layouts on an object.

- "Picklist" is just a type of CustomField.  A custom field can be retrieved by specifying the field name in package.xml in a <types> section for CustomField.  You cannot specify "Picklist" as a type within package.xml.

 

Hope this answers your questions.  We'll make the documentation clearer on these points in the future.

 

Jon Plax

Director, Product Management

salesforce.com

All Answers

JonPJonP

Hi Felix,

 

All of these types are fully supported by the Metadata API, but the documentation page you reference may be a little confusing.

 

- "WebLink" is a valid metadata type with a fullname. You can specify a WebLink by name in package.xml, which will return a .object file for the containing object but with only the WebLink definition inside.

- "SearchLayouts" are defined as properties of a CustomObject and cannot be separately downloaded. More specifically, they're implemented as "additional fields" meaning that you only see them in the .object file if you've added extra fields to the default Search Layouts on an object.

- "Picklist" is just a type of CustomField.  A custom field can be retrieved by specifying the field name in package.xml in a <types> section for CustomField.  You cannot specify "Picklist" as a type within package.xml.

 

Hope this answers your questions.  We'll make the documentation clearer on these points in the future.

 

Jon Plax

Director, Product Management

salesforce.com

This was selected as the best answer
dseilerdseiler

Hi John,

 

Thanks for your reply. It helped a lot.

One question remains:

Is there a way to deploy with the migration tool search layouts of standard objects like Account or Contact? For custom objects the deployment works but not for standard objects.

 

regards

 

Daniel