Metadata Management

Flexible metadata subscription

Illuminated Cloud provides multiple options for selecting the metadata that should be deployed and retrieved for each module including all metadata in the organization or selected package, the metadata defined in a provided package.xml file, or a user-specified subset of the metadata in the organization.

Powerful tools for metadata deployment, retrieval, and removal

Illuminated Cloud can react to local filesystem operations such as save, rename, move, and delete and automatically update the organization accordingly. However, it also includes powerful and flexible tools for reconciling and managing your metadata in bulk.

Illuminated Cloud's bulk deployment, retrieval, and removal dialog allows the user to see which metadata is only available locally, in the organization, or in both, and which metadata is and is not part of the current metadata subscription. Convenient filters are provided for standard behaviors, but the user is also welcome to create a completely custom metadata selection.

Efficient and flexible deployment options

Illuminated Cloud supports multiple options for deployment of metadata into the organization. It is possible to configure when—or even if—a deployment should occur, which Salesforce API should be used for deployment, whether check-only deployments should occur while editing local files for near-real-time validation, and more.

Conflict detection

Conflict detection can be optionally enabled for connections to organizations in which multiple users are collaborating on the same metadata. Multiple conflict detection strategies are available based on the user authentication model (shared vs. dedicated logins). When conflicts are detected, the user is prompted whether to overwrite the organization metadata with local project metadata, compare and merge the organization metadata against the local project metadata, or cancel the requested deployment.

Integrated metadata management status and error reporting

Errors reported by the metadata deployment, retrieval, or removal operation are added to the Illuminated Cloud Problems view and the standard Messages view, both linked to the offending files for quick resolution.

Metadata retrieval and reconciliation

Illuminated Cloud simplifies the process of merging and reconciling metadata in the local filesystem with metadata in the organization. Metadata can be retrieved directly into the project, but Illuminated Cloud also offers options for reconciling and merging retrieved organization metadata with local project metadata to avoid conflicts or even loss of information. When performing such a retrieve-for-merge, by default the base IDE's comparison tools are used. However, it is also possible to configure an external comparison tool such as Beyond Compare or Araxis Merge for the comparison.

Substitution rules

Illuminated Cloud can apply user-defined substitution rules during metadata deployment and retrieval to accommodate for differences between production and development environments or individual developer organizations.

For example, the following deployment and retrieval substitution rules comment out @Deprecated annotations in all Apex classes on deployment and restore them on retrieval: