Apex Developer Guide

Getting Started
Writing Apex
Ways to Invoke Apex
Finishing Touches
Debugging Apex
Testing Apex
Deploying Apex
Using Change Sets To Deploy Apex
Using the Force.com IDE to Deploy Apex
Using the Force.com Migration Tool
Understanding deploy
Understanding retrieve
Using SOAP API to Deploy Apex
Distributing Apex Using Managed Packages
Reference
Appendices
Glossary
PDF

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Using the Force.com Migration Tool

In addition to the Force.com IDE, you can also use a script to deploy Apex.

Download the Force.com Migration Tool if you want to perform a file-based deployment of metadata changes and Apex classes from a Developer Edition or sandbox organization to a production organization using Apache's Ant build tool.

The Force.com Migration Tool is a free resource provided by Salesforce to support its users and partners but isn't considered part of our services for purposes of the Salesforce Master Subscription Agreement.

Note

To use the Force.com Migration Tool, do the following:
  1. Visit http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html and install the Java JDK.

    For enhanced security, we recommend Java 7 or later and a recent version of the Force.com Migration Tool (version 36.0 or later). Starting with version 36.0, the Force.com Migration Tool uses TLS 1.2 for secure communications with Salesforce if it detects Java version 7 (1.7). The tool explicitly enables TLS 1.1 and 1.2 for Java 7. If you’re using Java 8 (1.8), TLS 1.2 is used. For Java version 6, TLS 1.0 is used. However, Salesforce plans to discontinue TLS 1.0 support on this timeline.

    Alternatively, if you’re using Java 7, instead of upgrading your Force.com Migration Tool to version 36.0 or later, you can add the following to your ANT_OPTS environment variable:

    This setting also enforces TLS 1.1 and 1.2 for any other Ant tools on your local system.

    Note

  2. Visit http://ant.apache.org/ and install Apache Ant, Version 1.6 or later, on the deployment machine.
  3. Set up the environment variables (such as ANT_HOME, JAVA_HOME, and PATH) as specified in the Ant Installation Guide at http://ant.apache.org/manual/install.html.
  4. Verify that the JDK and Ant are installed correctly by opening a command prompt, and entering ant –version. Your output should look something like this:
  5. Download the Force.com Migration Tool from the Force.com Migration Tool page in Salesforce Developers.
  6. Unzip the downloaded file to the directory of your choice. The Zip file contains the following:
    • A Readme.html file that explains how to use the tools
    • A Jar file containing the ant task: ant-salesforce.jar
    • A sample folder containing:
      • A codepkg\classes folder that contains SampleDeployClass.cls and SampleFailingTestClass.cls
      • A codepkg\triggers folder that contains SampleAccountTrigger.trigger
      • A mypkg\objects folder that contains the custom objects used in the examples
      • A removecodepkg folder that contains XML files for removing the examples from your organization
      • A sample build.properties file that you must edit, specifying your credentials, in order to run the sample ant tasks in build.xml
      • A sample build.xml file, that exercises the deploy and retrieve API calls
  7. If you installed a previous version of the Force.com Migration Tool and copied the ant-salesforce.jar file to the Ant lib directory, delete the jar file in the lib directory. The lib directory is located in the root folder of your Ant installation. The Force.com Migration Tool uses the ant-salesforce.jar file that’s in the distribution ZIP file. You don’t need to copy this file to the Ant lib directory.
  8. Open the sample subdirectory in the unzipped file.
  9. Edit the build.properties file:
    1. Enter your Salesforce production organization username and password for the sf.user and sf.password fields, respectively.
      • The username you specify should have the authority to edit Apex.
      • If you are using the Force.com Migration Tool from an untrusted network, append a security token to the password. To learn more about security tokens, see “Reset Your Security Token” in the Salesforce online help.

      Note

    2. If you are deploying to a sandbox organization, change the sf.serverurl field to https://test.salesforce.com.
  10. Open a command window in the sample directory.
  11. Enter ant deployCode. This runs the deploy API call, using the sample class and Account trigger provided with the Force.com Migration Tool.

    The ant deployCode calls the Ant target named deploy in the build.xml file.

    For more information, see Understanding deploy.

  12. To remove the test class and trigger added as part of the execution of ant deployCode, enter the following in the command window: ant undeployCode.

    ant undeployCode calls the Ant target named undeployCode in the build.xml file.

See the Force.com Migration Tool Guide for full details about the Force.com Migration Tool.