Force.com IDE Developer Guide

Get Started with the Force.com IDE
Develop with the Force.com IDE
Test Code with the Force.com IDE
Deploy Code with the Force.com IDE
Get Started with the Apex Debugger
Solutions to Common Force.com IDE Problems
Force.com IDE Release Notes
Useful References
Project Properties
Apex Code Settings: Log Category and Log Level
About Package.xml
About Metadata Files
Metadata Types
Troubleshoot the Force.com IDE: Debug Mode
Additional Resources
PDF

About Package.xml

Force.com IDE is in a maintenance-only state. We still provide support for the product through our official channels, but updates prior to October 12, 2019 will be only for critical security issues that arise. On October 12, 2019, we will no longer provide support or updates of any kind for Force.com IDE. On that date, we will also begin archiving documentation and removing download links for the product. We recommend that you start migrating to Salesforce Extensions for Visual Studio Code or one of the great tools made by our partners. For more information, see The Future of Salesforce IDEs on the Salesforce Developers Blog.

Warning

The package.xml file, also known as the project manifest, is a control file that determines the set of metadata components to retrieve or deploy in a project. If you are looking at the Package Explorer, this file is located in the src folder.

In practice, it is much easier to use the Project Properties dialog to add or remove components from a project—which modifies package.xml for you—but it is also possible to edit package.xml by hand.

Note

If your project is associated with a particular server-side package (as specified in the <fullName> element), the server determines what components are listed in package.xml and any user changes to the file will be overwritten.

The following XML elements may be defined in package.xml:

Name Description
<fullName> Optional. The name of a server-side package associated with the project. If the <fullName> field is present, all components in the package will be downloaded into the project, and new components created from the IDE will be added to that package.
<types> This element contains one or more <members> tags and one <name> tag, and is used to list the metadata components of a certain type to retrieve or deploy.
<members> The full name of a component. There is one <members> element defined for each component in the directory. You can replace the value in this member with the wildcard character * (asterisk) instead of listing each member separately. This is a child element of <types>.
<name> Contains the type of the component, for example CustomObject or Profile. There is one name defined for each component type in the directory. This is a child element of <types>.
<version> The Metadata API version number of the files being retrieved or deployed. When deploying, all the files must conform to the same version of the Metadata API.