Metadata API Developer Guide
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ArticleType CustomField
This type extends the Metadata metadata type and inherits its fullName field.
Always specify the full name whenever you create or update a custom field. For example, a custom field on a custom object:
1MyArticleType__kav.MyCustomField__cDeclarative Metadata File Suffix and Directory Location
Custom fields are defined as part of the article type. ArticleType field names have a suffix of __c like other custom objects, and must be dot-qualified with the name of the article type to which they belong. See ArticleType for more information.
Retrieving Custom Fields on Custom or Standard Objects
When you retrieve a custom or standard object, you return everything associated with the object. However, you can also retrieve only the custom fields for an object by explicitly naming the object and fields in package.xml. The following definition in package.xml retrieves the files objects/MyCustomObject__c.object, objects/Account.object__c.object, and objects/MyArticleType__kav.object, each containing one custom field definition.
1<types>
2 <members>MyCustomObject__c.MyCustomField__c</members>
3 <members>Account.MyCustomAccountField__c</members>
4 <members>MyArticleType__kav.MyOtherCustomField__c</members>
5 <name>CustomField</name>
6</types>Version
ArticleTypes custom fields are available in API version 19.0 and later.
Fields for ArticleType
| Field Name | Field Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| defaultValue | string | If specified, represents the default value of the field. |
| deleteConstraint | DeleteConstraint (enumeration of type string) | Provides deletion options for lookup
relationships. Valid values are:
For more information on lookup relationships, see “Object Relationships” in the Salesforce Help. |
| description | string | Description of the field. |
| formula | string | If specified, represents a formula on the field. |
| formulaTreatBlankAs | TreatBlanksAs (enumeration of type string) | Indicates how to treat blanks in a formula. Valid values are BlankAsBlank and BlankAsZero. |
| fullName | string | Inherited from Metadata, this field is defined in the WSDL for this metadata type. It must be specified when creating, updating, or deleting. See createMetadata() to see an example of this field specified for a call. |
| inlineHelpText | string | Represents the content of field-level help. For more information, see “Define Field-Level Help” in the Salesforce Help. |
| label | string | Label for the field. You cannot update the label for standard fields in Article Type such as Title, UrlName, Summary, etc. |
| length | int | Length of the field. |
| picklist | Picklist (Including Dependent Picklist) | (Deprecated. Use this field in API version 37.0 and earlier only. In later versions, use valueSet instead.) If specified, the field is a picklist, and this field enumerates the picklist values and labels. |
| referenceTo | string | If specified, indicates a reference this field has to another object. |
| relationshipLabel | string | Label for the relationship. |
| relationshipName | string | If specified, indicates the value for one-to-many relationships. For example, in the object MyObject that had a relationship to YourObject, the relationship name might be YourObjects. |
| required | boolean | Indicates whether the field requires a value on creation (true) or not (false). |
| type | FieldType | Required. Indicates the field type for the field. Valid values are:
|
| visibleLines | int | Indicates the number of lines displayed for the field. |
Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<CustomObject xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
3 <fields>
4 <fullName>Comments__c</fullName>
5 <description>add your comments about this object here</description>
6 <label>Comments</label>
7 <length>32000</length>
8 <type>LongTextArea</type>
9 <visibleLines>30</visibleLines>
10 </fields>
11</CustomObject>