Metadata API Developer Guide

Introduction to Metadata API
Using Metadata API
Metadata API Context MCP Tool (Beta)
Reference
File-Based Calls
CRUD-Based Calls
Utility Calls
Result Objects
AsyncResult
CancelDeployResult
DeployResult
DescribeMetadataResult
DescribeValueTypeResult
ReadResult
RetrieveResult
SaveResult
DeleteResult
UpsertResult
Error
Metadata Types
Headers
Appendices
PDF

Note: This release is in preview. Features described here don’t become generally available until the latest general availability date that Salesforce announces for this release. Before then, and where features are noted as beta, pilot, or developer preview, we can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

DescribeMetadataResult

Contains information about the organization that is useful for developers working with declarative metadata.

The describeMetadata() call returns a DescribeMetadataResult object.

Each DescribeMetadataResult object has the following properties:

Name Type Description
metadataObjects DescribeMetadataObject[] One or more metadata components and their attributes.
organizationNamespace string The namespace of the organization. Specify only for Developer Edition organizations that can contain a managed package. The managed package has a namespace specified when it is created.
partialSaveAllowed boolean Indicates whether rollbackOnError is allowed (true) or not (false).

This value is always :

  • false in production organizations.
  • the opposite of testRequired.
testRequired boolean Indicates whether tests are required (true) or not (false).

This value is always the opposite of partialSaveAllowed.

DescribeMetadataObject

This object is returned as part of the DescribeMetadataResult. Each DescribeMetadataObject has the following properties:

Name Type Description
childXmlNames string[] List of child sub-components for this component.
directoryName string The name of the directory in the .zip file that contains this component.
inFolder boolean Indicates whether the component is in a folder (true) or not (false). For example, documents, email templates and reports are stored in folders.
metaFile boolean Indicates whether the component requires an accompanying metadata file. For example, documents, classes, and s-controls are components that require an additional metadata file.
suffix string The file suffix for this component.
xmlName string The name of the root element in the metadata file for this component. This name also appears in the Packages > types > name field in the manifest file package.xml.