Deleting Components from an Organization
Deleting Components in a Deployment
To delete components, use the same procedure as with deploying components, but also include a delete manifest file that’s named destructiveChanges.xml and list the components to delete in this manifest. The format of this manifest is the same as package.xml except that wildcards aren’t supported.
The following sample destructiveChanges.xml file names a single custom object to be deleted:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
<types>
<members>MyCustomObject__c</members>
<name>CustomObject</name>
</types>
</Package>
To deploy the destructive changes, you must also have a package.xml file that lists no components to deploy, includes the API version, and is in the same directory as destructiveChanges.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
<version>64.0</version>
</Package>
Adding and Deleting Components in a Single Deployment
You can perform a deployment that specifies components to delete in destructiveChanges.xml and components to add or update in package.xml. The process is the same as with performing a delete-only deployment except that package.xml contains the components to add or update.
- To delete components before adding or updating other components, create a manifest file that’s named destructiveChangesPre.xml and include the components to delete.
- To delete components after adding or updating other components, create a manifest file that’s named destructiveChangesPost.xml and include the components to delete.
The ability to specify when deletions are processed is useful when you’re deleting components with dependencies. For example, if a custom object is referenced in an Apex class, you can’t delete it unless you modify the Apex class first to remove the dependency on the custom object. In this example, you can perform a single deployment that updates the Apex class to clear the dependency and then deletes the custom object by using destructiveChangesPost.xml. The following are samples of the package.xml and destructiveChangesPost.xml manifests that would be used in this example.
Sample package.xml, which specifies the class to update:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
<types>
<members>SampleClass</members>
<name>ApexClass</name>
</types>
<version>64.0</version>
</Package>
Sample destructiveChangesPost.xml, which specifies the custom object to delete after the class update:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
<types>
<members>MyCustomObject__c</members>
<name>CustomObject</name>
</types>
</Package>