Ant Migration Tool Guide

Ant Migration Tool
Installing the Ant Migration Tool
Using the Ant Migration Tool
Entering Salesforce Connection Information
Constructing a Project Manifest
Specifying Named Components
Specifying all Components of a Type
Specifying Standard Objects
Getting Information About Metadata Types
Describing Metadata Types
Listing Components for a Metadata Type
Creating Retrieve Targets
Retrieving Metadata from a Salesforce Organization
Editing Metadata
Deleting Files from an Organization
Deploying Changes to a Salesforce Org
Checking the Status of a Task
Common Migration Issues
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Specifying all Components of a Type

The Ant Migration Tool is retired with Spring ’24. The tool continues to function as-is for future API versions but isn’t updated with new functionality and isn’t supported.  If Salesforce adds a new feature that is incompatible with Ant, the Ant Migration Tool won't be updated to support it. To manage metadata changes, switch to Salesforce CLI for a modern, supported developer experience.

Note

To retrieve all components of a particular type, use the wildcard symbol (*). For example, to retrieve all custom objects:

The wildcard symbol does not apply to all metadata types. For example, using the wildcard with the CustomObject type name will not retrieve standard objects. To retrieve a standard object, you must explicitly name the object in package.xml. Likewise, if you want to retrieve custom fields defined on standard objects, you must name the object and field.