Force.com IDE Developer Guide

Get Started with the Force.com IDE
Develop with the Force.com IDE
Project Basics
Create a Force.com Project
Project Properties
Add or Remove Metadata Components
Choose Metadata Components
Field-Level Security Warning
Component Properties
Upgrade Project
Apex Code in the Force.com IDE
Lightning Components in the Force.com IDE
Server Synchronization
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
PDF

Choose Metadata Components

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

Use the Choose Metadata Components dialog to specify which Lightning Platform metadata components you want to retrieve in a project. Click a top-level folder to select all components of a particular type. This option will also retrieve new components that are added via the Web interface whenever you refresh from server. (Selecting the top-level folder is the equivalent of adding the wildcard character to the package.xml file. For more information, see About Package.xml.)

Only fully editable packages are available; those created in your organization or installed unmanaged packages. Installed managed packages are not available in this list.

A Lightning Platform project is defined by a package.xml file. While you can edit this file by hand, it's much easier and less error prone to use the Choose Metadata Components dialog to create or edit this file. If you edit the package.xml file by hand, your changes may be overwritten if you open the Choose Metadata Components dialog. For more information, see About Package.xml.

Note

The following controls help you navigate the available components:
Field Description
Filter Enter text to filter all metadata components that start with the letters you enter in this field. You can use the * character within the filter string as a wildcard.
Show only selected items Select this checkbox to show only the items that have been selected. This is useful after you make several selections and want to see only what will be retrieved in your project.
Select All Selects all components.
Deselect All Deselects all components.
Expand Expands all nodes.
Collapse Collapses all nodes.
Refresh Refreshes selections from server.