Salesforce Migration using Ant Tool – Data Migration

Salesforce Migration Using ANT tool.

Full form for Salesforce migration ANT  is Another Neat Tool . Salesforce migration ANT tool is generally a  Java tool that executes tasks that is based on XML instructions.XML means Extensible Markup Language. We have to provide an  XML configuration file where the XML configuration file contains the information about the possible tasks to be done, and let it know about the task that you would like to run. Based on the XML properties, tasks can be dependent with each other. All possible tasks and information of the XML configuration file is named as build.xml.

 In salesforce migration ANT  tool when a  command is given , it is going to read the build.xml configuration file and will search for the target that matches that name. After finding it, the next thing it will do is to execute it. You can take a look at the XML in build.xml as basically a DSL or domain specific language.

Salesforce Migration Using ANT tool Advantages.

•  For deploying Metadata from an organization to another  using Salesforce migration ANT tool it retrieves metadata locally while deploying that same data to the same organization.
• While using the Salesforce migration ANT tool, it provides extra tools that can be used and the advantage is to get metadata in the form of XML from servers and downloads directly to your computer and makes the necessary changes to any server.
• The metadata is being downloaded to your computer locally from the server so you can make changes in XML files and deploy any changes made to any server.
• Any number of the same data can be deployed many times to any server and can be deployed again and again as much as you want.
• Components which can not  be migrated using Change sets in salesforce.com that components are also be migrated using salesforce migration ANT Tool.
• However, it can also be run from the command prompt and using specific commands for APIs. This is the  main advantage of the  Salesforce migration ANT tool.

Before you begin using such Salesforce migration ANT tool, you have to create some set-up on your machine so it can execute commands from the command prompt but firstly, you have to set up the Force.com and JAVA tool on your system. Automating the Salesforce migration process can leverage and may also help on the command prompt as well as the structure of the files.

Downloading and Installing Salesforce migration Ant tool.

ANT tool tool can be download from our salesforce.com account. To download salesforce migration tool follow the steps shown below.

You can get the Salesforce migration tool via Salesforce UI under Settings -> Develop-> Tools

Click on Tools.

Click on Force.com migration tool link a shown above and after downloading salesforce migration ANT tool zip , you can unpack it and can be added to force.com IDE . To add ANT tool go to Force.com IDE preferences=>ANT=>Run Time=>ANT Home Entries=> Upload  downloaded Zip Ant files.  Read the Readme.html for more information.

You have to set up the Salesforce migration ANT tool configuration. Starting from scratch, you can create your build.properties and build.xml. You can hard code the org credentials to build.xml immediately without having a file in build.properties, but it is still best to have them separated.

Have your files build.properties and build.xml into the project by right clicking, and then click Import -> General -> File System after that, type in your Developer Organization credentials.

The Salesforce migration ANT  tool maintains components that applies as metadata and moves it from one system to another when you copy from one component organization to another and while transferring metadata to your Force.com organization or pushes changes from sandbox with scenarios like multistage process and development projects is where this Salesforce migration tool is useful and environment populate tests huge amounts of changes in the setup very quickly and where this development process requires scripted retrieval and the deployment of components the Salesforce  migration ANT tool makes this process more efficient and easy.

The same parameters of the same repetitive deployment can retrieve the metadata in the organization, thus, deploying subsets of components and the migrating process from the stage production should be done by an IT.

Salesforce migration ANT tool can deploy the changes needed from one organization to another and to the point that all configurations are not available through meta data, there are other tools that cannot deploy metadata such as Account Teams, Analytic Settings, Campaign influences and case team roles and need manual creation in the target Sales.org. When making a backup of the metadata with tools such as these, consider documenting the settings configuration of the components that are not supported and if required manually re-create the settings of the unsupported components configuration.

The tools mentioned can also and may be supported by metadata when future releases comes up with three products and should release yearly for the necessary support to come.

 Guides for these processes can come through the internet of IT support when you may need them anytime and it is really important to always read the read me to know about the installation guide and process of installation to prevent any mistakes when migrating or backing up of your metadata.

 There are also tips in the internet that can give very useful information and insight about these processes, so always remember that there are many ways on how to use this Salesforce migration ANT tool if you know where to look and you must understand the processes to be able to do it properly.

Instead of using the Force.com IDE, the best thing about using the Salesforce Migration Ant Tool is that it does not need or require user interaction, mostly for deployment. When you deploy using the Force.com IDE, it needs a user to go through some different pages in an on screen wizard to type in things such as the credentials, verify what metadata needed to migrate and many others.

However, the Force.com migration tool is useful in development projects where you have to populate a test environment with large amounts of changes in set up. Using a Web interface in making such changes could take a longer period time.

You can recover all metadata in your org, create changes, as well as deploying some components. You can even do recurring deployment process using the same targets again. It is also a common process or the same format for anyone who prefers in a scripting environment. You just have to be careful when you add things manually especially in components that do not contain alphanumeric characters. Make sure to html escape if it is necessary like including commas, parenthesis, slashes, and others. Remember that there are metadata components that cannot be extracted.