Salesforce DXSalesforce DX fully manages the movement of metadata between the local filesystem and scratch organizations. As a result, the features described here do not apply to the Salesforce DX development model. Instead they apply to development against Development Edition and Sandbox organizations. Illuminated Cloud does, however, convey Salesforce DX's collision detection information to the end user, prompting for whether the push or pull operation should be repeated with the force flag enabled.
Flexible metadata subscriptionIlluminated Cloud provides multiple options for selecting the metadata that should be deployed and retrieved for each module including all metadata in the organization or selected package, the metadata defined in a provided package.xml file, or a user-specified subset of the metadata in the organization.
![]() NOTE: The All/Package option should only be used when full organization retrieval is required. It should not be used for ongoing development purposes. Instead a discrete metadata Package.xml or Selected subscription should be created and maintained.
Powerful tools for metadata deployment, retrieval, and removalIlluminated Cloud can react to local filesystem operations such as save, rename, move, and delete and automatically update the organization accordingly. However, it also includes powerful and flexible tools for reconciling and managing your metadata in bulk.
Illuminated Cloud's bulk deployment, retrieval, and removal dialog allows the user to see which metadata is only available locally, in the organization, or in both, and which metadata is and is not part of the current metadata subscription. Convenient filters are provided for standard behaviors, but the user is also welcome to create a completely custom metadata selection.
![]() Metadata retrieval and reconciliationIlluminated Cloud simplifies the process of merging and reconciling metadata in the local filesystem with metadata in the organization. When retrieving metadata from the organization, three options are available:
As described, the Retrieve Metadata for Merge operation shows a comparison tool for reconciling and merging the retrieved metadata and the local project metadata. By default the base IDE's comparison tools are used. However, it is also possible to configure an external comparison tool such as Beyond Compare or Araxis Merge for the comparison.
Illuminated Cloud can apply user-defined substitution rules during metadata deployment and retrieval to accommodate for differences between production and development environments or individual developer organizations.
For example, the following deployment and retrieval substitution rules comment out @Deprecated annotations in all Apex classes on deployment and restore them on retrieval:
![]() | Efficient and flexible deployment optionsIlluminated Cloud supports multiple options for deployment of metadata into the organization:
By default Illuminated Cloud attempts to use the most efficient API for deployment based on the included metadata. The Tooling API is used in the following situations:
Otherwise the Metadata API is used. This behavior can be configured by the user based on preferences or to circumvent divergent behavior between these two APIs.
![]() Conflict detectionConflict detection can be optionally enabled for connections to organizations in which multiple users are collaborating on the same metadata. Two options are available for how conflicts are detected based on the way that users log into the shared organization:
![]() When conflicts are detected, the user can decide which action should be taken:
![]() Integrated metadata management status and error reportingErrors reported by the metadata deployment, retrieval, or removal operation are added to the Illuminated Cloud Problems view and linked to the offending files for quick resolution.
![]() Full operation status is available in the IDE's Messages view.
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