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Sometimes when I commit the latests changes in my managed package to my version control I see those changes in the XML metadata of my custom objects.

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I heard that Salesforce.com is working on some depreacation features but why does this appear and disappear in my code before this features goes GA?

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This answer is mostly anecdotal and hearsay based, so take it with a grain of salt if somebody with experimental evidence shows up.

There was at one point a pretty far reaching pilot allowing deprecation of nearly anything in managed packages. It was, from the accounts I heard, a pretty bad failure and had the capability of breaking things very badly. However the deprecated attribute from the pilot was added to all (managed?) metadata during the pilot (although it couldn't be set to true unless you were in the pilot).

Sometime in the last year or so I think they finally put the final nail in the coffin for the pilot in it's initial form, and removed the metadata from object definitions. Since you're using version control and didn't update the metadata yourself you're likely finding the deprecated element removed the next time you go to make a material change to the object.

This happened to me, and it was something like 6 months of this slow motion process before the last of the deprecated fields was finally out of version control.

It should stay gone at this point.

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  • I heard rumors that they not only ended this pilot but will start a new attempt to allow partial deprecation of managed features... Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 19:30
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    I've heard the same rumor, but nothing concrete at all to date. If anything I'd expect VF page deprecation before field deprecation. Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 22:37
  • I know this is an old question & answer, but I still have some input. It seems to me that custom objects and fields that are in an org where managed package is present do have the <deprecated> element, if the field is not in a package, it's not present either. Very annoying when trying to use source control... Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 13:55
  • Update; The deprecated element even seems to be omitted until you've uploaded a managed package. Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 14:01

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