What is the quickest way to see, document, and reproduce modification to the default build?

Question

Long-term I would like to setup a more robust method of monitoring changes, doing backups, and doing incremental and complete recoveries & rollbacks - though right now, I am just looking to know:

What is the quickest way to be able to create a baseline to make sure that it is easy to see, document, and if necessary manually reproduce (or remove) any modification that have made by users or me to the default build?

** Please note that this request excludes any data that is accessible via DataLoader.

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UPDATE 1:

• Q: "Are you talking about changes to Custom Object, Fields, Layouts etc?"
• A: Yes, though to be more exact, I am referencing anything that is not accessible via DataLoader. Guessing there are configs that are more likely to be of significance, though I have a very limited knowledge of either what those might be, or for that matter what might be required to digest & reproduce any changes discovered. For example, even it it is possible to download a meaningful amount of config files via the Force IDE, using those files to understanding what changes were made and how to manually reproduce them would I am guessing be challenging, if not impossible.

Answer 1

Assuming that you have Enterprise Edition or higher... You need to look into Git backups. Git allows you to create a backup and every time changes are made (if they are made) the changes are recorded and even highlighted.

You will need to do the following;

1. Sign up to a free AND private bitbucket account (https://bitbucket.org)
2. Install Copado Deployer from the AppExchange (can be used for free) - https://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N3000000B3dgGEAR
3. Create the Org credentials in the app (instructions here: http://www.copa.do/cms/documentation#createOrg)
4. Add your Git repository to Copado (instructions here: http://www.copa.do/cms/documentation#gitRepository)
5. Set the git backup (instructions here: http://www.copa.do/cms/documentation#gitBackup)

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UPDATE: I believe my reply answers your question. Let me clarify... you would like a robust method to: 1) monitor changes 2) do backups (metadata) 3) doing incremental and complete recoveries & rollbacks (metadata)

I have added metadata in brackets because doing this for data would be tricky for various reasons (e.g. deletions + related data). Also since you've done research on the backup topic

Git versioning allows you to monitor changes. Here is a link to an example output that Git produces: bit.ly/1kIT0jn

Using Git Backups you would get such an output to see exactly what has changed. I hope this addresses point 1 and 2.

Regarding point 3: For now you're right this is a manual/complicated process. If I find any solution that handles a backup process for metadata well and in a more automated way (push/pull), I'll let you know. If anyone knows more extensive solutions, I'd be interested to hear of these.

Hope this was helpful.

Answer 2

AutoRABIT has some of the core-capabilities of what you wish for . It is an end-end release management solution and has the best packaging and deployment solution which can be done right from your ALM Story like Jira or Rational Team Concert , from you Sandbox or from version control. You will get weekly or on-demand schedule reports of your Org Differences as well . You can see more capabilities for Salesforce Release Management here.