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We are currently working on what will be the next version of our company's main app. The changes are extensive. They will involve a great amount of change to the metadata including many new objects, new fields in old objects, new reports, new classes - and the moving of data from one object to another.

We are trying to think of the best way to deploy this from our sandbox. Change sets seem like the logical choice. However, is there danger in using change sets for such an extensive deployment ? If so, what are those dangers and how can they be avoided ? Is the IDE or Eclipse a better way to apply some of the changes ?

The deployments I have done up until now have always been very minor in scope up until now, and I'm hesitant to just go to the sandbox and deploy everything, especially since so much data will be moved around.

Thank you very much for any advice or recommendations you can give. I really appreciate it.

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    Your options are highlighted here - salesforce.stackexchange.com/a/10495/142
    – Mike Chale
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 17:31
  • Thank you very much for your responses. So, it seems to me that Eclipse would be the best solution...? I'm looking over all of the solutions and trying to find a benefit which I cannot accomplish from Eclipse. Thanks again.
    – Zoom_v
    Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 13:47
  • The Migration Tool can be scripted, but yes, you could deploy it with Eclipse.
    – Mike Chale
    Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 15:13
  • Part of the new version of the app will involve moving certain data to a new object which was added to the data model. What is the best way to move that data over to that new object ? Thanks again.
    – Zoom_v
    Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 16:54
  • That's a very open discussion. Besides the Data Loader there are many 3rd party tools available. I'd suggest asking that as another question, but it might be too open-ended and get closed.
    – Mike Chale
    Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 18:32

1 Answer 1

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If you're strictly adding objects, fields, reports, Visualforce, and Apex, changesets can work. They are tedious to configure since there is no way to automate their creation. Using the IDE or ANT Migration Tool can make deployment a bit easier and you can script the deployment via the Migration Tool.

Changing data is obviously not easy and you should lock out your users, if possible, to improve data integrity.

My personal recommendation would be to use the Migration Tool.

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  • +1 for migration tool. Building and validating with changes sets would be an absolute nightmare for a very extensive deployment.
    – Ralph Callaway
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 17:42
  • Thank you very much for your responses. Is there any benefit in using the migration tool over just using Eclipse to deploy if I do not intend to use automatic scripts in the future ?
    – Zoom_v
    Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 13:45
  • Not that I can think of.
    – Mike Chale
    Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 15:12

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