Retrieve Compact Layout via APEX

Question

I need to retrieve the compact layout via APEX in order to generate the query. I would like to do something like:

String entity = 'Lead';
String fields = retrieveCompactLayoutFields(entity);
String searchQuery = 'SELECT ' + fields + ' FROM ' + entity + ' WHERE Id = :id LIMIT 1';

The compact layout is documented in the Metadata API, but I have no clue in how to access to it. Is it accessible from an APEX class? Can you please share a sample code?

Answer 1

Refer to this library provided on GitHub Apex Wrapper Salesforce Metadata API. This provides a lot of features.

To retrieve a metadata component, you only need MetadataService class and its corresponding test class. And a remote site with your salesforce url so that api calls can be made.

Sample code to retrieve is present in MetadataServiceExamples class. Search with keyword "retrieve" in this class and you will find a lot of examples.

Example:

    // Retrieve Home Page Layout
    MetadataService.MetadataPort service = createService();
    MetadataService.HomePageLayout homePageLayout =
        (MetadataService.HomePageLayout) service.readMetadata('HomePageLayout',
            new String[] { 'DE Default' }).getRecords()[0];