Install previous version of application (managed package) from Appexchange

Question

Is there a way to install earlier version of application (managed package) from appexchange but not the latest one available? Or can it be moved from another sandbox if it's installed/available there?

Thanks

Answer 1

You cannot downgrade a package that has been already installed to an earlier version. You can only either upgrade or uninstall and reinstall the desired version.

Answer 2

If you have the install URL for an older version of the managed package then you can install it assuming that version hasn't been deprecated by the publisher.

The install URL will be something like: https://login.salesforce.com/packaging/installPackage.apexp?p0=04t400000000000

Answer 3

I created a workaround for this matter, if you have the previous version installed in any environment, through this query:

SELECT Id, SubscriberPackageId, SubscriberPackage.NamespacePrefix,
SubscriberPackage.Name, **SubscriberPackageVersion.Id**,
SubscriberPackageVersion.Name, SubscriberPackageVersion.MajorVersion,
SubscriberPackageVersion.MinorVersion,
SubscriberPackageVersion.PatchVersion,
SubscriberPackageVersion.BuildNumber
FROM InstalledSubscriberPackage
ORDER BY SubscriberPackageId

After performing the query and locating the package in question, I get the value of the SubscriberPackageVersion.Id field and assemble the url myself:

Putting ID at the end of the URL to proceed with the installation of the previous version.

https://login.salesforce.com/packaging/installPackage.apexp?p0=**<ID_HERE>**

Answer 4

You can install any version using the MetadataAPI. You need to create a file in the installedPackages directory with the filename in the format of namespace.installedPackage-meta.xml with the contents in the format below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<InstalledPackage xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <activateRSS>false</activateRSS>
    <versionNumber>versionNumberOfChoice</versionNumber>
</InstalledPackage>

For example, if I wanted to install v2.66 of the Salesforce Labs timeline component, I create the a file timeline.installedPackage-meta.xml in the installedPackages directory of my package with the contents as below:

<InstalledPackage xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <activateRSS>false</activateRSS>
    <versionNumber>2.66</versionNumber>
</InstalledPackage>

Please note that you cannot downgrade your installed version. You will need to uninstall the newer version if you are planning a downgrade.