@deprecated annotation issue in Managed Apex

Question

We have 2 managed packages. Let's name those MPMAIN and MPCHILD. MPCHILD package is dependent on MPMAIN.

In MPCHILD we have a class:

@deprecated
global class ChildClass extends MPMAIN.MainClass {
    ...
}

MainClass in MPMAIN v.1 had a body without an explicitly specified constructor:

global abstract with sharing class MainClass {
    ...

    // No constructor here.

    ...
}

Later we released a new version of MPMAIN v.2 with changed MainClass:

global abstract with sharing class MainClass {
    ...

    global MainClass() {
        ...
    }

    ...
}

When we installed the new version MPMAIN v.2 into MPCHILD instance we started to get an error message when we compile all classes:

ChildClass: line 2, column 14: Method is not visible: void MPMAIN.MainClass.()

ChildClass is still pointed to v.1 of MPMAIN package. And we can't change it as the ChildClass is deprecated. If I try to change MPMAIN package version I get the error:

Compile Error: A class with name MPCHILD.ChildClass was deprecated for this package or this name is already in use! at line -1 column -1

We reverted the MPCHILD package from Release to Beta but still can't remove @deprecated for ChildClass.

Compile Error: Previously annotated identifier with @Deprecated must still be annotated: MPCHILD.ChildClass at line 1 column 14

I guess we see this error message because the ChildClass is global. But how can we resolve the issue?

Answer 1

This is a known issue but I'm not sure if this works as designed or if it is actually a bug. The problem is that once you set @Deprecated and upload your managed package ChildClass is basically frozen and if you have dependent changes that affect this in any way (like with MainClass in your example) you're stuck. As far as I'm aware there's currently no way around this issue besides actually deleting the class. And this solution might not be feasible in some cases.

But please note that you're also limited with deletions in managed packages as once your class is gone you will never be able to create a new class with the same name in that managed package ever again!

Answer 2

I would suggest to delete and remove ChildClass.

If you have marked it as @deprecated, then you can just remove it and delete from the package in the next version, which should resolve all of your issues here