How to deploy Visualforce Pages using force.com IDE without messed up .page-meta.xml referencing unnecessary managed packages?

Question

I wand to deploy a VF page, let's call it myVF.page, from Org A to Org B using force.com IDE (eclipse).

Now on Org A there are lots of managed packages installed. None of them are in relation or used in any way by myVF.page - but the myVFpage-meta.xml is polluted by tons of -tags like this

<packageVersions>
    <majorNumber>1</majorNumber>
    <minorNumber>1003</minorNumber>
    <namespace>DF3</namespace>
</packageVersions>
<!-- ... here a HUGE LIST goes on and on ...-->
<packageVersions>
    <majorNumber>2</majorNumber>
    <minorNumber>1123</minorNumber>
    <namespace>ec2</namespace>
</packageVersions>

I need these managed packages on the Org A. I don't need any of them in myVF.page

Now when I deploy, eclipse seems to use the .page-mate.xml implicitly even if I have not selected it. Then the deployment fails with errors listing unmet dependencies of the packages above in the destination Org B.

In Org B I don't want and I don't need these packages. But I need myVF.page to be deployed.

In my real scenario, there are lots of VF pages I need to deploy, not only one. If it was only one, I would locally edit the .page-meta.xml to get rid of the error. For a huge number of pages this would be ridiculous and I'm looking for a better way.

How can I easily get rid of these unwanted dependencies without modifying each .page-meta.xml file of all the affected pages?

Answer 1

In an ant build script, I usually include the following:

    <target name="strip">
            <replaceregexp flags="gs">
                    <regexp pattern="\s*&lt;(listViews|searchLayouts)&gt;.+&lt;\/\1&gt;" />
                    <substitution expression="" />
                    <fileset dir=".\\src\\objects">
                            <include name="*.object" />
                    </fileset>
            </replaceregexp>
            <replaceregexp flags="gs">
                    <regexp pattern="\s*&lt;(packageVersions)&gt;.+&lt;\/\1&gt;" />
                    <substitution expression="" />
                    <fileset dir=".\\src\\classes">
                            <include name="*.xml" />
                    </fileset>
            </replaceregexp>
            <replaceregexp flags="gs">
                    <regexp pattern="\s*&lt;(packageVersions)&gt;.+&lt;\/\1&gt;" />
                    <substitution expression="" />
                    <fileset dir=".\\src\\pages">
                            <include name="*.xml" />
                    </fileset>
            </replaceregexp>
            <replaceregexp flags="gs">
                    <regexp pattern="\s*&lt;(packageVersions)&gt;.+&lt;\/\1&gt;" />
                    <substitution expression="" />
                    <fileset dir=".\\src\\components">
                            <include name="*.xml" />
                    </fileset>
            </replaceregexp>
            <replaceregexp flags="gs">
                    <regexp pattern="\s*&lt;(packageVersions)&gt;.+&lt;\/\1&gt;" />
                    <substitution expression="" />
                    <fileset dir=".\\src\\triggers">
                            <include name="*.xml" />
                    </fileset>
            </replaceregexp>
    </target>

This code is run as ant strip. It removes a lot of superficial elements that cause deployment issues, include package version errors and search layouts. Feel free to modify this as you like.