How to retrieve Metadata Type component fields?

Question

I am referring to the Metadata Type documentation, for example Custom Object.

Is there a way to get all the 'fields' available for the Custom Object (or any other) Metadata Type, for example:

• actionOverrides
• allowInChatterGroups
• businessProcesses
• compactLayoutAssignment
• ...

Thanks

Answer 1

You can use describeMetadata to get a full list of all metadata, and then call describeValueType to get the specific fields for each (e.g. allowOverrides, etc). This is actually how some IDEs and integrations that deal with deployments, etc, allow dynamic integration with metadata.