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I was tasked with creating a Data Dictionary to document fields and objects in my Salesforce Org. The dictionary would be a reference point to all teams that would be used to rationalize the existing data model and propose new field additions for integrations and other internal projects. The point of this file is to expose it externally to other teams that don't necessarily work in Salesforce directly.

I was wondering if anyone has accomplished this and had any tools / resources that are optimal for:

  1. Extracting custom and standard Object and Field metadata to a CSV format (or other)
  2. Organizing the extracted metadata in a clean fashion?

I have found some tools on the appExchange:

  1. Plus - Salesforce Metadata Dictionary - Umanjali - AppExchange
  • Helpful tools, creates a metadata custom object and a daily job to update the records with metadata info that we can configure, filter and export.
  1. AbstraLinx - ERBuilder for Salesforce
  • Meaning to try, They do not have a client for MacOS, so will need a Windows machine or image.

...and various other tools.

Can anyone recommend a tool to use to efficiently accomplish this?

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  • oldie - but I've used it - Etherios
    – cropredy
    May 9, 2022 at 18:09
  • Thanks, sometimes they got it right back in the day. WIll check it out!
    – Z33dawg
    May 9, 2022 at 18:33
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    Realfire can do that efficiently (I'm part of the team which builds it). It has feature called schema describe, which can generate objects, fields, picklist values into a csv file. datasert.com/products/realfire
    – metasync
    May 9, 2022 at 18:44
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    lucidchart.com/blog/salesforce-schema-import + trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/… will get you pretty far at no cost if you do a free trial on Lucid
    – identigral
    May 9, 2022 at 21:34
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    thanks @metasync, doing a test run with RealFire. It retrieved the metadata faster than all the other tools so far! Gonna start digging into functionality. Want to add this to the answer. Based on trying out 7 tools so far this was the easiest / fastest to set up and get my desired results. I also like the fact that there is a free version to explore with no strings attached. Can you make your suggestion an answer so I can mark it?
    – Z33dawg
    May 10, 2022 at 13:34

4 Answers 4

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Disclosure: I'm part of the team that builds the tool and elevating an earlier comment as this answer per OPs request.

Realfire is a desktop tool that provides this capability along with many other features like objects explore, compare profiles, compare users, dataload, metadata deploy, field analysis etc.,

The feature Schema Describe, which takes one or more objects and generates either excel or Google sheet with details of those objects/fields/picklist value. Here is an example of that output.

It comes with no strings attached full evaluation for 60 days and has free version with limited capabilities you can revert to. Check it out at https://www.datasert.com/products/realfire

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Check our (I work for Metazoa) Data Dictionary app. This does document field description, help text, formulas etc.

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  • Trying out Metazoa in addition to the tools suggested above, thank you
    – Z33dawg
    May 10, 2022 at 13:40
  • Metazoa Data Dictionary app was great and simple to use to generate reports on specific metadata and export it easily in a few different formats. I am going to mark RealFire as the answer because while it is a more complex tool and may be intimidating for some beginners, it has a lot more functionality and had a significant faster speed.
    – Z33dawg
    May 11, 2022 at 13:58
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You can use AbstraLinx. In addition to generating a data dictionary in several formats (TXT, HTML, CSV, Excel, or JSON), AbstraLinx allows you to generate HTML documentation that organizes the extracted metadata in a clean fashion.

PS: I work for the company that developed the tool.

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We've been faced with exactly the same challenge and process. After quite a bit of evaluation, we found Elements does an amazing job of this.

Here's a link to their website Elements cloud and on the Elements Cloud App exchange We found the org model graphing and the ability to add notes really useful. Hope this helps

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