Sandbox Change Sets

1.1 Definition of Sandbox Change Sets

A change set is a packaged collection of metadata. Its primary function is to transfer metadata from one environment to other connected environments for deployment.

What is metadata?

• Metadata refers to configuration items in the enterprise management menu, such as objects, fields, layouts, permissions, workflows, custom functions, etc.
• Metadata does not include business data.

1.2 Use Cases for Sandbox Change Sets

During secondary implementation, to avoid impacting the normal operation of the production environment, we can create a sandbox environment and perform the implementation there.

After configuring new content in the sandbox and successfully testing it, we need to migrate these new configurations to the production environment.

In this scenario, we can create a change set in the sandbox, add the metadata components we want to synchronize to production into the change set, then send the change set from the sandbox to the production environment. Finally, we validate and deploy the change set in the production environment, completing the migration of metadata from sandbox to production.

1.3 Types of Sandbox Change Sets

• Outbound Change Sets: These contain collections of metadata being sent from the current environment to external connected environments.

• Inbound Change Sets: These contain collections of metadata that have been sent from external connected environments to the current environment. After receiving an inbound change set, enterprises can perform validation and deployment operations.

1.4 Important Notes About Using Sandbox Change Sets

• Deploying a change set will create new or update existing metadata in the target environment. The primary key used to determine whether to create or update metadata is typically the metadata’s apiName.

• Change sets cannot be used to delete metadata; they can only create or update metadata.

• Once a change set is successfully deployed, it cannot be rolled back with a single action. If you need to remove metadata deployed by a change set, you must manually delete each deployed metadata item in the backend management interface.