Custom Metadata Types

As we all now meta data is nothing but data about data. 
Salesforce Custom metadata type is customizable, deployable, packagable and upgradeable application metadata. It enable us use records to configure app without worrying about migrating those records to other orgs. Now we can customize, deploy, package, and upgrade application metadata that we design our self. 

This is similar to usage of XML configuration files in .NET/Java programming

• Mappings— Custom metadata types can be used to create associations between different entities i.e. Key - Value pairs.
  e.g. We can create a custom metadata type that assigns cities to states in a country.
• Business rules—Business rules can be defined by combining configuration records with custom functionality.
  e.g. We can use custom metadata types along with some Apex code to route payments to the correct endpoint.
• Master data—We can create a custom metadata type that stores master data like countries and telephone code. If we include this type as part of an extension package, subscriber orgs can reference this master data.

Data Types supported by Custom metadata type are:

  • Checkbox

  • Date

  • Date and Time

  • Email

  • Number

  • Percent

  • Phone

  • Picklist (Can’t use Global Picklist Value Set)

  • Text

  • Text Area

  • URL

  • Metadata Relationship

Comparision between Custom Settings and Custom Metadata Type:

Functionality	Custom Settings	Custom Metadata
Unlimited calls/queries	Yes	Yes
Create, Update and Delete from Apex	Yes	No
Currency type field	Yes	No
Picklist type field	No	Yes
Metadata Relationship	No	Yes
Associate for an organization, profile, or specific user	Yes	No
Metadata deploy install definition	Yes	Yes
Metadata deploy install record	No	Yes
Apex tests see records without annotation "SeeAllData"	No	Yes
Audit Trail Setup	No	Yes
Protect hide individual record	No	Yes
Control over editability of fields	No	Yes

Custom metadata type are surely going to make developers life lot easier than it was before. 

Thanks,

Rosh

www.Winobell.com

Email: support@winobell.com