The Snapshot desktop is where you build a visual map of your Salesforce environments. Each item on the desktop is a Metadata Snapshot of an org or a Developer Project, and deployment arrows between items show how metadata flows, for example from a developer sandbox to staging to production. Looking at the desktop, anyone on the team can see how the environments are connected and what the approved deployment path is.
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The Tool Palette
The Tool Palette at the bottom left of the desktop holds five tools:
- Snapshot: Create a Metadata Snapshot, which holds metadata retrieved from a Salesforce org.
- Project: Create a Developer Project, which holds metadata stored in a local folder or a remote Git repository.
- Deploy: Draw a deployment arrow from a source item to a destination item, to compare the two and deploy metadata between them. The active window needs at least two items to connect.
- Folder: Create a desktop folder. Folders open windows that contain other items, which keeps a large desktop organized.
- Select: Select and drag items and arrows on the desktop.
Building a pipeline
- Drag a Snapshot or Project tool onto the desktop for each org or repository.
- Select the Deploy tool and draw an arrow from each source to each destination.
- Double-click an item or arrow to start working with it.
Opening items
- Double-click a snapshot to open Take a Snapshot.
- Double-click a Developer Project to open the Developer Project dialog and update the project.
- Double-click a deployment arrow to open Deploy Metadata.
- Right-click a snapshot or project for its reports, and right-click an arrow for comparisons, deployments, data migration, packages, and user stories.
- Right-click any item and choose Delete to remove the item from the desktop.
View menu options
- Grid View: Items snap to a grid by default. Turn Grid View off to place items freely, and use Clean Up the Desktop to snap items back to the grid.
- Lock Changes: Prevent items from being dragged by accident. While the workspace is locked, new items cannot be created.
Finding and organizing items
Use desktop folders to group related items, and Desktop Search to find an item on a crowded desktop by name, username, or created date. To run scheduled snapshots, reports, and deployments, switch from Editing to Runtime mode with the toggle at the top left.