It is possible to automate package installation using the Salesforce DX CLI. This can be useful if you want to automate the deployment of your packages to scratch orgs and/or other test orgs created as part of a Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline (as discussed in Chapter 13, Source Control and Continuous Integration). Run the following commands within the project directory (or VSCode Terminal pane).

The first command will first create a new scratch org, as described in the previous section; the next command will run the install command; and finally, the third command will open the test scratch org, where you can confirm via the Setup | Installed Packages menu item that the package has been installed:

sfdx force:org:create 
  --definitionfile project-scratch-def.json 
  --setalias test 
  --noancestors
  --nonamespace
sfdx force:package:install 
  --package "FormulaForce [email protected]" 
  --publishwait 10 
  --wait 10
  --targetusername test
sfdx force:org:open -u test

Note that the installation will also upgrade a package if the package is already installed. A few things to note about the preceding sfdx force:package:install parameters are as follows:

• The --publishwait parameter ensures that the command waits for any final background processing to complete before your package can be installed.
• The --package parameter uses the package alias defined in the sfdx-project.json file. This parameter can also take the 04t ID as well (this is useful if the command is not run within the project directory).
• The --targetusername parameter uses the test scratch org alias to explicitly define which scratch org to install the package in, since the creation of the scratch org (via the preceding command) did not overwrite the default scratch org.