Packages

The previous portion of this chapter introduced you to deploying with the Force Platform IDE, which is essentially creating a project from components in one organization to the Force Platform IDE, and then from the IDE to another target organization.

This approach to deployment works fine if you are moving your work from one organization to another. But what about the scenario where you want to deploy an application from one organization to many other organizations, which may be outside your company? Using the Force Platform IDE might work, but this approach requires you to have access to both the originating and target organization with a high level of permissions.

The Force Platform also supports a publish-and-subscribe method of deployment, where you can create a single deployment that can be downloaded and installed by many different organizations.

The vehicle for this type of deployment is the package. A package is a collection of Force Platform components gathered together into one entity. Your can create a package once and make the package available to a wider community. Individual members of this community can install the package into their organization.