Database.com Metadata API Developer's Guide - Salesforce.com

CRUD-Based CallsdeleteMetadata()VersionAvailable in API version 30.0 and later.PermissionsYour client application must be logged in with the “Modify All Data” permission.Rules and GuidelinesWhen deleting components, consider the following rules and guidelines:• Your client application must be logged in with sufficient access rights to delete individual components within the specifiedcomponent. For more information, see “Factors that Affect Data Access” in the SOAP API Developer's Guide.• In addition, you might also need permission to access this component’s parent component.• To ensure referential integrity, this call supports cascading deletions. If you delete a parent component, you delete itschildren automatically, as long as each child component can be deleted.Basic Steps for Deleting Metadata ComponentsUse the following process to delete metadata components:1. Determine the metadata type of the components you want to delete and the fullName of each component to delete. Youcan delete only components of the same type in a single call. The full names must match one or more full names returnedby the listMetadata() call. See Metadata for more details on the fullName field.2. Invoke the deleteMetadata() call. For the first argument, pass in the name of the metadata type. For the secondargument, pass in an array of full names corresponding to the components you wish to delete.A DeleteResult object is returned for each component you try to delete. It contains information about whether theoperation was successful, the name of the deleted component, and any errors returned if the operation wasn’t successful.Sample Code—Javapublic void deleteCustomObjectSync() {try {DeleteResult[] results = metadataConnection.deleteMetadata("CustomObject", new String[] { "MyCustomObject1__c","MyCustomObject2__c" });for (DeleteResult r : results) {if (r.isSuccess()) {System.out.println("Deleted component: " + r.getFullName());} else {System.out.println("Errors were encountered while deleting "+ r.getFullName());for (Error e : r.getErrors()) {System.out.println("Error message: " + e.getMessage());System.out.println("Status code: " + e.getStatusCode());}}}} catch (ConnectionException ce) {ce.printStackTrace();}}ArgumentsNamemetadataTypeTypestringDescriptionThe metadata type of the components to delete.52