Deploying Destructive Changes Using Workbench

Sometimes, especially in the case of custom Apex or Visualforce, a Salesforce admin or developer needs to delete components from an org. However, Salesforce's user-friendly change sets feature does not allow admins to propagate component deletions. The only semi-automated alternative to performing these deletions, especially in production orgs, is to leverage the metadata API.

Fortunately, with the availability of Workbench on Developer Force, the steps required for deploying destructive changes (that delete components) are pretty simple:

1. Create a package.xml file
2. Create a destructiveChanges.xml file
3. Bundle the two files together in a .zip file
4. Deploy the .zip package using Workbench

As you can see from this sample .zip package, the files are fairly simple and straightforward. Multiple types of metadata can be removed with a single package.

The exact steps for deploying using Workbench 29.0.1 are:

1. Open the migration menu, then click Deploy
2. Click Browse... and select the .zip package file
3. Mark the "Rollback On Error" checkbox
4. Mark the "Single Package" checkbox
5. Mark the "Run All Tests" checkbox
6. Click Next
7. Review the deployment options, then click Deploy

The results, successful or otherwise, will be displayed in Workbench for you to review once the deployment process is complete.