Success notifications for metadata commands - deploy, retrieve, push, pull, delete

[daphne-sfdc]

Hello Customers,

In v66.5.4 of the Salesforce Extensions for VSCode, we changed the default behavior to not show notifications upon successful completion of the metadata commands - deploy, retrieve, push, pull, delete - in order to reduce noise. We've gotten several issues regarding this change, so we want to surface this setting that you can turn on if you want to re-enable the success notifications.

Let us know what you think of this change.

Happy coding!

[hari0409]

I kind of liked that notification. I would get confirmation that it went well. Even when there was multiple notification, I would just view my Output Tab and would be able to identify all the changes that got successfully deployed.
But first I wasnt aware its an optional notification so after the deployment is done , I would get nothing. Later I realised it and then enabled it.
But one small issue I encountered was the notification was received a bit slow like it isnt as immediate as it used to be. I feel like there is a lag to it when compared to before.

[AndrewStopchenko-SO]

There were some issues complaining about the Panel's "Output" tab always being opened after the deploy/retrieve operations to show the operation result.

I think the main concern there was that either they wanted the bottom panel to either stay closed (if they explicitly closed it), or that the bottom panel keeps the user-selected panel's tab open. That was referred as a "noisy" distracting experience.

But given current new and non-intrusive notification approach (a pop-up notification message), it feels strange that it is disabled by default. This breaks the action -> response loop ("Did it work at all? Maybe I didn't run the command at all? Maybe something is broken? Should I run this one more time just to be sure?").

Can this "Show Success Notification" setting be enabled by default, please?

[HazenFley]

There seems to be some disconnect between the users and the developers here. What is the intended UX? It seems like that should have been defined before making changes. It's not just "it's different", but rather feels as though the UX wasn't even considered. A week ago, this is how I would have expected things to work:

1. I make a change
2. I right click inside the window and deploy (We do not deploy on save)
3. I get a notification that it succeeded
4. The output tab changes and I get a list of what was deployed

This worked well because we deployed both individual assets, but also metadata files and folders as necessary. We also had confidence that what we did succeeded and we can confidently move forward.

This latest change seems to have broken that, and I am unsure what the "expected" experience is. As far as I can tell, this is how it seems to be built toward:

1. I make a change
2. It seems to expect deploy on save, because right clicking on the edit screen no longer provides the option to deploy
3. There is a small notification on success, and we simply assume it worked, and hope that we get the notification before it goes away (please keep in mind we may be multi-tasking or using multiple windows)
4. To see what deployed I have to go to the output tab, find the metadata picklist value, and then scroll to the bottom (it has ALL deployments, not just the most recent)
5. If there is a failure, we get a notification of a fail, and the output screen updates with the successes and failures

I think we are all confronted with the "It's different and I hate it" but I honestly cannot tell what the expectation is here. There seem to be a few settings that could give developers the control over how this functions:

• Show Deployment Notifications
• Show Output tab on Deployment
• Show Output tab on Failures only (seems to be current setting)

Additionally, I would really like if we could set it to clear the output tab for each deployment. And most importantly I would like to be able to right click inside of a edit window and be able to deploy and retrieve.

[AndrewStopchenko-SO]

Additionally, I would really like if we could set it to clear the output tab for each deployment.

In Settings, there is a salesforcedx-vscode-core.clearOutputTab setting checkbox (description: "When a new command is run, clear the output content from the previous command"), which was intended to auto-clear the "Salesforce CLI" output channel (from previous notifications method) before running the new deployment command.

But I have no idea if enabling this setting will also auto-clear the new "Salesforce Metadata" output channel - feel free to try that out.
I never had this setting enabled, I think I just got used to clearing the "Salesforce CLI" outputs manually.

And most importantly I would like to be able to right click inside of a edit window and be able to deploy and retrieve.

@HazenFley this is strange; I can confirm that the "SFDX: ***" context menu's commands are still available in Apex classes/triggers editors.
Please ensure you have the newer "Salesforce Metadata" extension installed in your VSCode? As I understand, all the metadata-related commands have been transferred into that dedicated extension.

[HazenFley]

@AndrewStopchenko-SO I have that setting already enabled, which is why I brought it up. It isn't honoring this setting. Personally, I feel that setting should apply to all the SF commands.

I believe I have the latest version (66.5.4). I had this installed while at TDX and can tell you that it was very frustrating working on the mini-hacks when I could not right click in the editor and deploy.

But again, I push back to the devs to ask what you guys envision the actual workflow to be. We can learn to use the tool differently, but without direction I worry this will simply change again with a new release.

[AndrewStopchenko-SO]

I have that setting already enabled, which is why I brought it up. It isn't honoring this setting. Personally, I feel that setting should apply to all the SF commands.

Totally agree with you that the setting should also be honored by the new extension.
I wonder if this was already reported as a dedicated issue - maybe you could create one if not there?

I had this installed while at TDX and can tell you that it was very frustrating working on the mini-hacks when I could not right click in the editor and deploy.

Yep, can imagine that!
I was just trying to throw in the ideas why this could be missing - because I saw that behavior when was disabling the Salesforce Metadata extension earlier, where the commands disappeared after that.

Can it be the that the Extensions Pack was upgraded to 66.5.4, but if some new packages were added there they're not installed? I don't know, maybe worth checking.