Deployment Status for Custom Objects and External Objects
Use the Deployment Status setting in the object definition to control when users can see and use the object and its associated custom tab, related lists, and reports.
Required Editions
| Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience |
Available in: Contact Manager, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, Developer, and Database.com Editions Salesforce Connect external objects are available in Developer Edition and, for an extra cost, in Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions. |
| User Permissions Needed | |
|---|---|
| To deploy custom objects and external objects: | Customize Application |
While developing a custom object or external object, you might not want users to see and interact with it. Because users can get frustrated with changes in layout or lose data when you delete custom fields, control visibility of the new object until you’re finished.
- Set the deployment status to In Development when first creating your custom object or external object. Doing so hides it from users while you’re designing and testing it. Only users with the Customize Application permission can see the object tab, search results, related lists, and report data types.
- Change the deployment status to Deployed when you want to allow all users to use the object and the associated custom tab, related lists, and reports.
- If you make more enhancements after deploying a custom object or external object, you can change the deployment status back to In Development.
When you create a big object, the status is set to In Development. You can't deploy a big object until it includes an index that contains at least one custom field. Only required custom fields are allowed in an index. After you create an index, you see a second status of Deployed. When you’re ready to grant users access, change the status to Deployed.

