Retrieving and deploying Nested Lightning Email Templates and Folders fails

[amtrack]

Summary

There are multiple issues with retrieving and deploying Nested Email Templates and Folders using the sf CLI:

1. retrieving metadata using source tracking (sf project retrieve start) does not retrieve nested EmailTemplateFolder components:

   • sf project retrieve start
   • level1 is retrieved
   • level2 and level3 is not retrieved

2. deploying a nested EmailTemplate by Metadata API name fails:

   • ✅ sf project retrieve start --metadata EmailTemplate:level3/template_level3_1715081809012
   • ❌ sf project deploy start --metadata EmailTemplate:level3/template_level3_1715081809012

     Error (1): No source-backed components present in the package.

Note

This requires Email > Lightning Email Templates > Folders and Enhanced Sharing to be switched on.

Given the following directory structure with 3 nested folders (level1/level2/level3) and one template in each level.

$ tree fixtures
fixtures
└── email
    ├── level1
    │   ├── level2
    │   │   ├── level3
    │   │   │   ├── template_level3_1715081809012.email
    │   │   │   └── template_level3_1715081809012.email-meta.xml
    │   │   ├── level3.emailFolder-meta.xml
    │   │   ├── template_level2_1714984832364.email
    │   │   └── template_level2_1714984832364.email-meta.xml
    │   ├── level2.emailFolder-meta.xml
    │   ├── template_level1_1714984698883.email
    │   └── template_level1_1714984698883.email-meta.xml
    └── level1.emailFolder-meta.xml

5 directories, 9 files

Apparently different names are being used in the Metadata API / SourceMember Tooling API / FileResponse:

Metadata API [1]	SourceMember [2]	FileResponse [3]
EmailTemplateFolder:level1	EmailTemplateFolder:level1	EmailTemplate:level1
EmailTemplateFolder:level2	EmailTemplateFolder:level1/level2	EmailTemplate:level1/level2
EmailTemplateFolder:level3	EmailTemplateFolder:level1/level2/level3	EmailTemplate:level1/level2/level3
EmailTemplate:level1/template_level1_1714984698883	EmailTemplate:level1/template_level1_1714984698883	EmailTemplate:level1/template_level1_1714984698883
EmailTemplate:level2/template_level2_1714984832364	EmailTemplate:level2/template_level2_1714984832364	EmailTemplate:level1/level2/template_level2_1714984832364
EmailTemplate:level3/template_level3_1715081809012	EmailTemplate:level3/template_level3_1715081809012	EmailTemplate:level1/level2/level3/template_level3_1715081809012

[1]: listing folders using sf org list metadata -m EmailTemplateFolder and listing templates in a folder e.g. sf org list metadata -m EmailTemplate --folder level3
[2]: query SourceMember records using sf data query --use-tooling-api --query "SELECT MemberType, MemberName FROM SourceMember"
[3]: retrieve metadata with --json flag sf project retrieve start --json --metadata xxx # see .result.fileProperties

Steps To Reproduce

Tip

Or checkout the repositories for reproduction linked at the bottom

• Create a Scratch Org
• Switch on Email > Lightning Email Templates > Folders and Enhanced Sharing
• Create 3 levels of Email Folders with one Email Template per level
• Try retrieving using sf project retrieve start -> does not retrieve folders in level 2 and 3
• ✅ Retrieve a nested EmailTemplate in level3 by Metadata API name (e.g. --metadata EmailTemplate:level3/template_level3_1715081809012)
• ❌ Try deploying the retrieved component with the same Metadata API name

Expected result

• retrieving and deploying should work
• The same API names should be used throughout the Metadata API, SourceMember and FileResponse

Actual result

• fails to retrieve nested Email Template Folders
• uses different names in the Metadata API, SourceMember and FileResponse

System Information

{
  "architecture": "darwin-arm64",
  "cliVersion": "@salesforce/cli/2.42.6",
  "nodeVersion": "node-v20.10.0",
  "osVersion": "Darwin 23.5.0",
  "rootPath": "/Users/john.doe/.local/lib/node_modules/@salesforce/cli",
  "shell": "zsh",
  "pluginVersions": [
    "@oclif/plugin-autocomplete 3.0.18 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-commands 3.3.4 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-help 6.0.22 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-not-found 3.1.9 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-plugins 5.0.21 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-search 1.0.24 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-update 4.2.12 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-version 2.1.2 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-warn-if-update-available 3.0.19 (core)",
    "@oclif/plugin-which 3.1.10 (core)",
    "@salesforce/cli 2.42.6 (core)",
    "apex 3.1.11 (core)",
    "auth 3.6.11 (core)",
    "data 3.3.5 (core)",
    "deploy-retrieve 3.6.14 (core)",
    "info 3.2.8 (core)",
    "limits 3.3.7 (core)",
    "marketplace 1.2.5 (core)",
    "org 4.1.10 (core)",
    "packaging 2.4.4 (core)",
    "schema 3.3.6 (core)",
    "settings 2.2.6 (core)",
    "sobject 1.4.2 (core)",
    "source 3.3.12 (core)",
    "telemetry 3.3.7 (core)",
    "templates 56.2.7 (core)",
    "trust 3.6.11 (core)",
    "user 3.5.8 (core)"
  ]
}

Additional information

Repositories for reproduction:

• https://github.com/mdapi-issues/mre-nested-lightning-email-templates
• https://github.com/mdapi-issues/mre-nested-lightning-email-templates-componentset

[github-actions]

Thank you for filing this issue. We appreciate your feedback and will review the issue as soon as possible. Remember, however, that GitHub isn't a mechanism for receiving support under any agreement or SLA. If you require immediate assistance, contact Salesforce Customer Support.

[shetzel]

@amtrack - As always, excellent issue report! 🏆 This is a known server side bug. If you're willing, you can contact support and have them add your case to the existing internal work item: W-15633963. That will help prioritize a fix.

If this helps, I think you can deploy using the full path of the email template. E.g.:
sf project deploy start --metadata EmailTemplate:level1/level2/level3/template_level3_1715081809012

[github-actions]

We have determined that the issue you reported exists in code owned by another team that uses only the official support channels. To ensure that your issue is addressed, open an official Salesforce customer support ticket with a link to this issue. We encourage anyone experiencing this issue to do the same to increase the priority. We will keep this issue open for the community to collaborate on.

[amtrack]

@shetzel Thanks for your fast response!
✅ I've now contacted support about this.

Do you know who can create and link Known Issues to the Metadata Coverage Report?
It would be great if other people could see that there are some issues with EmailTemplate and EmailTemplateFolder:

[shetzel]

@amtrack - a known issue is in the works. Typically, Customer Support handles this in tandem with the owning developer team.

[amtrack]

FYI: Here is the Known Issue: https://issues.salesforce.com/issue/a028c00000zIpaDAAS/inconsistencies-between-metadata-deploy-and-retrieve-for-nested-folders

[shetzel]

@amtrack - I fixed a small bug (PR 679 above) in CLI source tracking with EmailTemplateFolder so that retrieving should work better, but still not 100%. The remaining work requires server side fixes. I'm going to close this since there is no remaining CLI work to do and there is a known issue around this. Thanks for reporting!

[amtrack]

Thanks @shetzel, I'll have a look next week.