Could somebody out there please respond to this (even if it is to address only a subset of the questions)?

Is it correct to assume that in the Setup, whatever is done under 'Customize' heading cannot get packaged, and  items under 'Build' heading can get packaged?

Thanks.

Hi VSP,

With regards to your question on what is currently packagable & not packagable:

- Workflow rules & page layouts for standard objects are not packagable.   
- Page layouts for custom objects are pacakgable and get packaged with the object.
- Email templates are packagable. 
- Profiles are packagable and get mapped to the local custom profile.  It will only affect the permissions for the new custom objects.

In terms of creating your package, you should also add all the individual components to the package along with your custom app.

Also, if you would like to take a glimpse at what is coming in the upcoming release of our platform, you can check out the session information from Dreamforce at:

http://blogs.salesforce.com/dreamforce06/2006/09/packaging_it_up.html

Best,

Jim Yu
Director, Platform Product Management

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your response. The link you included for planned features was quite informative, and your answers clarified the queries I raised.

I have a few additional queries as well:
1) Under Setup -> Customize -> Activities, I have added 2 new Activity Custom Fields. Are these packagable?
2) I have a Formula field that uses a HYPERLINK function with "https://na1.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.Integration?lid=" followed by the ID of the S-Control. When I package the S-Control and somebody else downloads the package and installs it, this S-Control would have a different ID right? So as a manual step, the Administrator has to find out the new ID of the S-Control and replace that in the above HYPERLINK Formula field. Please confirm if this is correct or if there is some other way to package S-Control references without having to do the manual steps after installing the package.
3) I have a Button Image file uploaded under the Documents section. I believe these are packageable. But I have a Formula field that refers to the Button as IMAGE function. Here again the ID of the Button Image is used ""servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=" followed by the ID. Similar to above question of S-Control, when another user downloads and installs the package the ID may have changed and Administrator may have to edit the Formula as a manual step to set the ID - Please confirm if this is correct or if there is an alternative approach.

I would greatly appreciate any information/tips you could give me on this.
Thanks,
VSP.

1) no, not packageable at this time, should work after the Winter 07 release
2) Yes, this will get fixed at install time and should work correctly, you can test this by installing your package in another dev org
3) Should work as #2 , gets fixed up by the system at install time, please don't take my word, do test this out.

Hi,

Thanks for your response. But I am not sure I understand 2 and 3 correctly. Are you saying that the IDs would be automatically set to the correct values during installation in another org, and the administrator need not have to check the S-Control or Image ID and set it as a manual step?

Thanks,
VSP.