Packaging Overview
This article provides an overview of the steps you'll take to package a new or updated version of your custom AppExchange application (app). For step-by-step documentation of specific packaging tasks, login to the Salesforce application and see the online help topics about packages and packaging.
Packaging your app is simply the process of gathering related components into a group, called a package, that can be uploaded to the AppExchange directory for unlisted sharing. After packaging, you can choose to publish your app on the AppExchange (once it has been reviewed and approved by the salesforce.com Application Review Board).
Assumptions: This article assumes that you already have a salesforce.com Developer Edition org (account), and already have or will create a fully-functional app that you wish to share. Throughout this article we use the term "org" to refer to the specific Salesforce account where you created your app or where a Salesforce admin will install the app.
The packaging process consists of four major activities: