Turns out there are solutions we can’t export

And, no, it’s not a typo. It’s easy to have a solution that you can’t import – as long as some dependencies are missing in both the solution being imported and in the target environment, such a solution cannot be imported.

But we also can’t export some solutions – I don’t see such errors often, so was quite a bit surprised the other day when I ran into one of those:

Here is a link to the support article mentioned in the error above:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/invalid-export-business-process-entity-missing-3bd9228b-4d1f-9871-7007-fb7239559251

I used to think that “exporting” a solution is always allowed – apparently, business process flows are exceptional, for some reason. Although, I’d think it would not be different from all other dependencies, so not sure why an exception was made for the BPF tables – they have to be added to the same solution where the BPF is (and, normally, that’s what we do. But, when we don’t, that’s how the error above happens).

What’s also interesting about this is that a solution checker will fail to run for such a solution. Although, all we will see in the history is that solution check “couldn’t be completed”:

Looking at the solution history, though, there is a clue there:

Apparently, solution checker is exporting the solution prior to running solution check. It fails for the reasons described above, and there we go… solution check just “couldn’t be completed”.

PS. Come to think of it, there is a CRM tip of the day that’s been around since 2019: https://crmtipoftheday.com/1294/export-solution-before-running-solution-checker Well, I just sort of rediscovered the wheel