Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

How to go from unmanaged to managed solutions

Hello,

My question is the following: My company has had different 3rd party vendors support them over the last few years. So 2 venders have made fields and other things all in an unmanaged solution and moved those changes to our Stage and Prod environments. They also have their own publisher. So now, we have 3 different publishers and mostly all unmanaged solutions. I would like to know if there is a way to change the publisher to 1 for everything and then start to change from Unmanaged solution to Managed Solution and not run into issues exporting/importing to other environments.

Please let me know, thank you.

Categories:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Dynamics 365 Sales

Hello,

The situation you described, where multiple third-party vendors have created unmanaged solutions with different publishers, is not uncommon. Consolidating and transitioning to a single publisher and managed solutions requires careful planning to avoid conflicts or unintended consequences. Here’s how you can approach this:

1. Consolidate Publishers

Review and Document Existing Components: Identify the components (fields, views, forms, etc.) tied to each publisher. Tools like the Solution Layer Viewer in Dynamics 365 can help you track changes.
Change the Publisher: Unfortunately, Dynamics 365 does not provide a direct way to change the publisher of existing components. You will need to:
1. Export the unmanaged solution.
2. Manually update the customizations.xml file within the solution ZIP file to change the publisher information.
3. Re-import the solution into the environment.
  Be cautious: This process is not officially supported, so you should test extensively in a non-production environment.

2. Transition from Unmanaged to Managed Solutions

Create a Master Managed Solution:
1. Identify all the unmanaged customizations and consolidate them into a single solution.
2. Set a new consistent publisher for this solution.
3. Export the consolidated solution as managed.
Test in Development/Stage Environments:
1. Import the managed solution into a sandbox environment to ensure no conflicts.
2. Verify all components are functioning as expected and no data is lost.
Implement in Production:
1. Once tested, remove unmanaged components from production and import the managed solution.

3. Address Potential Challenges

Dependency Conflicts: Be aware of dependencies between components. Dependencies in unmanaged solutions may prevent deletion or overwriting during import. Resolve these conflicts in the development environment before transitioning.
Data Retention: Ensure that changes to fields (e.g., renaming or removing) do not result in data loss. Back up your environment before making significant changes.
Publisher Prefix: Unifying the publisher ensures a consistent prefix for new customizations. For existing customizations, the prefix will remain as-is unless recreated.

4. Long-Term Best Practices

Adopt a Single Publisher: Going forward, enforce the use of one publisher for all customizations.
Use Managed Solutions: In all environments except development, ensure only managed solutions are deployed. This approach provides better version control and easier maintenance.

5. Leverage Tools

Solution Packager: Use the Solution Packager to extract and modify solutions programmatically.
XrmToolBox Plugins: Tools like "Solution Transfer Tool" can help in managing and migrating solutions effectively.

Recommendation

This process can be complex, particularly if your environment has numerous customizations with interdependencies. I recommend creating a detailed migration plan, testing thoroughly, and, if possible, engaging a Dynamics 365 expert to assist with the transition.

Please let me know if you need further assistance or guidance at any stage. I'd be happy to help ensure a smooth transition.

Quick Links

Subscribe to this forum!

Stay up to date on forum activity by subscribing.

Leaderboard > Customer experience | Sales, Customer Insights, CRM

Tom_Gioielli 170 Super User 2025 Season 2

Community site session details