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Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

CRM update via solution import does not update Quick Find view

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Posted on by 145

We are a Housing Association. We use CRM 2016 SP1. Our Dev and QA environments are single server configuration and staging and production are multiple server config with load balancers. Our custom solutions in QA, staging and production are managed.

We needed to update a "Quick Find Active" view for two of our entities Person and Property with some extra search columns in our staging and production environments.

I added the new columns to those entities' views in Dev environment by going to Settings->Solutions->[custom solution]->Entities->[custom entity]->Views->Quick Find Active [entity]->Add Find Columns. I did the same for both entities.

To deploy the update to other environments as a patch, I exported a standalone solution file that only contained the Person and Property entities with the updated views. I then imported the solution file into the QA environment to test.

Having published the changes in QA after import, I checked the entities' Quick Find Active views in the default solution (Settings->Customization->Customize the system->[custom solution]->Entities->[custom entity]->Views). I noticed that the Property entity was updated with the changes but the Person entity was not. It made no sense.

Having spent some time to search the Internet for an answer to no avail, we decided to try out the patch solution in staging. So we exported the solution file but before publishing the changes we decided to check the update. To our surprise, both entities had been updated. So we did not publish the changes.

Happy with the result and blaming the problem on our QA environment, we decided to go ahead with the deployment to production. We imported the file and check the changes and noticed that this time around the opposite happened to our entities, i.e. The Person entity had been updated but the Property entity had not!

We tried publishing the changes but it made no difference. So at the end we gave up and had to complete the deployment by manually updating the views in production.

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this oddity. Any help/suggestion is greatly appreciated.

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I have the same question (0)
  • David Jennaway Profile Picture
    14,065 on at

    I can't see any obvious reason for this, other than to check that you've published the entity after the import. Also, check if there were any warnings when you imported the solution

  • ashlega Profile Picture
    34,477 on at

    I'd, basically, just second David.. although, assuming you have published the solution, could you clarify a few things:

    - Is it an unmanaged solution or is it a managed solution?

    - In either case, if you open that view in the staging environment for "edit" (from the default solution, for example), would you see the columns?

  • Seemorgh Profile Picture
    145 on at

    Thanks for your response David. Yes, I did publish the solution after importing it. I have updated my question. Also, where can I check for warnings? the tracing is not enabled.

  • Seemorgh Profile Picture
    145 on at

    Thanks for your response Alex. the solution is managed in all but the dev environment. I updated my question. Also, by "default solution" I assume you mean the following location: Settings->Customization->Customize the system->[custom solution]->Entities->[custom entity]->Views. If so then that is the only place in the target environment I know of where I can check for the update after deployment.

  • ashlega Profile Picture
    34,477 on at

    I'm wondering if there were unmanaged changes to that view applied directly in staging.. Since it's a managed solution, import process might not be willing to overwrite those changes then:

    msdn.microsoft.com/.../gg334576.aspx

  • Seemorgh Profile Picture
    145 on at

    Alex, that may well be the case as I have taken over the project from other developers who left. I need to explore the solution you sent me and will mark your answer if that resolves my problem. One question, the link you send me talks about merging UI components such as form and ribbon. Does that include the Quick Find view?

    Thanks

  • ashlega Profile Picture
    34,477 on at

    That's why I did not suggest it as an answer:) I think this might be the explanation, but I am not sure what the solution would be. If the import does not wish to overwrite those changes..

    How does it look in the QA? If you have the same managed solution there, and if all the views are ok, maybe you can try this:

    - Create an unmanaged solution in the QA

    - Include that single entity into the solution

    - Export as unmanaged

    - Import into the staging

    Presumably (this whole versioning thing quickly becomes confusing once you start getting into this..), it will update unmanaged customizations in staging to match the QA  

  • Verified answer
    Seemorgh Profile Picture
    145 on at

    Thanks to everyone who replied to my question and put me in the right direction. We managed to fix our problem and learned something in the process. What we learned is a patch solution will not work in the target environment if the environment contains unmanaged changes.

    We tried to update our target environment by creating and deploying a patch solution (using the option "Clone a Patch" on the All Solutions window) but it failed to update the target environment due to unmanaged changes done in it previously. So what we did was in our source environment, we merged the patch solution with the main solution (using "Clone Solution" option) which created a new version of the main solution. We then deployed this updated version of the main solution.

    It is important to note that when importing the merged solution in the target environment, you need to select the option "Stage for Upgrade" on the import window. Once the importing process is done and an upgraded solution has been created, select the option "Apply Solution Upgrade", which will create the final updated version of the main solution.

    I hope this will help others facing the same problem.

  • Verified answer
    Nishant Rana Profile Picture
    11,325 Microsoft Employee on at

    Thanks Seemorgh. This is what we realized today. We had a solution patched having a workflow in it. In Test Env it got properly updated as we had done no changes in it. But in UAT we didn't observe any change, cause in UAT we had that process updated through the customization (default solution). Quite weird, it ideally should have been mentioned in  MSDN. 

  • Nishant Rana Profile Picture
    11,325 Microsoft Employee on at

    We also faced it.

    nishantrana.me/.../limitation-of-solution-patch-in-dynamics-365

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