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The process of importing an organization before a CI (Continuous Integration) build in Dynamics 365 typically revolves around ensuring the proper configuration and structure of the database environment. Here’s a breakdown of why this is done and the rationale behind it:
In Dynamics 365, code and customizations are built and deployed within the context of an organization. An organization in Dynamics 365 represents a database containing metadata (entities, forms, plugins, workflows, etc.) and configuration data for a specific tenant. When performing a CI build, the system needs a valid and configured organization database to:
If there’s no organization available during the build, the build process will fail as Dynamics 365 relies on the organization database to compile, validate, and deploy solutions.
When importing an organization, you’re typically restoring a baseline database (representing a configured Dynamics 365 instance) to ensure that all customizations and code being built or tested are applied to a consistent environment. This ensures that:
Without this step, the build might fail due to mismatches in configuration or dependencies.
Dynamics 365 solutions often include dependencies on specific entities, plugins, or other components that exist within the organization. Importing the organization ensures:
For example:
In many CI pipelines, importing the organization is a prerequisite for performing integration tests. These tests validate how customizations and code interact within the Dynamics 365 environment. Without importing the organization:
By importing an organization, you ensure that the CI pipeline includes a fully functional Dynamics 365 environment for integration testing.
The organization import also helps prepare for solution deployment. After importing the organization:
This step ensures that no critical issues arise during deployment to test or production environments.
To summarize where the organization import fits into the CI pipeline, here’s a typical workflow:
Restore or Import Organization:
Deploy Solution or Code:
Compile and Validate:
Run Tests:
Package Solution:
The rationale for importing an organization before a CI build is to ensure that the build process has a fully configured, consistent Dynamics 365 environment to work with. This is critical for validating customizations, resolving dependencies, running tests, and preparing solutions for deployment. It helps maintain stability and reliability in the CI/CD pipeline for Dynamics 365 development.
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André Arnaud de Cal...
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