How To Move CRM Customizations Between Dynamics 365 CRM Environments

Introduction

In Dynamics 365, CRM Customizations need to be moved between CRM Environments for example from the development environment to testing environment in the form of CRM solutions.  And we are going to see how to move CRM Customizations in the form of solutions between Dynamics CRM Environments as an unmanaged solution in Dynamics CRM using classic mode and through Power Apps Maker Portal. In this post, I did customizations in Contact Entity and created a field, and included this field in the form. So, we are going to see how these customizations will be moved between different environments.

Let us see how to create a publisher in 2 ways,

1. Classic Way
2. Power Apps Maker Portal [make.powerapps.com]

With the classic interface of Dynamics CRM, by following the below steps we can create a solution.

Step 1

Login to the trial / D365 CRM Environment by giving username and password, if you want to know about how to create a trial environment you can refer to my earlier blogs as shown below, and click on Solutions.

Step 2

Click on the new solution, and then create a solution of your choice, here I have created ContactCustomizations with default publisher and save and close, publish all changes as shown below,

Step 3

Now we are going to create a new field in Contact entity of Boolean type, so navigate to Settings->Customizations->Customize the System. Select Default Solution and in that solution select entity Contact and go to fields and in the right side fields view click on new in that contact entity as shown below,

Step 4

Create the following field Vaccination completed with Two Options Data type with options Yes and No and make No as Default and click on save and close as shown in the following figure as shown below,

Step 5

Now, select Information form from Contact Entity by using the navigation Contact Entity -> Forms-> Information Form and drag and drop  above created field inside form  from Field explorer at the right and click on save and Publish  as shown below,

Step 6

Now, open Contact Customizations Solution which is created in Step 2, and select components  and in the right side select Add Existing and then select Entity as shown below,

Step 7

After step 6, look for entity Contact  and click on ok as shown below,

Step 8

After step 7, select Add All Assets Check box and then click on Finish Button as shown below,

Step 9

After step 8, we can observe contact entity is added to our custom solution and then click on save and click on Publish All Customizations and then click on Export Solution, you should see one unmanaged solution zip file gets downloaded as shown below,

Note - After publishing all customizations only we have to click on the export button.

Step 10

After step 9, we have to login to a local or development or testing environment and navigate to Settings -> Solutions. And in solutions select option import solution and give the exported solution zip file which is obtained from step 9 and click on open.

Step 11

After step 10, once we click on open and then click on next, another new popup will show, click on import as shown below,

Step 12

After step 11, once we click on import solution gets imported into the new environment and then you should see the newly imported solution in the list of solutions and click on Publish All customizations to see changes in the new environment in contact Form as shown below,

Step 13

After step 12, now open contact record in a new environment you should see changes that were performed in 1st environment as shown below,

2.Power Apps Maker Portal [make.powerapps.com]

Step 2.1

In power apps maker portal [make.powerapps.com], open environment where you wanted to import your changes, here in this example I have selected my trial dev environment and go-to solutions and click on import solution and click on Browse as shown below,

Step 2.2

Upon clicking on Browse, select the unmanaged zip file which we have exported in step 9, and click on the Next button as shown below,

Step 2.3

Once the user clicks on next, another quick screen will be shown. Select import as shown below,

Step 2.4

Once the user clicks on import, the popup will get closed and you could see a message that the solution is getting imported as shown below,

Step 2.5

Once the solution is imported, we can observe a successful import message and click on Publish All customizations so as to make changes reflected as shown below,

Step 2.6

Now navigate in make.powerapps.com navigate to Data  and then select Tables and select Contact Entity -> Data, select record, and click on Edit record as shown below,

Step 2.7

Once the respective record gets opened you should see the proposed changes from another environment successfully reflects in the new environment as shown below,

Conclusion

In this way, we can easily move our customizations in the form of solutions either managed/ unmanaged from the lower environments to higher environments by using both Classic Mode and also Power Apps Maker Portal.