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Can you explain to me what it means : An unmanaged Solution can be published as a managed Solution

Thanks in advance,

toto1999
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Publish is a slightly misleading word to use. What you in fact do in dynamics is Export a solution.

With that said, when you export a solution (as a zip file) you have 2 options during the export process. This is what they are and what each mean:

Unmanaged

When you import this into the target all components included in the solution are installed/overwritten. All of the components are editable on the target environment and fully customisable.

Deleting the solution will not remove any of those components, it just removes the solution reference leaving everything still installed. Think of it like an open box. You empty the contents onto the target, but removing the box simply... removes the box.

In theory this sounds like the worse option, but in a standard release process it's actually more favoured amongst the seasoned developers (that I have worked with anyway).

Managed

Is more of a closed box or a package. All the contents are installed and potentially overwritten (you can choose to maintain customisations, but I'm not sold on this feature yet, it's never proven useful to me).

Using managed solutions gives you control over the "customisability" in the target environment. You can choose to completely lock down a component (effectively make it read-only) or you can allow it to be customised.

Deleting the managed solution completely removes all components from the target server (including data in the entities). Hence why I call it a closed box/package. Although, to be honest, I have never successfully managed to delete a larger solution from an environment so not sold on this feature consistently working.

Managed solutions are usually best saved for "products" or "addons".

Also worth noting, you cannot export a solution which was originally imported as a managed solution into that environment.

Conor Gallagher
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  • Thanks for your answer. I asked the question because I need to understand this question : Which two statements about Solutions are true? Each correct answer presents a complete solution. A. A Solution created in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 can be imported into a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 database. B. Deleting a managed Solution deletes all the Solution components, including the data. C. You cannot export a managed Solution. D. An unmanaged Solution can be published as a managed Solution. Correct Answer: CD For me it's BD NOT CD – toto1999 Mar 16 '17 at 17:15
  • On option A, there was a breaking change between 2013 and 2011, but it's going back a few versions now for me to remember correctly. I guess option B is a slightly misleading one. It obviously won't delete components it doesn't directly manage (for example the account entity and related data), but it will delete all custom components it "manages" (i.e. created as a result of this solution). C. I covered in my last sentence in the answer (you cannot export a solution that was imported as managed). D: You can export (publish is a bad word!) an unmanaged as either managed or unmanaged. – Conor Gallagher Mar 16 '17 at 17:23
  • @toto1999 I ran out of characters so will continue here... I will slightly update my answer as I used the word "export" instead of "publish". Whoever phrased it as "publish" shouldn't have done so as it's misleading. Publish has a very different meaning in dynamics (for example, you import an unmanaged solution and you publish the changes...) – Conor Gallagher Mar 16 '17 at 17:26