Add a custom field to the contact entity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 using managed solution

Question

I have created a custom field called contact_campaignID in the OOTB contact entity my CRM solution. I have also created another custom entity called email_history. I am able to easily export the email_history entity into the solution. However how do I export the customization for my contact entity?

Please note that the contact entity also has other customisation from other solutions that I don't wish to include in my managed solution. The result I want to achieve is that when I import this solution into another Dynamics CRM, it creates my custom field in the contact entity and creates my custom entity for email_history.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There is no easy way to do it properly in CRM 2011. More recent Dynamics releases allow solution segmentation (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt628808.aspx).

For 2011 version you can export your unmanaged and managed solution, unpack it with solution packager tool and manually clean xml from unnecessary customization.

The other option is to create new organization and redo your customizations there and then export solution. It should be much thinner since only modified and unmanaged components are going into solution.

Answer 2

when adding an entity on a solution, make sure to just add the custom field, and when you will export the solution, it will only contain the field, instead of the complete contact entity