In this video, Matt Peterson, a trainer at Pragmatic Works, explains how to handle managed and unmanaged solutions within Dataverse. He provides a detailed demonstration on how to manage and customize solutions during import/export between environments.
Key Differences Between Managed and Unmanaged Solutions
- Unmanaged Solutions: These allow full customization after they are imported into a new environment. You can edit all elements of the solution, making it flexible for development and testing.
- Managed Solutions: These are more restrictive, as they are typically used in production environments where modifications need to be controlled and limited to prevent accidental changes.
Exploring Managed Properties in Solutions
Matt dives into the concept of "Managed Properties" within solutions, which can help control which parts of a managed solution are editable. These properties allow specific customizations, even in a managed solution, offering a degree of flexibility without fully unlocking the solution.
- For example, the display name of a column can be customizable, but other aspects can remain locked to ensure data integrity.
- By adjusting these managed properties, you can specify which customizations are allowed without compromising the stability of your production environment.
Steps to Export and Import Unmanaged Solutions
Matt provides a step-by-step guide on how to export and import unmanaged solutions between environments. He demonstrates how to:
- Export an unmanaged solution from one environment.
- Import the solution into another environment, where it can be fully modified without restrictions.
- Make changes like adding new columns or adjusting column properties after importing.
Converting to Managed Solutions
Matt then explains the process of converting an unmanaged solution into a managed solution. The steps are as follows:
- After ensuring all changes are published, export the solution as managed.
- Import the managed solution into a new environment, which applies restrictions on customizations.
- Once imported, certain changes (such as creating forms or modifying columns) may be restricted, depending on the managed properties you set earlier.
Dealing with Managed Properties and Customizations
A key part of the tutorial involves understanding how to manage properties in a way that allows certain elements of the solution to remain customizable even after it’s converted to a managed solution.
- Matt demonstrates how to adjust the "Managed Properties" in the solution, allowing or disallowing customizations like creating forms or modifying column names.
- If customizations are allowed, users can go to the default solution and make further modifications, which will reflect in the managed solution once synchronized.
Conclusion
The video concludes with a recap of the importance of understanding how managed and unmanaged solutions work, especially when dealing with properties that control user access to customization. Matt emphasizes the significance of carefully configuring managed properties to ensure that solutions are both secure and customizable as needed.
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