Published: January 1, 2008
After you have defined the customizations for your organization, you can export an XML file that defines all those customizations. This file is designed to let you move your customizations and settings from one Microsoft Dynamics CRM server to another. If you decide to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM on a new server, you do not have to manually re-create your customizations and settings. You can import the XML definitions of your customizations. This exported file can be easily stored as a secondary backup file.
The number of items available to be imported and exported was expanded in the latest release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In addition to entity customizations, you can now export a variety of settings and workflows.
Transportable Items include:
Custom and Customizable entities: These include all the entity customizations defined in the Customize Entities area.
Client Extensions: Includes information from the SiteMap and ISV.Config.
For more information, see Part 9: Client cxtensions.
Security Roles: Security role definitions for all business units.
Templates: All article, contract, mail merge and e-mail templates.
Workflows: Individual workflows.
For more information, see Part 8: Workflow customizations.
If you import an entity that already exists on the target system, this will not create a new duplicate entity. However, if the entity has been modified through the creation of new custom attributes or modifications of existing relationships, those changes will be added to that entity.
Import or export customizations
In the Navigation Pane, click Settings, and then click Customization.
Click Import Customizations or Export Customizations.
For custom and customizable entities you can export customizations for a single entity, a selected group of entities, or all entities to a single file. When you import entities, you can decide which of the exported entities you want to import.
When you export or import entities, be aware of how the entities are related. When you import a custom entity that has a relationship to another custom entity, you must import both entities together to import the relationship. If you import each custom entity separately, the relationship information with any other custom entities will not be included. Any custom relationships to system entities are automatically included.
It is important to remember what is included in the entity definition. When you import relationships, you are including the relationship behaviors and mapping. The entity definition also includes form scripts. You can import a whole set of customizations from another implementation and it will not create duplicate entities or attributes. However, any customizations to mappings, relationships, or form scripts will overwrite existing customizations. When you are transferring customizations to a new Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation, this is probably what you want. However, in an existing system, you probably do not want to overwrite customizations.
If you are using import and export to move customizations between a production and a development environment, make sure that you always start by exporting a current version of your production customizations. Do not allow any customizations to be applied to the production system until the customizations under development are imported and published back on the production system. If this is not managed carefully, you may unintentionally overwrite some of your customizations.
