Clone a patch

[Anonymous28]

I need to make changes in a workflow of a solution which contains many workflows. I created "clone a patch" of that solution and added that table. I made some changes but after manager discussion I need to remove those changes. So what I did I deleted the patch solution overall (ps: I didn't remove the changes made before deleting patch solution).  As per my understanding these changes should not reflect in the original solution as I didn't give "clone solution" but when I checked the changes got reflected in the respective workflow. Can anyone explain why this is happening, why the changes are reflecting even though the patch solution is deleted?

[dpoggemann]

Hi @Anonymous28 ,

If you are working in a development environment that is has the unmanaged solution and you create a patch, make updates to a module (i.e. a workflow) this is all unmanaged at that point still.  Any changes you make will not be removed if you delete the patch.  If you had moved this solution patch as a managed solution to another environment like Test where everything is managed and you delete the patch then yes, in that environment it will remove any changes you had installed with that patch.

Overall in development you will need to manually remove the changes you made.

[Anonymous28]

• Thanks dpoggemann, true mine is unmanaged and now it is making sense...but is there is any document to confirm this?....because I need to show that to my manager as a proof why that is not working and ask him export the solution as managed

[dpoggemann]

Hi @Anonymous28 ,

Does this help?  Solution concepts - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn

[Anonymous28]

Thanks, but it is not seems clear. Actually in another link (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customerengagement/on-premises/customize/use-segmented...) it is mentioned clone a patch cannot be used for managed solutions it is made for unmanaged solutions

[dpoggemann]

Hi @Anonymous28 ,

That is an on-premises environment documentation vs cloud.  You can clone patches for cloud solutions as managed, I do it all the time.  If you export as managed and move to target environment you will be able to delete.  If you export as unmanaged and promote that way then there is no backout of the patch as it is part of the unmanaged solution.

[Anonymous28]

Thank you dpoggemann,

Small doubt, in that case when I select options (three dots) of my managed solutions the option clone is blurred out where it is visible only for unmanaged solutions. Any idea why it is happening like that?

[dpoggemann]

Hi @Anonymous28 ,

In your development environment you should have the ability to clone a patch or clone the solution for unmanaged solutions.  You would clone the patch, make your adjustments to the code and add to the patch.  This is all unmanged, no backing out of this in the development environment (part of the unmanaged solution).  You then export this as a managed solution and promote to the target environment as managed.  In the environment where this is managed, you will not be able to clone it...

[Anonymous28]

Thanks dpoggemann,

This is my understanding please correct if I am wrong.

• So let's say I am creating a patch solution which belongs to a unmanaged Solution (let's say it's name is Solution A). In that patch, I am adding a table and making 3 changes in it (changeA, changeB, changeC). Now I cannot remove these changes from the original Solution just by deleting the patch because the Solution is a unmanaged. If I want to do that, then I need to export both (original Solution and patch Solution) as managed to another environment then if I delete the patched Solution, all the changes A,B,C will be removed from the source Solution.........so am I right on this? 

[dpoggemann]

Hi @Anonymous28 ,

The original environment that you have where you are developing the solution...  This is unmanaged and there is no removing what you did automatically (without refreshing your database from a backup).  

If you exported the original solution (as managed) and promoted to Test environment then that test environment would contain the code in managed state.  If you then cloned a patch in development and made the changes you mentioned, exported this as a managed solution and then promoted it to Test environment then you could remove that patch from the Test environment and it would revert those three changes.

There is no way to revert the development environment code (since unmanaged) like you do to the test environment where it has the managed solution installed.