Up until Dynamics CRM 2015, releasing a solution was a big task. Before solutions (CRM 4.0 era and before), System Customizers had to pick and choose what to promote to the next environments. Most included all customizations to avoid leaving anything behind. Solutions were introduced in CRM 2011 and have been improved over the years. Most notably, with CRM 2016, the concept of patching was introduced. Instead of releasing your entire solution, which might introduce a risk to your deployment, you can now narrow a release to the minimum required. Your patch, for example, might include an updated view, additional fields, or an updated form.

In this recipe, we will patch our Packt base solution and include an updated field along with an updated form.