Troubleshooting CRM Entity Publish Errors

Here are a few things to keep in mind when working w/ entities in CRM

1.       When you export your entities, make sure you export all N:1 related entities.  When you select an entity and click export, there is a warning dialogue that reminds you of this, but nobody reads it.

2.       Make sure you have Published your entities after importing them.  I had an entity that was “broken”, but I couldn’t delete it until I had published it.  Running a query like this will help you determine if your entity has been published: SELECT * FROM OrganizationUIBase  WHERE ObjectTypeCode = <offending entity code>.

3.       Finally, if you cannot delete a published entity, Compare the fields in the Form with the entity attributes.  Microsoft Support gave me a tool to run a FormXML comparison.  Two times now there has been an attribute in the form was missing from the entity. Once you add the attribute back (type doesn’t matter), you can delete the entity and start fresh.