How to change the definition of fields?

Hi, dear all,
Recently, I'm customizing MSCRM and added some fields(using CRM deployment
tools)to "SalesOrder". Unfortunately, before I finish the customization, it
reached the 8000restriction of SQLServer. I'm not allowed to continue to add
any fields to SalesOrder. (I'm stupid because I forgot nvarchar is
double-character)

The question is: How to change the definition of those fields which created
by me(I want to shrink some of them and drop some of them)

Thanks a lot.

Paul
Sun Mar 13 22:03:18 CST 2005

As of right now, to my knowledge there is no way in the
deployment manager to delete fields created. I can
suggest that you call your Partner (if you have one) and
see if they can get a "microsoft approved" way of
manually deleting them in the SQL Enterprise Manager. I
believe there is a way to do that, but i am sure it is
more than going into the dbase and deleting the fields
you do not wish to have. I do not think you can change
the type of field created. Only deleting and re-adding
them would do the trick. There is (to my knowledge)
information stored in the System databases on the sql
server for MSCRM about each field. A manual direct sql
edit of that table coupled with the deletion of those
fields *should* do the trick, but I recommend either
contacting your partner, or calling Microsoft Business
Soltuons about an approved way of doing so.
-Paul
>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, dear all,
>Recently, I'm customizing MSCRM and added some fields
(using CRM deployment
>tools)to "SalesOrder". Unfortunately, before I finish
the customization, it
>reached the 8000restriction of SQLServer. I'm not
allowed to continue to add
>any fields to SalesOrder. (I'm stupid because I forgot
nvarchar is
>double-character)
>
>The question is: How to change the definition of those
fields which created
>by me(I want to shrink some of them and drop some of
them)
>
>Thanks a lot.
>.
>

Matt
Mon Mar 14 09:48:14 CST 2005

There is no supported way to do this at the moment. However, if you check out
the following blog from Mj Miller:
http://blogs.msdn.com/mikemill/archive/2004/12/01/273258.aspx

You can see how to go about removing a field you added. You could probably
modify this proces to handle changing the field size, but the real issue is that
SQL doesn't provide means to do this on a replicated table.

Matt Parks
MVP - Microsoft CRM

----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 21:07:04 -0800, "goldenshine"
<goldenshine@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

Hi, dear all,
Recently, I'm customizing MSCRM and added some fields(using CRM deployment
tools)to "SalesOrder". Unfortunately, before I finish the customization, it
reached the 8000restriction of SQLServer. I'm not allowed to continue to add
any fields to SalesOrder. (I'm stupid because I forgot nvarchar is
double-character)

The question is: How to change the definition of those fields which created
by me(I want to shrink some of them and drop some of them)

Thanks a lot.

Michael
Mon Mar 14 11:11:21 CST 2005

Hi,

you can do this by:

- stop replication (with SQL Server Enterprise Manager)
- remove the attribute if it is already in a form, deploy the change (with
Deployment Manager), iisreset
- change the column size (number of characters) in the "SalesOrderBase"
table of the MSCRM database
- change the size (number of characters * 2) in the column "Length" of the
table "Attribute" of the METABASE database for the appropriate attribute
- deploy the changes (with Deployment Manager), after a restart of the
Deployment Manager, the new size should be in the properties of the
attribute; iisreset
- add the attribute to the form (the new size should be visible on the
schema tab), deploy the change, iisreset
- start replication (with Deployment Manager -> Server Manager; also
described in the documentation of the redeployment tool)

As for many other things doing (aka messing around :) with CRM, this is
unsupported by Microsoft!

HTH
Michael


"goldenshine" <goldenshine@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:FB8D56B0-6F2E-48FC-AA2E-71C730432CF8@microsoft.com...
> Hi, dear all,
> Recently, I'm customizing MSCRM and added some fields(using CRM deployment
> tools)to "SalesOrder". Unfortunately, before I finish the customization,
> it
> reached the 8000restriction of SQLServer. I'm not allowed to continue to
> add
> any fields to SalesOrder. (I'm stupid because I forgot nvarchar is
> double-character)
>
> The question is: How to change the definition of those fields which
> created
> by me(I want to shrink some of them and drop some of them)
>
> Thanks a lot.

goldenshine
Mon Mar 14 18:39:02 CST 2005

Thanks to Michael, Matt Parks and Paul,

It's painful to make a decision. Maybe I prefer to give up this attributes
problems. Just establish a new table and design a new webpage to do the
customization.



"Michael Erl" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> you can do this by:
>
> - stop replication (with SQL Server Enterprise Manager)
> - remove the attribute if it is already in a form, deploy the change (with
> Deployment Manager), iisreset
> - change the column size (number of characters) in the "SalesOrderBase"
> table of the MSCRM database
> - change the size (number of characters * 2) in the column "Length" of the
> table "Attribute" of the METABASE database for the appropriate attribute
> - deploy the changes (with Deployment Manager), after a restart of the
> Deployment Manager, the new size should be in the properties of the
> attribute; iisreset
> - add the attribute to the form (the new size should be visible on the
> schema tab), deploy the change, iisreset
> - start replication (with Deployment Manager -> Server Manager; also
> described in the documentation of the redeployment tool)
>
> As for many other things doing (aka messing around :) with CRM, this is
> unsupported by Microsoft!
>
> HTH
> Michael
>