Solution layering with base product and addons

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Varasset

Hi,

I have two solutions I'm developing in an environment, both currently unmanaged.

Solution A: Base product, which every customer will receive.

Solution B: Addon product to Solution A, which will be optional and incur additional charges.

Solution B in many cases will need to extend tables with additional columns, and add these to views and forms, that I don't want in Solution A. Does the best practice in this scenario involve development of these in separate environments, with changes to Solution B being made in an environment that has Solution A imported as managed? If the answer is yes, am I able to share a publisher across these environments for these solutions?

Thanks!

Categories:

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)

All responses (1)

Answers (1)

Verified answer

cchannon 4,702 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at

Like (1)

Report

Re: Solution layering with base product and addons

Yes, your best practice is to manage these in separate environments, although it is not strictly necessary, it is just a much safer way of doing things.

This is because it can be surprisingly easy to accidentally drop unintended dependencies into your managed solution A if it is unmanaged in the same place as B. By having one environment where the only unmanaged content is A and a totally separate environment where the only unmanaged content is B, it is much easier for you to guarantee you don't accidentally cross your dependencies and break your solution.

WRT publisher, that's your business. The publisher will move with Solution A so it is available to you in environment B. Use the same publisher or use different publishers for the two solutions: there is no constraint to force you one way or the other.