Solutions in CRM are great containers for managing add-ons and customizations. ISVs, such as Rockton Software, develop in Unmanaged Solutions, which allows for complete customization control, and then publish them as Managed Solutions. Managed Solutions allow the developer to use Managed Properties to "lock down" certain features or definitions of objects in CRM to prevent end users from introducing problems or altering the product in an undesired way.
Managed Properties occur with most objects in CRM, including Entities, Fields, Charts, Views, and Forms. Almost every object has a "Can Be Customized" setting. What this boils down to is a complete lock-down if set to False. You cannot change anything about that object when this is set to False, with slight exception for Entity Relationships mentioned below.
Aside from Managed Properties that can lock down certain properties, there are certain properties that you can never change on a given Entity or Field. One example is Name. When you mix the system-forced lock-downs and the array of options available, it might be confusing as to what you might expect. This chart shows what to expect in the given scenarios.
Entity Managed Properties
The three managed properties for "New forms/charts/views can be created" work as most people would expect. However, the other settings are not as simple as they might seem. For instance, "Display Names can be modified" controls three fields, not just the display name. And "Additional Properties" is the most vague item ever put into CRM. This list of what exactly constitutes an additional property should help many. Note the oddity also on relationships when an entity cannot be customized; it makes sense to create new relationships but editing existing ones should be locked down but isn't.
| ENTITY SETTINGS | All Managed Settings = TRUE | Can be customized = FALSE | Display Names can be modified = FALSE | Can Change Additional Properties = FALSE |
| Display Name | Enabled | Disabled | Disabled | Enabled |
| Plural Name | Enabled | Disabled | Disabled | Enabled |
| Name | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled |
| Ownership | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled |
| Define as Activity | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled |
| Display in Activity | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled |
| Description | Enabled | Disabled | Disabled | Enabled |
| Areas that display | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Notes | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Activities | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Connections | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Sending e-mail | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Mail merge | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Document management | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Queues | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Duplicate Detection | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Auditing | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Mobile Express | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Reading pane | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Offline capability | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| New Fields | YES | NO | YES | YES |
| Edit Fields | YES | NO | YES | YES |
| New Charts | YES | NO | YES | YES |
| Edit Charts | YES | NO | YES | YES |
| New Relationships | YES | YES, not N:1 | YES | YES |
| Edit Relationships | YES | YES, not N:1 | YES | YES |
| New Views | YES | NO | YES | YES |
| Edit Views | YES | NO | YES | YES |
| New Forms | YES | NO | YES | YES |
| Edit Forms | YES | NO | YES | YES |
Field Managed Properties
For Fields, the list below represents a simple text field. The "Max Length" and "IME Mode" properties will be different for other data types. But it does show these are covered in concept of Additional Properties. This chart is accurate EXCEPT when the Entity itself is marked "Can be customized = FALSE". In that case, all fields behave as if they too are marked "Can be customized = FALSE".
| FIELD SETTINGS | All Managed Settings = TRUE | Can be customized = FALSE | Display Name can be modified = FALSE | Can change Requirement Level = FALSE | Can Change Additional properties = FALSE |
| Display Name | Enabled | Disabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Requirement Level | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled |
| Name | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled |
| Searchable | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Field Security | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Auditing | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Description | Enabled | Disabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Type | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled |
| Format | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled | Disabled |
| Max Length | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| IME Mode | Enabled | Disabled | Enabled | Enabled | Disabled |
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