CRM 2011 ALM solution packager Differences from organization to organization - dynamics-crm-2011

Question

My team and I are using the SolutionPackager tool from the CRM SDK to being able to version CRM 2011 solutions.
We’ve come through many problems; for example the order in which the languages are exported depends on each organization, another problem was the entity type code of each entity also depends on each organization, etc., etc.
In my team we also use the same kind of organizations UR (Update Rollup) 6, each develop have its Virtual Machine to develop, all VMs have the same configuration, the same languages packs installed, I mean, we also work in the same environments.
But now we are facing another problem that we cannot figure out. From one organization, let’s say OrgA, I export a solution, apply the solution packager and then from one of our entities I get an XML like:
<attribute PhysicalName="OrganizationId">
<Type>lookup</Type>
<Name>organizationid</Name>
<LogicalName>organizationid</LogicalName>
<RequiredLevel>none</RequiredLevel>
<ImeMode>auto</ImeMode>
<ValidForReadApi>1</ValidForReadApi>
<IsCustomField>0</IsCustomField>
<IsAuditEnabled>1</IsAuditEnabled>
<IsSecured>0</IsSecured>
<IsCustomizable>1</IsCustomizable>
<IsRenameable>1</IsRenameable>
<CanModifySearchSettings>1</CanModifySearchSettings>
<CanModifyRequirementLevelSettings>1</CanModifyRequirementLevelSettings>
<CanModifyAdditionalSettings>1</CanModifyAdditionalSettings>
<ReferencedEntityObjectTypeCode>1019</ReferencedEntityObjectTypeCode>
<LookupStyle>single</LookupStyle>
<LookupTypes />
<displaynames>
<displayname description="Organisations-ID" languagecode="1031" />
<displayname description="Organization Id" languagecode="1033" />
<displayname description="ID d'organisation " languagecode="1036" />
<displayname description="ID da Organização" languagecode="1046" />
<displayname description="Id. de la organización" languagecode="3082" />
</displaynames>
<Descriptions>
<Description description="Eindeutiger Bezeichner für die Organisation." languagecode="1031" />
<Description description="Unique identifier for the organization" languagecode="1033" />
<Description description="Identificateur unique de l'organisation" languagecode="1036" />
<Description description="Identificador exclusivo da organização" languagecode="1046" />
<Description description="Identificador único de la organización." languagecode="3082" />
</Descriptions>
</attribute>
The problem is, that from another organization, let’s say OrgB, I export THE SAME solution and when I go to the XML for same entity as before, that file does NOT contain the line
<LookupStyle>single</LookupStyle>
The solution from both organization IS THE SAME, the configuration is also the same, so my question is why when I export the solution each VM/Organization generate a different XML file?

Answer 1

We've experienced the same glitch in our project. I think the problem is that single is a default value of <LookupStyle> (in other words <LookupStyle/> == <LookupStyle>single</LookupStyle>. So it might appear from the UI that the configuration of both organization is the same (in fact it is) but the data stored in the database are different. Unfortunately export of a solution takes into account only what is stored in the DB.
I'm quite sure that exporting/importing solution with a given entity won't help. What might help is resaving the entity.
Btw - I found this approach of comparing packages very useful. Only I use BeyondCompare...