Introduction

In Dynamics 365, to delete any component, you must remove/delete all the dependencies of the component which you want to delete. For e.g. If you want to delete custom entity called Configuration, you will need to delete/remove all the dependencies of the component which are dependent on Configuration entity.

Now many times users face problems in finding where can I get the list of dependent components? It’s easy to just say Open Default Solution > Go to Entities > Select the Entity > Click on Show Dependencies. Yes. That’s absolutely correct.

Now the problem is when we don’t understand the list which is shown by CRM. This blog explains tricky component which we don’t find directly.

Problem Statement

1. Open Default Solution (Or unmanaged solution that contains the entity you want to delete).
2. Go to Entities tab and select the entity you want to delete.
3. Click on Show Dependencies button. You will see a popup window something like below:

We cannot easily identify highlighted components from above image because of below reasons:

1. We cannot find any name to the plugin step neither to SDK Processing Image.
2. If we try to find the steps in Default Solution, you won’t be able to see it anywhere under Sdk Message Processing Step.
3. If we connect using plugin registration tool, we won’t find the steps their as well.

Solution

When I investigated more on this issue, I found that there was a Business Rule which was registered on the entity and had scope as Entity. This was causing the issue.

I deactivated the business rule and deleted the same and the highlighted components got removed from the dependencies list.