Jonas Deibe - Dynamics CRM, C#, JS : English

Buy vs Build

Jonas Deibe — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:19:00 GMT

Buy versus build judge yourself! I would think xRM as a way of accelerate application development.

Costs

Benefits

Buy (xRM)

Locked to vendor

Locked to vender schedules

Customizations to fill GAPs (if any)

Licenses

Configuration more than development

Faster go to market

Use vender enhancements

“Standard”

Shop GAP’s as modules or vertical solutions

Build (.Net or any other langauges)

Expensive

Longer delivery cycles

Harder to rapidly change

Innovation

Tailor application bit by bit

Re-use existing infrastructure

Better control over developer process

Checkout the introduction to xRM for some inspiration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yru5CkANOKA

Mission-critical workload of 50,000 concurrent users

Jonas Deibe — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:56:00 GMT

Feels great! Checkout press release on http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/jun09/06-03IntelMSBenchmarkPR.mspx

All business transactions were based on extensive customer research and defined using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Performance and Stress Testing Toolkit.

Building a new demo disc on Windows 2008 Server

Jonas Deibe — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:50:00 GMT

Today was a good day to rebuild my CRM 4.0 demo discs. I started up with downloading latest version of OS (windows 2008 server), to be honest is my first time installing w2008. The installation was super smooth and we have added very nice features to simplify server configuration. I simple checked my role and added extra features needed for my purpose. NOTE! For CRM application server to work properly please read KB950100 before you finish configuration of server http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950100

After installation I mapped my Visual Studio 2008 disc and started installation… in the end I have created two new servers and one Vista client (you don’t necessary need to split AD, exchange from CRM server for this demo/sandbox purpose)

1. Windows 2008 AD Server, Exchange

2. Windows 2008 CRM application server (Visual Studio 2008, SQL, All CRM services)

3. Vista CRM client (Office 2007)

Next step is to install IE8 beta 2 on the client but thats another post..

Creating a no-code workflow for CRM 4.0 with Visual Studio 2005 (2008)

Jonas Deibe — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:29:00 GMT

New in CRM 4.0 is the possibility to build custom workflows using Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). WF is the programming model, engine and tools for quickly building workflow enabled applications on CRM 4.0. In previous version of CRM the engine was limited and not as robust. WF is a standard component used in many other products (MOSS, Biztalk ect).

Business rule example
-when an Opportunity is created a check is done and if estimated value is greater than 100000 a task is created and associated to the opportunity. Schedule end date is set to same as opportunity estimated close date. No rocket science and just an example... I would like to see an example of integration with MOSS or other document library. Once I'm back from my parental leave and I have the time I might publish something.

Flow from Visual Studio 2005 sp1.

In the workflow policy (TaskValues) I set the values for my reminder task and this is the only code needed.

this.ReminderTask = Microsoft.Crm.Workflow.CrmWorkflow.CreateEntity("task")
this.ReminderTask["subject"] = string.Concat("Please follow Up on Opportunity ", this.PostImageOpportunity["name"])
this.ReminderTask["scheduledend"] = this.PostImageOpportunity["estimatedclosedate"]
this.ReminderTask["description"] = "Automatic Task generated from Workflow. Please add your own notes here."

this.OpportunityId = Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.CrmTypes.CreateLookup(Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.EntityName.opportunity.ToString(),
this.Context.PrimaryEntityId)
this.ReminderTask["regardingobjectid"] = this.OpportunityId

The final result on my Opportunity

Click on the Activites I would see my "reminder task".
NOTE! Since the default view is on next 30days you need to change the view to "all" else you won't see you task.

Links related to subject

Windows Workflow Foundation on MSDN
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663328.aspx
Dynamics on MSDN
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/sv-se/dynamics/default(en-us).aspx
SharePoint Server 2007 SDK: Software Development Kit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6D94E307-67D9-41AC-B2D6-0074D6286FA9&displaylang=en
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Software Development Kit (SDK)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=19F21E5E-B715-4F0C-B959-8C6DCBDC1057&displaylang=en
VS 2005 extensions for .NET 3.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5D61409E-1FA3-48CF-8023-E8F38E709BA6&displaylang=en
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en
Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5D61409E-1FA3-48CF-8023-E8F38E709BA6&displaylang=en
Microsoft Virtual Labs
http://netfx3.com/labs/

The Visual Studio project is attached below and for instructions how-to publish the workflow please see the CRM 4.0 SDK.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Outlook Address book integration (SAMPLE)

Jonas Deibe — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:04:00 GMT

This is a very simple sample how you could reuse MsSvAbw.AddrBookWrapper to populate a text field with chosen outlook user(s) from the address book. The idée is to reuse a dll found in Windows Sharepoint Server (2003) called MSOVABW.dll and script code. This could be extended to be used in many different business scenarios..

<html>

<head>

<title>Lookup Outlook Address book</title>

function AddrBookVB(strExist)

Dim Users1

Dim t

Dim s1

Dim item

L_MsAddrBook_TXT = "Title: Microsoft Address Book"

On Error Resume Next

Set t = CreateObject("MsSvAbw.AddrBookWrapper")

if Err <> 0 then

Err.Clear

set t = CreateObject("MsoSvAbw.AddrBookWrapper")

end if

if not IsObject(t) then

MsgBox "Error object not found.."

AddrBookVB = ""

else

t.AddressBook L_MsAddrBook_TXT & "", 1, "", "", "", Users1

For each item in Users1

strExist = item.SMTPAddress

Set t = Nothing

AddrBookVB = strExist

end if

End function

</script>

</head>

<tr>

<td>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</form>

</body>

</html>

Tricks and tips for documentation

Jonas Deibe — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:55:00 GMT

Document your project is a definitive must to-do but not always the first thing a developer thinks of. It’s something everyone knows is required but in the end something that might be done on the last project hours of the project budget, right? Well there are some things you could do to speed up documentation and semi automate this process. First you need to set the documentation level. Are you required to document on field level or is it enough to explain on a higher level what your new entities or callout classes are supposes to do? If the code is well written I personally don’t require field level documentation and a higher explanation (story) would be enough to understand what your solution is doing (or suppose to do). You also have the possibility to add your comments when adding fields in MSCRM during customizations. This data is stored in the metadatabase and could be exported to excel if wanted.

Solution architect overview - file as vsd is attached in this post

Since I first announced that I would write how-to deliver documentation as chm files I received a note from my friend Michael Höhne telling me that’s “old stuff” and he already blogged about that. So you made this post and I ref your excellent 3 part story.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

For editing you chm files you could import the NDOC generated files to HTML help workshop. Here you could edit and add not generated information from NDOC. I recommend adding the vision template (save as GIF) and add under Solution Architect chapter.

Once you compiled the chm file you have almost (or same) professional look a like of documentation as MSDN.

Suggestions on topics for you project SDK

+Your name of tool
 -Gettings Started
 -Screen shoots of solution
 -Flow – sales process
 -Flow – marketing process leads
 -Flow – ....
+Architecture Overview
 -Solution Overview
 -Namespaces
 -Technical Architecture
 -Source Control
+Logical Database Diagram
 -Overview
+Deployment
 -Deployment Process 
 -Entity type codes (if you have different setups of CRM servers)
 -Client settings (Policy) 
 -Integration
 -Javascript
 -Debugging
+Database
 -Index and tunings
 -Reports
+Callouts
 -Customer.Crm.Callout (your NDOC generated class documentation)

Adding new pages to HTML help workshop is an easy task. Below html is an example for MSDN look a like page that works nice with the NDOC generated files. Modify above (attached) architecture.vsd to your solution and save the file as Architecture.gif. Copy the file to the HTML page folder and compile it in the HTML help workshop project.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<head>

<TITLE>Platform Architecture</TITLE>

</head>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

<h1 class="dtH1">Solution Architecture v1.0</h1>

</div>

<BR>

<H1><A name="hist"></A>Release History</H1>

<BR>

</FONT>

<hr>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Example of added html file to HTML workshop editor

Final word from an quote by Dave. I'm not sure I agree but some parts of me laughts :-) Happy documenation

“Software is usually accompanied by documentation in the form of big fat scary manuals that nobody ever reads. In fact, for the past five years most of the manuals shipped with software products have actually been copies of Stephen King's The Stand with new covers pasted on.” - Dave Barry

Another CRM -> Sharepoint integration

Jonas Deibe — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:36:00 GMT

Here is my first blogpost in English since I received requests from non speaking Swedes. The MSCRM team, Kjell-Sverre Jerijærvi (Integrating team-sites into MSCRM (part II)) and allot of others has published different ways of integrating MSCRM with Sharepoint. Guess what! Here is another solution actually made back in 05’ as a Proof of concept solution… Each Account has its own sharepoint library structured under an alphabetic label (dummy library). This is done initial on setup of libraries A,B,C,D etc. A custom Sharepoint template is used for MSCRM look and feel (not in scope of this blogpost)

For example Alfa Demo Account is stored as own library under letter A with it's url stored on the MSCRM.

SPSite site = null;

try

{

site = new SPSite(wssServerUrl);

SPSite newSite = site.SelfServiceCreateSite(rootUrl, siteName,

description, 1053, "STS", @"custom\mscrm", "Admin",

"mscrm@custom.local", @"custom\mscrm", "Admin", "mscrm@custom.local");

SPWeb web = newSite.OpenWeb();

web.Webs.Add(nextLevelSiteName, nextLevelSiteName, description, language, template, false, false);

}

catch (SPException err)

{

System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(err.Message);

throw;

}

catch (Exception err)

{

System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(err.Message);

throw;

}

finally

{

site.Dispose();

}

A new chrome remover file is stored under its own web.

MSCRM_iframe.aspx cleaner removes chromes from library files

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<%string sUrl = Context.Request["url"];%>

<!DOCTYPEHTMLPUBLIC"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

<html>

<head>

<title>MSCRM Integration</title>

<scriptlanguage="Jscript">

var iNavCount=0;var strValidPages="AllItems.aspx,Upload.aspx,Checkin.aspx,EditForm.aspx,DispForm.aspx,Versions.aspx,SubNew.aspx";var strOriginalUrl="<%=sUrl%>";function evReadyStateChange()

{var oFrm=document.frames.mscrmShowPage;var ofrmElement=event.srcElement;try{var sDoc=oFrm.location.pathname;sDoc=sDoc.substring(sDoc.lastIndexOf("/")+1);if(ofrmElement.readyState=='loading'){ofrmElement.style.display="none";oFrm.onerror=function(){return true;}}else if(ofrmElement.readyState=='complete'){var bValid=false;iNavCount++;var arrTmp=strValidPages.split(",");for(var s in arrTmp)if(arrTmp[s]==sDoc)bValid=true;if(!bValid){document.location.assign("MSCRM_error.aspx?rUrl="+location.href);}else{try{var oTable=oFrm.document.all.tags("table")[0];oTable.rows(0).style.display="none";oTable.rows(1).style.display="none";oTable.rows(2).cells(0).style.display="none";oFrm.document.all("diidEditInGridButton")[0].parentNode.parentNode.style.display="none";oFrm.IMNShowOOUI=function(){return false;};}catch(e){}

oFrm.document.body.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeEnd","<a href='#' onclick='window.open(location.href)' class='ms-formdescription' style='position:absolute;top:10px;right:10px;color:blue'>In new window</a>");ofrmElement.style.display="inline";}}}

catch(e)

{}}

</script>

</ head >

< body style ="margin:0 0 0 0">

<%if (sUrl!=null) {%>

<iframeid="mscrmShowPage"frameborder="0"height="100%"width="100%"onreadystatechange="evReadyStateChange()"style="display:none"src="<%=sUrl%>"></iframe>

<%}%>

</ body >

</html>

On MSCRM server a new virtual directory (or new web according to ISV rules) holds files to link it all to WSS or Sharepoint side.

<divclass="tab"id="tabBody1"style="DISPLAY: inline">

<tableid="Table0"style="TABLE-LAYOUT: fixed"height="100%"cellSpacing="0"cellPadding="3"width="100%">

<tr>

<td>

<iframeid="Iframe0"frameborder="0"width="100%"height="100%"src="<%Response.Write(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["PathToMSCRM"].ToString());%>/SharePointConnector/_redirect.aspx?<%Response.Write(Request.QueryString);%>&Folder=1"></iframe>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

Clip from AccountCreateFrame.aspx .

I added 2 keys in MSCRM’s web.config for dynamic settings

<addkey="PathToMSCRM"value="http://crm/Beta.Crm.Sharepoint/"/>

<addkey="SharePointServerIframe"value="http://sharepoint/_layouts/CRM/MSCRM_iframe.aspx?url="/>

</appSettings>

I prefer to add everything on the leftside navigation and that could be easily done by modification of ISV.config or by injecting js script in from onLoad

Documents added in ISV.config pointing <PathToMSCRM> Accountcreateframe.aspx

You can download all files here and hopefully everything is clearer when you look at the code J

NOTE!!! You are required to have licenses for SharePoint server