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

CRM 4.0 Plugin Example a simple "Logger"

Jonas Deibe — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:08:00 GMT

In CRM 3.0 callouts was the business extension and in 4.0 its name changed to Plugins. Still it's the entry point for doing business extensions extending the product or customizing it for your needs. The product group has done a great work on re-engineered the event architecture. Please look at UK CRM blog where Simon Hutson explains this very well. There is also good information in the so far published information in the SDK for CTP3.

My Plugin example is a simple logger. I created a new entity called "logger" with some basic field attributes. I also associated N-1 to systemusers table for keeping track of data been "logged" by current user. The logic to fill this entity/table is inside the plugin assembly and I have attached the Visual Studio project for you to play around with. Please note this is an example!

Possible areas where improvement could be done are:

Reports with summary. Triggered from the actual record for fast overview of logged information

JS logic with one click to logged record directly from user view (Store the PK as string and JS build a button with the url to the record)

Support for all the plug-in events. Current version is only CRED

Modify security groups (I haven't attached any roles to the example code)

And more and more... but then again this is just an example with not more than ~100lines of C# code

My logger entity is associated with all users in the system making it easy to overlook what has been logged on each user.

My logger plugin is associated with entities like account, contact and opportunity.
Instruction how-to build the Plugin registration tool is included in the CTP3/SDK documentation

Details of information from the logger form. Here we see all the fields a user (mscrm, lastname) has retrieved during a look at a contact.

For simplicity I use build events (see previous post http://blogs.msdn.com/jonasd/archive/2007/03/28/use-build-events-to-recycle-application-pool-instead-of-iisreset.aspx) in my Visual Studio project since you are required to IISRESET (I recycle CRMAppPool) before you could publish a new version of your plugin. I also don’t use the database as storage during development because I would like to debug my plugins. But! If your plugins should be runned in Outlook offline mode you should publish to database else it won't work.

If your CRM server is not on port 5555 you should change my webservice url. Customizations and Visual Studio project as attachments, Have fun!

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

Improved Mail Merge with Word

Jonas Deibe — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:41:00 GMT

More nice end-user features...Mail merge grabbs data from CRM to already predefined organization/user owned/personal templates inside Word.

Create your new mail merge template based on your role and access.

Fill in the details and create the template from the edit button. Word opens and you have a connection to CRM metadata.
Save your file locally an upload it by using the attachment section inside this form.

Screen shoot above is after the template has been created and therefore the button is labeled edit.

Click the mail merge button. NOTE! This function is now availbe in the webclient as well.

Multi language is included and you could choose to either use your personal template or an organization template. Data fields could be added from all related entities related to your main entity as the template is associated with.

Press OK and word is opened and follow the mail merge wizard

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

2007-10-22 UPDATE!
I know noticed Michael Lu posted a video of mail merge functionality on Phil's blog..
http://www.philiprichardson.org/screencasts/titan/Mail%20Merge/Mail%20Merge.html

10 nice new features in CTP 3 (CRM 4.0)

Jonas Deibe — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:45:00 GMT

This is my current list from a business perspective (not the 110001 bits -maybe next blog post?) and it works out-of-the-box.

Auto-resolution start writing and press (ALT CTRL - K) for suggestions in your lookup box (Try it on customer field in opportunity form)

Converting an Activity (email) to a lead, case ect

Duplicate checks

Personal workflows

Run reports in offline mode + Report wizard

Multi currency

MUI (Multilingual User Interface)

Import wizard

Displaying attributes from related records in your personal views (1 to Many Relationship)

Background synchronization for outlook offline client

Almost on the list is promote more than 1 item from outlook (max20) at a time, synchronize phonecalls, send a hyperlink to current record, mailmerge and "Diagnostic tool for outlook" which I only so far has been reading about but it looks promising.

When I now think about this maybe I should have done a "20 nice features" list??

Screencasts from Philip

Jonas Deibe — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:51:00 GMT

Richardson has added 3 great videos showing new features in CTP3. Please enjoy

Export customizations http://www.philiprichardson.org/screencasts/titan/ExportCustomizationsCTP3/ExportCustomizationsCTP3.html
Duplicate Detection http://www.philiprichardson.org/blog/post/Titan-Screencast-Add-Multiple-Users.aspx
Add multiple users http://www.philiprichardson.org/screencasts/titan/DuplicateDetectionCTP3/DuplicateDetectionCTP3.html
Import Data Wizard http://www.philiprichardson.org/screencasts/titan/WebImportCTP3/WebImportCTP3.html

Currently I'm enjoying the new ajax style lookup searches. Just type in your name of linked entity and hit enter and voila the record is now linked with each other (Simular like CTRL + K in outlook)

Titan (CRM 4.0) preview

Jonas Deibe — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:36:00 GMT

2 days after the NDA restrictions here is my story..

Multi Multi Multi

-Language: Additional language packs will be available. You select in your profile your interface language, even help language could be chosen.
-Currency: More than one currency. You select in your profile your default currency. Quite basic and could be extended with history of previous currency calculations.
-Tenancy: The architectural principle; One single server could host many organizations (tenants). I like!!

GUI - Office 2007 styliiiish

Of course!

Custom entity with related user entities (Team members)

IE Client

Outlook client

The addin is much more "robust" and smarter. Synchronization is smarter (You decide how often you would like to update your local data in background and therefore going offline would be faster). For outlook offline the client is now "smarter" by not going to cassini/localhost all the time even when you are online. One small feature that I know will add a lot of business value is the possibility to update the company field for your outlook contacts (company field on contacts). Send short cut is now included on almost all views/records (Almost like the tip I wrote earlier http://blogs.msdn.com/jonasd/archive/2007/04/19/simplify-sharing-of-opportunities-or-any-entities-with-direct-e-mailing-links.aspx)

Record duplicate checks/rules

New end user function

Reports

Reports wizard and works in offline mode. The architecture is a redesign where the double hop is no longer needed since reports could be treated as entities (Connector for SQL server). This will solve many of the kerberos related problems in previous version.

Customizations

Many to many relationships (in general better relationship customizations), rw metaservice, workflow fondations as workflow engine :-) http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663328.aspx, plugins async and sync, report wizards, Customize business logic even when client is in offline mode (in a supported way) offline plugins (former named callouts). For you who haven't been around in previous versions a plugin is a customized .NET assembly where you could write your own business logic. More configuration settings now possible to set from admin GUI instead of XML/register hacks ect.

The Resource center

Links to online resources from for example microsoft. Here you would find community information and additional information. The idea is great and I really hope this is useful and would fall into the CRM trend of social networks. It's far from ready I guess but you could hit it already now even if you don't have the CRM application installed. (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=74933&clcid=0x409&LangCode=1033&SkuType=OnPremise)

click inside the CRM resource iframe

And much much more to come!

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

TechReady report

Jonas Deibe — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:31:00 GMT

Så nu är man hemma efter en hård vecka i Seattle. Höjdpunkter var att jag träffade R&D kungen Dominic och keynotes. Träffade av en del PM's som Arash, Phillip, Michael, Barry, David (PTS) samt Simon från UK blog. Kul också att se vad som gjorts och kommer ske på MSCRM plattformen. Det ser riktigt ljust ut för oss som gillar att jobba mot denna. Bättre arkitektur och nya API'er är på gång. Tyvärr får jag återkomma med detaljer när det blir officiellt. Funktioner mm. kan ändras innan release. Nedan är ett axplock av bilder jag fotade med min nya sony cybershoot.

Karaoke på avslutsfesten, mig själv vid company store och Kungen av MSCRM Dominic. Notera Dominics setup.. min laptop till vänster

Ridande polis i downtown Seattle, Dynamics MSCRM R&D building, Roger och funktionär i samma outfit? Nästa år blir det annan färg, Jenny ;-)

Konferance byggnaden = fet! Erik stolt med AX bibeln

Bill på keynotes var riktigt bra! Datorer i HOL miljön. Keynotes från Martinez mm. MSCRM experter från hela världen samlade på en och samma bild i Redmond (Portugal, Kanada, USA, UK, Ryssland mm.)

Titan info + Optimizing the Performance

Jonas Deibe — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:13:00 GMT

Optimizing Performance nu även för MSCRM 3.0 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6B32E0B3-5520-48A7-B3CD-D8477D084821&displaylang=en.

Samt lite publik info om nästa version av MSCRM som går under kodnamnet Titan http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/10/HNmicrosoftnextcrm_1.html

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jan07/01-10CRMTAPPR.mspx

Vista till RTM

Jonas Deibe — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:08:00 GMT

Gadgets, Gadgets och Gadgets till CRM!
Har inget bra exempel just nu men så fort det lugnat ner sig lite i mina projekt kommer jag släppa något exempel här..
Läs mer om releasen av Vista på http://www.microsoft.com/sverige/pr/articles/200611091.aspx samt tidigare i veckan gick Office till RTM http://www.microsoft.com/sverige/pr/articles/200611061.aspx
Till Vista Gadgets Siten http://microsoftgadgets.com/