East Region Microsoft CRM Blog : Flat Out Geek

So everybody already knows about this, right?

chris.kahl — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:30:45 GMT

Those folks on the product team have been doing a great job of releasing regular updates ever since we launched Dynamics CRM 4.0. And for the past year or so they’ve been packaging updates, hot fixes and the like into convenient and more easily consumed “roll-ups” (no relation to the delicious snacks from General Mills) which have greatly simplified life for many of our partners and customers.

In case you have missed it, I wanted to make sure you, dear reader, were aware we have released Roll-ups # 5 and # 6 over the past couple months for your pure chewing satisfaction. Enjoy!

Better late than never…another great post from Menno

chris.kahl — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:29:22 GMT

I’ve been meaning to post about the oft-asked questions surrounding audit trail capabilities using CRM 4.0. Low and behold, once again Menno has beat me to it. As is so often the case with the powerful development platform that is Dynamics CRM, there are several options available to address the audit trail requirement. Menno does a great job of discussing three of them in the blog post below. Enjoy!

http://www.tekoppele.com/Blog/post/2009/05/22/3-FREE-Ways-to-Audit-Data-in-Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM.aspx

The hits just keep on coming!

chris.kahl — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:45:00 GMT

Update Roll-up #4 is now available for your testing and deployment pleasure!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968176

Update Roll-up 4 is a cumulative update roll-up that includes all the fixes for the issues that are documented in Update Roll-up 1, in Update Roll-up 2, and in Update Roll-up 3.

For more information about Update Roll-up 1 and about the issues that it resolves, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

952858 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952858/ ) Update Roll-up 1 is available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

For more information about Update Roll-up 2 and about the issues that it resolves, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

959419 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959419/ ) Update Roll-up 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available

For more information about Update Roll-up 3 and about the issues that it resolves, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

961768 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961768/ ) Update Roll-up 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available

The Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 adapter for Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0 is now available!!

chris.kahl — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:50:00 GMT

The Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 adapter for Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0 is now available.

This adapter has the same functionality as the previously released 3.0 adapter, with the following updates:

• Supports both 32-bit and 64-bit deployments of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

• Supports form-based authentication

• Supports multi-tenancy

With this adapter, you can integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 with any other non-Microsoft business application using the BizTalk server mapping capabilities, which allows you to discover and use the schema of any of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM entities.

• Adapter is available for download

• Adapter is available at no additional charge

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=ABD3BB9E-A59A-4EB6-8DE8-FB25B77926D7&displaylang=en

V-what? VPAT!! - Voluntary Product Accessibility Template® (VPAT™)

chris.kahl — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:12:00 GMT

Most of the IT world has at least heard of Section 508, an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, but many are a bit sketchy on what's involved in actual 508 compliance. Here's an excerpt from the www.section508.gov website explaining the purpose of Section 508:

"In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible technology interferes with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ‘ 794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others."

The purpose of the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, or VPAT, is to assist Federal contracting officials and other buyers in making preliminary assessments regarding the availability of commercial "Electronic and Information Technology" products and services with features that support accessibility. So it is indeed great news that we have released the CRM 4.0 VPAT.

It can be found here:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/d/7/1d7af6c9-af47-49eb-8f57-5c06b4c0cd39/Microsoft%20Dynamics%20CRM%204%200%20VPAT.doc

Creating a Dashboard using MOSS, Excel Web Services, Excel 2007 and Microsoft CRM

Ben Vollmer — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:34:27 GMT

There is a new CRM Partner blog with some great data on it around Dashboards. Thanks to the team over at I.B.I.S. for publishing some of their consulting knowledge for the rest of us. Enjoy this quick read.

Creating a Dashboard using MOSS, Excel Web Services, Excel 2007 and Microsoft CRM | I.B.I.S. CRM Blog

CRM Plug-in Registration Tool

Ben Vollmer — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:46:23 GMT

So I spent most of the weekend working on my TechEd Session. The Plug-in registration tool included as part of the SDK killed me with the XML file and I not getting along. Shawn and Melissa for support called me about some survey partners with CRM and I managed to rope them into helping me. And Melissa pointed me to a new Registration tool on the MSDN Code Gallery, which is AWESOME.

In about 30 seconds I was able to accomplish more than I was in 4 hours of playing with the XML files. :-)

Here is the description from that website:

Are you facing problems in registering plug-ins? Are you wondering if you could get a tool to generate the Xml and deploy plug-ins via Import / Export just like the way customizations are deployed? Are you confused with the various tools that shipped with SDK and how to use the registration API? If the answer is yes, then it is worth downloading the released project.

CRM Plugin Registration Tool - Home

Workflow - Phone Call Conversion of Lead to Opportunity Posted on CRM Team Blog

Ben Vollmer — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:12:55 GMT

Jim Glass was nice enough to post a Workflow Post on the CRM Team Blog. Thanks Jim!

In case you haven't figured it out, I am crazy about the Workflow in CRM 4.0.... I am pretty sure that we have just scratched the surface of what can be done with it by customers and partners. If you are as lazy as I am, you can download this zip file here to test this out without rebuilding anything. :-)

Happy Demo's!

Ben

Without You Feels - Dis/Location - Seven Mary Three

Pesky Name Field - Part Deux

Ben Vollmer — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:24:59 GMT

This is an alternative method of doing the same thing we talked about with this post.

Jon G from Microsoft Consulting was the first guy to poke a whole in the Pesky Name Field posted last week. He has a point, Client Side Scripts do not work in Bulk Edits or on Imports, etc.

So based upon another comment left on this article, I decided to try Workflow. Not only did it stop me from writing code, it was pretty fast. :-) The only downside that I could see if this was a required field, workflows don't fire until the record is saved. Plus I could make the field read only and not having to force submit it.

All I did was create a Workflow rule that fired on Create or the changing of the Agency or Program fields on a Contract. (I have been working on a miniature Government Contracting solution for customers here in DC.)

In it, I just did an update of the Contract Name Field using two dynamic values and the word "for".

Here is the contract with the original values. (And if you are sharp eyed, you see I put the EPA in the wrong field, which is corrected in the next screen shot.) As you can see the name is "Ben was here."

As soon as the record saved, I was able to open it back up and you can see the workflow rule updated the Name field the way it was specified.

While this may not be as fast as a Plug-In, this is better for me as it allows me to cheat and not write code.

Happy Friday!

Guest Post on CRM Team Blog

Ben Vollmer — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:50:40 GMT

Stayed tuned on Monday for a blog on the CRM Team's Blog. I am amazed by the workflow in CRM 4.0 and been playing with it heavily for the past month. And Jim Glass was nice enough to take a post and publish it there vs. here for you to enjoy!

So visit http://blogs.msdn.com/CRM for the post. :-)

The Pesky Name Field on Custom Entities

Ben Vollmer — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:42:27 GMT

When you create a new custom entity by default, it creates a field called Name that is used on lookups, etc. If you don't use the field, it can cause some headaches. I have been using this as an area to store some information that would make searching on it much easier and automatically fill in the field. (So I don't have to type any more than necessary.)

Shad from Illinois who is a customer who contacted my about some other issues and after pointing him in the right direction for this, he shared back his code for us. :-) Thanks Shad! So in his case he has both the contact and the account linked to the custom entity. In the OnSave area he put this code. You could put it in On Save or OnLoad or an OnChange.

var lookupItem = new Array;

var contactName = new Array;

// This will get the lookup for the attribute primarycontactid on the Account form.

lookupItem = crmForm.all.new_companynameid.DataValue;

contactName = crmForm.all.new_contactnameid.DataValue;

// If there is data in the field, show it in a series of alerts.

if (lookupItem != null)

{

// The text value of the lookup.

crmForm.all.new_name.DataValue = lookupItem[0].name + " - " + contactName[0].name;

crmForm.all.new_name.ForceSubmit = true;

}

else

{

crmForm.all.new_name.DataValue = contactName[0].name;

crmForm.all.new_name.ForceSubmit = true;

}

Field Events: FireOnChange

Ben Vollmer — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:30:38 GMT

Almost two years ago, there was a tip published here about auto saving forms from a JScript OnChange event. While poking around the SDK tonight looking for something, I found a cool nugget. You can force the OnChange event to occur for a field from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM form OnLoad event or from the OnChange event of some other field. To do this, use the FireOnChange method.

For example, you may use the following sample script:
crmForm.all.YourFieldID.FireOnChange();

You should take a peek at the SDK for some cool nuggets like this. :-)

Happy Demo'ing!

Field Events: OnChange

Business Data Catalog - Follow-up from Convergence

Ben Vollmer — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:21:00 GMT

So I know that this way overdue. Way. After Convergence, I came back and went on vacation and then Beth was in the hospital for an unexpected week. There is a decent summation of the event from Brian Willson of the Microsoft Chemicals Team. http://blogs.msdn.com/chemicals/archive/2008/03/13/a-good-dynamics-crm-blog.aspx

I have since seen that Simon has posted some code on creation of MOSS Sites using Workflow. http://blogs.msdn.com/ukcrm/archive/2008/04/27/creating-sharepoint-sites-with-crm-workflow.aspx so I am not going to spend any time on that as he did a killer job documenting it.

One of the biggest areas I got a ton of questions on was the Business Data Catalog, which is a new feature introduced in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, provides an easy way to integrate business data from back-end server applications, such as Microsoft, within Office SharePoint Server 2007 without writing any code. This link contains overview information and step-by-step, how-to procedures for programming with the Business Data Catalog.

SharePoint Server 2007 ships with four out-of-the-box Business Data Web Parts: Business Data List, Business Data Items, Business Data Related List, and Business Data Actions. These Web Parts rely on the Business Data Catalog, and their main purpose is to display business data in a portal application without the need for any programming. Moreover, these Web Parts are generic and can show any type of data (entity) registered in the Business Data Catalog.

These Web Parts support Web Part Connections, which enable Master-Detail types of data display – again, without any programming. For example, you can display customers and their details using the BusinessDataList and BusinessDataItems Web Parts. (An Awesome overview of BDC can be found here.)

Hand writing the BDC Definitions can mentally taxing. A cool tool to do this for you is: BDC Meta Man. http://www.bdcmetaman.com/Pages/microsoftpage.aspx

If you want to practice your skills before trying them on a client, you may want to check out the Virtual Labs, where you will learn how to build the metadata file that will connect SharePoint Server 2007 to the SQL Server 2005 AdventureWorksDW database. You will also learn how to register the AdventureWorksDW metadata file with SharePoint Server 2007. http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032331910&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

A Nice Step by Step as published by Rehman Gul is located here.

Attached is a sample BDC you can use to Demo.

Creating Phone Calls from Cases

Ben Vollmer — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:26:00 GMT

One of the most often complaints I have heard is that CRM is sometimes too "Window" happy. In 4.0 the product team made some huge strides to make it less clicky. And they gave us some REALLY cool tools to do some of it ourselves. The new Workflow as a part of 4.0 is pretty cool. One of my partners, IBIS, did a demo last month were we used the Lead Record for everything and then used Workflow to create Contacts, Accounts and Opportunities as well as some additional activities. And then based upon the outcome of the activities, the parent entities were updated.

But today we are going to do this on a little easier scale. :-) One of the things most customer service managers want is for their folks to be heads down typing in notes and not having two windows up with the information in it. So we designed a workflow that allows them to put their notes into one field and then when they save the case, it automatically creates and closes a phone call record. It could be more complicated, but this is for demos, remember? :-)

So the first thing I do is create a Attribute called Case Notes

Drop that on the main form:

Now we save and close the form and publish our customizations. Now we head down to the Workflow area:

I created a Workflow called Case Notes and selected that it fire when the Case notes Field Changes.

Now I created a Phone Call Entity

Using Dynamic Values, we updated all of the fields to reflect the changes necessary.

You now add a step called Change Record Status. And Select the phone call you just entered. Now when you Save and Close a Case, it will automatically update.

So for a CSR, all the have to do is type in their notes on the Case Notes Area.

You can see it automatically dropped off my notes in an activity:

There is still a little clean up necessary to make this ready for production. I would want to go out and clean out the notes area at the end of every cycle, etc. But this should give you a good idea of how to leverage the power of CRM's workflow to make the application meet your client's requirements.

Special thanks to Randal and Bill over at CRMOntarget.com for the demo environment. We are sharing CRM Online instances for now and I wanted to play in a stand alone SandBox. And these guys hooked me up with a place to play without hurting any one. :-)

Happy Demo'ing!

Upgrading from 90 Day Trial to Production Keys and having issues?

Ben Vollmer — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:35:47 GMT

My basic rule of thumb is that if I get emailed twice about an issue, I blog about it. :-) So here is the blog post. :-)

The basic scenario is this. The customer or partner downloads Microsoft CRM 90 Day Trail Keys from here. And then they select the Enterprise Keys, because it is a trial. The part that they forget to read is here:

Important: Please be aware that you can apply a license key only for a similar or a more advanced version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. You cannot downgrade a full or trial version of the product. For example, if you apply the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Professional trial license key, you can later upgrade to either the full Professional or the full Enterprise version by applying the appropriate license key. However, you cannot downgrade the installation by applying a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Workgroup Server license key. Similarly, if you apply the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Enterprise trial license key, you can later upgrade to only the full Enterprise version.

And then when the go to apply a Professional Key to an Enterprise Trail version, they get this error message.

There is no magic potion to fix this. But our friends in support have created a great KB article on how to fix it easily. :-) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947272/en-us

While I realize everybody may want to just drop the key in and run, this solution beats redoing everything from scratch. And you won't lose any data from using this KB article.

An even better solution would be installing just the Professional Edition unless you MUST use Enterprise. :)