Mad Computerist's Insanities

The type or namespace name 'Xrm' does not exist in the namespace

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:15:07 PST

When we start learning about server side extension in CRM 2011, we typically start building a console application and try out CRUD operations consuming CRM web services by referencing sample codes from CRM SDK. So, we normally create a console application, reference the required DLLs from the SDK\bin folder and use those CRM namespace in the code file.
When you try to build the solution, you may get the following error if you don't leave all the settings by default since the console project has been created.

The type or namespace name 'Xrm' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

All you have to solve this problem is right click the project, select Properties and change the Target Framework from “.NET Framework 4 Client Profile” to “.NET Framework 4”.

Now, you can start coding and carry on your console application.

Preventing Caching of JavaScript files in IIS7

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:13:37 PST

When there are a lot of client side scripting involved in the MS CRM project, I normally load external JavaScript files for faster development. Opening external js code files in Notepad++ is readable and looks so much better than CRM web resource text editor and we can save a few seconds of publishing web resource after every modification of the code. But we need to disable caching for JavaScript files in IIS or else we have to delete temporary internet files in Internet Explorer to load the updated script file after each modification of the code.

In order to prevent caching of JavaScript files in IIS7, the Output Caching setting of the MS CRM site in ISS Manager need to be changed.

We need to add one entry in the Output Caching with the File extension name ".js" and enable both User-mode caching and Kernel-mode caching and choose Using file change notifications radio button for both sections. Then, click Advanced button and enable Headers checkbox and enter "Cache-Control" in the textbox.

After all these settings, you'll need to do IISReset and the CRM form will load the latest JavaScript file everytime you modify the external file and refresh the form. Deleting temporary internet files in Internet Explorer is not required anymore.

PS: You may need to delete temporary internet files in Internet Explorer for only once if it's not working after applying all these settings and IISReset.

Bypassing Prompt and Refresh the Form

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:20:51 PST

In some scenarios of client site scripting in MS CRM 2011 (mostly in the custom ribbon button actions), we might have to force the form to refresh in order to show the updated values or refresh the Enable/Disable Show/Hide status of the ribbon buttons.
But sometimes, just triggering the window.location.reload cause the prompt and prevent the form from refreshing if the user has changed any of the values on the form before triggering the ribbon button event.

In order to avoid such prompt, we can check the Dirty state of the form and force to save if the user has updated any field. And simply refresh the form if there is no change done.

function ForceRefreshForm()
{
 if(Xrm.Page.data.entity.getIsDirty())
  Xrm.Page.data.entity.save();
 else
  window.location.reload(true);
}

CRM 4.0 Blank Blue Page with JavaScript Error

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:58:55 PST

After installation of CRM and accessing the CRM web client, the page stopped loading at an empty blank blue page and there was a JavaScript error at the left corner of the statusbar with the following details:

Line: 194
Char: 1
Error: Object expected
Code: 0
URL: http://localhost:5555/orgname

Actually that was the default.aspx and when we tried to access loader.aspx, the page was loading but not properly and the images are also missing.

We browsed across all the forums and blogs and found out that such problem is quite common. After trying out a few ways as mentioned in the solutions, we managed to fix this issue by enabling the anonymous access of the CRM website, inheritance override for all the components, and disable back the anonymous access of the CRM website. Here’s the step by step solution for this issue.

1. Go to the IIS Manager and go to the Properties of CRM website.

2. In the Directory Security tab, click the Edit button for Authentication and access control.

3. Enable anonymous access and Click OK.

4. Click OK again in the website Properties form and then you’ll be prompted for Inheritance Overrides.

5. Select All in the Child Nodes and click OK.

6. Then, repeat the steps 1, 2 and disable back the anonymous access.

Then, the CRM application should be working fine.

Unsupported method for adding Calibri in email font selection of MSCRM 4.0/2011

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:21:20 PST

Starting from Office 2007, Calibri became the default font and almost all the Outlook users just send out their mail with default font. So, for some organizations who send out email directly from CRM web client, they want an option to add the 'Calibri' font into CRM's font selection field in the email form and make it as the default font believing that it may result in a more consistent corporate image.
In order to achieve this, we've got to do unsupported modification of one aspx file in MS CRM application and so should only ever be used with caution.
This method is adding LOCID_HTMLBAR_DEFAULTFONTS in the aspx file to override the default values.

In CRM 4.0, we need to add the following line of code in "\Activities\email\edit.aspx" file.

 <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">  
   
 // Unsupported Modification to add new font "Calibri" in the font selection of email form  
 LOCID_HTMLBAR_DEFAULTFONTS = "Calibri,Arial,Arial Black,Tahoma,Verdana,Garamond,Times New Roman,Courier New,MS Gothic";  
 // Unsupported Modification Line End  
   
 function window.onload()  
 {

In CRM 2011, we need to add the following block of code in "\UserDefined\edit.aspx" file.

 <head>  
 <cnt:AppHeader id="crmHeader" runat="server" />  
   
 // INSERT THIS BLOCK  
 <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">  
 LOCID_HTMLBAR_DEFAULTFONTS = "Calibri,Arial,Arial Black,Tahoma,Verdana,Garamond,Times New Roman,Courier New,MS Gothic";  
 </script>  
 // INSERT THIS BLOCK END  
   
 </head>

In order to make it as the default font for the new email forms, add the following code in onLoad event of email form.

 var CRM_FORM_TYPE_CREATE = 1;   
 if(crmForm.FormType == CRM_FORM_TYPE_CREATE)  
 {  
      document.getElementById("descriptionIFrame").contentWindow.document.getElementsByTagName("font")[0].setAttribute('face', "Calibri, Tahoma, Verdana, Arial");  
 }

The code can be configured for fonts other than "Calibri" according to the user requirements.
For the email templates, we can Copy+Paste from the web pages opened from Internet Explorer for the formats and images (of course those hosted and open to public).

Yet again, be warned of the consequences unsupported modification of CRM files, and you may need to re-modify the files again after rollups, upgrades, reinstalltion whenever the files are replaced.

Adding Tabs in CRM 2011 Forms like CRM 4.0 Forms

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:23:07 PST

Sometimes, the users are so used to with the tabs from CRM 4.0 forms that they are not happy with the tab sections from CRM 2011 forms. And sometimes, the input data from one tab has to be populated in another tab according to the workflow of the business process.
In such situations, we've got no choice but to simulate the tabs of CRM 4.0 form by embedding an HTML web resource with tab controls in the header of the form which will show/hide the tab sections upon clicking.

To start implementing, download the HTML file from here.
Upload that HTML file as a web resource in your CRM organization solution.
Open the form that you want to add tabs and insert the uploaded web resource in the header of that form.
Go to the Formatting tab and change the number of rows to 1 and occupy all columns in layout.

Save the form and publish.
So, the final result of the form will be as shown in the screenshot below.

PS: Currently, I've just added 12 tabs in the html web resource so that it can handle the forms with maximum 12 tabs. If your form has more than 12 tabs, you have to edit the HTML file and add more tab items (li nodes) and re-upload the html web resource.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Notebook

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:44:15 PST

In this post, I am going to note down all the useful add-ons, information, tips and tools regarding with MS CRM 2011.

Add-ons

Auto Number [GapConsulting]

Auto Number [jaimieji]

Adding ImageTools to the CRM Attachment Image (CodePlex)

Workflow Manipulation Library (CodePlex)
Workflow Utilities by Gonzalo (CodePlex)
Workflow Utilities by Sonoma

Information
New Features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
MSDN Library: What's New for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Dynamics Exchange: What’s New in CRM 2011 Part 1
Dynamics Exchange: What’s New in CRM 2011 Part 2
Dynamics Exchange: What’s New in CRM 2011 Part 3
Surviving CRM: Dynamics CRM 2011 Walkthrough Part 1: new features in 74 slides
Surviving CRM: Dynamics CRM 2011 Walkthrough Part 2: another 100+ slides of new features

JavaScript Development Cheat Sheet

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 User’s Guide
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Administrator's Guide

Tips
General
Adding Tabs in Forms as CRM4.0
Call Centre Optimised CRM–An Example Solution
Changing the Form Header and Footer Colors
Changing the maximum no. of controls in Dashboards
Colorize Grid Rows
Create Custom Filtered Lookup to Filter Records Based on Start and End date
Hiding “Add Existing” button
How to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 without an Internet Connection
How to open CRM as a different user
How to Set up Remote Debugging for Plugins How to Setup Visual Studio Remote Debugging
How to use “ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx” in Web Resource HTML
Improving CRM Performance under Windows 2008 using IIS7 Output Caching feature
Increase the records per page to more than 250 rows
Installing a 2-server CRM 2011 with Service Accounts and Minimum Permissions
Javascript Intellisense
Launch a Dialog on click of custom ribbon button
Link two subgrids on a form together (parent-child-grids)
Multi Select Option Set
Pass Custom Parameters to an entity form through a URL
Reference an image in Web Resource from Site Map or Ribbon
Ribbon Customisation Display Rules
Scheduling Work Hours and Business Closure
Sharing Secured Fields
Understanding CRM Ribbon XML - Part 1: ribbon content and structure
Understanding CRM Ribbon XML - Part 2: updating the ribbon
Understanding CRM Ribbon XML - Part 3: Group Templates

JavaScipt
Accessing the Parent Form from a Child Form
Calling External Webservice with Javascript Asynchronously
Close MS CRM 2011 Form without Prompt
Dynamically Show Different Form onLoad
Enable Disable Notes Control
Events in onSave method (List of event.Mode)
Excessive Sub-Gridding for more than 4
Filtered Lookup for "Add Existing..." Button of a CRM N:N View
Get Current User ID and Name
Get Selected Record Guid from a Subgrid
Link two subgrids on a form together (parent-child-grids)
Pass Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data From a Page as a Parameter to Ribbon Actions
Populate Lookup Field with String Value (without GUID) using Automatic Resolution
Showing Custom Form Alerts
Update records of a Sub-grid using OData JSON JQuery

Plugin

Step by step plugin tutorial using Developer's Toolkit Part 1
Step by step plugin tutorial using Developer's Toolkit Part 2
Step by step plugin tutorial using Developer's Toolkit Part 3

Report
Creating custom SSRS report in MSCRM
Custom Report in MSCRM using Stored Proc
CRM Reporting Tips And Hints – II. CRMAF binding not working

Silverlight

Gmail's new change or Google's April Fooling?

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:19:39 PDT

Today when I get into gmail, I found out that my inbox label was spelled with small 'i'. I once faced my Trash label changed to Bin when I changed my Gmail display language from English (US) to English (UK). So, I was suspecting does that concern with my gmail display language. :D
It happens only in my gmail but not in my colleague's gmail who sit next to me. So I just want to figure out it is a new change, feature, bug or what and after googling it, I found out in one other blog that whose gmail also happened since last night. Whatever it is, I just post that as a rememberance. :)
I later found out that the Available, Busy and Invisible status in the gmail chat also changed. (I only found out that a few hours after I once noticed about inbox because I seldom change my status in gmail chat.)

Does that also happen in your gmail too?

Debugging Silverlight Webresources without deploying in CRM 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Mon, 30 May 2011 02:18:26 PDT

You'll need to create one clientaccesspolicy.xml in the Web-Folder of your CRM-System. (\..\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\CRMWeb\)
The content of the clientaccesspolicy.xml is as follows.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<access-policy>

<cross-domain-access>

<allow-from http-request-headers="*">

</allow-from>

<grant-to>

</grant-to>

</policy>

</cross-domain-access>

</access-policy>

Read more about it {Markus Konrad} blog.

C# class to limit the threads to execute no more than X tasks per unit of time

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:31:11 PST

I just put the code as a screenshot just for backup in case the source can no longer be accessible.
If you want to copy the code as text, you can go and see it here.

The best downloader for Rapidshare as free user

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Computerist) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:40:15 PST

If you feel desperate downloading the file hosting sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload, try FreeRapid Downloader with which you can download as a free user but you don't have to click again and again and wait for the timers anymore. Just put in the download list and it will automatically download. With FreeRapid Downloader, I downloaded 13 files of 200MB rar splits within my 9 hours of office time without clicking once except adding the download URLs.
It can support not only Rapidshare and Megaupload, but also other famous file hosting sites like FileFactory, MediaFire, DepositFiles, Kewlshare, Ziddu, 4shared, iFile, etc. View the complete list of supported sites and features in their home page. This is the best file hosting downloader as free user I've ever seen. Try it. ;)

Another one is JDownloader which has more features like auto-extracting, auto captcha filling, premium downloads, downloading encrypted link list such as DLC, etc.