One Man Army

CRM 2016 Refresh the complete form.

2017-02-07T22:47:00.003-08:00

Difference of

Xrm.Page.data.refresh() vs Xrm.Utility.openEntityForm(entityName, id)

http://missdynamicscrm.blogspot.qa/2015/06/the-difference-xrmpagedatarefresh-vs-crm-utility-openentityform.html

CRM 2015 - Updating data made easy !

2015-07-08T03:51:00.000-07:00

This is a blog explains about the new feature available in CRM 2015 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 Record Update Enhancement

And its a Great feature introduced by Microsoft.

Debugging - CRM 2015 - Online

2015-07-08T02:31:00.000-07:00

It has been quite some time since i wrote something on my blog. so here a good blog post on

CRM Online 2015 Debugging

Videos for the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015

2015-01-19T05:34:00.004-08:00

CRM 2015 : Videos

Data Types - Dynamics CRM 2011

2014-11-02T23:47:00.006-08:00

When creating custom fields in Microsoft Dynamics CRM (CRM) what are all the fields data type available ? go through the below link to know about the data types available in Dynamics CRM.

Data Types available with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

New in Dynamics CRM 2015

2014-11-02T22:21:00.000-08:00

Hi All ,

Found a blog shared about the new feature introduced in CRM 2015 which will be very helpful for the CRM consultant to reduce the level of coding . please check the below link

Calculated Fields Introduced in Dynamics CRM 2015

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Software Development Kit (SDK)

2014-11-01T14:18:00.004-07:00

CRM 2013 Software Development Kit (SDK) is for developers, system customizers, and report writers. This SDK documentation contains information for developers writing server side code, custom business logic, integration modules, workflow assemblies, and plug-ins. It provides an architectural overview of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the entity model, security model, and web services. Sample code and walkthroughs are provided to guide you through the new features. It also contains information for developers customizing the web client or Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook, including scripting, integration of custom web pages, and sample code

Download Microsoft Dynamics CRM Software Development Kit (SDK) here .

Supported Operating System

Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft Visual Studio 2012, or Microsoft Visual Studio 2013

Copied from : Microsoft Dynamics Download Center

Dynamics CRM 2011 vs AX 2012

2014-04-07T03:54:00.002-07:00

So many people asked me the difference between Dynamics Ax and Dynamics CRM.

Found a blog which share the detailed difference between dynamics Ax and Dynamics CRM .

Please check the below link ..

Dynamics CRM 2011 vs AX 2012

CRM 2013 : Actions

2013-11-25T23:17:00.001-08:00

Until CRM 4 there were Workflows that could be used for asynchronous processing of business logic, generally used for setting up automated actions and defining sales process in Dynamics CRM.

Since CRM 2011, the workflows became a category under Processes and there was another category Dialogs introduced. Dialogs provided for execution of Dialog scripts to set up process flows for the Salesforce. These could be used to guide the sales people through the sales process using a question/answer format. The Dialog included execution of automated steps like the workflows.

With CRM 2013, the Processes have been extended to now include Business Process Flow and Actions in addition to the categories from the previous versions.

What are Actions

Actions are messages that can defined for an entity. Existing examples messages include Create, Update, Set State, Assign etc. With Actions, the CRM platform has enabled the creation of custom actions for entities to extend the XRM platform.

Actions are a type of process that is run by using custom code that uses the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web services.If you are not a developer, or if you haven’t installed some solution that uses actions, you won’t be able to do anything with Actions in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. You cannot call an action from another process except indirectly through a custom workflow activity or plug-in that contains the code to call the action.

Actions open a range of possibilities for developers and people who compose business logic. Before Actions, the primary way that developers could implement business processes was limited to plug-ins or custom workflows. With these, developers can perform operations composed of verbs like Create, Update, Delete, Assign, and SetStatus. Developers refer to these actions as ”messages”. Each of these messages is based on actions taken on an entity instance. So if the goal of a process is to create a record, then update it, then assign it, there are three separate steps. Each step is defined by the capabilities of the entity – not necessarily your business process.

Where to use Actions

Actions provide the ability to define a single verb (or message) that matches an operation you need to perform for your business. These new messages are driven by a process or behavior rather than what can be done with an entity. These messages can correspond to verbs like Escalate, Convert, Schedule, Route, or Approve – whatever you need. The addition of these verbs helps provide a richer vocabulary for you to fluently define your business processes. You can apply this richer vocabulary from clients or integrations rather than having to write the action within clients. This also makes it easier because you can manage and log the success or failure of the entire action as a single unit.

An example of a custom action could be “Approve”. Often times we have to design an approval process for Dynamics CRM. Once the item is approved, certain actions need to be performed. In previous versions it would either be implemented as a Workflow that is manually executed from the Workflows Dialog or it involved added of a custom attribute that when checked would imply the item is approved and then the workflow would capture the update of this field to process any automated actions defined.

Copied and Shared from : Microsoft Dynamics CRM blog

Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013

2013-11-20T21:39:00.002-08:00

Found the below link in dynamics community and thought of sharing it :)

Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013

Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013

2013-10-29T00:49:00.001-07:00

I found this video on YouTube.com and thought of sharing with you guys .. it may be helpful for you !

How to Restrict the Entity Type on a Customer and/or Owner Lookup Field

2013-07-24T23:47:00.003-07:00

MS CRM Dynamics has a concept where a single field can represent more than one entity type. There are two fields in where this can be seen. The Customer field, where a Customer can represent the selection of either an Account or a Contact record. The other field is the Owner field, where the Owner can be either a User or a Team.

This is a great approach unless your business only deals with Accounts as customers, or only deals with Contacts as Customers. From the users perspective this can add confusion and be very frustrating. The Customer field will attempt to automatically resolve against both the Contacts and Accounts when you type directly into the field in MS CRM Dynamics. Furthermore, when you launch a lookup, you are presented with the ability to toggle between Accounts and Contacts which can lead to data integrity issues in MS CRM Dynamics.

To know more details and download the Solution please check on the below link

MS CRM Dynamics: How to Restrict the Entity Type on a Customer and/or Owner Lookup Field

Thanks to CRM - TEAM copied from their blog :)

Create a Cube in SSAS( SQL Server analysis service) - step by step !

2013-07-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

I was exploring on SSAS and Cube creation on the same found a URL which would be helpful for a beginner to start with please find the below link.

Building Your First Cube

This training kit is a great resource for developers, trainers, consultants and evangelists who need to understand SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 improvements from a developer perspective. It contains a rich set of presentations, demos, hands-on labs and videos that are perfect for self-paced learning or for conducting your own training, In this also you could find some useful information about SSAS,SSIS, SSRS. Please find the below link to Download the Training Kit.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Kit

IE Developer Tools - java scripts - CRM 2011

2013-07-14T22:47:00.004-07:00

Check out the below links, it may help you to write your java scripts better and would be make your users to feel better on CRM.

IE Developer Tools – Three Quick Tips

Using Internet Explorer Developer Tools With Dynamics CRM Javascript

CRM with Microsoft SharePoint integration

2013-07-04T05:35:00.001-07:00

Found some useful link for CRM integration with SharePoint ,

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2010/10/08/crm-with-sharepoint-integration-introduction.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/anand_nigam/archive/2011/12/04/crm-2011-and-sharepoint-2010-integration-part-1.aspx

http://crmbusiness.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/crm-2011-how-to-setup-sharepoint-integration/

http://www.powerobjects.com/blog/2010/12/16/sharepoint-integration-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011/

http://crmconsultancy.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/crm-2011-integration-with-sharepoint-taking-a-deeper-look/

Goal Management:CRM 2011

2013-02-13T00:27:00.004-08:00

Want to know more About Goals and Goals Management. Go through the Below Links...

Setting Revenue Quotas/Targets in Multiple Dimensions

Goal Management: Behind the scenes

Update Rollup 12 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

2013-01-31T01:24:00.002-08:00

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 12 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Language Packs, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router.

Rollup 12

*This update must be installed on a computer that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 or a later Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 update rollup.

To know more Details.....

Sent a CRM Report as Email Attachement : CRM 2011

2013-01-21T22:01:00.002-08:00

Here is a Blog post of +Andrii Butenko Regarding General approaches to generation of reports which helps you to send a report as PDF attachment of Email activity in CRM 2011. He has Explained this step by step in this blog post and it would be easy to follow and try it in your own !

I hope this help you !

Create Windows Service in C#

2013-01-20T23:07:00.003-08:00

Here is a blog link which explained to create a windows service in C# step by step !!

Aspdotnet-Suresh

Plugin to Retrieve Current Business unit - CRM 2011

2012-12-19T02:30:00.002-08:00

public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
    {
        IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)

serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));

        //get initiating user (or impersonated user)
        Guid userId = context.InitiatingUserId; //or context.UserId

        //set up OrganizationService
        IOrganizationServiceFactory factory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
        IOrganizationService service = factory.CreateOrganizationService(userId);

        //retrieve user record
        ColumnSet allFields = new ColumnSet() { AllColumns = true };
        Entity user = service.Retrieve("systemuser", userId, allFields);

        //get business unit lookup
        Guid businessUnitId = ((EntityReference)user.Attributes["businessunitid"]).Id;

        //optional
        Entity businessunit = service.Retrieve("businessunit", businessUnitId, allFields);
    }

How to Retrieve a value from CRM to a HTML webresource added in the Form

2012-11-01T05:38:00.002-07:00

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
<title>Test Page </title>

    <script type="text/javascript">
        var Xrm;
        if (window.opener) { Xrm = window.opener.Xrm; }
        else if (window.parent) { Xrm = window.parent.Xrm; }

        onload = function () {
            var myOptionSet = Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get("jmh_flag");
            var optionSetValue = myOptionSet.getValue();
            var optionSetText = myOptionSet.getText();
            alert(optionSetValue + " " + optionSetText);
        }

</script>

</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Schedule Workflow in CRM

2012-10-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

Sometime client wants to schedule a process run in a specific interval means like we have some promotional mails and in a specific interval these mail should be sent to the customers and there will some other process (workflows) which should be triggered in a specific interval defined by the user. In CRM we don’t have a functionality to schedule the workflow to run in a specific interval but using some techniques we will be able to achieve this functionality below I have explained the way how I have achieved the functionality of scheduling workflows

I was searching for a solution in the net for scheduling workflow in crm. I have gone through different blogs and in that two I have found as useful here is that two blogs

Scheduling recurring workflows in CRM by Gonzalo Ruiz

CRM 2011 – How to Schedule Recurring Workflows in CRM 2011 by Hosk

And in my scenario the user should be able to define the interval time and also the user should be able to create their own workflows and they should be able to schedule that workflow created by them to be triggered in a specific interval. So for this what I have did is I just created a custom entity which the user can define that which workflow should be triggered and they can also specify the intervals in this. For that in my custom entity I have created a lookup filed to workflows so the user can select the workflow which they want to trigger and for defining the interval I have added an option set filed and a number field in the form. In this option I have given option like “ Hour , Day , Week , Month “ and the numeric filed also which they can specify the interval count means “ The selected workflow should run in every 3 days “ so this three can be defined in the interval count field.

We can create a Workflow (Process) same as specified the above blogs means like for achieving scheduling a workflow functionality in CRM we can able to create a workflow with some custom workflow activity

Since we need to have this functionality (schedule workflow) for running different workflow so we will not able to use the system workflow functionality “trigger child workflow” instead of that we can write a custom workflow activity which will retrieve the workflow id from the entity record created and we can also write the code to trigger the same workflow in this custom workflow activity below I have given the code for triggering a workflow

ExecuteWorkflowRequest request = new ExecuteWorkflowRequest();

request.WorkflowId = ((EntityReference)entity["new_workflow"]).Id;

request.EntityId = new Guid("1DCDEE97-35BB-44BE-8353-58BC36592656");

ExecuteWorkflowResponse response = (ExecuteWorkflowResponse)service.Execute(request);

Note : - The workflow which you want to trigger in a specific interval can be created against to the same custom entity(which we used for defining the workflow to be triggered and the interval) only because in this code we need to specify the entity record id also for triggering the workflow so if you create the workflow against this entity means in this custom workflow activity we will be able to retrieve the entity id and we can use this id for triggering the workflow

In this custom workflow activity we will also write code to calculate and return the next execution date and time and we can have a field in the same custom entity which we can update the next execution date time.

So using the wait condition we will be able to wait till the next execution date time

It will be waiting till the next execution date time and it will be triggering the workflow defined for triggering in an interval also will be getting triggered by the custom workflow activity defined in the workflow

So for the continuation we can make the workflow to be triggered in as child workflow and in the end we will be able to trigger the child workflow using existing functionality triggering child workflow

Otherwise

Anyway we will calculate the next execution date time and we will update this in this entity so in this field update also if you trigger the same workflow it will be executing like a loop …in each and every flow it will be updating the date time so the workflow gets triggered continually…

* We should be very careful when we schedule a workflow it may slow down your CRM system

* Every time you create a recurring workflow, you should carefully consider what resource consumption implications it will have. Recurring operations tend to utilize a large amount of resources which can cause lagging to the CRM Asynchronous processing service.
* For a specific entity only we will be able to create this workflow means like when you trigger the workflow in custom-workflow activity also we need to specify a entity id so this u can retrieve from the current entity and u can make the workflow to run against the the same entity !

How to Restrict Saving of a Record in CRM 2011

2012-09-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

First make sure you have the 'Pass execution context as first parameter' checkbox ticked when attaching the onSave Event Handler

In the ValidateData method make sure you have a parameter defined to receive the Execution Object.

function ValidateData(ExecutionObj){
     //Place all your data validation here
     //In case data is not valid call the below method
     // The getEventArgs() method returns an object with methods to manage the Save event.
     // The preventDefault() method cancels the save operation
     ExecutionObj.getEventArgs().preventDefault();
}

Refer this link for more details ...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg509060.aspx

Debugging a Plugin in CRM 2011

2012-09-04T04:06:00.002-07:00

Build and register your Plugin as usual.
Inside Plugin Registration Tool, you’ll find a button which says Install Profiler, Click it.
Once it is done, you will find an entry for Plug-in Profiler beneath your assemblies.
Now, go-to the step for which you want to debug your plugin and press the Profile button.
Once done, you will see a tag (Profiled) adjacent to the step.
Now go ahead and execute the plugin i.e. perform the steps in CRM that will trigger this plugin.
If the code has any errors, then CRM will provide you a log file to download; go ahead and download the file. (see screenshot below)
Now, inside Visual Studio, insert Breakpoints wherever you feel and use Attach to Process button and attach the code to Plugin Registration Tool exe.
Note: Initially you will see that VS cannot find symbols so breakpoints will not be hit.
Now, go back to Plugin Registration Tool and Select the Step which you profiled earlier hit Debug button.
A new Dialog-box will be presented to you, refer to the necessary files and hit Start Plug-in Execution button.
Wait for a few seconds and you will start to see the following in Plug-in Traces window from Debug screen.
Now, switch to Visual Studio and you will see that your first Breakpoint has been hit.

Copied From :- http://crm.ipiyush.me/debug-plugin-in-dynamics-crm-2011/

Parse CRM Date with JavaScript

2012-08-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

A JavaScript function to parse a CRM Date that returns a JavaScript Date object. This method can be used in both 2011 and 4.0

  //parsing

  function parseDate(xmlDate)
   {
   if (!/^[0-9]{4}\-[0-9]{2}\-[0-9]{2}/.test(xmlDate)) {
   throw new RangeError("xmlDate must be in ISO-8601 format YYYY-MM-DD.");
   }
   return new Date(xmlDate.substring(0,4), xmlDate.substring(5,7)-1, xmlDate.substring(8,10));
   }

  // and using

// In CRM 4.0

if(retrievedOpp.attributes["estimatedclosedate"] != null && retrievedOpp.attributes["estimatedclosedate"] != undefined){
crmForm.all.new_estimatedclosedate.DataValue = parseDate(retrievedOpp.attributes["estimatedclosedate"].value);}

  // In CRM 2011

if(retrievedOpp.attributes["estimatedclosedate"] != null && retrievedOpp.attributes["estimatedclosedate"] != undefined){
Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get('estimatedclosedate').setValue(parseDate( Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get('new_closedate').getValue()));}


Reference :- http://crmpro.blogspot.in/2009/11/javascript-function-to-parse-xml-iso.html