Dynamics 365 Solution Checker Preview available

The PowerApps team has released a preview of the Solution Checker which allows you to inspect your solutions against a set of best practice rules related to customising and extending the CDS for Apps platform.

The benefits provided include detailed reports listing issues identified, the severity, location and in some cases the line of code to improve. The result set also includes detailed prescriptive guidance on how to resolve or improve the issues.

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/make-higher-quality-apps-with-solution-checker/

For now you need to install the solution into your environment from the PowerApps Solution list by choosing to Install. This will take you to AppSource where you can review and install the feature.

The prescriptive documentation is presented from within the online PowerApps Documentation Best Practices site which is being continuously updated with new content.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/#pivot=home&panel=developer

Dynamics 365 April Release Notes

Microsoft has released information regarding the April 19 release. You can find more information here.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/business-applications-release-notes/April19

微软已发布有关4月19日发布的信息。
Wēiruǎn yǐ fābù yǒuguān 4 yuè 19 rì fābù de xìnxī.

Microsoft ha publicado información sobre el lanzamiento del 19 de abril.

Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework GA

Microsoft today released for general availability the Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework. This framework enables you the ability to integrate third party channel providers or channel aggregators into Unified Interface Apps.

You can find the full release article on MSDN  https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/crm/2018/12/10/dynamics-365-channel-integration-framework-bring-your-own-channel-provider-with-ease/

Learning Microsoft Dynamics 365

There are a number of ways to learn about Dynamics 365 and its family of products. Whether you are technical or business focused, a solution architect,  developer, product owner, business analyst or QA/tester. Microsoft and the community have a wealth of material available for you to discover and explore.

Here are a few reference points I recommend for you.

LinkedIn Learning – Dynamics 365

Microsoft Virtual Academy – Dynamics 365

Microsoft Learn – Business Apps

Official Microsoft Dynamics 365 YouTube Channel

Dynamics 365 Community videos on YouTube

For MS Partners or Customers who have access to PartnerSource and CustomerSource you may find additional training material to meet your needs.

You can see further training details on Microsoft Docs regarding Dynamics 365 Training. For developers, Microsoft Docs also hosts a number of other useful resources.

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Developer Guide

Programming reference for Customer Engagement

Model-driven Apps Developer Guide

Common Data Service for Apps Developer Guide

Microsoft Flow

if you choose to get certified in Dynamics 365 then read about this on the Microsoft Learning Website MCSA in Microsoft Dynamics 365

 

PowerApps Community Plan: a free development environment for individual use

Microsoft offer a free community plan for developers to play with PowerApps at no cost. I recommend you take a look at the following links and get yourself setup.

• https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/communityplan/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/dev-community-plan
• https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/communityplan/

Dynamics XRM Tools for CRM

Overview

Dynamics XRM Tools brings you a quality range of applications that provide a useful set of features to enhance your experience while using and developing against Microsoft Dynamics 365. This release provides an updated solution file that is supported for import into newer version of Dynamics.

The ODATA Query Designer has had an update to support the Image attribute.

Also all of the modules are now included in the one solution file which helps with networks and browsers where security does not allow modules to be downloaded from our hosted servers.

http://dynamicsxrmtools.codeplex.com/

CRM 2013 Quick View Menu iPad Support

Quick View Menu now supports IPad Safari and has also improved display on smaller resolutions with heights of 768px. IE8+ is also now supported along with earlier versions of Chrome and FireFox.

Available from CodePlex – http://crm2013quickviewmenu.codeplex.com/

Form Message for Dynamics CRM

Download Form Message for Dynamics CRM on Codeplex

The form message solution can be found on CodePlex, it allows you to place custom messages onto a CRM form where you can define text and the image icon such as Success, Error, Information, Warning and Alert.

You can also choose to display the 2 buttons that can be customised with your desired label for example OK, Cancel, or Submit, Cancel, etc… and attach JavaScript functions as call back events for each one.

Form Message with Buttons displayed

Available Message Icons

Adding Form Message web resource to CRM Form

You can add initial/static text and an icon by supplying Custom Parameters such as text and type like this.

Usage

Form Message Functions include

showFormMessage(message, type, iFrame, iframeLoadedCallback)
setFormMessageVisible(iFrame, isVislble)
showMessageConfirmation(iFrame, successCallBack, cancelCallBack, successLabelOverride, cancelLabelOverride)

Form Message Types include

success
alert
warning
error
info

Display Form Message

DXTools.FormMessage.showFormMessage("This is a test Message.", "success", "WebResource_HeaderMessage", function () { });

Display Form Message with Buttons

DXTools.FormMessage.showFormMessage("This is a test Message.", "info", "WebResource_HeaderMessage", function () {
        DXTools.FormMessage.showMessageConfirmation("WebResource_HeaderMessage", function () { alert("yes") }, function () { alert("no"); }, null, null);
    });
});

Download Form Message for Dynamics CRM on Codeplex

Dynamics CRM Discovery and Web Service URLs

Dynamics CRM Discovery and Web Service URL’s based on the following Dynamics CRM SDK articles.

Discover the URL for your organization with IDiscoveryService web service

Download the endpoints using the Dynamics CRM Developer resources page

Here is the information that you need:

For CRM Online customers:

The following URLs should be used to access the discovery service (use the appropriate URL for your location):

Provider: Microsoft Office 365
https://disco.crm.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc (North America)
https://disco.crm4.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc (EMEA)
https://disco.crm5.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc (APAC)

Provider: Microsoft Account
https://dev.crm.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc (North America)
https://dev.crm4.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc (EMEA)
https://dev.crm5.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc (APAC)

The following URLs should be used to access the Organization service(SOAP endpoint):

https://{Organization Name}.api.crm.dynamics.com/XrmServices/2011/Organization.svc (North America)
https://{Organization Name}.api.crm4.dynamics.com/XrmServices/2011/Organization.svc (EMEA)
https://{Organization Name}.api.crm5.dynamics.com/XrmServices/2011/Organization.svc (APAC)

Where {Organization Name} refers to the Organization that you specify in the URL when accessing the Web application. For example, for Contoso.crm.dynamics.com, the {Organization Name} is Contoso.

The following URLs should be used to access the Organization Data service(OData REST endpoint)

https://{Organization Name}.api.crm.dynamics.com/XrmServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc (North America)
https://{Organization Name}.api.crm4.dynamics.com/XrmServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc (EMEA)
https://{Organization Name}.api.crm5.dynamics.com/XrmServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc (APAC)

For On-premises deployments:
http://{server}/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc for the Discovery service endpoint
http://{server}/{OrgName}/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc for the Organization Service endpoint (SOAP)
http://{server}/{OrgName}/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc for the Organization Data Service endpoint (REST)
http://{server}/XRMDeployment/2011/Deployment.svc for the Deployment Service endpoint

For IFD deployments:
http://dev.{hostname[:port]}/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc for the Discovery service endpoint

CRM 2013 Quick View Menu Performance Improvements

Besides some tweaking here and there with the async processing, image pre-loading and so forth, there is a new feature to turn on or off the recently added security feature. The current security feature uses the user’s security privileges to determine if a button is displayed and an entity button will only display if they have the Read access right to the specific Entity. Turning off the security feature prevents the Quick View Menu from making a number of web requests which may improve load performance.

Available from CodePlex – http://crm2013quickviewmenu.codeplex.com/

This is an example of the Quick View Menu Solution Configuration page. Simply click the Security button to toggle security on or off.