Here is the list of available tool plugins.

• Attribute Bulk Updater
• Iconator
• Role Updater
• Scripts Finder
• SiteMap Editor
• Solution Import
• View Layout Replicator
• WebResources Manager

Tanguy has designed the toolbox so you can develop your own plugin tools and include them in the toolbox. https://xrmtoolbox.codeplex.com/documentation

SELECT * FROM \\server1\APPLICATION where message like ‘%lock%’

or lets look at the Application and System Event Log entries for server1

SELECT * FROM \\server1\APPLICATION, \\server1\SYSTEM where message like ‘%lock%’

but wait there, what if I have 2 front end CRM servers, server1 and server2.

SELECT * FROM \\server1\APPLICATION, \\server1\SYSTEM, \\server2\APPLICATION, \\server2\SYSTEM where message like ‘%lock%’

This is just touching the surface of what this tool can do to dig through information held in your environment, this is also all from my own desktop machine, there is no need to log on to various servers to gather this information. So command line is so yesterday I hear you say, well there is also Log Parser Studio which presents a library of ready to go queries for various sources. You need to install Log Parser first and then you’re ready to go.

You can also take a look at Log Parser Lizard by Dimce Kuzmanov, a free GUI tool for managing queries and exporting results to Excel and charts. In addition, you will find input filters for RegEx and log4net input log formats (with support for regular expressions) and SQL server T-SQL queries.

Here is a useful article from MS Support regarding some useful Log Parser queries http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910447

So what about CRM Trace Files

SELECT top 2 * FROM C:\Temp\server1-w3wp-CRMWeb-20120210-1.log where Text like ‘%Error%’

As you can see this is fairly awesome stuff and there is so much more that you can use this tool for. Hopefully this has introduced you to something new and useful for your future discovery.

Ideally I want to call a function that is easy to use and it will look like this.
Security.UserInRole.checkUserInRole(
["System Administrator", "System Customizer", "Custom Role Name"],
function(){alert("valid"); // The user is in one of the specifed roles.
},
function(){alert("invalid"); // The user is not in one of the specifed roles.
}
}

To define the library namespace and object we use
//If the Security namespace object is not defined, create it.
if (typeof (Security) == "undefined")
{ Security = {}; }
// Create Namespace container for functions in this library;
if (typeof (Security.UserInRole) == "undefined") {
Security.UserInRole = {
__namespace: true
};
}

 

The library functions and properties declared include the following
Security.UserInRole = {
isInRole: null,
roleIdValues: [],
validFunction: null,
invalidFunction: null,
checkRoles: [],
checkUserInRole: function (roles, validFunc, invalidFunc) {},
getAllowedSecurityRoleIds: function () {},
validateSecurityRoles: function () {},
querySecurityRoles: function (queryString) {},
__namespace: true
};
 

The entire library is implemented so that you call a function, it performs the processing asynchronously and then gives you the outcome to handle the response. Whether you want to show/hide form elements or disable fields etc, you can handle this in the callback function parameters validFunc and invalidFunc defined in the checkUserInRole function. The entire library content can be placed in a CRM webresource and added to a form. The full library is as shown below.

//If the Security namespace object is not defined, create it.
if (typeof (Security) == "undefined")
{ Security = {}; }
// Create Namespace container for functions in this library;
if (typeof (Security.UserInRole) == "undefined") {
Security.UserInRole = {
isInRole: null,
roleIdValues: [],
validFunction: null,
invalidFunction: null,
checkRoles: [],
checkUserInRole: function (roles, validFunc, invalidFunc) {
validFunction = validFunc;
invalidFunction = invalidFunc;
checkRoles = roles;
Security.UserInRole.getAllowedSecurityRoleIds();
},
getAllowedSecurityRoleIds: function () {
var filter = "";
for (var i = 0; i < checkRoles.length; i++) {
if(filter == "") {
filter = "Name eq '" + checkRoles[i] + "'";
}
else {
filter += " or Name eq '" + checkRoles[i] + "'";
}
}
Security.UserInRole.querySecurityRoles("?$select=RoleId,Name&$filter=" + filter);
},
validateSecurityRoles: function () {
switch (Security.UserInRole.isInRole) {
//If the user has already been discovered in role then call validFunc
case true:
validFunction.apply(this, []);
break;
default:
var userRoles = Xrm.Page.context.getUserRoles();
for (var i = 0; i < userRoles.length; i++) {
var userRole = userRoles[i];
for (var n = 0; n < Security.UserInRole.roleIdValues.length; n++) {
var role = Security.UserInRole.roleIdValues[n];
if (userRole.toLowerCase() == role.toLowerCase()) {
Security.UserInRole.isInRole = true;
// Call function when role match found
validFunction.apply(this, []);
return true;
}
}
}
// Call function when no match found
invalidFunction.apply(this, []);
break;
}
},
querySecurityRoles: function (queryString) {
var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
var url = "";
// Try getClientUrl first (available post Rollup 12)
if (Xrm.Page.context.getClientUrl) {
url = Xrm.Page.context.getClientUrl();
}
else {
url = Xrm.Page.context.getServerUrl();
}
req.open("GET", url + "/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc/RoleSet" + queryString, true);
req.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
req.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
req.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (this.readyState == 4 /* complete */) {
req.onreadystatechange = null; //Addresses memory leak issue with IE.
if (this.status == 200) {
var returned = window.JSON.parse(this.responseText).d;
for (var i = 0; i < returned.results.length; i++) {
Security.UserInRole.roleIdValues.push(returned.results[i].RoleId);
}
if (returned.__next != null) {
//In case more than 50 results are returned.
// This will occur if an organization has more than 16 business units
var queryOptions = returned.__next.substring((url + "/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc/RoleSet").length);
Security.UserInRole.querySecurityRoles(queryOptions);
}
else {
//Now that the roles have been retrieved, try again.
Security.UserInRole.validateSecurityRoles();
}
}
else {
var errorText;
if (this.status == 12029)
{ errorText = "The attempt to connect to the server failed."; }
if (this.status == 12007)
{ errorText = "The server name could not be resolved."; }
try {
errorText = window.JSON.parse(this.responseText).error.message.value;
}
catch (e)
{ errorText = this.responseText }
}
}
};
req.send();
},
__namespace: true
};
}
 

To use the library in the onload event of an entity form simply add the Security.UserInRole library webresource to the form and create a another JavaScript web resource to hold the onload function. The onload function may look like this. You define the roles to check as an array and pass this to the checkUserInRole function along with the valid and invalid callback functions. You don’t have to define the functions as anonymous functions like my example below but it can sometimes feel cleaner.

function onload()
{
Security.UserInRole.checkUserInRole(
["System Administrator", "System Customizer", "Custom Role Name"],
function(){alert("valid"); // The user is in one of the specifed roles.
},
function(){alert("invalid"); // The user is not in one of the specifed roles.
}
);
}
 

I would like to mention Jim Daly from the MS CRM Team for his examples of namespace and library structure along with his REST query code as this example I have created is derived from his outstanding work.

Happy Coding..

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 web application and mobile device requirements

Support with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Windows 8

Support with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Internet Explorer 10

Note: IE7 is not supported with CRM Online

The following classes offer this new functionality

• Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Metadata.Query
• RetrieveMetadataChangesRequest (Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Messages)
• RetrieveMetadataChangesResponse (Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Messages)

Prior to Rollup 12 you could use RetrieveEntityRequest or RetrieveAllEntitiesRequest in the Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Messages namespace but were limited to the amount of query filters so when you queried for entity data you essentially received more than sometimes necessary. You can see the EntityFilters enumeration here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.xrm.sdk.metadata.entityfilters.aspx

RetrieveEntityRequest retrieveRequest = new RetrieveEntityRequest
{
EntityFilters = EntityFilters.Entity,
LogicalName = _customEntityName
};
RetrieveEntityResponse retrieveEntityResponse = (RetrieveEntityResponse)orgService.Execute(retrieveRequest);

As you can imagine if you only want to check if an entity has Is Visible in Mobile flag set then you don’t want anything else. In this case the new EntityQueryExpression class provides a similar experience to the existing QueryExpression for querying CRM  data though specifically for querying metadata.

New metadata query classes include

So to slightly different but if you want to retrieve all entities that have the Is Visible in Mobile set to true using the new classes then specify a filter as follows and execute the RetrieveMetadataChangesRequest message with ClientVersionStamp set to null in the request.

MetadataFilterExpression entityFilter = new MetadataFilterExpression(LogicalOperator.And);
EntityFilter.Conditions.Add(new MetadataConditionExpression("IsVisibleInMobile", MetadataConditionOperator.Equals, true);
EntityQueryExpression entityQueryExpression = new EntityQueryExpression()
{
Criteria = entityFilter
};
RetrieveMetadataChangesRequest retrieveMetadataChangesRequest = new RetrieveMetadataChangesRequest()
{
Query = entityQueryExpression,
ClientVersionStamp = null
};
RetrieveMetadataChangesResponse response = (RetrieveMetadataChangesResponse)orgService.Execute(retrieveMetadataChangesRequest);

The ClientVersionStamp timestamp value representing when the last request was made can be set to only retrieve data that has changed since the time specified.  The RetrieveMetadataChangesResponse returns a timestamp value that can be used with another request at a later time to return information about how metadata has changed since the last request.

This article only scratches the surface of this awesome and long awaited feature so if you want to come up to speed have a read over the SDK article Retrieve and Detect Changes to Metadata.

You can find the related Rollup 12 items here

• Microsoft Download Center: Rollup 12 Downloads
• KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2795627
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/search.aspx?q=2795627

Rollup 12 Build Number: 5.0. 9690.3218

Quick Summary

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309589.aspx#BKMK_UR5

• Extended Browser Support
• Enhancements to Activity Feeds
• Updated User Experience for Sales and Customer Service and Product Update Functionality
• Custom Workflow Activities for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
• Developer Toolkit Support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012
• Retrieve and Detect Changes to Metadata
• Use Execute Multiple to Improve Performance for Bulk Data Load

Quick Overview

• Custom workflow activities can now be registered in the sandbox and are supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
• The Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online now supports Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.
• Added information about the new getClientUrl method. This method returns the base URL that was used to access the application. This is now the recommended method to use to access the organization URL. The getServerUrl method is deprecated.
• Updated the metadata browser to version 2.0
• Added a new topic for the new metadata query capabilities included in the Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Metadata.Query namespace.
• Updated the topic to include information related to support for browsers other than Internet Explorer.
• Added information about the new Like/Unlike feature. Updated information about default number of records that you can follow, and the maximum allowed number of characters in the post and the post comment. Also, updated configuration information about obtaining full functionality for activity feeds.
• Updated exported ribbon definitions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• Added support for the Microsoft online services environment to connect to Microsoft Office 365.
• Added a new topic to address issues related to solution development when Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online includes features that cannot be enabled in an on-premises deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
• Added a note to the Export an Unmanaged Solution section to indicate that, after Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update, un-customized form definitions will no longer be exported with unmanaged solutions.
• Added new and updated information about using Windows Azure with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
• Added a new sample to show a way to deal with the situation where portions of the Xrm.Page object load into the updated forms asynchronously so they may not be available to scripts in HTML web resources at load time.
• Updated these samples to build with newer versions of the Windows Azure SDK, version 1.7 or 1.8.
• A bunch of sdk samples have been added and others updated.

If you are a single browser environment and it remains as IE then you may be feeling comfortable but I recommend you follow-up with some testing and review time before applying Rollup 12.

There are some key areas that need looking at and you can find a list of impacted areas here

Resolve Breaking Script Issues When Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics CRM

To aid in the validation there is a tool available from Microsoft called the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool  which helps to identify potential issues with custom JavaScript in JavaScript libraries and HTML web resources.

To see an overview of problem areas you can see the release blog regarding the validation tool which highlights and lists the various potential issues that have been identified.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool Released

The biggest threat to some may be the support of CRM 4 client side script or the lack there of as this becomes obsolete and unsupportable as CRM moves forward.

In many cases business requirements come first and in a perfect world we would never need to venture outside of the CRM 2011 client API so the main thought here should be before implementing unsupported customisations ask yourself if there is an alternative option to avoid future pain.

Don’t forget to check out the latest SDK when its available and read through the documentation covering this as it’s fairly complete and highly detailed for our needs.

The CRM Field Guide is an essential guide to Microsoft Dynamics CRM that everyone should have on their bookshelf.  This book offers you details not only on CRM fundamentals and extensibility points but also the tried and true best practices and strategies of the combined experience of some of the most recognizable global experts in the CRM industry.  The field guide contains insights from many CRM MVP contributors and is intended to be a book you pick up over and over again as you use CRM.

Having the CRM Field Guide by your side is like having the “hotline” to the industry experts.  When you hear the term Field Guide you likely think of nature; identifying key plants or animals in a new and exciting place.  Obviously this book is not that type of a guide.  This book is what you pick up when it’s Friday night and you are stuck with one last CRM problem between you and the weekend.

The CRM Field Guide is not a reference repeating all the contents of the CRM documentation, but it is designed to complement what Microsoft provides offering insights from real world deployments of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.   There’s so much content in the CRM Field Guide, one of the MVPs joked it could probably have enough weight to hold down your desk if a tornado passes through your office!

In the CRM Field Guide you will find details that can help administrators, customizers and developers; not to mention power business users wanting to know all the details the admin never tells them.  If you run CRM in the cloud or sitting in a server room at your office the information is useful.

19 Dynamics CRM MVP authors tells you a lot and nearing 1000 pages it is packed full of goodness.

Authors

1. Joel Lindstrom
2. Richard Knudson
3. Donna Edwards
4. Julie Yack
5. Pablo Peralta
6. Rhett Clinton
7. Jakub Skalbania
8. Feridun Kadir
9. Shan McArthur
10. David Berry
11. Larry Lentz
12. Leon Tribe
13. Scott Sewell
14. Alex Fagundes
15. David Yack
16. Neil Benson
17. Mitch Milam
18. Jerry Weinstock
19. Giorgio Garcia-Agreda

Chapter Overview

Chapter 1 - Building the Foundation – This chapter lays the groundwork for understanding the various terms and parts of a CRM Organization. It includes helpful tips not covered elsewhere in the book.

Chapter 2 - CRM Server Installation & Configuration – Learn the requirements, the planning steps, and the process for installing and configuring your CRM server.

Chapter 3 – CRM Outlook Client Installation & Configuration – addresses the different choices and troubleshooting techniques for installation and configuration of Dynamics CRM Outlook Client.

Chapter 4 - CRM 4 Upgrade to CRM 2011 – In this chapter you’ll learn the software and hardware requirements, develop an upgrade plan, prepare your database, upgrade customizations, perform and test the upgrade and train your users.

Chapter 5 – E-mail Router Installation & Troubleshooting – covers the necessity of the e-mail router, the deployment wizard, the configuration manager, hardware and software requirements, installation and configuration and user settings for the e-mail router.

Chapter 6 - Security Best Practices – covers the why and the how of security in Dynamics CRM, including the security tools already built in to CRM as well as a look at special case handling.

Chapter 7 - Sales Management Best Practices – examines critical success factors for sales management, activity and lead management, customer, opportunity and pipeline management, and workflows and sales processes.

Chapter 8 - Service Management Best Practices  -explains the optimal use of cases, contracts, articles, service scheduling and the service calendar.

Chapter 9 – Marketing Management Best Practices – is a detailed look at the benefits of CRM’s marketing tools, including marketing lists and campaigns, as well as campaign reporting.

Chapter 10 – The Power of CRM & Outlook  - explores the benefits of integrating and synchronizing CRM and Outlook and explains how to make it happen and make the most use of the combined tools.

Chapter 11 – Dynamics CRM Goal Management – is an in-depth look at the foundations of goal management, ranging from Sales to Marketing to Service and beyond.

Chapter 12 – Processes –  delves into the power and scope of Workflows and Dialogs, how they work and how you can use them for maximum benefit.

Chapter 13 – Aligning Reports to the Audience  – helps the reader understand and meet the needs of different users and stakeholders by exploring the varying needs and expectations of users and using the array of out-of-the-box tools. (Note: My personal favorite chapter)

Chapter 14 – Report Development – shows how to create the best (read: most useful) reports by utilizing SQL, FetchXML and other tools to build custom reports in CRM.

Chapter 15 – SharePoint & CRM: Better Together – discusses the benefits of SharePoint collaboration tools being integrated with CRM in order to provide the 360° view of the customer, including how to set up integration and how to access CRM from SharePoint.

Chapter 16 – CRM Outlook Optimization & Troubleshooting - examines what you can do to optimize the performance of the Outlook client and how to troubleshoot CRM for Outlook.

Chapter 17 – CRM Server Optimization, Maintenance & Monitoring – covers CRM server, IIS, and SQL server optimization, as well as maintenance and monitoring of the servers.

Chapter 18 – Data Management Best Practices – explores using the Data Import Wizard, duplicate detection, and bulk deletion, plus best practices for ensuring high-quality data in your CRM system.

Chapter 19 – User Adoption – shares key concepts and strategies for encouraging and improving user adoption within you organization.

Chapter 20 – Customization Strategies – discusses a variety of strategies that can be used to customize CRM to fit your business needs and reviews the solution architecture and management.

Chapter 21 – Introduction to Solutions – gives details on custom solutions and components, managed vs. unmanaged solutions, the importing and exporting of solutions, deleting solutions and managed properties.

Chapter 22 – Solution Management and Troubleshooting - is a more in-depth look at solutions, covering import behavior, managed properties, layering strategies and tips and tricks to get the most out of your CRM solutions.

Chapter 23 – Dynamics Connector – From Zero to Hero, in this chapter, you will learn what some of the considerations are when combining CRM with other members of the Dynamics family, what options are available, how to choose and implement the best option or combination of options, and some helpful resources for reference.

Chapter 24 – Rapid Development Best Practices – is an overview of the strategies of preparation, planning, execution and delivery of customizations in an efficient and effective way that meets the needs of the client without reinventing the wheel.

Chapter 25 – Community Resources – is a plethora, a veritable cornucopia, of resources from the global community of user groups, users, MVPs, Microsofties, social media masters and blogs that can help you maximize your CRM skills and guide you to the answers you seek.

As you can see, its a lot of information for one book. We hope you enjoy! http://www.crmfieldguide.com/

You can find the related Rollup 10 items here

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34969
• KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739504
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/search.aspx?q=2739504

Rollup 11 Build Number: 05.00.9690.2835

Dynamics CRM in the Field has a great post on this subject already including a podcast, along with a lot of other excellent articles, bookmark the site now. Podcast and Overview: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 11. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crminthefield/archive/2012/10/05/podcast-and-overview-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-update-rollup-11.aspx

The CRM Team Blog also has a brief overview http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2012/10/11/update-rollup-11-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011.aspx

You can find complete CRM download links here on the CRM Wiki http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2550.microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-resources-en-us.aspx

Support with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Internet Explorer 10 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2743941

Support with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Office 2013 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2744957

Support with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Windows 8 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2744954

In Summary the update contains

• Updated assemblies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 10. http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=30711
• A new Form Scripting Quick Reference that provides simple explanations and examples of the Xrm.Page object methods on a single page. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj602964
• A new topic called Choose your Development Style for Managed Code that describes the choices of tools and classes you can use when you write managed code and provides information to help you decide what is best for your needs.
• A new topic called Create Accessible Web Resources that provides an introduction to creating web resources that offer equivalent functionality for all users so that people with disabilities will be able to use your web resources. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj602917.aspx
• Improved authentication helper code and a new sample that demonstrates how to connect to the web services without using helper code.
• Code changes to work in browsers to be supported in a later release, and information to guide you in making those changes.
• Delivered the Solution Packaging Tool!
• And much more… read the Release History for complete details. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh547453.aspx#bkmk_ReleaseHistory

You can find the related Rollup 10 items here

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30711
• KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2710577
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2710577

Rollup 10 Build Number: 5.0. 9690.2730

Dynamics CRM in the Field has a great post on this subject already along with alot of other excellent articles, bookmark the site now. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crminthefield/archive/2012/08/13/overview-and-podcast-update-rollup-10.aspx

You can find complete CRM download links here on the CRM Wiki http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2550.microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-resources-en-us.aspx

David Pennington Interview on CRMSoftware.TV  http://www.crmsoftware.tv/videos/social-roadmap-dynamics-crm/

While you’re there you should check out some of the interesting fireside chat videos that are available on http://dynamicbusiness.microsoft.com

Enjoy!

• Winner: PowerObjects
• Finalist: Accenture/Avanade
• Finalist: Navantis Inc.
• Finalist: Sonoma Partners

You can view the other category winners and finalists here http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Jun12/06-25MSWPCPartnerAwardsPR.aspx

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 CRM 2011. The toolset consists of a Silverlight application framework that provides a central location for accessing the tools and you simply import the managed solution into CRM to begin working with it. Find the tool at Codeplex and don’t forget to leave feedback so we can improve this for everyone. http://dynamicsxrmtools.codeplex.com/

Currently available tools include

• OData Query Designer
• Metadata Browser
• CRM 4 to CRM 2011 JavaScript Converter
• Trace Tool (on premise only)
• Statistics

About Dynamics XRM Tools

The Dynamics XRM Tools project provides a modular framework for hosting Silverlight applications within a single shell.

A joint effort started by Rhett Clinton MVP and CRM Guru Ramon Tebar has produced an extensible application framework that allows additional tools to be developed and included as a part of the toolset. Rhett’s original CRM tools have been ported to the new framework (with enhancements) and additional tools have already been created with more in development.

Make sure you check out the updated SDK download if you are interested in the code side of things.

You can download the Release Preview Guide here.

Check Girish Raja’s blog on MSDN  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/girishr/archive/2012/05/09/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-ur9-a-k-a-r8-beta-is-here.aspx for all the links on how to get access and start learning about the new bits.

Or the PFE site at Dynamics CRM in the Field on MSDN http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crminthefield/archive/2012/05/10/crm-2011-update-rollup-9-beta-has-arrived.aspx

You can find the related Rollup 8 items here

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29692
• KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=2600644
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2600644

Rollup 8 Build Number: 05.00.9690.2243

You can find complete CRM download links here on the CRM Wiki http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2550.microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-resources-en-us.aspx

You can find the related Rollup 7 items here

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29221
• KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2600643
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2600643

Rollup 7 Build Number: 05.00.9690.2165

You can find complete CRM download links here on the CRM Wiki http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2550.microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-resources-en-us.aspx

Note: Apologies, this is a late post which I missed posting in March due to various technicalities.

Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook client uses WCF to retrieve data from the server and minimizing the network traffic across these clients especially when there are a large number of Dynamics CRM Outlook client users can have a positive impact on network load freeing up resource for other processes.

With WCF compression enabled you may see up to 30% reduction in response size and you can discover this by analyzing network traffic before and after it is enabled. The largest benefit that can be obtained from compression is by enabling SSL for your Dynamics CRM deployment, even for on-premise. Using SSL you may be able to gain an 80% reduction in the response size for your Dynamics CRM Outlook clients. The side effect to all of this is the impact on server resource in particular CPU when it performs the compression and with SSL, the encryption. Therefore it may not provide benefits in every scenario though weighing up the different aspects of your environment including the amount of users, and performance testing these features may show a positive increase in network performance.

Enable compression using a command line

• Open the Command Prompt on the CRM Server.
• Run the following command:

%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /+”dynamicTypes.[mimeType='application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8',enabled='true']” /commit:apphost

•  Reset IIS for the setting to take effect.

Enable compression by manually updating the ApplicationHost.Config

• On the CRM Server Navigate to: C:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv\Config\applicationHost.config and open it with notepad.
• Locate the Section: “<httpCompression directory=” and in that section find a child node titled <dynamicsTypes> and an entry that looks like this:
  <add mimeType=”application/x-javascript” enabled=”true” />
• Below that, add the following line:

<add mimeType=”application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8″ enabled=”true” />

• Save the file and reset IIS for the setting to take effect.

Enable Compression in IIS using Configuration Editor

• Open IIS on the CRM Server
• Open Configuration Editor and navigate to the system.webServer/httpCompression Section

• Choose dynamicTypes and open to add the new mimeType
• Add a new item and enter application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8 as the mimeType.

• Enable the mimeType and close the window.
• Select Apply on the Configuration Editor and then reset IIS for the setting to take effect.

Note: Ensure you test this thoroughly in a test environment before configuring your production environment with this setting.

The R8 service update is expected to be available Q2 2012 and promotes 6 areas of interest:

• Mobility
• Multi Browser Support
• Social Improvements
• Industry Templates
• SQL Server 2012
• Certifications

Mobility

The launch of a new product titled Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile, which will enable CRM Online, partner-hosted and on-premise customers with IFD to use CRM on up to three devices per user. There will be native clients, which means offline support, on all the main mobile platforms including.

• Windows Phone 7.5
• iPhone & iPad
• Android
• BlackBerry

This is a subscription service  for $30 per user per month.

Multi Browser Support

This feature has finaly arrived. R8 applied to your CRM server will priovide access to CRM using the following browsers

• Internet Explorer 7 or above on Windows 7, Vista and XP
• Safari 5.1.1 or above on Mac OS-X or iOS5
• Firefox 6 or above on Windows 7, Vista and XP or Mac OS-X or iOS5
• Chrome 13 or above on Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Social Improvements

Microsoft released the new Activity Feeds feature in November 2011 which provided Social features into CRM 2011. R8 introduces a series of enhancements to the Activity Feeds feature including.

• like/dislike
• enhanced filtering (e.g. @me, types of records I follow, record views)
• an updated mobile activity feeds client for Windows Phone 7.5.

Industry Templates

Building on the work of Microsoft partners and its own consulting team, the Dynamics Labs will be releasing several industry templates into the Dynamics Marketplace. The first few templates will include.

• Wealth Management
• Non-Profit
• Health

The templates will include data model customizations, dashboards, workflows and sample data. They’re designed to help customers in these specific  industries visualise how Dynamics CRM can help their business, and speed up an implementation without necessarily being a fully-packaged vertical industry product.

SQL Server 2012

Microsoft’s have already been upgraded their data centers to SQL Server 2012 and the R8 service update will bring official support for partners and customers wanting to upgrade their own deployments to SQL Server 2012. Additionally, there will be some new CRM features that make use of SQL Server 2012 new capabilities including

• Performance improvements
• Enhanced database recovery
• Next generation BI (“Crescent”) such as pre-defined Power Pivot models, Power View reports, and time-animated reports.

Certifications

Certifications are critical to enterprise adoption and Microsoft has been working hard over the last year to ensure that its data centers and CRM Online service meets several important certification standards including.

• ISO 27001
• SAS 70 Type II
• SOX
• SSAE 16 SOC1
• Safe Harbor
• Data Processing Agreement
• EU Model Clauses
• HIPAA compliance (supported through Business Partner Agreements).

For More Information Download the R8 Release Preview Guide from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM website: http://crmpublish.blob.core.windows.net/docs/ReleasePreviewGuide.pdf

Read the CRM Anywhere blog article by new CRM General Manager Dennis Michalis: https://community.dynamics.com/product/crm/crmnontechnical/b/crmconnection/archive/2012/02/06/crm-anywhere.aspx

Join the discussion on Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=93388708&gid=21231&commentID=-1&trk=eml-anet_ancmt-b-0&ut=3XFzBGrunqTl41

eXtremeCRM is the premier event focused exclusively on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and dedicated to advancing best practices and strategies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizations. There are two separate eXtremeCRM events held each year, one in Europe and the other in the United States.

After the successful eXtreme Prague in 2011 the next venue is Berlin coming up in February 2012. The event is held over a number of days and covers a wide range of subjects all related to CRM. There are 4 tracks including Sell. Deploy, Extend and the highly anticipated eXtreme Practice Leader Summit. There is something for everyone at eXtreme, if you’re a customer or partner, user or developer, sales or management, check out the agenda and see what best suits you.

There are some great speakers presenting in Berlin at eXtreme including 2 of my colleagues Ramon Tebar and Wael Hamze. These guys know their stuff and if you look at the speakers list you will see just how much experience is going to be there including Microsofties, MVP’s and other industry experts, the Ask the Experts session should be awesome!

The next eXtreme after Berlin is in Las Vegas during September-October 2012, if you can’t get there for that, then you should get to Berlin in Feb, learn something new and network with an exciting bunch of people.

Berlin ist Wunderbar!

In Summary the update contains

• Updated assemblies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 and the Microsoft Portal developer toolkit and developer extensions.
• Information about creating localized dialog processes.
• New samples that authenticate the user with the web services without using the helper code
• New topic to help developers find information about using JavaScript with various features that support it.

You can find the related Rollup 6 items here

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28712
• KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2600640
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2600640

Rollup 6 Build Number: 05.00.9690.1992

You can find Complete CRM download links here http://bingsoft.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/updated-crm-2011-download-links/

Important

• Update Rollup 6 cannot be removed. Specific database updates are applied in Update Rollup 6 that will not allow for uninstall.
• Future Update Rollups will require Update Rollup 6 to be applied before they can be installed.  This is so future Update Rollups can support uninstall.
• Full product installations on the download center will be replaced with new packages that include Update Rollup 6.  If CRM is installed from those packages, UR6 does not need to be installed.

A great feature of the CWR software is the native dashboard support. CWR Mobile CRM 2011 smart clients make Dynamics CRM 2011 dashboards available to users as real-time mobile dashboards.

Dashboards on a mobile device are truly awesome, check it out and hopefully you or your customers will gain that competitive advantage.

Check out the release notes here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh547453.aspx#bkmk_ReleaseHistory

Building the next generation of business applications using Microsoft Silverlight and Dynamics CRM 2011

Fellow MVP David Yack has produced the perfect guide to Silverlight with Dynamics CRM 2011. I highly recommend this book for people new to Silverlight or Dynamics CRM but I also think  those already working with either Silverlight or Dynamics CRM should check it out. I’ve been reading through it this past week and have been learning key things that will help during the design and implementation of my latest projects. I wish I had this book earlier, as my CRM tools on Codeplex could have really benefited from the details in this book too. It shows the knowledge and understanding David has of Microsoft’s latest incarnation of CRM along with Silverlight and how to integrate them.

David Yack MVP is the CTO of Colorado Technology Consultants based in Colorado. He is a Microsoft Regional Director and a Microsoft MVP for Silverlight. This guys knows his stuff…

For an overview of the book’s chapters check it out here, and here is a quick summary of chapter titles.

Chapter 1 – Using Silverlight with CRM 2011 
Chapter 2 – Getting Started
Chapter 3 – XAML 101 and Basic Layout
Chapter 4 – Silverlight Controls
Chapter 5 –Data Binding Basics
Chapter 6 – Application Navigation
Chapter 7 – Out of Browser Support
Chapter 8 – Application Composition with MEF
Chapter 9 – Other Silverlight Business Application Features
Chapter 10 – Enhancing the User Experience
Chapter 11 – Discovering SketchFlow
Chapter 12 –Interacting with CRM Form
Chapter 13 –OData Basics
Chapter 14 –OData Beyond the Basics
Chapter 15 – Using the WCF Service
Chapter 16 – Application Architectures
Chapter 17 –Silverlight Debugging

There is now no excuse for not producing high quality Silverlight apps when developing for Dynamics CRM.

There are a number of things in this release that relate to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM UR5 and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online November Service Release

•  A new organization of the content that highlights and separates the core SDK from developer extensions.
• A new section to collect the growing number of developer tools, including version 1.0 of the Developer Toolkit.
• Developer documentation for the new Activity Feeds feature.
• Over 15 new samples! See the complete list of new and updated samples and links to all  the new topics in the Release History on the first page.

There is loads to read and discover.

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27820
• Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2567454
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2567454

Rollup 5 Build Number: 5.0.9688.1533

Important

You cannot remove Update Rollup 5.
Specific database updates are applied in Update Rollup5 that will not let you uninstall Update Rollup 5. You should back up your databases before you install this update.

Dynamics CRM Q4 Service Update

Update Rollup 5 also contains the Dynamics CRM Q4 Service Update features. For more information about the Dynamics CRM Q4 Service Update features, visit the following Microsoft website:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM: the road ahead

• Improvements to Dialogs (i.e. Lookup and Date fields included)
• User Access Auditing
• Multi series charts
• Dynamic Links in Emails and Dialogs

New Solutions on MarketPlace that require UR5 

Activity Feeds

http://dynamics.pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-us/applications/microsoft-dynamics-crm-activity-feeds-12884926310

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds provide real time notifications and quick sharing of information that the team cares about via quick and short updates. Activity Feeds enable a user to follow and listen in on important activities that take place around the people, accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities or anything else that they care about.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile

http://dynamics.pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-US/applications/microsoft-dynamics-crm-mobile-12884927739

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile is a Windows Phone 7.5 app which brings Activity Feeds to your mobile device.

It runs a couple of tests, measuring latency to the datacenter/server, bandwidth, and performs a few Javascript performance tests to measure the CPU/browser performance of the machine.

You can access the tool using the following URL after you install UR4 or later.
http://<serverUrl>/tools/diagnostics/diag.aspx

The latency and bandwidth test the download speed across the wire from the CRM web site to the client browser. A low latency and high bandwidth is ideal. If your values show a high latency and low bandwidth then your CRM experience may be slow depending on the extremity of the range. For some performance reading you can take a look here.

Optimizing and Maintaining Client Performance for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23261

Optimizing Performance for CRM Online 2011
http://community.dynamics.com/product/crm/crmnontechnical/b/crmonlineteam/archive/2011/04/08/optimizing-performance-for-crm-online-2011.aspx – even though this is for Online there are some important points

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Performance and Scalability with Intel
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=16673

Improving Microsoft Dynamics CRM Performance and Securing Data with Microsoft SQL Server 2008
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8438

Optimizing and Maintaining the Performance of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server Infrastructure
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27139

The above documents should give you a solid understanding of performance related improvements you can apply to your Dynamics CRM deployment.

The JavaScript test items are testing your CPU/browser performance of your machine. Ideally you want low values here and upgrading your IE browser to the latest version should give you the best results.

Happy tuning.

Cheers,

Rhett Clinton

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27554
• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2556167
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2556167

Important

You cannot remove Update Rollup 4.
Specific database updates are applied in Update Rollup 4 that will not let you uninstall Update Rollup 4. You should back up your databases before you install this update. 

You can begin to contribute by selecting a program from the Program Directory. The Program Directory lists products/programs that are accepting or will be accepting requests for participation. You can sign in with your Windows Live ID , locate a program, and then click Join to request to participate. You can choose to stop participating by selecting the Quit option.

You also have the opportunity to become a beta tester for a product if it’s shown in the list. If a product is not in the list or no Join link is shown then the program is not currently accepting new partcipants.

Once you have signed up you can view your dashboard, which displays products you’re watching and feedback you’ve submitted or are participating on. 

This gives you a great overview of feedback/suggestions along with total votes, comments, workarounds and the author. Votes are potentially the most exciting item in the list as you can see how many other people support your ideas. When Microsoft reply to your items they will add a comment and change the Status. Don’t forget that you can also vote on suggestions by other people, which helps Microsoft see the demand more clearly for suggested features and can influence the priority of future development.

You can then go to the home of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to search existing feedback, create new suggestions and even participate in the occasional survey. An important note shown on the home page states the following.

Important note:  Your suggestions are much more likely to be implemented when they contain a single idea with a detailed description. This allows the community to find and vote for suggestions. It also makes it easier for the product team to track each suggestion. Submitting a list of suggestions in a single form may cause your suggestion to be rejected.  Thank you.

From the home page you can select to search existing or create new product suggestions. Once you select the Search Existing option you will be taken to the Feedback Centre for Dynamics CRM where you can then view the submitted suggestions currently open, the most voted for, the items you’re watching, your current feedback and all items resolved. By clicking on an author’s name in the list you will be taken to the collection of suggestions by that author.

Once you have searched through the existing suggestions, checked out the most voted for, voted for you favourite suggestions and thought about all the great ideas you have, you can then select the Submit Feedback option. You can also select to Create New suggestions from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM home page as shown earlier. When you have selected to submit feedback you input the details including title, description, visibility, product version, industry along with other items that help Microsoft obtain a more informed picture of what is being submitted.

Now that you have seen how easy it is to provide your feedback, suggestions and ideas to Microsoft, you should have MS Connect bookmarked in your browser and be checking up there regularly. Here is the list of suggestions I have made so far on MS Connect for Dynamics CRM, check them out and see if you support them. Maybe you have even better ideas, if so then share them, the community and Microsoft want to hear them.

Cheers,
Rhett

Some of the additions include:

• Added Plugin Registration tool support for Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Services (ACS) 2.0.
• Updated the AppFabric SDK links and added information on how to use Windows Azure AppFabric ACS 2.0.
• Added documentation for the Plug-in Profiler tool.
• Added guidance recommending the use of PNG web resources for icons.
• Added comment to clarify about the supported use of jQuery.
• Added guidance for improving performance using the setVisible method.

CRM 2011 Distribute Workflow Activity
This custom workflow plugin allows you to execute a workflow for each entity that has a 1:N or N:N relationship to a given entity. For example, execute a workflow for each case related to an account (1:N), or for each competitor related to an opportunity (N:N), etc.

CRM 2011 Share Record Code Activity
This custom workflow plugin allows tyou to share any record that can be shared or remove sharing to any record in CRM 2011.

Alberto has an interesting addition to his codeplex gallery titled the CRM 2011 Duplicate Detection Toolkit which you can read about here.

Let’s thank Alberto for his hard work and for sharing these great tools with the CRM community.

You can also find these tools along with more development resources for Dynamics CRM on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM TechNet Wiki here http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-development-resources.aspx

This week I was asked about showing an associated grid view and preview form within a Silverlight application similar to the way Outlook has a grid/preview layout. There are a couple of ways to do this and the one most obvious is to use the Silverlight controls and simply bind the CRM data to them. One alternative I pondered was to reuse the existing CRM Grid and CRM Form in IFrames on a HTML Page. This page could then be loaded into CRM as a Web Resource and opened by a Silverlight application or linked to in SiteMap, etc…

The main advantage to this approach is that any changes to the CRM form fields or grid columns would not require any change to be implemented to this html page, where as using a full Silverlight app you would have to update the application aswell. I’m going to show you the pieces of the prototype I built and hopefully you may be able to take this further for your own benefit. Here is a screenshot of the layout of the html page.

The html body consists of 2 iframes, one for the grid and the other for the form. In this example the grid is loading the Contact’s Activities associated grid view.

<body onload="Initialise()">

</body>

I have a number of constants for this prototype demo but some of these you will want to determine from a querystring or ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx file,

// You should collect the the server address and org values using the ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx file <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg328541.aspx" target="_blank">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg328541.aspx</a>
var server = "http://crm:5555"; // server url with port, if port required
var orgName = "Playground";

//  grid related settings
var entityId = "<A Guid Value goes here>"; // e.g. 00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000000
var entityType = "2"; // Entity type for Contact
var areaView = "areaActivities"; // Activities associated view id found in Left hand Nav Pane by viewing DOM
//var areaView = "areaOpps"; // Opportunities associated view id found in Left hand Nav Pane by viewing DOM
var internalGridElement = "crmGrid_Contact_ActivityPointers"; // Activity Grid found in DOM
//var internalGridElement = "crmGrid_opportunity_customer_contacts"; // Opportunity Grid found in DOM

The body onload simply calls Initialise which sets the uxGrid iframe.

// Initialise page, set grid iframe
function Initialise() {
    document.getElementById("uxGrid").src = server + "/" + orgName + "/userdefined/areas.aspx?oId=%7b" + entityId + "%7d&oType=" + entityType + "&security=000000&tabSet=" + areaView;
}

When the grid loaded and when I selected a new view on the grid I received the ‘Error on Page’ and after tracing through the script I found that I could simply provide some stubs which handle the calls executed by the grid. I return null and I haven’t seen any functional issues arise from this during my testing.

// Stubs to handle grid in an IFRAME, errors occur otherwise
var Mscrm = new Object();
Mscrm.PageManager = new Object();
Mscrm.PageManager.get_instance = function() { return null; }

var crmRibbonManager = null;

$find = function(e) {
    return null;
}
// End Stubs

The following functions provide the functionality for the form preview to load. LoadPreviewPane is called when you single click a row in the grid. CleanFormWindow removes the form ribbon, left hand nav pane, footer and also disables all fields on the form.

// Show form in preview area
function LoadPreviewPane(entity) {
if (entity != null) {
document.getElementById("uxPreview").style.visibility = "hidden";
document.getElementById("uxPreview").src = server + "/" + orgName + "/main.aspx?etn=" + entity.TypeName + "&extraqs=" + escape("&id=" + entity.Id) + "&pagetype=entityrecord";
}
else {
document.getElementById("uxPreview").src = "about:blank";
}
}

// Remove chrome from around form in preview area
function CleanFormWindow() {
    if (event.srcElement.readyState == "complete") {
        var frameDoc = document.getElementById("uxPreview").contentWindow.document;

        if (frameDoc && frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame")) {
if(frameDoc.getElementById("perceivedRibbonId")) frameDoc.getElementById("perceivedRibbonId").style.display = "none";
frameDoc.getElementById("crmTopBar").style.display = "none";
 frameDoc.getElementById("crmContentPanel").style.top = "0px"; // Move Form Content area up to top of window, initial style.top is 135px
 frameDoc.getElementById("crmContentPanel").style.height = "100%";
 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").style.height = "100%";

 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").onreadystatechange = function() {

 if (frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").readyState == "complete") {
 try {
 // Hide Left Hand Nav bar / pane
 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").contentWindow.document.getElementById("crmNavBar").parentElement.style.display = "none";
 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").contentWindow.document.getElementById("tdAreas").parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.colSpan = 2;
 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").contentWindow.document.getElementById("tdAreas").parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.style.height = "100%";

 // Hide the Breadcrumb and Record Set Toolbar
 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").contentWindow.document.getElementById("recordSetToolBar").parentElement.style.display = "none";

 // Hide the Form Footer Bar
 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").contentWindow.document.getElementById("crmFormFooter").parentElement.style.display = "none";

 // make everything readonly on the form using Xrm.Page controls
 frameDoc.getElementById("contentIFrame").contentWindow.Xrm.Page.ui.controls.forEach(SetControlDisabled);

 // Everything is finished so show the form
 document.getElementById("uxPreview").style.visibility = "visible";
 } catch (ex)
 { }
 }
 }
 }
 }
}

// Delegate function for disabling control in form control collection
function SetControlDisabled(control,index)
{
control.setDisabled(true);
}

The AttachGridEvent function attaches the GridClick function to the onselectionchange event of the internalGridElement defined in the constants earlier. A line of code sets the grid to single row selection to prevent a user from selecting multiple rows.

function AttachGridEvent() {

if (document.getElementById("uxGrid").readyState == "complete") {
var frameDoc = document.getElementById("uxGrid").contentWindow.document;
if (frameDoc.getElementById(internalGridElement) != null) {
frameDoc.getElementById(internalGridElement).attachEvent("onselectionchange", GridClick);
// Set grid to single select
if(frameDoc.getElementById(internalGridElement).document.getElementById("max"))
frameDoc.getElementById(internalGridElement).document.getElementById("max").value = 1;
}
}
}
// GridClick function for onselectionChanged event
var bFired = false;
function GridClick() {
selectedItems = new Array();

var grid = null;

//    get array of selected records
var frameDoc = document.getElementById("uxGrid").contentWindow.document;

if (bFired == false) {

if (frameDoc.getElementById(internalGridElement)) {
grid = frameDoc.getElementById(internalGridElement).control;
if (grid.get_selectedRecordCount() > 0) {
var records = grid.get_selectedRecords();
// record object fields
// Id
// Name
// TypeCode
// TypeName
LoadPreviewPane(records[0]);
}
else {
LoadPreviewPane(null);
}
}
bFired = true;
}
else {
bFired = false;
}
}

Hopefully you are able to reconstruct a html page from these examples and remember you must import the html page as a Web Resource otherwise you will end up with a cross domain error.

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26912
• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2547347
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2547347

Check out the CRM Team blog for further details about the release http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2011/06/06/announcing-microsoft-dynamics-crm-sdk-update-v5-0-5.aspx

Also note that the Developer Toolkit for Visual Studio is included in this release.

You can find his blog here http://mscrmtools.blogspot.com

The list of CRM 2011 tools that can be found on codeplex so far include

SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Ribbon Browser for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

JavaScript Web Resource Manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

View Layout Replicator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Searchable Property Updater for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Let’s thank Tanguy for his hard work and for sharing these great tools with the CRM community.

You can also find these tools along with more development resources for Dynamics CRM on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM TechNet Wiki here http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-development-resources.aspx

New Export to Excel feature added to the CRM 2011 Metadata Browser.

Export your entities, attributes and relationships in either xml (MS Excel) or csv fomat.

Summary

I developed the CRM 2011 Metadata Browser as a Silverlight 4 application that is packaged as a Managed CRM 2011 Solution. This tool allows you to view metadata within CRM including Entities, Attributes and Relationships. The tool uses the 2011 endpoint Organization.svc/web WCF service and is accessible from the Settings area under Customizations in CRM once imported into CRM.

You can download the CRM 2011 Metadata Browser from codeplex.

Check out the CRM Team blog for further details about the release http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2011/06/06/announcing-microsoft-dynamics-crm-sdk-update-v5-0-4.aspx

Check out the session details here http://www.xrmvirtual.com/events/CRM2011_ribbon

The event description is as follows

When: June 7th 2011 at 9am PST (5pm GMT)

Duration: 1 hour. 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 – Customizing the Ribbon

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 introduces the new Microsoft Office 2010 contextual ribbon to deliver a consistent, familiar navigation and user experience. Highly customizable, the Ribbon offers many new UI features such as dynamic menus, contextual behaviors and rules along with a rich gallery of UI controls such as Combo Box, Text Box and Label. This session will cover Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Ribbon features and capabilities while demonstrating the Ribbon’s customization techniques and elements.

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a5a088be-c19e-43b5-87fb-219c2a2bc280
• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466086
• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2466086

You have the option of downloading a second VM that has exchange so the VM builders look to have put some thought into providing some performance with regards this virtual machine setup.

There is more info on PartnerSource so if you have access, happy downloading…

For interest I have included the setup steps here for reference from page 5 of the CRM 2011 VM Overview document.

This Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 VM must be run on a 64bit server with Hyper-V. 

1.       Download the compressed files

2.       Double click the .exe file to begin the decompression, specify the desired output location

3.       Open Hyper-V Manager

4.       In the Actions pane (on the right), click Virtual Network Manager

• o    Click New virtual network, select Private, click Add (Name: CRM2011, Connection type: Private virtual machine network), click OK

Optional: For Internet access from the VM a second virtual network (Connection type: External) is required.  Repeat step 4 but select External (Name: CRM2011-External, Connection type: External).  If you have an existing virtual network you can assign it to the VM after import.

5.       Click Import Virtual Machine…Browse to the folder CRM2011 in the output location specified in step 2.

• o    Import Settings: Move or restore the virtual machine…
• o    Note: Import will complete with some warnings if you used your existing virtual network, click OK

Optional: To send E-mails between users on the Virtual Machine, repeat steps 4 & 5 to import the CRM2011-Exchange VM.

6.       Within the Virtual Machines window of the Hyper-V Manager, click on CRM2011

7.       In the Actions pane (on the right), under CRM2011 (at the bottom), click Settings

8.       Under Hardware, click on Network Adapter.

9.       Select the Network: Local Area Connection – Virtual Network, click OK

10.    In the Actions pane (on the right), under CRM2011 (at the bottom), click Start

Optional: To send E-mails between users on the Virtual Machine, repeat steps 6 – 10 to configure the CRM2011-Exchange VM.

11.    Within the Virtual Machines window of the Hyper-V Manager, double click on CRM2011 to connect to the VM

12.    Once the VM loads, click on the  icon (representing CTRL+ALT+DEL) to login.

13.    Initially login using the administrator credentials.

14.    A popup will appear stating You must restart your computer to apply these changes, Click Restart Now

The purpose of this wiki is to provide a comprehensive guide for IT professionals to learn about then implement, configure, customize, maintain and support Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Just like the CRM SDK, CRM Forums, books and CRM Blogs, this repository of CRM knowledge based articles and general Dynamics CRM information is a great place to learn and expand your CRM knowledge. The CRM MVP’s and various others have been working hard to build up a knowledge base to help the community find useful information with topics covering a wide array of Dynamics CRM and related technologies.

Check it out and learn something new…

This book is more than just for admins, it covers a wide area of topics including a great introduction on CRM and the planning involved when choosing to implement it. So much is covered in this book from installation, customisation, extending,  integration, reporting and also how to use CRM 2011. If you’re about to start a CRM 2011 project or currently implementing one, or you just want to learn CRM 2011, this book is a great place to start and also build up your knowledge on this excellent product.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK Download Contents

 The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK download package includes the following files and folders:

• Bin Folder – Contains the assemblies needed for development using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
• HandsOnLabs – Contains training materials for learning to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
• Resources Folder – Contains development resources such as a style guide, images, data import maps and other templates.
• SampleCode Folder – Contains sample code to demonstrate how to develop using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
• Schemas Folder – Contains the schemas used for validation using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
• Solutions Folder – Contains sample solutions for use with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
• Tools Folder - Contains the tools needed to register plug-ins and workflows, and to create strongly typed classes.
• Walkthroughs Folder – Contains the completed solutions that correspond to walkthroughs presented in the SDK documentation.
• LicenseTerms.docx - The Microsoft software license terms for this SDK.
• CrmSdk2011.chm – The help file containing SDK documentation.
• Microsoft_Dynamics_CRM_2011_SDK_Readme.htm – This readme file.

I’m  looking  forward to another exciting year in the Dynamics CRM world and I hope to see you all there….

Cheers,

Rhett Clinton MVP