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: 05.00.9689.1985

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 relatedimprovements 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

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()">

<iframe id="uxGrid" onreadystatechange="AttachGridEvent()" height="300px" width="100%"  ></iframe>
<iframe id="uxPreview" onreadystatechange="CleanFormWindow()" height="500px" width="100%"></iframe>

</body>

I have a number of constants for this prototype demo but some of these you will want to determine from a querystring or similar,

var server = "servername:port"; // server name with port, if port required
var orgName = "Your Org Name";

//  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 = "http://" + 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 = "http://" + 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")) {        
            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

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…

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

You can access Mobile Express by simply appending /m to your CRM Server Url.

On Premise
http://<Server>:<Port>/<Organisation>/m

CRM Online
https://<Organisation>.crm.dynamics.com/m    (North America)
https://<Organisation>.crm4.dynamics.com/m (EMEA)
https://<Organisation>.crm5.dynamics.com/m (APAC)

So you might be thinking what will Mobile Express do for me, well here are 11 reasons to go mobile with CRM 2011.

1. Access your data from anywhere

 On the way to a client site , in a meeting, at the airport or at home, your data is waiting to be accessed.

2. Access your data from any web capable device

Web capable devices are becoming more common every day. The most common device is the mobile phone though there is an increasing number of other such mobile devices that are just waiting to be connected to Microsoft CRM.

3. Easily configurable within the CRM UI

 Enable the entities you want, select the available fields, then publish. It’s really as easy as that. You can even take advantage of Role based forms.

4. Everybody has a mobile device

 Do you know anyone who does not have a mobile device.

5. Real-time access to CRM data

 Need up-to-date stock levels, case information, an account’s status or even address data, its live data and you want it now.

6. No installation on mobile device required

 No need to install special software, no maintenance per device, just a simple Url, bookmark the Url in your mobile device browser and you’re always ready to go.

7. View, Update and Create CRM data on the move

 You may need to check pricing, create an appointment, update an account, close a case, and the list goes on. Why wait until you get back to the office, are you even going to go back to the office?

8. Get the competitive advantage

 Are your competitors using a CRM Mobile application? They aren’t waiting around to see if you are, so get it first.

9. Talk to your customer and access CRM data at the same time.

While on your phone or in a meeting, you could be giving your customer info they want right there and then, forget about “I’ll have to get back to you later” statements.

10. Increased Productivity

Having CRM data at your finger tips allows you to create that new appointment or update that case without even  opening your laptop or turning on your PC, now you can go get that coffee and donut.

11. It’s FREE

What is there more to say, CRM Mobile Express is free with Microsoft CRM and its waiting for you to connect, check it out and get that competitive advantage now.

To see a great overview of CRM 2011 Mobile Express check out these articles
http://crmmongrel.blogspot.com/2010/10/mobile-express-for-dynamics-crm-2011.html
http://crmmongrel.blogspot.com/2010/10/mobile-express-for-dynamics-crm-2011_12.html
http://crmmongrel.blogspot.com/2010/10/mobile-express-for-dynamics-crm-2011_2662.html

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 16 is here (9th Mar 2011) and information about the Rollup is here.

Features of Update Rollup 16
• IE 9 support
• Performance improvements for Organization Import
• CRM Client synchronization fixes

You can download the CRM 2011 OData Query Designer  from codeplex.

[UPDATE]

Latest Update 8th March 2011
1. Added dropdown list of available OptionSet values for a filter when of type OptionSet, Boolean, Status and State.
2. Attribute lists now show the UserLocalizedLabel Display Name instead of Schema Name.
3. Resolved issues with some attribute types not generating correctly when used in a filter.

Has this Tool saved you time…

If you have benefited from downloading and using this tool, please feel free to donate an amount of your choice. Thankyou

GBP – >

USD – >

Euro – >

The Microsoft Community Contributor Award is reserved for participants who have made notable contributions in Microsoft online community forums such as TechNet, MSDN and Answers. The value of these resources is greatly enhanced by participants like you, who voluntarily contribute your time and energy to improve the online community experience for others. https://www.microsoftcommunitycontributor.com/overview.aspx

I would like to thank the Microsoft Community & Online Support Team for this award and congratulations to all others that have received the MCCA for all your hard work.

You can download the CRM 2011 Metadata Browser from codeplex.

The look and feel of this component will improve and new functionality will be added in the near future so please provide feedback on your experience.

To activate the CRM 2011 Server, please use the following keys:

MQM2H-JYYRB-RRD6J-8WBBC-CVBD3 (Server)

H84KC-JH8DF-7PDYK-TXBXR-2RMMT (Workgroup)

This training kit is for .NET developers to learn the development features of Dynamics CRM and help them build applications using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online.

The training kit includes various resources such as

• Presentations – Presentation decks in PowerPoint (.pptx) format that you can use to learn the concepts.
• Videos – Video recordings of the presentation along with demos delivered by expert trainers.
• Hands-on Labs – Hands-on labs with detailed instructions and source code that will walk you through the various development features.

Download the training kit here: Dynamics CRM 2011 Developer Training Kit

Girish Raja originally posted about the kit release and you can see the blog post here

The downloadable version can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=420f0f05-c226-4194-b7e1-f23ceaa83b69

You can sign up for a 30 day free trial at http://crm.dynamics.com

CRM 2011 RTM On-Premise has also been announced for release on the 28th of February 2011.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 15 is here (13th Jan 2011) and information about the Rollup is here.

Use the following code to set the Customer Lookup to Contact instead of Account and set the default view.

document.getElementById("customerid").setAttribute("defaulttype", "2");
Xrm.Page.getControl("customerid").setDefaultView("a2d479c5-53e3-4c69-addd-802327e67a0d");

The first line sets the default entity type to Contact for the Customer Lookup dialog.

The second line sets the Customer Lookup dialog’s view to the ‘Contacts Lookup View’ using its guid value. If you do not use this line of code it will default to the ‘My Active Contacts View’ or whatever you have selected as the default Contact view.

To activate the CRM 2011 RC, please use the following keys:

MQM2H-JYYRB-RRD6J-8WBBC-CVBD3 (Server)

H84KC-JH8DF-7PDYK-TXBXR-2RMMT (Workgroup)

There are two options for moving an existing deployment of CRM 2011 Beta to the RC build, the steps for which are outlined below; use the option that is most appropriate for your project.

OPTION 1 – Import/Upgrade

1. Install the RC bits for the CRM Server on an alternate computer.
2. Install the CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions to the computer running SQL in the new deployment.
3. Restore the database backups of the Beta orgs to the computer running SQL in the new deployment.
4. Use Deployment Manager to Import the Beta orgs. The Import wizard will detect that the org is a Beta org and will upgrade it to the RC bits.
5. During import, use the Auto Mapping option to map CRM users to Active Directory.

OPTION 2 – Connect to Existing

1. Uninstall all CRM components from deployment computers.
2. Install the RC bits for CRM Server, and on SQL Server page of the setup wizard, specify to Connect to Existing.
3. The Setup wizard will detect and upgrade the config database and the default org to RC.
4. Use Deployment Manager to upgrade the remaining Beta orgs to RC.

Attend this FREE global virtual launch event and watch Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introduce Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Learn how it is designed to help you boost sales, improve marketing, enrich customer service interactions, and accelerate line of business application development through xRM.

Hear keynote presentations by Kirill Tatarinov (Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions), Michael Park (Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions), and Brad Wilson (General Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM)

http://crm.dynamics.com/2011launch/

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 14 is here (19th November 2010) and information about the Rollup is here.

From an IFrame HTML page

document.parentWindow.parent.Xrm.Page

From a new window/dialog

window.top.opener.parent.Xrm.Page

An example of a new window being used is when you are viewing the Account Form and then choose to create a new Contact from the left hand navigation pane and then within the Contact Form you need to access the Account Form (parent).

Potential CRM 4 syntax to be replaced is as follows

window.opener.parent.document.crmForm
window.opener.document.crmForm
window.opener.parent.crmForm

If you have downloaded the CRM 4 to CRM 2011 JavaScript Converter Tool before December 2010 then you can add the following code snippets to the TOP of the ConversionList.xml file straight after the <snippets> node, alternatively just download the tool again.

    <snippet>
      <crm4>window.opener.parent.document.|_|;</crm4>
      <crm5>window.top.opener.parent.|_|;</crm5>
    </snippet>
    <snippet>
      <crm4>window.opener.document.|_|;</crm4>
      <crm5>window.top.opener.parent.|_|;</crm5>
    </snippet>
    <snippet>
      <crm4>window.opener.parent.|_|;</crm4>
      <crm5>window.top.opener.parent.|_|;</crm5>
    </snippet>

Both Mitch Milam MVP and I searched high and low for this solution as the Xrm.Page object is not in the DOM at that same location as the CRM 4 crmForm object. Please let us know if you experience any problems with accessing parent forms and we will try and help you.

Also if you liked my CRM 4 to CRM 2011 JavaScript Converter Tool then you might like to take a look at Mitch Milam’s CRM Migration Assistant also for converting scripts.

From IE Developer Tools

Also, Paul Way has shown that you can access the Xrm.Page object from the Developer Tools console window using the following code.

frames[0].Xrm.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):

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 CRM On-premises customers:
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

Another great thing about this is that you do not see any Bing Maps chrome/borders/adverts, it is just the Map and associated controls. Have a look at this example which will load into a new browser window.

Take a look and enjoy.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 13 is here (23th September 2010) and information about the Rollup is here.

If you haven’t already, you should visit the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog to catch up with the latest info and informative articles regarding CRM.

I created this as an aid to help me during upgrades from CRM 4 to CRM 2011, so if you would like to test it against your CRM 2011 javascript web resources after you upgrade from CRM 4 then let me know how it goes.      

You can find the tool on codeplex here.    

Has this Tool saved you time…

If you have benefited from downloading and using this tool, please feel free to donate an amount of your choice. Thankyou

GBP – >

USD – >

Euro – >

// Toggle the Ribbon Toolbar to Show/Hide (same as clicking the show/hide Ribbon button)
window.top.document.getElementById("minimizeribbon").fireEvent("onclick");

// Hide the Ribbon Toolbar and move the form Content area to the top of the window.
window.top.document.getElementById("crmTopBar").style.display = "none";
window.top.document.getElementById("crmContentPanel").style.top = "0px"; // Move Form Content area up to top of window, initial style.top is 135px

// Hide Left Hand Nav bar / pane
document.getElementById("crmNavBar").parentElement.style.display = "none";
document.getElementById("tdAreas").parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.colSpan = 2;

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

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

Well the news is out, MS CRM 2011 Beta has arrived. You can read the Microsoft Press release here. Microsoft have delivered an exceptional product and I’m sure everyone who will be reviewing the CRM 2011 Beta will not be disappointed. Feature rich and overloaded with extras way beyond CRM 4. Check out the links below to find all the info you’ll need to get started.

Download CRM 2011 Beta.

Sign up for CRM 2011 Beta Online.

If you would like to see a great video presentation of CRM 2011 by Senior Technical Product Manager Eric Boocock go here.

Check out the developer videos and documentation here for the following items

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Software Development Kit (SDK)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta Implementation Guide (On Premises only)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online E-mail Router Installation Guide
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Outlook Installation Guide
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Beta Readme (Online only)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta Readme (On Premises only)

For those that missed this excellent presentation you can find it here.

//
// Create Email From template with the specified customer and regarding entity
//
CreateEmailFromTemplate = function(Customer, TemplateId, EntityId, EntityTypeName) {
// Generate an email activity from the specified template
//
var xml = "" +
"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" +
"&lt;soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"<a href="//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\&quot;">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\</a>" xmlns:xsi=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\</a>" xmlns:xsd=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\</a>"&gt;" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
" &lt;soap:Body&gt;" +
" &lt;Execute xmlns=\"<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\</a>"&gt;" +
" &lt;Request xsi:type='InstantiateTemplateRequest' ReturnDynamicEntities='false' &gt;"+
" &lt;TemplateId&gt;" + TemplateId + "&lt;/TemplateId&gt;"+
" &lt;ObjectType&gt;" + EntityTypeName + "&lt;/ObjectType&gt;"+
" &lt;ObjectId&gt;" + EntityId + "&lt;/ObjectId&gt;"+
" &lt;/Request&gt;"+
" &lt;/Execute&gt;" +
" &lt;/soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Envelope&gt;";
var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", "<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute</a>");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
var entityNode = resultXml.selectSingleNode("//BusinessEntityCollection/BusinessEntities/BusinessEntity");
if(entityNode == null)
{
alert("Could not create email from template.");
return;
}
// Get the email details
var emailBody = entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:description");
var subject = entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:subject");
//
// Create email activity in CRM
//
var emailXml = "&lt;?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?&gt;" +
"&lt;soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"<a href="//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\&quot;">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\</a>" xmlns:xsi=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\</a>" xmlns:xsd=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\</a>"&gt;" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
"&lt;soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;Create xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices'&gt;" +
"&lt;entity xsi:type='email'&gt;" +
"&lt;description&gt;" + emailBody.text + "&lt;/description&gt;" +
"&lt;subject&gt;" + subject.text + "&lt;/subject&gt;" +
"&lt;regardingobjectid type='" + EntityTypeName + "'&gt;" + EntityId + "&lt;/regardingobjectid&gt;";
if(Customer != null)
emailXml = emailXml + "&lt;to&gt;&lt;activityparty&gt;&lt;partyid type='" + Customer[0].typename + "'&gt;" + Customer[0].id + "&lt;/partyid&gt;&lt;/activityparty&gt;&lt;/to&gt;";
emailXml = emailXml + "&lt;/entity&gt;" +
"&lt;/Create&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Envelope&gt;";
xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", "<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Create&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Create</a>");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(emailXml);
var resultEmailXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
// Check for errors.
var errorCount = resultEmailXml.selectNodes('//error').length;
if (errorCount &gt; 0)
{
alert("Could not create email due to error. ");
return;
}
var createNode = resultEmailXml.selectSingleNode("//CreateResult");
if(createNode == null)
{
alert("Could not create email.");
return;
}
// Display the email activity to the user.
var emailId = createNode.text;
window.open('/activities/email/edit.aspx?id={' + emailId + '}');
} // CreateEmailFromTemplate

You can use this function to retrieve a template id by specifying a template name/title.

//
// Retrieve the template's id value given the specified template name/title
//
GetTemplateIdByName = function(Name)
{
var id = null;
var xml = "" +
"&lt;?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?&gt;" +
"&lt;soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"<a href="//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\&quot;">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\</a>" xmlns:xsi=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\</a>" xmlns:xsd=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\</a>"&gt;" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
" &lt;soap:Body&gt;" +
" &lt;RetrieveMultiple xmlns=\"<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\</a>"&gt;" +
" &lt;query xmlns:q1=\"<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query\&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query\</a>" xsi:type=\"q1:QueryExpression\"&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:EntityName&gt;template&lt;/q1:EntityName&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:ColumnSet xsi:type=\"q1:ColumnSet\"&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Attributes&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Attribute&gt;templateid&lt;/q1:Attribute&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Attributes&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:ColumnSet&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Criteria&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:FilterOperator&gt;And&lt;/q1:FilterOperator&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Conditions&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Condition&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:AttributeName&gt;title&lt;/q1:AttributeName&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Operator&gt;Equal&lt;/q1:Operator&gt;" +
"&lt;q1:Values&gt;" +
"&lt;q1:Value xsi:type='xsd:string'&gt;" + Name + "&lt;/q1:Value&gt;" +
"&lt;/q1:Values&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Condition&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Conditions&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Criteria&gt;" +
" &lt;/query&gt;" +
" &lt;/RetrieveMultiple&gt;" +
" &lt;/soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Envelope&gt;";
var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", "<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple</a>");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
var entityNode = resultXml.selectSingleNode("//RetrieveMultipleResult/BusinessEntities/BusinessEntity");
if(entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:templateid") != null)
id = entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:templateid").text;
return id;
} // GetTemplateIdByName

The following code provides an example of a function that can be called to execute the above functionality. The example assumes you have placed all of the code from this article in the Case's onload event. You can then call the ShowCaseEmailTemplate() function from an ISV.config button or wherever you choose to decide you need it.

//
// Creates and displays an email for a Case
//
ShowCaseEmailTemplate = function()
{
var templateId = GetTemplateIdByName("MyEmailTemplate");
if(templateId != null &amp;&amp; crmForm.ObjectId != null &amp;&amp; crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue != null)
CreateEmailFromTemplate(crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue, templateId, crmForm.ObjectId, "incident");
} // ShowCaseEmailTemplate

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 12 is here (29th July 2010) and information about the Rollup is here.

Listen to the first ever Rollup Podcast by the MS CRM Premier Field Engineering Team here.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 11 is here (4th June 2010) and information about the Rollup is here.

Items of interest may include

• Report Viewer 2008 support
• Enhanced ribbon support for Outlook 2010

The MSCRM Team Blog elaborates on these updates.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2010/06/04/update-rollup-11-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0.aspx

MVP David Jennaway offers a very nice explanation of the latest SDK here.

// CRM 4
var value = new Array();
value[0] = new Object();
value[0].id = idValue;
value[0].name = textValue;
value[0].typename = typeValue;

crmForm.all.fieldName.DataValue = value;

// CRM 2011
var value = new Array();
value[0] = new Object();
value[0].id = idValue;
value[0].name = textValue;
value[0].entityType = typeValue;

Xrm.Page.getAttribute("fieldName").setValue(value);

How about doing it on one line like this instead.

// CRM 4
crmForm.all.field.DataValue = [{id: idValue, name: textValue, typename: typeValue}];

// CRM 2011
Xrm.Page.getAttribute("fieldName").setValue( [{id: idValue, name: textValue, entityType: typeValue}]);

There is a short but interesting article about JavaScript called Seven JavaScript Things I Wish I Knew Much Earlier In My Career by Christian Heilmann if you have some spare time to read.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 10 is here (8th April 2010) and information about the Rollup is here.

If you have look at the code that is used to open the Address Lookup it calls an aspx page named lookupsingle.aspx and passes a querystring parameter ‘class’ with a value of ‘BrowserCustomerAddress’. BrowseCustomerAddress is the title of an xml file found in the ‘Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Applications Files’ folder as BrowseCustomerAddress.xml. This file contains the query elements that the Address dialog uses to retrieve the specific customer addresses. A number of fields and also 3 conditions exist in this file and you will notice that one condition relates to the name field with an operator value of not-null. If you remove this condition node from the xml file, save it and then test your address dialog, you will now see all of the addresses for a customer. This is unsupported so only perform this if absolutely necessary and your aware of the implications.

To reuse the Address dialog on your own entities or where the Address Lookup is not available , for example to fill custom address fields on a Case, then Dave Berry has a good example here of how to utilise the standard MSCRM Address Lookup dialog for your own use.

For a more customised approach then there is an MSDN article here on how to retrieve data for a related entity, in this case it demonstrates retrieving addresses.

Name it the Microsoft Application Framework or Dynamics Application Framework (DAF, ok maybe not the best acronym) but integrated with Visual Studio, SQL Server, SharePoint and the various other Microsoft technolgies. Imagine the ease of integrating CRM with NAV if both systems existed within the same framework.

Obviously Microsoft is building up and investing alot of effort into this feature rich application framework, namely Microsoft CRM and its underlying platform, and only time will tell if the true  potential of this technology mix will be achieved. We could maybe take and alter a statement from HomerSimpson by saying “The Microsoft Application Framework, is there anything it can’t do!”, and although this doesn’t actually exist just yet, I hope it will.

When you search for MSCRM performance on the internet you will find  Optimizing and Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Improving Microsoft Dynamics CRM Performance and Securing Data with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as the ideal starters, but after implementing all of these recommendations you still take 20 seconds on a search.

At this point you start to remove search fields from your view and test again but knowing full well that this is not going to meet your business requirement. You use SQL Profiler and the SQL tuning wizard to try to find the required indexes yet your search is just not coming back in the required time. Do you beef up your tin? Increase your RAM? Install a quicker hard disk array? No… You look at where your search fields are within the database and make sure they are all on the same table.

Issues arise when you try and search across an entity’s base table and extension base table in CRM using Quick Find or the Lookup dialog. The indexes are basically ignored when you cross over the tables. So searching on a Contact when you search on Fullname (Contactbase) and new_anotherField (ContactExtensionbase) will get slower performance. If you try searching on only Fullname the search will be lightning quick, mainly because there is an index already on this field but as soon as you add another search field from the extension table you will not be impressed.

You could make sure all your search fields are on the extension base table and add some indexes to see if that improves. If you have data in the base table (i.e Fullname) then you would have to create an attribute on the extension table and fill it in when the entity is saved using a plugin. For example fullname (ContactBase table) data could be stored in new_fullname (ContactExtensionBase table). Then all of your other custom fields which already exist on the extension table can be placed in an index/indexes and you’ll notice a huge improvement. You might say things like its redundant data, its a pain to have a plugin just for that, and so on, but show your end users the 20 seconds search and you won’t be implementing the system.

On an unsupported side of things, if you do use search fields only from the extension base table and modify the SQL Server entity view (i.e Contact) by swapping the base table (i.e ContactBase) with the extensionbase table (i.e. ContactExtensionBase) and vice versa in the view’s SQL then you will get astonishing results.

I’m referring to the Contact entity here for reference but the same applies across the system.

Restart IIS after adding the values

Add the OLEDBTimeout and the ExtendedTimeout registry subkeys to increase the time-out values

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM
3. Right-click MSCRM, point to New, and then click DWORD Value to create a new DWORD value.
4. Rename the DWORD value to the following value:
   OLEDBTimeout
5. Right-click the DWORD value, and then click Modify.
6. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 86400 in the Value data box, click Decimal in the Base option, and then click OK.Note According to the requirement of the computer that is running SQL server and the number of customization files, the value can be larger than 86400. The value of 86400 is equivalent to 24 hours.
7. Right-click MSCRM, point to New, and then click DWORD Value to create a new DWORD value.
8. Rename the DWORD value to the following value:
   ExtendedTimeout
9. Right-click the DWORD value, and then click Modify.
10. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 1000000 in the Value data box, and then click OK.Notes
    • In the Value data box, you can type a value that is larger than 1,000,000. However, do not type a value that is larger than 2,147,483,647. This is hexadecimal 0x7FFFFFFF.
    • If this key already exists, notice the current value. After you have completed the import or the upgrade for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, set the value of this key back to the original value or delete the key if it did not previously exist. The default OLEDB timeout value is 30 seconds.

<httpModules>
        <clear />
…your own module elements can go here still…
 </httpModules>

 Shall we hold a guessing competition with regards to the final Rollup number before MSCRM 5.0 is released.