Managed VS Unmanaged Solutions!!!

Hi!

Are you also a little confused about the managed/unmaged solutions in Microsoft Dynamics CRM? Here's my little conclusions after a discussion on Microsoft CRM group @ Facebook:
 
My Conclusion/Guideline based on answers above: (MS CRM 2011/2013)

Managed:
If your are a ISV’s or making 3.partys components to multiple customers or are a implementation partner in a customer project with several (3+) involved partners – Managed is recommended.

Main reason why:
Easily and controlled update/deletion/install of solution with possibility to lock down parts of customization.

Main Concerns:
You will have to move the whole solution between environments, meaning ALL customizations HAVE to be ready for deployments at the same time. (No half completed customizations OR controlled half customizations not showed to customer)

Unmanaged:
If you are an implementation partner and doing customizations for single customers with max a few (2-3) other implementation partners and the solution should not be updated and distributed between several customers – Unmanaged in recommended.
Main reason why:
You have the flexibility to refresh development environment and move parts of customizations between environments.
Main Concern:
Require good practice when moving customizations between environments.

Picklist/Optionset OR lookup field CRM 2013

Hi!
Have you ever though about when to use a picklist/optionset, or might even a lookup?

There are many consultancy who are scared of creating too many entities in MS CRM projects. There are several times lookups to a entity with just a name might be better then using a picklist/option set!

A few senarios when you should think of this:

1. When you need the field to locked to certain options, but at the same time easy for super users to update/create new options.

2. When you are integrating two systems, and the master system have a dynamic value, but you want to be "semi"-locked and easy to seach for in MS CRM. (G.ex: A text field in ERP, integrated as a "list of records" in a specific entity in MS CRM. Makes it easier to search for a specific criteria)

3. When you are creating a "generic" solution/field where several options based on customers might bee needed.

4. When you have dependencies on a few fields on the same FORM it could be used.

5. When you want several fields to get information based on a single field. (g.Ex: You create a custom "opportunity line item" entity. On that entity you want to be able to sell 3 products, and based on the product chosen the opportunity linje should get "prize" and "product conditions". Why not create 2 custom enities ("Opporutiniy line item" AND "product") and store "prize" and "product conditions" on the product entity. Then you chose a product in the lookup (N:1) on "opportunity line item" you get "prize" and "product conditions" from the product enity.

+++

Think about it! Are you a "entity/lookup-scared" consultancy/developer!?

Tired of writing your own plugins?

Hi again!

http://www.north52.com/ as their "Formula Manager" solution is life saving for all "none"-developing consultants! It make you create "excel-like" formulas who act as a plugin!

It's suuuuper easy to learn, extremely timesaving, very good ROI for you small customers , and give you the power of creating plugins in minutes without coding!!

I've used it in several projects (On-prem and On-dem) and the best thing, IT'S FREE UP TO A TOTAL OF 10 PLUGINS!

Also remember to take a look at the other cool solutions they have!!

Happy Xrm'ing!!

CRM2011 Setup and Upgrade Errors With Resolutions

When upgrading from CRM 4.0 to MS CRM 2011 you might bump into serveral issues, I've listed some of the most normal serarios :)

"Fragmented indexes were detected in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database",
This might accure during the import of the organizations:

Resolution:
Re-index the organisation databases (A SQL script)

USE MyDatabase
GO
EXEC sp_MSforeachtable @command1="print '?' DBCC DBREINDEX ('?', ' ', 80)"
GO
EXEC sp_updatestats
GO

Updating statistics ensures that queries compile with up-to-date statistics

'System.ServiceModel.Channels.ReceivedFault' in Assembly 'System.ServiceModel, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b73a53451934e545' is not marked as serializable
Error when testing Email router:

Resolution:
Add the account running the email router services to PrivUserGroup security group.

SQLSERVERAGENT (SQLSERVERAGENT) service is not running on the server ......


Resolution:
· Check if SQLSERVERAGENT service is running
· Open the port 445 for SQL Server

Microsoft.Crm.Web.Reporting.SrsReportViewer.SetExecutionCredentials(ServerReport reportObj) Cannot create a connection to data source 'MSCRM'. (rsErrorOpeningConnection)
The error message gets received when accessing the reports from any of the organizations:

Resolution:
· Add SSRS service account to privreporting group.
· Reinstall the reporting extension again using deployment account.

The process to resolve was as follows:

1. Uninstall the Reporting Extensions.
2. Go to the CONFIG DB (MSCRM_CONFIG) of CRM and update your organization's row in the Organization table to set the AreReportsPublished boolean field to FALSE.
3. Re-install the Reporting Extensions and they should publish the reports again.

Note: You will see the message about installation is republishing the reports again

Unknown labels in settings group

Resolution:
Follow the Microsoft article for resolution: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2530358.

Happy XRM'ing!

Startup script Onload AND Onsave! Basic's for every Jscript!

Tired of having XX web-resurces on a form? Well.. Now you can controll everything within one JS with only 1. trigger:
- OnChange
- Onload
- OnSave

as well as:
- For all form types: OnCreate, OnNewForm, onReadonly ++

Read more about this in my previous post: Best javascript startup script ever

/* Script Entry Point */
function OnCrmPageLoad() {
 var FormTypes =
 {
Undefined: 0,
Create: 1,
Update: 2,
ReadOnly: 3,
Disabled: 4,
QuickCreate: 5,
BulkEdit: 6
 }
 runAlways();
 switch (crmForm.FormType) {
 case FormTypes.Create: OnNewFormLoad(); break;
 case FormTypes.Update: OnUpdateFormLoad(); break;
 case FormTypes.ReadOnly: OnReadOnlyFormLoad(); break;
 case FormTypes.Disabled: OnDisabledFormLoad(); break;
 case FormTypes.QuickCreate: OnQuickCreateFormLoad(); break;
 case FormTypes.BulkEdit: OnBulkEditFormLoad(); break;
 case FormTypes.Undefined: alert("Error"); break;
 }
}
/* Implement each Form Type you wish to address */
function runAlways() {
 onchange();
 Xrm.Page.data.entity.addOnSave(addToOnSave);
}
function OnNewFormLoad() {
}
function OnUpdateFormLoad() {}
function OnReadOnlyFormLoad() { }
function OnDisabledFormLoad() { }
function OnQuickCreateFormLoad() { }
function OnBulkEditFormLoad() { }
/******************** OnChange and OnSave functions ***************************/
function onchange(){
 //Skriv inn alle felter som skal ha OnChange
 Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get("prefix_field").addOnChange(Summering);
}
function addToOnSave() {
 var SAVE_MODE_SAVE = 1;
 var SAVE_MODE_SAVEANDCLOSE = 2;
 // Validate only if the user clicked "Save".
 switch (event.Mode){
 case SAVE_MODE_SAVE:
  //Do something for "save"
  if(/*write you check*/) {
   // Cancel the save operation.
   event.returnValue = false;
   return false;
  }
  break;
 case SAVE_MODE_SAVEANDCLOSE:
  //Do something for "Save and close"
  if(/*write you check*/) {
   // Because this is a "Save and Close",
   // just save the form.
   return true;
  }
  break;
 }
}
/*************** End OnChange and OnSave functions ***************************/
/* --------------- Private functions ---------------------*/
function Summering(){
alert("You are inside a function triggerd from a onChange");
}
/* ------------ End Private functions------------------*/

Creating a "Update Account Dialog"

Soon I'm going to publish a dialog that updates an account. with several information:
- Contacts and roles that are req for business regarding marketing, sales ++

Senario:
A company need to update all accounts with certain roles (g.ex IT responseble, CEO, Sales responseble) before a huge invitation is sendt thou CRM, and plan to give this task to the account owners (account responsebles).. They want a sort of easy way to remind the account responsebles to do this, and do it the fastest way posseble..

This video only dispaly an example, you could easly update this dialog gathering other kind of information!

A few new codeplex solution I can't live without!

http://mapsforcrm2011.codeplex.com/- The best solution for "integrating" bing maps into CRM! I love the latitude get function!

Silverlight Application to show multiple entity records on Bing map. Idea is to show records from any number of entities and provide user some additional capabilities(explained below). Also, the content displayed on the map is configurable.

http://crmvisualribbonedit.codeplex.com/
- I love it when it comes to hiding function from ribbon!

Visual Ribbon Editor is a tool for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 that lets you edit CRM ribbons. This ribbon editor shows a preview of the CRM ribbon as you are editing it and allows you to easily modify the ribbon without needing to completely understand the underlying XML schema

http://crm2011autonumber.codeplex.com/
This is a solution for crm 2011 (hosted/on-premise) for autonumbering the configurated entity.
(For online use I pref: Auto-number-for-dynamics-crm-2011 from GAP)

Custom Report for CRM 2011 Online tips and tricks

Hi, it's time to look at tips and tricks for custom Reporting Services report for CRM 2011 online!
- In this case we'll use FetchXML to connect to the CRM data! :)

Requirements:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) installed
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 BIDS Fetch Extension installed
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online account

All this is allready installed in movie! So please install before watching movie if you're going to follow my movie to learn..

A nice blog about installing + basic setup: FetchXML - BIDS install - CRM 2011

Please note the following limitations:

• You cannot specify left outer joins – e.g. The following is not supported: “Select all Accounts who do not have a related Completed Appointment record”
• You cannot specify group by / sum queries – e.g. The following is not supported: “Select Account Name, count(*), sum(est. value) from Account Group By Account Name” – You can only select the records in detail and then perform the aggregation in your report. But…
• Fetch XML queries return a maximum of 5000 records.

In these movies you'll see the following:

Part 1:
- Explaining how to setup the authentification to server
- Explaining hoe to get the fetchXML from CRM that you need.
- Showing the wizard and telling a bit tricks and tips
Part 2:
- Explaining Datasets and data sources
- Showing how to create parameters
- Basic GUI for reports

Part 1: 

Part 2:

 

Hope you found this usefull! :)

Several Basic Javascripts part 2

Hi, more basic javascripts!! Yes, we love them and hate them! Please read Several Basic Javascripts Part 1 aswell!

Get value of lookup: Xrm.Page.getAttribute("prefix_fieldname").getValue()[0].name
- read method as: get array 0's name (or Id)

Set Value of lookup:
var idValue = "2B0CDF21-7C04-E011-8ABA-00155D011B05"; //GUID of record
var textValue = "Prisliste"; //Name of record
var typeValue = "Pricelevel"; //Schema name of record entity
Xrm.Page.getAttribute("prefix_fieldname").setValue([{id: idValue, name: textValue, entityType: typeValue}]);

Show/hide section: Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(1).sections.get("Section_name").setVisible(false)
Set visible values: true or false
Tab value: number (1) or "name"
Section value: "name_of_section"

Show/hide field: Xrm.Page.getControl("prefix_fieldname").setVisible(false)
Set values: true or false

Show/hide tab: Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(5).setVisible(false);
Set Values: true or false

Save: Xrm.Page.data.entity.save();

Optional params: "saveandclose" or "saveandnew"

Set Require lvl: Xrm.Page.getAttribute("prefix_fieldname").setRequiredLevel('required');

Get length of string:
var oField = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("prefix_fieldname").getValue();
alert(oField.length);

Substract content of string:
var oField = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("prefix_fieldname").getValue();
alert(oField.substr(0,7);

Ex: "Consultancy" --> after substract: "Consult"

Set Focus:
Xrm.Page.getControl("prefix_fieldname").setFocus(true);

Hope you found this usefull! :)

CRM 2011 Dialog guide

Hi, one of my favorite new features of CRM 2011 is Dialogs! This is more of a interactive workflow where the user gets guided thou a prosess.

To explain Dialogs, I've created a simple use-case: This is part 1 out of x !? ;)
I have a lot of leads and want to create a custom lead convert.
1. I want to check if the lead have a company allready in CRM as an account
2. I want to check if it exists two leads against same company
- + You could add more checks

So let's get dirty and create this dialog :)

First thing first:
Start by planning the keyelements you'll be needing in this Dialog.
1. We'll going to need two queries.

• Find all Accounts that might be a duplicate.
• Find all Leads that might be the same company.

2. The steps we're going to need are:

• Build up Queries
• Check the Queries

3. Have a basic thought of the logic under each step:
Build up Queries

• Find all Accounts where: Accountname in Accounts entity equals/contains Company field in selected lead
• Find all Leads where: Company field in selected lead equals/contains company field in other leads

Check the Queries

• If  the query "Find all Accounts that might be a duplicate." contains more then zero records AND the query "Find all Leads that might be the same company." contains more then one recod. (Since we running dialog on one of them)
• Promt user and ask what to do
• Else if:
• "Find all Accounts that might be a duplicate." contains more then zero records
• Promt user and ask what to do
• "Find all Leads that might be the same company." contains more then one record
• Promt user and ask what to do
• Default:
• Promte user and tell no duplicates or other leads are found, ask what he wanna create:
• Create Account: Yes/No
• Create Contact: Yes/No
• Create Opportunity Yes/No
• if Create Account equals yes
• Start Child Dialog "Create Account"
• if Create Contact equals yes
• Start Child Dialog "Create Contacs"
• if Create Opportunity equals yes
• Start Child Dialog "Create Opportunity"

The reason why it's important to have a basic drawing of these steps and if's are that it's hard/impossible to re-design the dialog when first started. (You can't re-design the logical hierarki)

Let's build this Dialog! I've created a videoguide as I'm to lazy typing down every detail and taking lots of screenshots :P

Part 1:

Creating the basics for the dialog:

(Note I'm doing one error! The IF ("Find all Leads that might be the same company." contains more then one record. I'll correct the error in next part!)

Part 2:

Creating the default action (Normal convert)

Part 3:

Creating the what will happen if "Find all Leads that might be the same company." contains more then one record

Part 4:

Creating the what will happen if "Find all Accounts that might be a duplicate." contains more then zero records

Part 5:

Creating the what will happen if "Find all Accounts that might be a duplicate." contains more then zero records AND the query "Find all Leads that might be the same company." contains more then one recod.

Good luck devoloping futher!!

A few must have Tools for CRM 2011

Hi, I'm sorry is been a lot to do at work the past few weeks, so few updates :( But here comes a nice one, a list of nice tools for MS CRM 2011 with a short description:

http://pragmatoolkit.codeplex.com/
It provides easy user interface to create custom buttons and add to CRM Ribbon without having to manually modify the underlying XML files. It also takes care of creating the solution and publishing it back to MS CRM 2011.

http://jswebresourcemanager.codeplex.com/
JavaScript Web Resource Manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 helps CRM developers to extract javascript web resources to disk, maintain them and import changes back to CRM database.
You will no longer have to perform mutliple clicks operation to update your js web resources

http://crm2011odatatool.codeplex.com/
The CRM 2011 OData Query Designer is a Silverlight 4 application that is packaged as a Managed CRM 2011 Solution. This tool allows you to build OData queries by selecting filter criteria, select attributes and order by attributes. The tool also allows you to Execute the query and view the ATOM and JSON data returned.

http://crm2011metabrowser.codeplex.com/
The CRM 2011 Metadata Browser is 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.

http://roleupdater.codeplex.com/
Role Updater for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 makes it easier for CRM 2011 administrators and developers to add or remove privileges to multiple security roles in one operation.
You'll no longer have to open each security role and apply privileges one by one.
- This application is compatible with OnPremise, Online and Claims based authentication deployments

Hope these tools give you an early Chrismast vecation by saving you some time :)

Several basic Javascript commands CRM 2011

Case switch:

var valueToSwitch = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("yourField").getValue();

switch(valueToSwitch)
{
case 0:
//what to do if value = 0
break;
case 1:
//what to do if value = 1
break;
case 2:
//what to do if value = 2
break;
}

 Catch error:

try {
//Code
}
catch (ex) {
var txt="You got the following error\n\n" + ex;
alert(txt);
}

Force submit (fields that are marked read only - make scripts able to write to them)

Xrm.Page.getAttribute("youField").setSubmitMode("always"); 

 Forminfo check:

function forminfo()
{
var items = Xrm.Page.ui.formSelector.items.get();
if (items.length > 1)
{
alert("Formtype: " + Xrm.Page.ui.getFormType());
alert("Form ID: " + Xrm.Page.ui.formSelector.getCurrentItem().getId());
alert("Formname: " + Xrm.Page.ui.formSelector.getCurrentItem().getLabel());
} 
else
{
alert("There is only one form item currently available.");
}
}

 Maximize window

window.top.moveTo(0,0);
window.top.resizeTo(screen.width, screen.height);

 Get name of selected picklist value

Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get("crayon_fagomrde").getText();

 Start Dialog from Form (note tings to change)

var dialogId = "a13ad982-d812-40a0-ab67-f314cdabbd2b"; // This must be your Dialog ID
var returnValue = showModalDialog("/" + Xrm.Page.context.getOrgUniqueName() + "/cs/dialog/rundialog.aspx?DialogId=%7b" + dialogId + "%7d&EntityName=account&ObjectId=" + Xrm.Page.data.entity.getId());

//Optional:To save and close entity form as soon as the dialog is closed.
//Xrm.Page.data.entity.save("saveandclose"); 

 Set URL to Iframe

var url = http://www.crayon.com
Xrm.Page.getControl("IFRAME_iFrameName").setSrc(url); //("about:blank") if black

 This was some of the basic javascripts..

Hope it's usefull for you!

66x48 Icons CRM 2011.. Yes? No?! Why?

Did you know that 66x48 icons in CRM 2011 isn't used? Could this be becourse of backwards compatibility when organizations are upgraded from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0? Anyway, here's some details about Icons:

Types of Icons

The following table list is the types of entity icons you can update.

Type	Specifications	Property
Icon in Web application Displays when records for this entity are displayed in a grid.	16x16px Less than 10k	IconSmallName
Icon for Entity Detail Forms The application incorrectly labels this as the Shortcut icon in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook	32x32px Less than 10k	IconMediumName
This size icon is not used in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The application incorrectly labels this as the Icon in Entity forms.	66x48px Less than 10k	IconLargeName

PNG Web resources are recommended because they support transparency and good compression with a better color fidelity than GIF. GIF, JPG, & ICO formats are supported for backwards compatibility when organizations upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Illustration of where to upload Icons:

(Shows up when a entity is selected)

If you are using CRM 4.0 - Check out the Demonstration Tools - Contains a "Icon creation tool" I simply loved!

Get the great feeling of not have a customized CRM solution by adding Icons

CRM 2011 server sloooooooow?

Have you checked you SQL memory usage? Do you have several applications running against the same SQL server? Are you using SQL 2008? well, then you realy should check the following:

• What kind of settings are set for memory usage for each application instance in the SQL?

g.ex: you're using SharePoint and CRM on the same SQL server, and total have 8GB memory on the SQL server.(This does NOT inc the CRM server and SharePoint server).

What should I think of?
- Number of users at once on each application.
- The requirements and usage of each application
- +++ other factors

Good rules: (This is ONLY an example. It's almost imposseble to say what's good for your enviorment)

1. Always let the OS have some memory. (Let's say 1,5GB) - 6,5GB left
2. Calculate how much memory to give CRM and SharePoint (in this case)
• Rember to think of application usage and number of users online at same time.
• NOTE (Often the memory usage get's Multiplyed with ca 1,5 from the max if server gets stressed)
• God practis is operating with 1024MB, so if we want 2GB we give 2048MB memory
• Let's say we give the CRM server 3072MB and SharePoint 3072MB
• (Do not foreget the 1,5 factor!!)
3. Set the max and min Memory for each application instance in SQL:
1. Go to: SQL Manager > The SQL instance > Properties > memory
2. (Make sure services and no users are using system)

(How to find memory setings pr SQL application instance)

If your setings are setup like this: You should consider changing the SQL memory settings. Default "Next, next, next install setings"!

(How to "eat" all memory on SQL. hehe...)

Adjust the max and min memory usage as calculated

(How to adjust the memory)

This is what happend when the memory is adjusted:

(SQL response faster, and memory usage lower)

Again, this is an example you'll have to figure out the correct numbers and settings yourself based on enviorment and numbers of users! Tip: If you use virtual SQL server; check your networkcard setings for TCP/IP aswell! ;)

Hope this gives you some tips on how to get faster response from SQL to Your CRM 2011!

"Start-Up - Script" for MS CRM 2011

This script can contain every aspect of scripting with only one trigger point. It also checks the FormType state for "Create", "update" and so on.. This javascript is used by many people already, but I've updated it with "onchange" aswell:

The only thing you'll have to do is: Add this as a webresource to the entities Form that needs javascript. and add the function "OnCrmPageLoad" to the "Form OnLoad" tirgger point!

/* Script Entry Point */
function OnCrmPageLoad() {
var FormTypes =
{
Undefined: 0,
Create: 1,
Update: 2,
ReadOnly: 3,
Disabled: 4,
QuickCreate: 5,
BulkEdit: 6
}
runAlways();
switch (crmForm.FormType) {
case FormTypes.Create: OnNewFormLoad(); break;
case FormTypes.Update: OnUpdateFormLoad(); break;
case FormTypes.ReadOnly: OnReadOnlyFormLoad(); break;
case FormTypes.Disabled: OnDisabledFormLoad(); break;
case FormTypes.QuickCreate: OnQuickCreateFormLoad(); break;
case FormTypes.BulkEdit: OnBulkEditFormLoad(); break;
case FormTypes.Undefined: alert("Error"); break;
}
}
/* Implement each Form Type you wish to address */
function runAlways() {
onchange(); //Loads all fields that should have onchange functions on them
}
function OnNewFormLoad() {}
function OnUpdateFormLoad() {}
function OnReadOnlyFormLoad() { }
function OnDisabledFormLoad() { }
function OnQuickCreateFormLoad() { }
function OnBulkEditFormLoad() { }
/* --------------- Below is all the Private Functions ---------------------*/
function onchange(){
Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get("prefix_fieldname").addOnChange(examplefunction);
}
function examplefunction(){
alert("Hello World");
}

Hope you like this script! It's one of the "life saving" scripts for CRM 2011
(it's also avaiable for MS CRM 4.0)
- Happy Scripting!