Dynamics CRM 3.0 Outlook Client Installation Note: Disk Format

Posted on July 26th, 2006 mitch  Print No comments

This morning I was rolling out CRM 3.0 to a small firm that had several workstations running Windows 2000. They were formatted as FAT32.

I found out that the Outlook Client ( Desktop or Laptop version ) requires the installation drive to be NTFS.

To convert a FAT32 drive to NTFS, perform the following steps:

1. Open a command prompt
2. Type: convert C: /FS:NTFS
3. Reboot
4. Wait for it to convert the drive and reboot.

There is probably a place in the UI to convert drives, like Disk Management or some such, but I normally just use the command line since I can actually remember how to type DOS commands. :)

Dynamics CRM, Misc, Outlook Client

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Wonders never cease

Posted on July 22nd, 2006 mitch  Print 2 comments

With all of the stuff that is going on in my life lately, I have been busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.

So this afternoon I'm working with MindJet MindManager planning the week ahead when I was overcome by a feeling that something was very wrong. Take a look at the following section of my weekly to-do list mind map and tell me if you can see what I'm talking about: 

Yep, it turns out, that I am indeed short on time because I eliminated Tuesdays. 

Now a this point, I'm not exactly sure what Tuesday did to me to get itself banished into the mists of time, but I'm I just can't handle things the way they are.  Somehow, I made a mistake and I'm just going to have to fess up to it and get on with life.

So there Kelly. I'm wrong again.

Dammittohell.

Meanderings

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The perfect sandwich from Subway

Posted on July 20th, 2006 mitch  Print No comments

According to Morgan, my niece, this is the perfect sandwich to purchase at Subway:

Sweet onion chicken teriyaki on honey oat with American cheese toasted with mayo and black olives.

Sounds really complicated so I'll probably have to print this off and take it with me so that I don't misorder.

Meanderings

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Dynamics CRM 3.0: Customizing Security Roles

Posted on July 19th, 2006 mitch  Print No comments

If you've ever spent any time creating or changing security roles, you know that it can get a little bit on the tedious side because you must click on each of the security role icons until it cycles to the properly security level.

The following figure shows the default security roles for the CEO:

There is a poorly documented feature that should save you time should you need to make many changes to a role.

If you double-click the column title, it will toogle the rights for the entire column.

Likewise, if you double-click the row title, it will toggle the rights for the entire row.

Note: Actually, if you ever thought to hover your mouse cursor over either the row or column titles, a tool-tip would have popped up informing you of the fact.

Customization, Dynamics CRM

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Dynamics CRM 3.0: Generating your own Export XML

Posted on July 19th, 2006 mitch  Print No comments

If you ever need to manually or programmatically generate XML that will be Imported back into CRM, you need to make sure that you do not accidentally insert any literal strings that will cause the XML interpreter problems reading the file.

Here is a list of characters that must be "escaped" to prevent problems:

"<"  needs to be written as:  & lt;

">"  needs to be written as:  & gt;

"&"  needs to be written as:  & amp;

Note: There should not be a space between the ampersand and the remaining values following 'needs to be written as:'  My blog engine is interpreting them as codes if I put them together.

Customization, Dynamics CRM

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I need an opinion on a new utility: Creating picklist options

Posted on July 19th, 2006 mitch  Print 1 comment

I'm doing a CRM 3.0 installation for a small company and they have some Classification attributes  that help them describe there membership ( Accounts ).

One of the Classifications has 63 options and rather than entering those one by one, or cutting and pasting the data into the XML file, I wrote a little utility that will generate the XML for me:

I just paste this into the exported Entity XML file and re-import it. 

The user interface is rather rough at the moment but it does the job. 

So, I'm looking for opinions on its usefulness.  If you think you can use such a tool, add a comment on this post or drop me an email. Depending upon the response rate, I'll move it up or down on my development priority list.

Thanks, Mitch

Customization, Dynamics CRM

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Now this is funny

Posted on July 17th, 2006 mitch  Print 4 comments

For some reason, the word testicals is NOT in the Microsoft Word 2003 dictionary.

But the word vagina is.

Go figure.

Meanderings

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Popups, Popups, Popups

Posted on July 17th, 2006 mitch  Print 1 comment

I got burned ( or actually slightly toasted ) by popup blockers that were keeping CRM from functioning properly.

I encountered it on one of my test boxes after installing the Google toolbar and at a new customer after installing Trend Micro's solution.

At last count the following vendors and technologies had some form of pop-up blocker:

• Internet Explorer ( SP2 )
• MSN Toolbar
• Google Toolbar
• Yahoo Toolbar
• Trend Micro anti-everything
• Symantec anti-everything
• [ and I am sure McAfee falls into that as well ]

So the lesson learned here is to always keep in mind that pop-up blockers can come from anywhere and you need to keep on top of it. Especially if you are in a situation where you may not be in control of the systems or systems software.

Dynamics CRM, Installation

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Update: Hiding CRM 3.0 Form Tabs

Posted on July 17th, 2006 mitch  Print No comments

Here is an update to the very first article ever published on this blog:

Hiding a tab on a data entry form in CRM 3.0

The only side-effect of the technique outlined in that article, is if you hide a tab in the middle of the tabset, there is an awkward blank spot.

A couple of weeks ago I got into an email conversation with Jerry O'Sullivan about this issue and admited that I really didn't have any idea of a way to get around it.  Well, it turns out, James Wilcox, one of Jerry's clients, came up with the solution:

tab1Tab.style.display = 'none';

I could just kick myself. Of course that is the answer, just like I've written about in several articles dealing with form fields.

When you set an HTML element's display style to "hidden" it will insert it on the page in a non-viewable state.  It's still there, but you can't see it.

If you set the display style to "none" it is in effect, removed from the page.

Thanks to Jerry and James for the update and information.

Customization, Dynamics CRM

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I am Sex On the Beach

Posted on July 16th, 2006 mitch  Print No comments

[via MarkItUp]

It turns out that if I was a drink, I would be the following:

You Are Sex On the Beach

When comes to drinking, you like it to go down smooth. You really don't like the taste of alcohol – just its effect on you. So, you're proud to get drunk on fruity, girly drinks. Because once you're liquored up, the fun begins!

As my friend Patrick says, "Yeah, Baby!"

Note: Click on the What Alcoholic Drink Are You? link to see what your own drink is.

Meanderings

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