Each product has their own version and they are not compatible.

Also, once the VM is up and running in Virtual Server, you can't uninstall the Virtual PC Integration Services ( at least I've never been able to find a way ).

Note: There may be tools that do this, but I'm not aware of any. So if you know something I don't please put a comment on this article.

Finally, make sure you consolidate any snapshot images and do a clean reboot and final shutdown before you begin your move.

You'll be much happier in the long run.

For more information about this release, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 2600640:

Update Rollup 6 is available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

To maintain parity between the application components of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, this update rollup includes packages for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Language Packs, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router.

You may download the trial version here.

Navigation Element Conversion

The conversion of navigation elements ( navActivities, navActivityHistory, etc. ) was initially added to convert code like this:

var myvar = document.all.navOpps.style.display;

into this:

var myvar = Xrm.Page.ui.navigation.items.get("navOpps").getVisible();

An issue was discovered where we were improperly converting in certain cases. Take this example:

var navContracts = document.all.navContracts;
var navCases = document.all.navService;
var navInvoices = document.all.navInvoices;
if (navCases != null) { navCases.style.display = "none"; }
if (navContracts != null) { navContracts.style.display = "none"; }
if (navInvoices != null) { navInvoices.style.display = "none"; }

will now convert into this:

var navContracts = Xrm.Page.ui.navigation.items.get("navContracts");
var navCases = Xrm.Page.ui.navigation.items.get("navService");
var navInvoices = Xrm.Page.ui.navigation.items.get("navInvoices");
if (navCases != null) { Xrm.Page.ui.navigation.items.get("navCases").setVisible(false); }
if (navContracts != null) { Xrm.Page.ui.navigation.items.get("navContracts").setVisible(false); }
if (navInvoices != null) { Xrm.Page.ui.navigation.items.get("navInvoices").setVisible(false); }

The issue revolves around the fact that the developer used the name of the navigation element as the variable name to hold a reference to the DOM element.  In the case above, the code is correct and will function correctly, but a redundancy was created.  And unfortunately, there is no really good way around this – besides not naming your variable names the same as pre-defined DOM objects – because this:

navCases.style.display = "none";

Is a perfectly legal JavaScript statement for hiding a form navigation element and the conversion process has no clear way to determine if you are using a variable or an object reference name

Navigation Group Identifier Alerts

Occasionally you will find CRM JavaScript where someone is manipulating the group headers of the form navigation area. In CRM 2011, they look like this:

CRM 4.0 has similar groupings, but with a different style of triangle. They have IDs like:

• _NA_SFA ( for Sales )
• _NA_CS ( for Service )
• _NA_MA ( for Marketing )

A conversion alert is created if any identifier that begins with "_NA_" is found.  While this type of code may still work in CRM 2011, you may wish to seek alternatives.

Again, great work from the SDK team.  Here’s a list of what’s new in the 5.0.4 release:

Anyone disagree with that?

For the past few months I have been dealing with an issue with my blog that prevented me from performing any major maintenance.  What was the problem, you may ask?  I have no idea.  I could never get the support people at my provider, myhosting.com, to listen to what I was saying about how the issue surfaced.  Here’s what happened:

If I performed more than 3 administrative functions, I would loose connection to the blog. By administration functions I mean any of the following:

• Post a blog article
• Run a MySQL command,
• FTP something
• Use the Linux-based File Manager application
• Move around the internal WordPress administration pages

Three of those and I could not connect for the next 30 minutes or so.

After wasting 3 hours on a Saturday reproducing the exact problem from multiple machines in multiple physical locations, and trying to get Support to listen to me and/or allow me to show them the issue via Live Meeting, I finally gave up trying.

I’ll just change providers and move my blog somewhere else ( DreamHost, to be exact ).  Should be a piece of cake.  Wrong again there Batman.

So I actually have my infinite-x.net domain registered at 1and1.com, because when I started my consulting business back in 2004, I had other Internet assets there.

I went to my 1and1 account and pointed the domain’s Name Servers ( NS records in DNS-speak ) to my new site.  After about 6 hours, with no change, I emailed 1and1 support and they told me that it took between 24 and 48 hours for the domain to get out of the “updating” state it was in.

I asked if he was using the same Internet that I was because it hasn’t taken 24 hours for world-wide replication since the early 2000’s.

Three days later, I was still waiting for the NS records to update.  #FAIL.

So, I said, “screw it.  I’ll just move the domain from 1and1.com to Go Daddy, where all of my other assets are located.”

While a mostly smooth process, once you’ve been through it once, it still takes at least 5 days to actually perform the move. Once the move occurred ( which was finalized early Tuesday morning ), I had the NS records updated to point to the new provider, the database moved, and all of the supporting files loaded by mid-morning Tuesday.

So with the exception of canceling some accounts, I am back in action and can start posting the backlog of articles that I have built up.

This process started on 15 May and today, 8 June, I am finally done.  That is almost a month of not doing a lot beside sitting around waiting for things to happen.  But at the end of the day, I accomplished the following:

• Re-provisioned and moved 3 web sites ( all WordPress blog-based )
• Moved two additional domains which were merely “parked”
• Consolidated all of my Internet domain management to a single location
• Erased a huge mental burden that was preventing me from accomplishing some things I had on my to-do list

So there you have it.  Now I can get back to my real job, get some articles published, release some free utilities, and get some updates to my commercial applications out the door.

Have a great week.

Later, Mitch

Here is a sample of how such a configuration would exist on the form.

Creating a web resource

In order to display HTML on the form, we must first create a web resource which will contain the HTML. Here’s the Web Resource Record:

And here are the contents:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body style="border-bottom: 0px;
    border-left: 0px;
    border-top: 0px;
    border-right: 0px;
    padding-bottom: 0px;
    padding-top: 0px;
    padding-left: 0px;
    padding-right: 0px;
    font-family: Segoe UI, Tahoma, Arial;
    font-size: 11px;
    font-weight: bold;
    background-color: #f6f8fa;">

    <label id="Label1">
        OR
    </label>
</body>
</html>

This HTML contains the same styles as the CRM 2011 forms and has a label containing the text to display on the form.

Now we need to imbed this web resource on our form.

For this demonstration, I’m using a custom, test entity.

Adding a web resource to a CRM Form

From within the Form Editor, click the Insert Tab, then choose Web Resource. The General configuration of the web resource needs to look like this:

Click the Formatting tab to change the formatting of the web resource to look like this:

Note: For reasons that I have yet to determine, you need to set the Number of Rows value to a minimum of 2. A setting of 1 seems to be too small and the text is not displayed correctly.

The resulting web resource on the form looks like this:

A little JavaScript

Finally, to make sure the user enters one of the two choices, we need to add a little JavaScript tied to the Form’s OnSave event:

function OnSave(executionObj)
{
    if (Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_choice1").getValue() == null &&
        Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_choice2").getValue() == null)
    {
        alert("You must enter data into either Choice 1 or Choice 2");

        executionObj.getEventArgs().preventDefault();
    }
}

The Form Property configuration looks like this:

Note: Make sure the Pass execution context as first parameter is checked.

References

Display an HTML Web Resource in a Form with No Border

So, how do you get that view to display using a Sitemap link?  Follow these steps:

Export the Sitemap

We’ll have to manually edit the sitemap which will involve creating a custom solution and exporting the sitemap’s XML.  I wrote an article back in November describing this process.  Perform steps 1-5 to export the Sitemap;

Add a SubArea to the Sitemap

<SubArea Id="new_vendorsx" Url="/_root/homepage.aspx?etn=account&amp;viewid=%7b2C598CB7-2E3F-DE11-8035-0050569A36D3%7d&amp;viewtype=1039">
  <Titles>
    <Title LCID="1033" Title="Vendors" />
  </Titles>
</SubArea>

The key to making this work is the URL:

/_root/homepage.aspx

Here is a list of the parameters required to make this work:

The Title is what physically be displayed on the Sitemap.

Capturing the ViewId

To capture the ID of the view you wish to display, follow these steps:

1) Navigate the the entity you wish to view.

2) Change the view to match the view in question.

3) From the Ribbon, select Copy a Link:

This will copy the link to the Clipboard

4) Open Notepad and press Ctrl-V to paste the contents of the clipboard into the document.  you’ll see something like this:

http://server5a/contoso/main.aspx?etc=1&extraqs=%3fpagemode%3diframe%26sitemappath%3dSFA%257cSFA%257cnav_accts&pagetype=entitylist&viewid=%7b2C598CB7-2E3F-DE11-8035-0050569A36D3%7d&viewtype=1039

5) Copy the text from viewid through the end of the line.

6) Combine that text with the URL shown in Add SubArea to the Sitemap section.

Import the new Sitemap

In the Editing the Sitemap article, follow steps 6-7 to import the altered Sitemap.

Note: Don’t forget to Publish All Changes at the end of the Import process.

Test your Work

Press Ctrl-F5 to reload the CRM web page.  Navigate to the area where the new subarea was added.

Click on the new link ( Vendors in my case ).

The Active Vendors view should be displayed in the main page area of the site.

Conclusion

I successfully used this technique in several CRM 4.0 installations to help users location information quickly and easily.  This is a great tool to have in your toolbag.

It went from an application that ran on top of something called a Disk Operating System ( DOS ) to a full-fledged operating system in it’s own right.

So, who among you have ever seen this screen:

Looks like crap, right?  Well it was. Even then.

No overlapping windows ( deal with Apple caused that ), ugly font, and no applications.

But, 25 years later, we have Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, which are actually pretty cool operating systems.

If you have a few minutes, I’d like to know your opinion.

( In no particular order )

Development

• DebugView for Windows

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