• Setting up your development environment
• Introduction to the form editor
• Using web resources
• CRM form events
• JavaScript basics
• CRM 2011 JavaScript object model
• Common CRM JavaScript methods

Class Duration:

1 hour, 30 minutes  

Cost Per Attendee:

$99USD

NOTE: Due to the interactive nature of this webinar, each session is limited to 20 attendees.

What to Expect:

At the end of this session, you should at least understand basics of how to write JavaScript and how to utilize the Dynamics CRM 2011 object model to perform the most operations commonly performed by a developer. Additionally, since this is not a full class, you'll receive homework to be completed on your own, at your own pace.  

When:

Thursday, June 20th, 2013 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM (Central Time, United States)  

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24004

Active Directory and Claims-Based Authentication

Authenticate Office 365 Users with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Web Services

OrganizationServiceProxy

DiscoveryServiceProxy

Updated these topics to remove the restriction on using the service proxy classes when authenticating with the Microsoft online services identity provider of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. You can now use these proxy classes with all deployment types and identity providers.

BulkDeleteRequest

BulkDetectDuplicatesRequest

Added in Remarks that you can run the bulk delete job or bulk detect duplicates job daily or without recurrence.

Create, Export, or Import an Unmanaged Solution

Create, Install, and Update a Managed Solution

Added a note to these topics saying “Installing a solution can interfere with normal system operation. We recommend that you schedule solution imports when it’s least disruptive to users.”

Form XML Reference

The following FormXml elements have been updated to indicate that they are for internal use only: <ControlMode> (FormXml), <QuickFormRelationshipName> (FormXML), <QuickFormRelationshipRoleOrdinal> (FormXml), and <UniqueId> (FormXml). These elements are used only in a quick form, which is not customizable. These elements will be removed from the schema in the next major release.

Handle Exceptions in Plug-Ins

Clarified how plug-in exceptions are handled and where error message are written or displayed.

Introduction to Activity Feeds

Corrected the maximum number of characters in the posts created programmatically. The correct value is 2000 characters.

Introduction to Solutions

Added the Enterprise Solution Lifecycle Management section introducing the ALM for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: CRM Solution Lifecycle Management white paper.

Open Forms, Views, Dialogs and Reports with a URL

Appended to an existing note to include:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM forms are not designed to be opened as dialogs using either showModalDialog or showModelessDialog.

Uninstall or Delete a Solution

Added an Access the Solutions List with a URL section.

What’s Changing in the Next Major Release

Added a new topic to provide information about what is changing in the next major release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Write Custom Code for Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook

GoOffline
GoOnline

Added a note that these methods cannot be used in a plug-in because they cause a UI interaction with the user.

Xrm.Page.data.entity Attribute Methods

Added a missing getFormat return value: textarea.

Xrm.Page.ui Control Methods

Added a remark to the addCustomView method to show that this method does not work with Owner lookups.

Xrm.Utility Reference

Corrected an error for the openEntityForm method. This method returns a Boolean value rather than a window object.

<OrganizationServiceFault xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <ErrorCode>-2147200995</ErrorCode>
  <ErrorDetails xmlns:a="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Collections.Generic" />
  <Message>Duplicate workflow activity group name: ", activity name: 'Assign email regarding to case'.</Message>
  <Timestamp>2013-06-14T19:45:24.1533902Z</Timestamp>
  <InnerFault>
    <ErrorCode>-2147200995</ErrorCode>
    <ErrorDetails xmlns:a="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Collections.Generic" />
    <Message>Duplicate workflow activity group name: ", activity name: 'Assign email regarding to case'.</Message>
    <Timestamp>2013-06-14T19:45:24.1533902Z</Timestamp>
    <InnerFault i:nil="true" />
    <TraceText i:nil="true" />
  </InnerFault>
  <TraceText i:nil="true" />
</OrganizationServiceFault>

It turns out that the Plugin Registration tool didn't like the fact that I did not have a WorkflowActivityGroupName specified, as you can see here:

I added one and the error went away.

• Setting up your development environment
• Introduction to the form editor
• Using web resources
• CRM form events
• JavaScript basics
• CRM 2011 JavaScript object model
• Common CRM JavaScript methods

Class Duration:

1 hour, 30 minutes

Cost Per Attendee:

$99USD

NOTE: Due to the interactive nature of this webinar, each session is limited to 20 attendees.

What to Expect:

At the end of this session, you should at least understand basics of how to write JavaScript and how to utilize the Dynamics CRM 2011 object model to perform the most operations commonly performed by a developer. Additionally, since this is not a full class, you'll receive homework to be completed on your own, at your own pace.

When:

Thursday, June 20th, 2013 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM (Central Time, United States)

If you did not know, or have not heard, the next version of CRM, code-named Orion, will no longer support the CRM 4.0 (2007) SOAP endpoint.

This means all of your .NET code ( as well as JavaScript ) that uses the 2007 endpoint will need to be upgraded.

This is not an easy process. 

On a pain level from fuzzy bunnies to sticking icepicks in your ears, I rate it a level 7.

There is lots and lots and lots of manual labor involved so to help with the transition, I'm open-sourcing my upgrade tools and asking for assistance enhancing them.

The project is on CodePlex:

.NET Code Migrator for Dynamics CRM

The initial iteration is a series of search and replace macros to help move your code to the new object model, but we have plans to automate it even more.

So, if you have some time, just happened to be a wizard with Regular Expressions, and want to help out, please send me an email:  mitch at crmaccelerators dot net.

http://www.xrmvirtual.com/events/javascript_upgrade_crm2011_Mitch_Milam

Here are the main talking points from today's meeting:

Strategies:

Here are the strategies I follow when performing an upgrade from CRM 4.0 to CRM 2011:

• #1: Create a test environment
• #2: Upgrade your object model
• #3: Use Visual Studio (with add-ins)
• #4: Reorganize your functions
• #5: Web Resource Organization
• #6: Code Removal
• #7: Code Consolidation
• #8: Eliminate Single-call Methods
• #9: Replace SOAP Calls
• #10: Convert Unsupported Code
• #11: Configuration vs. Code
• #12: Refactor, Refactor, Refactor
• #13: Remove unused web resources
• #14: Minification
• #15: Consider disabling your plugins
• #16: Testing, Testing, Testing

Upgrade Tips:

Here are a few general and developer tips to help with your migration:

http://www.crmaccelerators.net/dynamics-crm-4-0-2011-upgrade-tips/

Tools:

Here are some tools to help with the migration of your JavaScript:

JavaScript Converter

http://dynamicsxrmtools.codeplex.com

Transformer! for Dynamics CRM

http://www.crmaccelerators.net/products/transformer

CRM Code Validation Tool

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2012/06/21/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-custom-code-validation-tool-released.aspx

Export JavaScript

http://blogs.infinite-x.net/free-utilities

Export Web Resources

http://blogs.infinite-x.net/free-utilities

Web Resource Manager

http://jswebresourcemanager.codeplex.com

XrmSvcToolkit

https://xrmsvctoolkit.codeplex.com

Resharper

http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper

CodeRush

http://www.devexpress.com/Products/CodeRush

CRM Rules!

http://www.crm-rules.com

Not so fast.

There are still valuable things remaining in what you may consider just a waste of disk space.  Here are a few:

The SDK help file is always a good reference should you be migrating code, .NET or JavaScript from CRM 4.0 to 2011.

Helper code. Here is a little gem of a file that I ran across while converting a ton of .NET code to the new CRM 2011 object model:

SDK\server\helpers\cs\crmhelpers\enums.cs

This file contains some very useful enumerations for the various State, Status Reasons, and Picklists found in the base entity classes. In CRM 4.0.

The Sample code folder contains some interesting examples for how to do things that may not be found in the CRM 2011 samples. If you ever have trouble finding an example, do a search through the 4.0 SDK samples to see if you can find an exact match, or something close.

There are others, but those are the few that I can recall off the top of my head.  Feel free to comment with any others.

I'm presenting today at the XrmVirtual user's group:

CRM JavaScript Upgrade Strategies.

We'll be discussing upgrading your CRM 4.0-level JavaScript to the CRM 2011 object model and outline some strategies to make you successful.

Join the meeting here.

Schedule:

• 6/11/13 CRM JavaScript Upgrade Strategies, featuring Mitch Milam
  6/11/2013 9:00:00 AM (PST) – 6/11/2013 10:00:00 AM (PST)

(This session will be recorded for later viewing if you are unable to attend the Live Meeting. )

I hope to see you there.

Thanks, Mitch

Well I've yet again changed the name of my JavaScript conversion tool for Dynamics CRM, added a bunch of new features, and changed the licensing to better match my other products.

Visit the product page here.

Here's an overview:

JavaScript Conversion

Since the initial release of the product, way back in November of 2010, I've taken a rather hands-off approach to the handling of certain code conversions. I know what needs to be done, but I always try to remember that it's not my code and someone may not appreciate me mucking about with their JavaScript.  At least that is how I used to feel.

I now think it is most important to convert as much of the code as possible and produce as few conversion alerts as possible.

In some cases, I've modified the conversion alert process to only record the alert in the Conversion Report and not insert the alert into the JavaScript. Some things are nice to know, but you don't want them to clutter-up your code.

Here are a few changes that I've made to the conversion of known issues:

Toolbar and Menu Manipulation

It was quite common in CRM 4.0 to hide and show toolbar buttons and menus programmatically. Since we've moved to the Ribbon in CRM 2011, this is no longer possible. In cases where such code is located, it will be commented-out to prevent runtime errors when the code is executed.

This may seem like a rather drastic step, but you would have had to perform the same action manually when refactoring your code so I decided to handle that process during the conversion. Here is an example:

document.all["_MBcrmFormSave"].action = "crmForm.SaveAndClose();";

// **Transformer!** Xrm.Page.getAttribute(

    /* CONVERSION ALERT */"_MBcrmFormSave").action = "crmForm.SaveAndClose();";

Any time you see "**Transformer!** in a comment, it is the result of an action that was taken during the conversion process. This text was inserted so that you may more easily locate these instances. In certain cases, the insertion of the comment could break existing logic so you will need to manually correct the issue yourself.

Partial Field Names

The fields on a CRM form are made up of two parts: The label and the data-entry control. These are named using the field name, with a "_c" added for the label and "_d" added for the control. I call these partial field names because the two parts make up the whole field.

In CRM 4.0, many developers used partial field names to perform JavaScript DOM manipulation such as showing and hiding the fields themselves, or the section or tab they resided in. Since this is not really necessary in CRM 2011, I decided to remove them, in a few special cases. This is a several-step process that works like this:

Any time partial fields are encountered using any of the following methods, the "_c" and "_d" are removed:

• .Disabled
• .disabled
• .ReadOnly
• .readOnly
• .innerText
• .innerHTML
• .style.display
• .style.visibility
• Any method call where only the field is referenced, such as:

  DisableSectionFields(crmForm.all.acc_adusername_c);

The normal conversion happens, as it would for any other CRM 4.0 method. The side-effect to this process is duplicate code, for example: If we start with this:

crmForm.all.new_writeinproductname_c.style.display = 'inline';
crmForm.all.new_writeinproductname_d.style.display = 'inline';

we end up with:

Xrm.Page.getControl("new_writeinproductname").setVisible(true);
Xrm.Page.getControl("new_writeinproductname").setVisible(true);

which is a waste of code (and time, for that matter). Transformer! will scan the fully-converted JavaScript file and remove duplicate lines, like the set above.

Here is an example of some CRM 4.0 code pre-conversion:

crmForm.all.new_writeinproductname_c.style.display = 'inline';
crmForm.all.new_writeinproductname_d.style.display = 'inline';
crmForm.all.priceperunit.ReadOnly = false;
crmForm.all.priceperunit.Disabled = false;
crmForm.all.new_newproductid_c.style.display = 'none';
crmForm.all.new_newproductid_d.style.display = 'none';
crmForm.all.new_productcode_c.style.display = 'none';
crmForm.all.new_productcode_d.style.display = 'none';
crmForm.all.productdescription.ReadOnly = false;
crmForm.all.productdescription.Disabled = false;

and this is what it looks like post-conversion:

Xrm.Page.getControl("new_writeinproductname").setVisible(true);
Xrm.Page.getControl("priceperunit").setDisabled(false);
Xrm.Page.getControl("new_newproductid").setVisible(false);
Xrm.Page.getControl("new_productcode").setVisible(false);
Xrm.Page.getControl("productdescription").setDisabled(false);

This can greatly reduce the amount of code controlling your user experience manipulation but it does have the unintended consequence of preventing an accurate comparison of the CRM 4.0 and CRM 2011 code when you are reviewing the conversion results using Transformer!'s Synchronize Scrolling feature.

Unsupported JavaScript

There are certain cases where it is necessary to customize the CRM user interface to perform a specific action or to inform the user of a specific condition or alert, or whatever. This was mainly accomplished by changing the .style property of a field.

Such actions were totally unsupported in CRM 4.0 and remain so in CRM 2011. Here is an example:

crmForm.all.new_status.style.textColor = "#000000";

The problem is that some organizations would like these features even though they know they run the risk of incompatibility with a future upgrade. That being the case, I have added an option called "Use unsupported customizations" which will allow you to choose to use a workable (right now) but unsupported solution:

Xrm.Page.getControl("new_status")["_control"]["_element"].style.textColor = "#000000";

Again, this is unsupported code; it only applies to the .style property and it may not work in the next version of CRM.

Section References

New references to DOM elements representing the Section element are converted to the proper CRM 2011 equivalent:

crmForm.all.new_rep1commissionaccrual_c.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.style.display = 'none';

becomes:

Xrm.Page.getControl("new_rep1commissionaccrual").getParent().setVisible(false);

prependOrgName

prependOrgName is now being converted into: Xrm.Page.context.prependOrgName

ReadOnly

ReadOnly is now converted into setDisabled().

Stunnware

When Stunnware Filtered Lookup code is found, a note is made in the conversion report.

Outlook

Conversion of Outlook-related methods now more properly convert to

Xrm.Page.context.isOutlookOnline and Xrm.Page.context.isOutlookClient.

.text

Modified the manner in which .text was handled. In certain cases an improper conversion was made, mostly related to the handling of XML documents. This has been corrected.

Empty Event Handling

An issue was corrected where an error would occur when an empty script event was encountered. An exception would occur when an "empty" JavaScript file would be encountered.  Technically, it would not be empty, but would contain codes such as hard-returns, tabs, etc.  Visually it looked empty but there was enough contents to cause an issue. Not all events are stripped of trailing hard-return and tab characters.

ForceSubmit

In CRM 4.0 the method used to instruct CRM to submit a field to the database for updating, regardless of its 'dirty' state is called ForceSubmit, and is a boolean value.  CRM 2011 uses a method called setSubmitMode, which requires a string argument. This leads to problems when converting code like this:

crmForm.all.address2_line1.ForceSubmit =

  crmForm.all.rst_address2_sameasaddress1.DataValue;

The solution was to add a little JavaScript to the conversion:

Xrm.Page.getAttribute("address2_line1").setSubmitMode(

   Xrm.Page.getAttribute("rst_address2_sameasaddress1").getValue()

   ? "always" : "never");

This converts the boolean value of ForceSubmit to the string argument of setSubmitMode.

Hiding the Parent Row

Some developers were using code like this to hide the table row of the CRM form:

crmForm.all.isproductoverridden.parentElement.parentElement.style.display = 'none';

This now converts to the standard:

Xrm.Page.getControl("isproductoverridden").setVisible(false);

Changing Field Labels

This code:

crmForm.all.new_typenumber_c.innerText = NumFieldLabel;

now properly uses the supported setLabel method:

Xrm.Page.getControl("new_typenumber").setLabel(NumFieldLabel);

Changing Tab Labels

This code:

crmForm.all.tab3Tab.firstChild.innerText = accountType + " Details";

now properly uses the supported setLabel method:

Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(3).setLabel(accountType + " Details");

Tab References

Instances where the name of a tab is being referenced by the textual name is now converted:

var tab2Hide = document.getElementById("tab" + tabIndex);

to:

var tab2Hide = Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(tabIndex);

Precision

If the setting of the Precision property is found, the line will be commented-out since there is no CRM 2011 equivalent. Here is an example:

crmForm.all.new_contracttotal.Precision = 2;

onreadystatechange

The conversion alert for onreadystatechange was removed.

Unicode

An exception would occur when an invalid Unicode character was encountered. The parser was modified to handle a wider-range of characters to prevent this issue.

DataValue

Corrected conversion issues related to crmForm.all.field.DataValue when used with +=, -=, *= and /* .

Conversion Report

The conversion report has been modified slightly and the worksheets rearranged putting the most important information toward the front of the workbook while leaving the informational data toward the back.

One addition to the report is a list of iFrames found within your CRM forms. While this is not necessarily part of the JavaScript conversion process, I have found it very valuable during some of the conversions I have been involved with in the past few months.

User Interface Changes

The UI for Transformer! is slightly different than previous versions with the most important feature the addition of an options page.

Options

The following options are available:

Export folder allows you to select the folder where the conversion files will be placed.

ROI rate is the cost per hour should you feel the need to calculate how much time and Transformer! saved you.

Use Unsupported Customizations allows you to keep certain user interface element changes intact by using an unsupported method of coding.

Format JavaScript will reformat the JavaScript to make it more readable.

Pack And Go

Checking the Pack and Go checkbox on the ribbon will create a .Zip file containing all of the files generated by the conversion process. This is very useful should you need to upload or email the files to an associate or your consulting partner, or whatever.

Licensing Changes

I am changing the licensing to better match my other CRM-related products.

Note: Existing customers will not be affected by the these changes.

Single Organization License

• $495 USD per CRM organization
• Annual maintenance $90, 1st year included
• One license covers use by unlimited developers
• Supports a single CRM organization

Site License

• $1,995 USD per development site
• Annual maintenance $360, 1st year included
• One license covers all developers within a single firm
• Unlimited CRM organizations

Partner License

• $9,995 USD per legal entity
• Annual maintenance $1,800, 1st year included
• One license covers multiple-office partner firms, all of their developers
• Unlimited CRM organizations

From an implementation perspective, enterprises expect to be able to have structured, repeatable processes that are predictable and well documented to manage their application lifecycle.

To date, a number of approaches have been articulated through various channels and from a variety of sources, but a definitive and full lifecycle approach has not been concisely communicated by Microsoft.

Many customers, partners, and consultants within MCS are reaching out for best practice advice and guidance, and it is Microsoft’s responsibility to deliver on this expectation. This document focuses on providing a coherent end-to-end approach to enterprise development for Dynamics CRM.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39044