I thought I'd share a few things of interest in the Dynamics CRM world that I've seen in the past few weeks:
- Christopher Cognetta has a great recap of Convergence 2013 here:
- Demian Rasko has written a tool to bulk create test data. I have not tried it, but it looks interesting.
- Bryan Page wrote an interesting article on:
- Andrii Butenko wrote a very interesting article on sending SMS messages from CRM:
- Former Microsofties Nikhil Hasija and Craig Unger have launched a new company, azuqua and a new product, Flõ, to help people move data between various online services, including Dynamics CRM. It's on my list of things to try.
When working with the Dynamics CRM SDK, I think we may all overlook a very handy property that can save us a lot of time:Tthe FormattedValues property.
It contains values formatted in the human-readable version of field types such as:
- Option Sets (including State and Status Reason fields)
- Dates
- Currency
- Two-options
Here is an example of the Formatted Values for a Contact (as seen from the Visual Studio Watch window):
Like any collection of values returned from CRM, you will need to verify that the field name exists in the collection using the .Contains operator, but once you have, you can extract the formatted value for use in your own code.
Note: Formatted values are always strings, which is how they are displayed in the CRM user interface.
Anyway, just a quick note to refresh your memory. Have fun coding.
Join us for the next meeting of the CRMUG Texas (Dallas) Regional Chapter at the headquarters of the Young Presidents' Organization in Irving on Thursday, April 18th from 6 to 9 pm. This is a prime opportunity to learn from the experience of other users in your area, share your knowledge and experiences, and make valuable connections with local users who share similar goals, priorities and CRM objectives.
Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, April 18, 2013 from 6:00 to 9:00pm CST
Agenda Highlights:
- Convergence 2013 Review – What We Learned in New Orleans!
- Ask the Experts Session – Bring your Questions and be ready for Answers
- CRMUG News, Upcoming Events & Chapter Business
Audience: All Dynamics CRM users are welcome. We also encourage you to invite your colleagues and other users within the region. Partners are welcome to attend provided they are accompanied by a customer. Partners please bear in mind that the objective of Regional Chapters is to exchange knowledge and Dynamics CRM experience. Partner personnel should possess deep CRM expertise and refrain from sales activities.
About CRMUG Regional Chapters: Regional Chapters enhance your membership in CRMUG by offering face-to-face interaction and knowledge-sharing with other Microsoft Dynamics CRM users in your region. By having meetings centrally located within your region, users from all job roles and levels in your company can participate by only driving a short distance. All job roles are welcome, including Customer Service, Sales, Information Technology, etc. Join us so you can optimize the functionality, flexibility, performance and return on investment offered by CRM and get better results from your CRM implementation back home.
Event Type
Regional Chapter
Location Details
Young Presidents' Organization
600 East Las Colinas Blvd
Irving, TX 75039
Phone: 972.587.1500
Register here.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK Version 5.0.15 is now live on MSDN downloads and in the MSDN library.
New and updated topics
SDK\Bin
Updated the assemblies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 13. These assemblies are also compatible with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
Microsoft_Dynamics_CRM_2011_SDK_Readme.htm
Updated the readme for this version of the SDK package.
Browse the Metadata for Your Organization
SDK\Tools\MetadataBrowser\MetadataBrowser_2_0_0_1_managed.zip
Updated the metadata browser so that the HasChanged and RelationshipType properties added in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update can be viewed.
Design Considerations for Different Form Presentations
Added the Auto Save Control for Updated Forms section to provide more details about the auto save control behavior.
LookupAttributeMetadata
Added to the remarks for the Targets property to indicate that the attribute is not supported if the Targets property is null.
<Scrolling> (FormXml)
Updated the topic to provide examples of valid values for this element.
StringFormat
Added the description “For internal use only.” for the phone value added in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update.
Tutorials for Learning About Development for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Updated the list of walkthroughs. Added links to the sample code and walkthrough categorized views on the Developer Center on MSDN. Added a section for links to other developer resources and social media.
Use Form and Field Events
Added more information to the OnChange Event section about when this event occurs.
Xrm.Page.data.entity Attribute Methods
Added a new sample to Controls Collection showing how to use the attribute controls collection to show or hide all the controls for an attribute.
I've made a few enhancements to SnapShot! over the past week or so:
1. I've added an optional Pack and Go feature that will compress the generated report files into a .ZIP file for easy transport or archiving.
2. The JScript Web Resource report has been modified to provide more information about JScript web resource usage and configuration while on the form.
3. The Plugin Assembly and Plugin Steps reports have been enhanced with additional configuration information.
View the sample reports to get a better understanding of what is being generated.
Visit the product page for more information.
If you have any questions, please drop me a note: mitch @ crmaccelerators dot net
Thanks, Mitch
I don't think enough Dynamics CRM developers understand the amount of time and effort that the SDK team has put into creating documentation and samples so that we may better understand and use the product.
So, I thought I'd throw out some numbers and compare the CRM 4.0 SDK with the 2011 SDK:
Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK
The SDK help file is 12MB in size.
Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK
The SDK help file is 20MB in size.
That is a lot of work for such a small team
Thanks guys and gals.
This webinar is for administrators of Dynamics CRM 2011 Online or who have their organization hosted by a third-party. We will cover the following topics:
- Reviewing CRM 2011 System Maintenance Jobs to locate errors and other issues
- Managing historical system job information
- Troubleshooting workflow and plugin issues
- User management tricks and tips
Class Duration:
1 hour and 15 minutes
Cost Per Attendee:
$99USD
NOTE:
Due to the interactive nature of this webinar, this session is limited to 25 attendees.
What to Expect:
At the end of this webinar you should have the tools and understanding to:
- Manage system jobs
- Locate issues with workflows and custom plugins
When:
Thursday, March 14st, 1:00pm Central time (U.S.)
JavaScript allows an administrator to enhance the functionality of Dynamics CRM 2011 in order to better fit your business processes.
This session delivers an introduction to JavaScript development and will cover the following topics:
- 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:
$99
JavaScripting in Dynamics CRM 2011
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:
Friday, March 15th, 1:00pm Central time (U.S.)
About Your Instructor:
Mitch Milam is a seven-time Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Dynamics CRM, a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and an independent consultant based in Dallas, Texas.
This webinar is for administrators of Dynamics CRM 2011 Online or who have their organization hosted by a third-party. We will cover the following topics:
- Reviewing CRM 2011 System Maintenance Jobs to locate errors and other issues
- Managing historical system job information
- Troubleshooting workflow and plugin issues
- User management tricks and tips
Class Duration:
1 hour and 15 minutes
Cost Per Attendee:
$99USD
NOTE:
Due to the interactive nature of this webinar, this session is limited to 25 attendees.
What to Expect:
At the end of this webinar you should have the tools and understanding to:
- Manage system jobs
- Locate issues with workflows and custom plugins
When:
Thursday, March 14st, 1:00pm Central time (U.S.)
This release adds a new set of reports I am calling View Detail which documents the detail found within each system view. The report looks something like this:
We've also changed the manner in which documents are generated. In SnapShot! 1.5, all documents in Microsoft Word format are now individual files instead of one huge file per category. This speeds up the documentation generation and allows you to have a more granular look at the data.
Next Steps
If you would like more information:
- Download the sample reports.
- Visit the SnapShot! product page.
Also, if you have any suggestions for additional or modified reports, please let me know.
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