MSCRMBLOG.NET - Microsoft CRM & Sharepoint Blog

I too have dreaded this error - it means nothing to me and just pisses me off especially when developing webparts.

You can remove this by opening the web.config,

Search for <customErrors mode=“On“ /> and change it to <customErrors mode=“Off“ />

To see the call stack and trace information. Find

<SafeMode MaxControls=“200” CallStack=“false” DirectFileDependencies=“10” TotalFileDependencies=“50” AllowPageLevelTrace=“false“>

and change the value of “CallStack” to true.

<SafeMode MaxControls=“200” CallStack=“true” DirectFileDependencies=“10” TotalFileDependencies=“50” AllowPageLevelTrace=“true“>

Finally, don’t forget the set debug=”true” in the web.config or it won’t matter whether you put the assembly in GAC or not without it the breakpoints will turn all nice and red, but it won’t stop anywhere. If you want to enable generation of debug symbols for just in time compilation Find

<compilation batch=“false“ debug=“false“>

and change it to

<compilation batch=“false“ debug=“true“>.

Although none of these are appropriate for a production environment, but they all make development much easier.

-Ibrahim Sukari

MSCRM-Admin Sharepoint error, Sharepoint, unknown error occured

Yep, i too have experienced this problem (grr microsoft)..

They do have a KB atricle for this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829361

Cause:

This issue may occur when the following conditions are true:

• The Microsoft Active Directory directory service closes before Exchange 2003 services are fully stopped during the computer shut down process.
• Exchange 2003 is installed on a domain controller computer that is also a global catalog server.
• No other domain controller or global catalog server is available in the forest.

Active Directory shuts down before Exchange 2003 services are fully stopped during the computer shut down process. When this issue occurs, the Exchange DSACCESS component may continue to try to contact the Active Directory and wait for a response.

Workaround:

To make a Windows Server 2003 domain controller computer that has Exchange 2003 installed shut down faster, manually stop the Exchange 2003 services before you shut down Windows.

OK, so i have just put together a small batch script to stop the services:

    net stop MSExchangeES
    net stop IMAP4Svc
    net stop POP3Svc
    net stop RESvc
    net stop MSExchangeSRS
    net stop MSExchangeMGMT
    net stop MSExchangeMTA
    net stop MSExchangeIS   /Y
    net stop MSExchangeSA   /Y

Run this batch script and then shutdown your server - check how fast it shuts down now!

MSCRM-Admin Exchange 2003, Server 2003 ad, Exchange 2003, long shutdown, services, shutdown

CRM5 is currently on schedule to ship as part of the Office14 Wave (most likely sometime in 2010), and the team is only part way through the development cycle, having just completed Milestone 1 (M1). Even so, there is already much to get excited about. Here is a list of “features” that were discussed:

New Features For End Users

• Enhanced Navigation - I guess it was inevitable, but CRM5 uses the same “Fluent UI” (aka the Ribbon) as Office 2007. This new “command bar” replaces the CRM 4.0 “tool bars” at the top of each page, and is context sensitive. In addition, the “command bar” is fully customizable and you can add your own buttons much like you can with ISV.Config file today.

  

  Incidentally, something that isn’t discussed but appears on the ribbon is the “Add to Queue” command, from which I can only surmise that you will be add any entity (including custom entities) to a Queue.

• Single Page Forms - The form model in CRM 4.0 made use of tabs to divide a form into multiple pages. In CRM5 tabs are displayed in the same way as section, with each form just having a single, scrolling page. As you can see from the navigation page of an Account entity, tabs are now displayed as a series of “quick access” navigation shortcuts under the “Information” link.
• Data Filtering - One often requested feature is the ability to filter data in grids, much like Excel. Now you can navigate to the “DataView”, click the “Filter” command, and you can perform your own in-line filtering.

  Again, although not explicitly stated, it looks as though you can quickly save your filters as a View, as well as setting your own Default View.

• In-line Visualizations - Although not Business Intelligence in the true sense of the phrase, CRM5 allows you to visualize numeric data using in-line charts. This is not SQL Server Reporting Services, but looks very much like the .NET charting solution from Dundas.

  The charts themselves are drill-through enabled and you can select a number of different chart formats such as Bar, Column, Funnel, Line, Pie & Scatter.

• Team Ownership - Entities in CRM 4.0 were either User Owned or Organisation Owned. Now Team Owned entities are added in CRM5, and integrated into the role-based security model.
• Native SharePoint Integration - Integration with Windows SharePoint Services for document management, which includes site and document library provisioning, document metadata, item security, and check-in/check-out capabilities.
• Unstructured Relationships - The next generation of “set regarding” and “relationship roles” functionality, allowing you to define ad-hoc relationships between any two entities.

More info can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ukcrm/archive/2008/11/10/what-s-new-in-crm5.aspx

MSCRM-Admin General crm, crm 5, new, preview

Hi All,

Today i had the wonderful pleasure of trying to figure out how to send an email from a email distribution group (active directory group).

The distribution group is ‘Support (support@xxxxxxx.com.au)’ which recieved all support emails. The user wanted to send & reply to emails from the support email address.

I had actually tried to send from this distribution group in outlook - using the From field and boom it worked - too bad it never worked for the other users (turns out i’m an exchange admin and can do whatever i want).

So the user got this error:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

      Subject: 

      Sent:     27/05/2009 2:25 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

      Ibrahim Sukari on 27/05/2009 2:25 PM

            You do not have permission to send to this recipient.  For assistance, contact your system administrator.

            MSEXCH:MSExchangeIS:/DC=local/DC=mydomain:exchserv01

After literally 1 hour of searching, i managed to figure out that in the Active Directory MMC view (below), there is an option call ‘Advanced Features’ which apparently gives you the security options needed on a distribution group.

Steps needed to enable user to send an email from a distribution group:

1. Enable ‘Advance Features’ view from the MMC console - Click on View > Advanced Features
2. Find the distribution group in question, go to properties > security tab > add the user wanting to send the email > give the user permission to send AS or give full control.
3.  Enable the ‘From’ field in outlook (i am using Outlook 2007) - Click on the ‘options’ menu > click on ‘Show From’
   
4. Click on ‘From’ - then choose the distribution group (mine is Support)
5. Send the email - check the other email account.
   

That’s It for now, any comments and suggestions are welcome.

-Ibrahim Sukari

MSCRM-Admin Exchange 2003 distribution group, Exchange 2003, from, info, outlook, send email, support

1. Add a button on Form’s Toolbar/Grid’s Menu Bar for the entity in ISV config file (export ISV config)
2. Call launchOnDemandWorkflowForm (for button on Form) or launchOnDemandWorkflow (for button on grid) functions and pass the parameters sGrid, iObjType and workflowId.
3. Save the config file and import it to CRM.

An example of this could be:

<Entity name="account">
<ToolBar ValidForCreate="0" ValidForUpdate="1">
<Button Icon="/_imgs/mybutton.jpg" JavaScript="launchOnDemandWorkflowForm('', '10029','{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000-00000}');" PassParams="1" WinParams="" WinMode="0">
<Titles>
<Title LCID="1033" Text="Send Email" />
</Titles>
<ToolTips>
<ToolTip LCID="1033" Text="Send Welcome Email" />
</ToolTips>
</Button>
</Entity>

Or you can alternatively request it from the web service:

/* the function */
ExecuteWorkflow = function(entityId, workflowId)
{
var xml = "" +
"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" +
"<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
" <soap:Body>" +
" <Execute xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\">" +
" <Request xsi:type=\"ExecuteWorkflowRequest\">" +
" <EntityId>" + entityId + "</EntityId>" +
" <WorkflowId>" + workflowId + "</WorkflowId>" +
" </Request>" +
" </Execute>" +
" </soap:Body>" +
"</soap:Envelope>" +
"";
var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
return(resultXml.xml);
}

// call the workflow
var theWorkflowId = "3FD2DD58-4708-43D7-A21B-F0F90A0AA9F2"; //change to your workflow Id
ExecuteWorkflow(crmForm.ObjectId, theWorkflowId);

MSCRM-Admin CRM 4.0, Customizations, JavaScript button, isv, JavaScript, js, ondemand, workflow

Hello all,

For those wondering on how to find/retrieve/get your current CRM 4.0 CD key, you will have to query the MSCRM_CONFIG database.

SELECT LicenseKey FROM ConfigSettings

If you have the media (assuming it’s ordered using Volume licensing or using the SPLA media), you can look under DRIVE:\AMD 64 or I386\license.txt

MSCRM-Admin CRM 4.0, Licensing db, key, license, mscrm config, query

This post is to show how to add a Button to a MS CRM Form, not to the Navigation Pane nor to the Menu Bar, but to the actual Form itself.
In this post I will show a simple usage of the Button, to show its function. You can understand that more advanced functions can be triggered by the button, but that’s not the aim of this post.For this example I have used the default Contact Form. The Address Section is hidden onLoad and a Button is shown.

By Clicking on the Button the Section with the Address Details is shown again. In this example the Button Disappears, because it has no use anymore. (I could have added a function to hide the section again).

To achieve the above I have created a new Section with a new Attribute (new_button).

Next to that I placed the following Script in the onLoad of the Form:

Update: 9th March 2010 - updated code blocks - wordpress broke the code!

// Start of onLoad Code

//to hide the address details onload
crmForm.all.address1_name_c.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.style.display = 'none';

// Replace the attribute new_button with the button and create a link to the onclick function
function CreateButton() {
var fieldTable = crmForm.all.new_button_d;
var html = "<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0'><tr><td width='0px'>" + fieldTable.innerHTML + "</td><td width='200px'><input type='button' value='Show Address Details' onclick='Button_OnClick()' style='background-color:#d8e8ff' style ='border-width:2px'/></td></tr></table>";
fieldTable.innerHTML = html;
//hide the new_button attribute
document.all.new_button.style.display='none';
crmForm.all.new_button_c.innerText="";
}
// Function to be triggered onClick
Button_OnClick = function() {
//to show the address details
crmForm.all.address1_name_c.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.style.display ='block';
//In this case I hide the button, because I haven't added the button has not function anymore in this case
crmForm.all.new_button_c.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.style.display ='none';
}
// Initialization: Execute the selected sample
CreateButton();

MSCRM-Admin CRM 4.0, Customizations, JavaScript add, button, Customizations, form, hide, show

Hi All,

I would like to recommend to you some of the books i have read in regards to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Working with Microsoft Dynamics(TM) CRM 4.0 (Paperback)

by Jim Steger (Author), Mike Snyder (Author)

Product Description
Get a practical introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM now updated for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a value-packed customer-relationship management (CRM) solution for small- and mid-market businesses. The latest version adds workflow management capabilities, and will be delivered as an on-demand service through Microsoft® Office Live. With topics that include developing new functionality, designing implementations, and integrating Microsoft CRM with other business applications including Microsoft Office Outlook®, Microsoft Office InfoPath®, and Microsoft SharePoint® Products and Technologies this is one of the only books written for both developers and those who implement business solutions. Authored by experienced practitioners, this book provides case studies, integration and performance guidelines, and toolsets the information you need to help you create successful CRM solutions. This book also explains how to maintain Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, making it of interest to IT professionals who support Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 users. And power users will learn how to customize individual Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 experiences. Key Book Benefits: Delivers practical information from expert authors who have deployed, customized, and maintained Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the field Provides case studies, integration and performance guidelines, and toolsets Includes code samples, and demo data will be available on the Web

About the Author
Mike Snyder and Jim Steger are co-founders and principals at Sonoma Partners, a consulting firm specializing in Microsoft CRM implementations. Sonoma Partners was named top Global Microsoft CRM Partner in 2003 and 2005. Recognized as one of the industry s leading CRM experts, Mike authors several popular newsletters and blogs about Microsoft CRM. Jim architected and led multiple award-winning Microsoft CRM deployments, including complex enterprise integration projects. He s been developing and writing code for Microsoft CRM since the version 1.0 beta.

More info: http://www.amazon.com/Working-Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-4-0/dp/0735623783/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243087339&sr=1-1

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Unleashed (Paperback)

by Marc J. Wolenik (Author), Damian Sinay (Author)

Product Description

Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0 Unleashed presents start-to-finish guidance for planning, customizing, deploying, integrating, and managing Dynamics CRM in your unique business and technical environment. Authored by two leading Microsoft Dynamics implementers, this book systematically explains how the system works, why it works that way, and how you can leverage it to its fullest advantage.

The authors present clear examples, proven best practices, and pitfalls to avoid in using every significant Dynamics CRM capability. The far-reaching coverage ranges from Dynamics CRM’s sales, marketing, and customer service features to its automated workflows; from Outlook and Office integration to reporting and security. The authors offer independent insight into Dynamics CRM’s most powerful new features, from its improved interface to its new mail merge and data migration tools.

This book is for every IT professional who intends to work with Dynamics CRM, regardless of their experience with Dynamics or other CRM solutions. The authors provide example-rich, realistic coverage of advanced Dynamics customization, extensibility, and integration: information that is available nowhere else.

Detailed information on how to…

• Set up, configure, and maintain all facets of Dynamics CRM in any organization or industry
• Thoroughly understand both the on-premise and hosted versions of Dynamics CRM
• Make the most of Dynamics’ new features, including email, the Outlook client, Internet Facing Deployment (IFD), and relationships
• Manage sales leads, opportunities, accounts, contacts, marketing lists, sales collateral, campaigns, quotes, orders, and invoices
• Improve customer service by integrating schedules, cases, contacts, product/service information, and more
• Build powerful automated workflows that streamline key sales tasks and liberate salespeople for more effective selling
• Efficiently administer and secure any Dynamics CRM implementation
• Drive greater value by integrating Dynamics CRM with Microsoft Office productivity tools
• Customize and extend Dynamics CRM using Visual Studio, .NET, and custom plug-ins and add-ons

ON THE WEB:

Download all of this book’s examples and source code at informit.com/title/9780672329708

About the Author

Marc J. Wolenikis founder and CEO of Webfortis, a Northern California consulting company and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that specializes in solutions built with Dynamics CRM. He has extensive experience with CRM implementation, integration, and migration for companies of all sizes, and is deeply involved in building custom vertical solutions around the Dynamics platform.

Damian Sinayis a Webfortis partner. Currently a development manager with senior .NET development responsibilities, he has extensive experience working with all Dynamics CRM technologies. He has participated in Dynamics CRM projects involving extremely complex customizations, integrations, and implementations.

More info: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-4-0-Unleashed/dp/0672329700/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243088206&sr=1-1

Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Pro-Developer)

by Mike Snyder (Author), Jim Steger (Author), Brad Bosak (Author), Corey O’Brien (Author), Phil Richardson (Author)

Key Book Benefits

Comprehensive exam prep study guide In-depth coverage of exam objectives and sub-objectives plus instructive case studies and troubleshooting scenarios to enhance your performance on the job 300+ practice and review questions Test engine that enables customized testing, pre-assessment and post-assessment, and automated scoring and feedback Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C# code samples on CD Handy exam-mapping grid Evaluation version of Visual Studio 2008 software 15 percent exam-discount voucher from Microsoft (limited time offer) Entire study guide in searchable eBook format

About the Author
Tony Northrup, MCTS, MCSE, CISSP, and Microsoft MVP, is a consultant and author. He is coauthor of the SELF-PACED TRAINING KITS for a wide range of .NET Framework, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows XP certification exams.

More info: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-Pro-Developer/dp/0735625948

MSCRM-Admin CRM 4.0, Customizations, Deployment, General, Licensing, Plug-ins, SDK amazon, authors, books, c#, CRM 4.0, developer, plugin, training

NotesCount is a client side JScript customization, which enables CRM useres to recognize the amount of attached notes or attachments to any CRM record (e.g. contact, account, case, …) within the tab on top of the main form of the record.
Intention
NotesCount is intended to improve the UX of all Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 users. By showing the amount of attached notes or files referenced to CRM records without opening the notes tab it will reduce the risk to miss important information.

More info & Download: http://notescount.codeplex.com/

MSCRM-Admin CRM 4.0, Customizations, JavaScript count, crm4, entity, jscript, notes

Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 4 on Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Below are the links to the release and related information about the Rollup. Please see the Knowledge Base (KB) article for more details about the Update Rollup 4 content and instructions.

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0ddf8e83-5d9c-4fe7-9ae6-f2713a024071
• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=968176

Install Details about Update Rollup 4

• Update Rollup 1, Update Rollup 2 and Update Rollup 3 are not prerequisites for installing Update Rollup 4
• The Update Rollup 4 client can be deployed before the server is upgraded to Update Rollup 4
• Update Rollup 4 can be uninstalled

MSCRM-Admin CRM 4.0, Deployment client, rollup, update