CRM Training Videos

Microsoft has released a great series of videos that are perfect for helping that new employee become familiar with Microsoft CRM. They are geared for toward CRM Online but will work just as well for any On Premise implementation.

Microsoft CRM Training Videos

Windows 7 and CRM 4.0 Rollup 7

As you may have heard, Windows 7 was launched worldwide by Microsoft today. We here at Gateway Solutions have been testing Windows 7 internally for several months and have found that it is not only faster than its predecessor, but has a number of features that makes it the best Microsoft desktop operating system yet.

In our internal testing we did not find any issues running the CRM 4.0 outlook client and Windows 7. That said, Microsoft released Update Rollup 7 for CRM 4.0 today to coincide with the Windows 7 launch. This release introduces major changes to the way the CRM client interacts with Outlook. It also adds official support for Windows 7. Below you will find the download link for Update Rollup 7. Please let us know if you would like assistance in installation or if you had any other questions about Windows 7 or CRM.

Download Link: Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 7

Excel to CRM

We recently started a project with a client who had some very complex spreadsheets. They wanted the data from a complex spreadsheet to reside in CRM but the algorithms and formatting frequently changed. Essentially they wanted us to build a tool that was able to keep this data in CRM but was flexible enough to handle significant changes.

We got the idea to create an excel add-in that took in the appropriate data from the sheet and to write that data to CRM. Our initial thought was to create a CRM entity that contained the schema for a particular sheet. One particular fields' data was held in Cell X123 and so on. However, when I started the project it became clear that this might become a bit of a nightmare to maintain so instead we came up with the idea to use user defined functions (UDF's).

We wrote a series of UDF's that would store each piece of information for an entity and when triggered, write them all to CRM. The greatest part is that its completely dynamic. You only need to enter the name of the field, the entity and the value and the data is written into a temporary data structure. For example, the main UDF takes the value as its first argument, the field name as its second and the entity as its third. The function uses the Metadata service to verify that the field is a valid field and then stores the value. When the user presses the Write to CRM button, all of the data stored in the data structure is written directly to CRM. Since many users are familiar with excel and excel functions, it makes it an easy way for an end-user to import complex data into CRM as well as gives them the ability to create their own customizable interface.

Adding Information to Print Preview

Unfortunately there isn't a way to customize the print preview form in CRM. Users often find that the convenient little print button at the top of every window rarely contains the information needed. For example, you want to print out an e-mail that "proves" it was sent on the day it was sent. You click the print button and find out regretfully that there is no date information!

The information is there but you just have to know a little bit about the print preview form to display it. Print preview simply displays every piece of information that is located on the form itself. For example, in an e-mail history record, the ever important Date field is actually the actual end field. Simply modifying the e-mail form, placing actual end on the form, changing the field title to Date and publishing the form will net you a date on your print preview. Pretty easy.

Installing the Data Migration Manager on the same Server as CRM

We often find ourselves doing a lot of our work remotely. That said, we don't often have much access to any other machines on a foreign remote network beyond the CRM server itself which can make it difficult if we want to use utilities such as the Data Migration Manager to pull data directly into CRM.

Why is it difficult? Well, the Data Migration Manager(DMM) isn't intended to be installed on the CRM server itself. In fact, if you attempt to install it on the server, the following error appears when you designate an install location: "The path is not of a legal form". This is annoying to say the least.

Why is this error showing up? I'm not sure if this was written into the installer as a way of dissuading people to install the DMM on the same machine as the CRM server or for some other purpose. The reason it shows up is that it is attempting to find out where CRM server is installed by querying the "InstallLocation" string located here:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\059DD8CB00184F24E99A62CF4D6109FA\InstallProperties]

The problem is that this registry string is blank! By simply adding in the proper path to your CRM installation (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM) in the "InstallLocation", the installation will proceed without a hitch.

One word of warning, I have not had this happen personally but I have seen it cautioned that if you attempt to uninstall the DMM after installing it this way, it may uninstall files needed by your CRM Server install. Uninstall at your own risk.

MSCRM and Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts

I had a customer ask me recently about keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft CRM. Shortcuts are documented in the CRM help file but here is a quick list of MSCRM and Outlook shortcuts.

CRM Shortcuts

Select all text in current field	CTRL-A
Close the current window	ALT-F4
Move to next field	TAB
Move to previous field	SHIFT+TAB
Save current form	CTRL-S
Save and Close	ALT-S
Save and New	CTRL-SHIFT-S
Open/Close Form Assistant	CTRL-SHIFT-F
Cancel edits and close Form	ESCAPE
Delete record	CTRL-D

Outlook Shortcuts

Switch to mail	CTRL-1
Switch to Inbox	CTRL-SHIFT-1
Switch to Calendar	CTRL-2
Switch to (Outlook) Contacts	CTRL-3
Switch to Tasks	CTRL-4
Create new Appointment	CTRL-SHIFT-A
Create new Contact	CTRL-SHIFT-C
Create new Task	CTRL-SHIFT-K
Check Spelling	F7

CRM 4.0 Rollup 3

CRM 4.0 Rollup 3 was just released yesterday. It can be downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=05453fa4-9551-4a88-9852-634a9ad0e140. Patch notes can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961768.

Again there are a number of manually activated fixes so be sure to read through the patch notes carefully.

We have encountered some issues with this patch and the C360 addons Summary and Relationship Explorer. If you have either of these addons, we recommend you hold off on this addon until C360 updates those modules.

Hotfix that significantly speeds up Outlook 2007

One of the most common complaints that we get about Microsoft Dynamics CRM doesn't really have to do with CRM itself but with outlook. In a previous post, I outlined a number of tweaks that can be used to help get your Outlook up to speed but sometimes even the tweaks won't help your speed. Microsoft has released a hotfix for Outlook 2007 that addresses a number of issues including the startup and shutdown speeds. We noticed at least a 400% increase in Outlook shutdown and startup speeds. The hotfix can be located here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=961752

Rollup 2 and Registry Keys

After installing CRM 4.0 Rollup 2 which was released late last month, I found myself saying, "Hey! I thought that was supposed to be fixed!". The particular problem I noticed was that CRM Hosting Process was reserving a significant amount of memory over time which was supposed to be fixed in this last rollup. Well, as it turns out, it was fixed.

If you read very carefully at the KB article for the rollup, you'll notice that there are "Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually". It turns out we need to add registry keys to enable this feature: Add a Dword to the registry entitled EnablePeriodicCollection under the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient\ and set its value to 1. There is a short list of fixes that need to be manually activated by modifying registry keys and running sql queries.

That got me curious though, what manually activated fixes did I miss in rollup 1? It turns out another somewhat important fix (at least as far as outlook performance is concerned) needs to be manually activated from rollup 1. This fix allows Outlook to continue loading even if the CRM addin hasn't completed loading. To enable this fix, add a Dword to the registry entitled DelayUIDuringAddinInit under the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient\ and set its value to 1.

Here's the short list of manually activated fixes for rollup 2:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955452/ - Line feeds are not used when you send an e-mail message that uses an e-mail template to render data that has line feeds in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955745/ - Error message when you try to configure the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook: "This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956527/ - The Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook consumes three times as much memory in version 4.0 as in version 3.0
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959248/ - Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 slows to unacceptable levels when you process e-mail messages by using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957871/ - The Workflow Expansion Task records cause the AsyncOperationBase table in the MSCRM database to grow too large in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0


Here's the short list of manually activated fixes for rollup 1:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950175/ - You cannot use Outlook as expected until all Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 add-ins are loaded
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953340/ - E-mail messages from a CRM user to a queue are not delivered in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

CRM Workflow Error with Rollup 2

Ran into a problem with workflow and CRM Rollup 2 today. We were getting errors after attempting to publish any workflow. Turned on tracing and the following popped up into the logs:

Error Number: 0x80045001

Error Message: Workflow compilation failed:
WF1399: Activity 'CreateStep5_policy' validation failed: Property "RuleSetReference" has an invalid value. Rule set is invalid. Rule "main" validation failed. Type System.Globalization.CultureInfo is not marked as authorized in the application configuration file.

Thanks to Tom Cadman on the Microsoft forums for pointing out that this was caused by some missing lines in the CRM web.config:

<!--
    * CRM SE 6681 V4:  Hotfix needed for CRM Workflows before WF.Net security patch
   -->
   <authorizedType Assembly="mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" Namespace="System"  TypeName="Void" Authorized="True"/>
   <authorizedType Assembly="mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" Namespace="System.Reflection"  TypeName="AssemblyFileVersionAttribute" Authorized="True"/>
   <authorizedType Assembly="mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" Namespace="System.Reflection"  TypeName="AssemblyVersionAttribute" Authorized="True"/>
   <!--
    * CRM SE 5934 V4: Workflow Designer and Runtime Do Not Handle Decimal Numbers Correctly
   -->
   <authorizedType Assembly="mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" Namespace="System.Globalization" TypeName="CultureInfo" Authorized="True"/>