Dynamics CRM Musings

Blog Moved

2010-08-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

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CRM Training Videos

2009-10-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-22T12:37:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-08T12:11:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

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"/>

CRM Client for Outlook Performance tweaks

2008-12-08T09:30:00.001-08:00

One of the most common complaints I get from clients that use the CRM for Outlook add-in is that "It takes forever to open" or "It makes my outlook run slow!". Many of the performance problems that are actually related to the CRM add-in were fixed individually with a hotfix or more recently fixed in rollup 1 which was released late last month. (And can be downloaded here)

Most of the speed problems are Outlook issues and can be resolved a number of different ways. Before I begin, let me explain the difference between a .pst and an .ost. If you are using outlook to download e-mail from your e-mail provider via pop3, IMAP or some other service, you are most likely storing your e-mail in a .pst (personal store). If you connect to an exchange server to get your mail, you most likely running in cached exchange mode and have an .ost. The .ost is just a cached version of what is stored for you on the exchange server but is located on your hard drive similar to a .pst. Now that that is out of the way, lets move on to the actual tweaks.

1) The enhancement that I find gives me the most bang for the buck (this is for Outlook 2007 users) is to rename the extend.dat file under the individual user's profile. On XP this is located in c:\documents and settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and in a similar location on Vista under the c:\users directory. Renaming another file, FRMCACHE.DAT located here: C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS has also been known to improve outlook startup and response times.

2) The way I understand it, Outlook loads its data store into memory at startup. If you have a lot of e-mail, this can decrease the performance of Outlook significantly. Archiving e-mail into a separate .pst file or deleting old e-mail can help performance.

3) Prior to outlook 2003, .pst's and ost's could not exceed 2GB's. In 2003 and later this issue was fixed but for many users, outlook performance decreases significantly when the .pst and .ost sizes reach the 2GB and greater mark. If your .ost file is larger than 2GB, try archiving old e-mail into a local store (.pst). OST's do not shrink in size once data has been removed so if you recently deleted a large quantity of mail and noticed that your .ost hasn't shrunk in size, you can fix this by renaming the .ost file (with outlook closed). When outlook opens again it will connect to the exchange server and re-create the .ost file using a more appropriate size.

Crm 4.0 Rollup 1 and CRM's Auto-Update Feature

2008-12-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

With the first roll-up now available for CRM 4.0, I'm sure there are administrator's out there dreading deploying the client patch on each and every afflicted computer. I just wanted to take a moment to uncover a post from the Microsoft Team blog that could save you a lot of trouble in the future: https://community.dynamics.com/blogs/cscrmblog/archive/2008/05/08/crm-client-autoupdate.aspx

Essentially it outlines how to set up the auto-update functionality in the outlook client from the server. It does mention that you need to add a key to the registry of each computer that has CRM but remember you can easily deploy the key via netlogon scripts deployed using active directory.

Dymo label printing straight from CRM

2008-10-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

Now most CRM's have the ability to print batched labels in one form or another and most CRM's also have the ability to print an envelope but many lack easy integration with one of the most common office automation tools available: The label printer.

Fortunately, DYMO has made it easy for us since they provide easy access to their SDK which has a number of well documented examples on how to implement DYMO label printing directly from your own application (or in this case Javascript).

For this basic example, were going to encapsulate our code inside of a button located on a the contact form.

The Button code that goes inside of the contact section in ISV Config customizations:


<Button Icon="/_imgs/ico/print_ico.gif" JavaScript="<JSCRIPT CODE GOES HERE>" Client="Web, Outlook" AvailableOffline="false">
   <Titles>
      <Title LCID="1033" Text="Print Label" />
   </Titles>
   <ToolTips>
      <ToolTip LCID="1033" Text="Prints Dymo" />
   </ToolTips>
</Button>

The Javascript to print the label:


// Initializes the basic required variables
var texttocopy = '';
var DymoAddIn, DymoLabel;

// The following commented line prompts the user to add additional information to a label. This is useful if you design a custom label that requires the user to insert a special code
// var taginfo = prompt('Type of Label?', '');

// Set up the DymoAddIn object. This is the master object that actually prints the label
DymoAddIn = new ActiveXObject('DYMO.DymoAddIn');
// Label object where the label information is actually stored and passed to the dymo activex control
DymoLabel = new ActiveXObject('DYMO.DymoLabels');

// Set the taginfo field to blank if it's null. Used if you are using a special code for a label
// if(taginfo == null) { taginfo = ''; }

try
{
   // Add Company variable to texttocopy field if it exists and give it a newline
   if (crmForm.all.companyname.DataValue != null)
   {
      texttocopy += crmForm.all.companyname.DataValue + '\n';
   }

   // Add Firstname variable to texttocopy...
   if (crmForm.all.firstname.DataValue != null)
   {
      texttocopy += crmForm.all.firstname.DataValue + ' ';
   }
   // Add Lastname  variable to texttocopy...
   if (crmForm.all.lastname.DataValue != null)
   {
      texttocopy += crmForm.all.lastname.DataValue + '\n';
   }
   // If no Lastname then just a carraige return
   else
   {
      texttocopy += '\n';
   }

   // Lets check the various required address fields to make sure they exist
   if (crmForm.all.address1_line1.DataValue != null && crmForm.all.address1_city.DataValue != null && crmForm.all.address1_stateorprovince.DataValue != null && crmForm.all.address1_postalcode.DataValue != null)
   {
      texttocopy += crmForm.all.address1_line1.DataValue + '\n';
      // Address 2 isn't always used to lets make sure it exists
      if (crmForm.all.address1_line2.DataValue != null)
      {
         texttocopy += crmForm.all.address1_line2.DataValue + '\n';
      }
      // Add in the rest of the addresses
      texttocopy += crmForm.all.address1_city.DataValue + ', ' + crmForm.all.address1_stateorprovince.DataValue + '  '  + crmForm.all.address1_postalcode.DataValue + '\n';
   }

   // The dymo label software installs the label files into one of several locations. Use the label that corresponds to the type of label you are printing.
   if(DymoAddIn.Open('C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Documents\\DYMO Label\\Label Files\\LABEL.LWL'))
   {
      // Set the address to actual DymoLabel Object
      DymoLabel.SetAddress(1, texttocopy);
      // Insert custom text into a label
      // DymoLabel.SetField('INFOFIELD', taginfo); 
      // Print the label
      DymoAddIn.Print(1, true);
   }
   // Default location of label file for older installations
   else if (DymoAddIn.Open('C:\\Program Files\\DYMO Label\\Label Files\\LABEL.LWL'))
   {
      DymoLabel.SetAddress(1, texttocopy);
      // Insert custom text into a label
      // DymoLabel.SetField('INFOFIELD', taginfo);
      DymoAddIn.Print(1, true);
   }
   // Vista
   else if (DymoAddIn.Open('C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents\\DYMO Label\\Label Files\\LABEL.LWL'))
   {
      DymoLabel.SetAddress(1, texttocopy);
      // Insert custom text into a label
      // DymoLabel.SetField('INFOFIELD', taginfo);
      DymoAddIn.Print(1, true);
   }
   else
   {
      alert('Error: Label file Not Found!');
   }
}
catch(e)
{
   alert(e + ': ' + e.description);
}

For this to work, the dymo label software needs to be installed on any workstation that needs to use this customizations with a dymo printer properly configured.

Dynamics CRM on Linux (Possibly Mac)

2008-10-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

We were recently contacted by a client with a pretty difficult requirement: They had to be able to use CRM on Linux desktops. We have been searching for a solution that addresses accessing CRM via a mac for a while now but haven't had much of a call for using it on Linux workstations. There are a few solutions we've seen that relate to using VMware (such as in Matt Whittemann's post here) or running it in a virtual environment such as parallels.

While researching this problem I happened to stumble across IEs4Linux. It's an installer that grabs the proper windows cabs, installs and then configures IE6(or 4/5) in a bottled wine instance. After some testing we concluded that it would provide a fairly stable environment for CRM on Linux. The screenshots below show CRM running in IE6 on a gnome desktop.

Performance was ok on an aging Celeron with 512mb's of memory. I would recommend something a little beefier for better performance. Keep in mind that this doesn't include the Microsoft Outlook client addin so still no way to integrate mail other than using the e-mail router and exchange rules to dump it in directly.