I just found out that Microsoft has awarded me MVP for the 2nd year! What a great last few weeks! CRM Partner of the Year and now MVP again! You can checkout my company's website here and my MVP profile here
It's been forever since I posted because I've been so busy. But here is great news for my company!
Ascentium was just announced as the Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year! Woohoo and what a year! Check it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/jun09/06-24POTY09PR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press
Recently I wrote a blog series for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog. The blog series covers the newly released Internet Explorer 8 and using the Developer Tools with MSCRM 4.
In the first part, I briefly walkthrough the new View Source, but primarily focus on the Developer Tools relating to styling, formatting, and layout.
http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2009/03/26/ie-8-released-with-nice-debugging-tools-and-crm-4-support.aspx
In Part 2, I go into the debugging aspects of the tools with a focus on debugging script added to forms in CRM 4. I also cover some of the quirks that currently exist with the tools and workarounds for them.
http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2009/04/06/part-2-ie-8-developer-tools-and-crm-4-client-side-debugging.aspx
If you haven’t had a chance to checkout the series, I highly recommend them :)
Girish Raja from Microsoft posted a blog post today full of videos from the companies that attended the previous Incubation Week. I suggest checking them out! The next Incubation Week will be in Boston, MA from April 20-24 which I will be attending as an Advisor. If you are interested in attending and would like to get more details, please read Sanjay Jain’s blog post that covers the pre-requisites and how to sign up. It should be a great week!
Jason Hunt will be hosting the “Understanding xRM” session today at 11am in room 341. Aaron and I will be participating as panel speakers during this session. Make sure to stop by and bring your xRM questions with you.
Afterwards, Aaron and I will be working at the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Kiosks (52-57) till roughly 1:30pm. We are usually pretty busy during this time speaking with many regarding xRM and using CRM as a platform. The conversations so far have been very interesting, with us speaking about many different verticals and how using CRM as a platform and taking the functionality that is provided, you can help go to market faster and eliminate a lot of the plumbing that is involved in custom app development.
If you have any questions regarding Ascentium, CRM, xRM, or want to put a face to the blog posts, then stop by the Kiosk or the session today!
Convergence opened up well today. Everything was setup well and the first presentation I attended went very smooth. My day started out with me participating on the Partner panel during the Partner Briefing General Sessions. It was a great presentation given by Brad Wilson, Doug Kennedy, and David Brown. During the presentations, Reuben Krippner demoed many of the CRM Accelerators, which was great to see. After the presentation (and a great lunch), I headed over to the Pavilion to join the CRM kiosk team to speak and offer assistance. There were a lot of great questions regarding integrations with CRM, the mobile client, and Outlook integration. It was also a great opportunity to meet some of the other Microsoft CRM MVPs.
For the remainder of the week, Aaron and I will be working the Microsoft kiosks during the times listed below. If you have any questions regarding CRM, or as we like to call it xRM, stop by during the times below at the Microsoft Pavilion Kiosks 52-57.
Here is our schedule:
- Wednesday 11:30 - 1:30, Microsoft booth for xRM.
- Thursday 12:00 - 1:30, Microsoft booth for xRM.
Also, Jason Hunt will be speaking on Thursday from 11-12pm in room 341 on “Understanding xRM”.
Microsoft has announced the 2nd Incubation Week for the week of April 20th in Boston, MA. Ascentium will be participating in this event by sending me, Ross Lotharius, to assist as an advisor during the week. For more information about the Incubation Week including including how to attend, please see Sanjay Jain’s blog for more details.
This is only going to be a short post that I plan to follow-up with when I am back in Baltimore. I just wanted to inform everyone that Rollup update 2 is now available for download. As with all updates, I highly recommend waiting a week or so before trying it in case of a recall and to make sure you test it out in a test environment before deploying.
The rollup KB is available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959419
Typically I keep my posts focused on CRM but I have been testing Windows 7 since the PDC build and I must say I am impressed. I like 7 a lot and look forward to its go live. This morning a fellow MVP, David Yack, posted on his Twitter a link to Tim Sneath’s blog covering a list of Windows 7 features that are haven’t received as much press and have been for the most part unnoticed until now. I highly recommend checking it out.
http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx
One of the biggest nuances with CRM Roles is the fact that OOTB roles have hidden permissions. Today Microsoft posted a new KB article detailing the hidden permissions with the OOTB roles. It’s not a fix, but now we know what roles to copy when creating new ones.
Some privileges are missing from a security role that you create from scratch in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957976
Here is a partial list of the roles:
| Role | Hidden privilege | Description |
| Scheduler | prvAppendQueue | Append Privilege on Queue |
| Sales Manager and Marketing Manager | prvReparentTeam | Change Team's Business Unit |
| Support User | prvReadSdkMessageProcessingStepSecureConfig | Read SDK Message Processing Step |
| Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of Sales, and CSR Manager | prvAppendQueue | Append Privilege on Queue |
| Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of Sales, and CSR Manager | prvReparentTeam | Change Team's Business Unit |
| CEO-Business Manager | prvAppendQueue | Append Privilege on Queue | |
| CEO-Business Manager | prvAppendBusinessUnit | Append Privilege on Business Unit | |
| CEO-Business Manager | prvReparentTeam | Change Team's Business Unit | |
| System Customizer | prvAppendAttributeMap | Append Privilege on Attribute Map | |
| System Customizer | prvAppendQueue | Append Privilege on Queue | |
| System Customizer | prvAppendToAttributeMap | Append Privilege on Attribute Map | |
| System Customizer | prvAppendToEntityMap | Append to Privilege on Entity Map | |
| System Customizer | prvCreateApplicationFile | Required for users who are running setup or upgrade | |
| System Customizer | prvCreateAttributeMap | Create Privilege on Attribute Map | |
| System Customizer | prvCreateCustomization | Privilege needed to create new customizations and Display Strings | |
Download it here
The List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 provides a way to view and update Microsoft Dynamics CRM records using a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 Web site. Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can create shared or personal List Web Parts of Microsoft Dynamics CRM records from a SharePoint Web site, open records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 from the List Web Part, and create connected List Web Parts.
Install was just an MSI. After I just had to deploy the web part through Central Administration. It was very easy and took about 10 minutes.
Here is shot of configuring the web part once it’s added to a site:
![clip_image001[4]](http://rosslotharius.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/ross/clip_5F00_image0014_5F00_thumb_5F00_0EE79512.jpg "clip_image001[4]")
And here is the final output with the top being a list of My Activities and the bottom being a list of Customers (Accounts)
Stefano Demiliani has posted screenshots and features coming to CRM 5. I highly recommend reading this. Please keep in mind that CRM 5 is not final and these features are subject to change.
http://www.demiliani.com/blog/archive/2008/11/11/6526.aspx
Features highlighted are (I highlighted the ones I see most requested):
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Flexible Form Layout - We now have much more flexibility in how forms are laid out, for example, we can position sections side-by-side, as well as field labels on top, left or right of each field. Best of all, we can now configure "In-Line Sub-Grids" for child records, so a combination of IFrames & JScript is no longer required to make this work.
- Filtered Lookups - One of the most requested features has finally made it into the product. Whilst customizing the form, you can choose a pre-defined view or better still you can filter by a related lookup on the same form.
- Form Headers & Footers - Now that all tabs, sections and fields appear on a single, scrolling form, it is quite possible the form will get become quite long and you will end up scrolling up and down more often to find the information you require. In order to make the most commonly required visible at all times, you can now place these fields in a header or footer so that they will always be displayed regardless of the scrolling.
- Solution Management - With CRM 4.0, you had to implement a manual process when customizing your solution, to make sure that you didn't overwrite previous customizations, or disrupt any 3rd party ISV solutions. In CRM5 we had now added the concept of solutions.
- Multiple Option Sets - Otherwise known as "Global Picklists", you can define these at the solution level, and re-use them across multiple entities.
- Drag & Drop Form Editor - One of the most time consuming customization tasks in CRM 4.0 is the form design. Every time you want to add, remove or re-position tabs, sections and attributes, you have to go through a multi-click process. With CRM5, you can now drag and drop all elements of a form, speeding up the process considerably
- Audit - Although not explicitly mentioned during the sessions, I spotted an "auditing" setting on the attribute designer form, allowing you to turn auditing on or off.
- Custom Code Sandbox - There is a new server role for running custom plug-in code and custom workflow activities without requiring full trust. This means that it will be possible to run custom code in the CRM Online environment and achieve true parity between On-Premise, Partner-Hosted and Microsoft-Hosted deployments.
- Plug-In Transaction Support - In CRM 4.0 you could register a plug-in to run either before (pre-event) or after (post-event) the CRM platform operation. However, you were not able to run as part of the transaction itself, so you had to right your own compensation logic in the event the CRM platform operation failed. CRM5 addresses this limitation, and you can now choose to register you plug-in as part of the platform operation. The CRM5 plug-in registration tool has been modified to support this.
- Automatic Plug-In Profiling - CRM5 will keep track of how a plug-in is executing, what resources it consumes, if it is causing unexpected exceptions and whether or not it is violating security constraints. If a particular plug-in fails a number of times it is automatically disabled from executing, helping to maintain system integrity.
Last week Sanjay Jain let us know that there will be an Incubation week 12/15/2008 - 12/19/2008 in Reston, VA. If you are interested in CRM or looking to get more in depth knowledge of the product, I highly recommend checking out Sanjay's blog post to get details on attending. This is a no fee event.
Here is a blurb from Sanjay's post:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Incubation Week is designed to offer following assistance to entrepreneurs.
Learning and building next generation business solution on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Platform (a rapid application development platform to reduce the cost and Go-To-Market time) with help of on-site advisors (Microsoft Dynamics CRM experts).
Getting entrepreneurs coaching from a panel of industry experts (academic and angel investors)
Generating marketing buzz for their ideas
Microsoft has released Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-mail Router.
For more information about this release, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 952858.
To download the update, click here.
Similar to the CRM 3 rollups, make sure to take caution when exporting and importing customizations:
When customizations are exported from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server, we do not encourage you to import the customizations to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server in the following scenarios:
- The server from which you are exporting customizations does not have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 1 installed. However, the server to which you are importing the customizations has Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 1 installed.
- The server from which you are exporting customizations has Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 1 installed. However, the server to which you are importing the customizations does not have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 1 installed.
Here is a list of the key items fixed, taken from the support KB:
| KB |
Description |
| 957792 |
Error message when you try to import an organization to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: "Error| Import Organization (Name=[Company_Name], Id=[OrganizationID]) failed" |
| 957701 |
A workflow stays in the In Progress or Waiting status when you run the workflow in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 |
| 952046 |
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook may stop responding when other Outlook add-ins are also installed on the computer |
| 956129 |
You may receive an error message when you try to save an appointment, promote an e-mail message, or run the E-mail Router in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 |
| 954811 |
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Deployment Manager takes a long time to open on a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 server |
| 955234 |
The changes that you made in offline mode are lost when you go online in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook |
| 949564 |
Windows Internet Explorer stops responding when you edit the working hours for a user in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 |
| 956805 |
Error message when you edit an order that has the price locked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: "Crm Exception: Message: The product and the unit cannot be updated while the entity is locked., ErrorCode: -2147206371" |
| 956869 |
Error message when you create a new organization or import an organization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: "Service msftesql was not found on computer '[Computer_name]'" |
| 954349 |
You cannot select a price list even though a Price List lookup button exists in the Create Entity form or in the Update Entity form in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 |
| 954800 |
Microsoft Outlook stops responding when you open, close, reply to, or forward e-mail messages in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook |
| 952724 |
You cannot view any e-mail messages in the folders after you install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 On-Premise client for Outlook |
| 952925 |
Error message when you try to add a user to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 from a trusted domain: "An error has occurred. Try this action again" |
| 951718 |
You receive script error messages when you browse through pages under the Microsoft Dynamics CRM folder in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook |
| 955049 |
Error message when you try to go offline in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook: "Failed move data for entity 'Saved View' during action Insert, countRows=13" |
| 948121 |
Outlook may stop responding when you exit Outlook, go offline in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook, or go online in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook |
| 951884 |
The Microsoft.crm.Application.Hoster.exe service stops running when you run the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook with Offline Access |
| 948043 |
You cannot import the customizations from a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 system that you upgraded to another Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 system that you also upgraded |
| 948045 |
Outlook stops responding when you track an Outlook contact in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook |
| 948155 |
A date or a time may not be converted to UTC time in the database for some time zones in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 |
| 948172 |
Error message when you delete a queue item from a queue in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: "Record is unavailable" |
| 951179 |
Error message when you try to go offline in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook with Offline Access: "Failed move data for entity" |
| 949141 |
Error message when you click "View in CRM" after you create an appointment in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook: "At least one recipient could not be resolved to a record in the system" |
| 954916 |
Error message when you print an activity from the Activities view in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: "Error: 'LOCID_UI_DIR' is undefined" |
| 950175 |
You cannot use Outlook as expected until all Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 add-ins are loaded |
| 950680 |
The workflow rules no longer run when you use the Deployment Manager Import Organization Wizard to import an organization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 |
| 953905 |
An update is available for the time zone and daylight saving time changes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Microsoft Office Outlook |
| 951300 |
The Full-Text Search feature cannot find Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the status of some contracts cannot be set to Expire when you run the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Deployment Manager |
| 952019 |
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-Mail Router service stops processing e-mail messages after a specific period of time |
Microsoft recently posted a blog listing the top 10 issues received through their support channel. The issues relate specifically to the Outlook client for CRM. If you have not read this, I highly recommend it. Here is a short compilation of the 10 listed:
- Outlook hangs during initialization (progress toolbar displays “Loading…” and never finishes)
- With E-mail Auto Promotion Enabled, Outlook may not close cleanly/properly.
- Contacts with birthdays earlier than 1/1/1970 causes Outlook to crash
- Items in Shared Calendars will report Sync Issues
- Cannot Promote an E-mail where the name of the attached file contains a ‘&’ symbol.
- Selecting Dismiss on Outlook Calendar reminder for Service Activity causes record to change Status Reason back to default value for that record.
- OWA Sent Emails Get Stuck in Outlook Draft Folder When Outlook Is Open And CRMADDIN is Enabled
- Microsoft Outlook stops responding when you open, close, reply to, or forward e-mail messages in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook
- CRM Outlook client and/or Desktop Client hangs in presence of other Outlook add-ins
- Phone call activity due time is changed after the activity is snoozed or dismissed.
Here is a link to the post: CRM4 Outlook Client – Issues and Fixes
For a list of all the hotfixes currently available for Microsoft CRM 4, check out the following KB article: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 updates and hotfixes
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