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CRM 4 and Deploying Custom Code Follow-up

Back in January, I wrote a post about deploying code in a supported fashion in CRM4.  You can check out that article here.  From that post I received a question from Regan asking for more details on the proper way to do this.  So today I'm going to follow-up Regan's question and provide how to deploy code as well as some gotchas along the way.

The scenario I am going to use is based around custom developed pages that need to be deployed to CRM.  We'll assume that a developer has created a web site (compiled in .NET 2.0) and now wants to deploy in their CRM environment in a supported fashion.

To properly deploy here is a list of steps you will need to follow:

1. Make sure your assemblies are strongly named.  To generate a keyfile use sn.exe.
2. Copy the ASPX pages to the ISV folder which is typically located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server\CRMWeb.  Note: It is recommended to create folder for your project and drop your ASPX pages there.
3. Copy your assemblies (located in your published project's bin folder) to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) through one of the following 2 methods:
• Drag and drop the assemblies to the GAC folder (%windir%\assembly)
• Register the assemblies through gacutil.exe
4. Make sure your ASPX page references point to the assembly in the GAC.  Here is an example:  <% @Page Language=”C#”  Inherits=”MyNamespace.MyClass, MyAssembly, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=MyPublicKeyToken”%>.  Note: If your reference is wrong you will most likely get the following error: Could not load the assembly....

Thanks to Justin Fortune for his trial and error that went into this back in the day :)

Benchmark Testing with CRM 4 on Windows 2008 and Sql Server 2008

Microsoft has released a whitepaper about benchmarking CRM 4 for the Enterprise.  You can download the PDF here.

Microsoft, together with Unisys Corporation, completed benchmark testing of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 running on Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 operating system and Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 database software. Benchmark results demonstrate that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can scale to meet the needs of an enterprise-level, mission-critical workload of 24,000 concurrent users while maintaining performance at sub-second response times.

Test results were achieved without customizations to simulate an out-of-the-box Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment. Standard optimization was applied using guidelines published in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Optimizing Performance toolkit. Extensive customer research formed the basis of the test design, test scenarios, database sizing, and record counts used in the testing.

Optimizing and Maintaining Microsoft CRM 4.0 Whitepaper Released

Microsoft has released a new whitepaper on Optimizing and Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.  Here is a blurb from the CRM team blog regarding the paper:

This document provides techniques, considerations, and best practices for optimizing and maintaining the performance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 implementations. Structured to support a tier-based optimization methodology, the white paper includes a section dedicated to optimizing and maintaining each of the Client, Application, and Data tiers. For each tier, the document provides details about optimizing and maintaining the relevant components of the broader implementation. This paper also includes links to additional information and resources, such as performance enhancements, security updates, Knowledge Base articles, and related Microsoft Dynamics CRM documentation.

CRM 4.0.2 Sdk Now Available

Menno posted today (here) that the new Sdk is now available for download.  Here is a snippet from his blog highlighting some of the new and updated topics:

• ISV Extensibility Best Practices - New information about where to deploy custom code.
• Recurrence Pattern in Asynchronous Job Execution – A new topic about how to set the recurrence pattern for an asynchronous job.
• Workflow: Attributes and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Types - Updated information about the supported types for custom workflow activities.
• Enabling Duplicate Detection - Updated the information about the use of the isduplicatedetectionenabledforonlinecreateupdate property.
• Import File Entity Capabilities - Updated information about the correct ordering of messages for the import entity.
• Activity Party Entity Capabilities – New information about how to control which e-mail address should be used for sending or replying to e-mails.
• Programming Reference - Added information to incomplete topics and fixed broken links.
• What's New in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Added data management features to What's New topic.

You can download it here

CRM 4 Demonstration Tools Available

Taken from the Microsoft download page:

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Demonstration Tools provide a simple user interface that allows you to easily enter and edit data to populate or modify your instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It also allows you to load and store your data in XML format, so that you can reuse your data in the future.
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Demonstration Tools also include utilities to:

• Generate Data
• Change the Dates and/or Times for Data
• Create Dependent Picklists
• Generate E-Mail
• Set Icons for Entities
• Change the CRM Navigation Pane
• Replace Strings in CRM

You can download it here

CRM 4 VPC Now Available for Download

Microsoft recently released a demo VPC for CRM 4.  Taken from the MS website:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Virtual Machine. This demo is a one computer setup with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and associated Microsoft Dynamics CRM clients for Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

This demonstration also contains Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft Office Communications Server and client, Microsoft SharePoint services, and Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007. Full details about the image are included in the virtual machine itself.

This virtual machine will expire in April, 2009.

You can download the VPC here