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Microsoft CRM 4.0 User Guide Now Available

Microsoft has released the user guide for CRM 4.0.  The guide is editable allowing you to customize it on a client by client basis.  You can download it in docx and pdf format here. 

Below are details pulled from the CRM team's blog.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 User’s Guide includes all of the basic end-user information available in Help, including documentation on sales, marketing, and customer service features, as well as step-by-step instructions on working with Advanced Find and workflow. And it’s in an easily printable format.

Microsoft Partners and MVPs have told us that they want to provide customized documents for their customers. To make it easy to customize the document, we’re making a version available in Microsoft Office Word 2007 (.docx) format.

We’ve also talked to Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers, such as salespeople and customer service reps, who’ve expressed frustration at having to print out each Help page individually. Based on this feedback, we’ve included an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version that serves as an all-in-one document you can distribute in your organization.

Ascentium Posts our JavaScript SDK to Celebrate a Great Year!

Jason Hunt recently made a blog post over at our company's website a highlight of our awesome year and details about our JavaScript SDK that we developed and use everyday at Ascentium.  I highly recommend downloading it and checking it out.  It makes SDK calls a lot easier!

Here is a link to the blog post

Here is an example taken from the blog post:

Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete Sample

This sample shows how to Create, Retrieve, Update and Delete records within CRM. Notice when creating the Contact that to set the parentcustomerid there is a special CrmLookup object you need to use. Use this for all lookups.

function Run()
{
    //create the Ascentium_CrmService object
    var oService = new Ascentium_CrmService("MicrosoftCrm", 
"http://localhost:5555");

    //create an entity
    var beAccount = new BusinessEntity("account");
    beAccount.attributes["name"] = "Ascentium";
    beAccount.attributes["numberofemployees"] = 600.00;
    var sAccountId = oService.Create(beAccount);

    alert("Account Created. Account ID = " + sAccountId);

    //update an entity
    var beAccountToUpdate = new BusinessEntity("account");
    beAccountToUpdate.attributes["accountid"] = sAccountId;
    beAccountToUpdate.attributes["revenue"] = 1000000000.00;
    oService.Update(beAccountToUpdate);

    alert("Account Updated");

    //retrieve an entity
    var asCols = ["name", "revenue", "createdon", "createdby"];
    var beRetrievedAccount = oService.Retrieve("account", 
sAccountId, asCols);

    alert("Account Retrieved: " +
    beRetrievedAccount.attributes["name"].value + " : " +
    beRetrievedAccount.attributes["revenue"].value + " : " +
    beRetrievedAccount.attributes["createdon"].value + " : " +
    beRetrievedAccount.attributes["createdby"].value);

    //create an entity with a lookup attribute
    var beContact = new BusinessEntity("contact");
    beContact.attributes["firstname"] = "Joe";
    beContact.attributes["birthdate"] = "2008-01-01T00:00:00";
    beContact.attributes["parentcustomerid"] = new CrmLookup("account", 
sAccountId);
    var sContactId = oService.Create(beContact);

    alert("Contact Created: " + sContactId);

    //delete an entity
    oService.Delete("account",sAccountId);

    alert("Account Deleted");
}

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide (IG) 4.2.0 Available

Microsoft released an update to the IG yesterday.  You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1ceb5e01-de9f-48c0-8ce2-51633ebf4714&DisplayLang=en

With this release they have added 3 new topics;

• Install Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server on multiple computers.
• Configure an Organization Database for SQL Server 2005 Database Mirroring
• Deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook with Systems Management Server 2003

You can view all of the changes in the "Summary of Documentation Revisions and Additions for Update 4.2.0" document contained in the download.

Developer Ramp up Kit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Microsoft has released a series of videos that detail the various features and changes in CRM 4 in 12 presentations.  I'm in the audience for these and Aaron Elder is the presenter :)

This kit is for .NET based developers who want to ramp up and build on top of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 uses familiar components such as Web Service endpoints, Windows Workflow Foundation, SSRS reporting, and more; making it a general purpose platform for any line-of-business applications. Developers can use their existing .NET skills to take advantage of various features of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. This kit drills into the details of such development and explains how developers can connect, extend, and embed with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. It includes presentations, hands-on labs, and a VPC environment for practicing. This content was delivered earlier as part of the Metro Early Adopter initiative and the video recordings of the ramp-up presentations are included as well.

Familiarity with the .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual C#, Jscript, Microsoft SQL Server and general Web development is recommended.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc720132.aspx

2008 Microsoft MVP!!!!

Yesterday I received the following email from Microsoft letting me know that I have received an MVP award for 2008!!!

Dear Ross Lotharius,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way to say thank you for promoting the spirit of community and improving people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. We appreciate your extraordinary efforts in Dynamics CRM technical communities during the past year. Microsoft will soon send your MVP Award gift package. It is our way to say “thank you for making a difference.".....

I'd like to give a special thanks to Aaron Elder who has been my mentor for close to 10 years and my wife Mary for supporting me through it all.  

Thanks to all who voted for me!  It has been quite a year!