Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Kerberos MS CRM

Dear Readers,

Thanks for Francos, sharing this document with me for you people.

An updated doc on Kerberos delegation published Jan 25th

click this link: Start download.


It also applies to CRM 4 : SBS R2 (running reporting services)
2003 R2 (running CRM with hostheader)

You can connect to the reporting services from the console but not from the client PCs are we need double hop authentication with SPN. I just have nightmares when

I need to set up Kerberos, ‘cause usually it ends up with me not sleeping and the things not working

Regards,
Imran

Friday, February 08, 2008

New CRM 4.0 SDK

Check out this month’s update of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK – version 4.0.2!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=82E632A7-FAF9-41E0-8EC1-A2662AAE9DFB&displaylang=en


New or updated topics in the help file (CHM):

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.
Changes in the sample code folders:

Added Data Binding sample code.
Removed workflow tools and walkthroughs to reduce confusion. The workflow tools previously included in the SDK are not needed for custom workflow activities.
Updated the readme file with late breaking information.
In addition to the download package, the documentation will be live on MSDN soon.

We’ve got more in the pipeline for future releases:

More sample code, including custom workflow activities and data migration
Additional walkthroughs
Report writers guide
E-mail provider extensibility
Using the Outlook client SDK
Updated XML reference documentation for the customization file
And more!

Best Regards,
Imran

Monday, February 04, 2008

Steps to Check for Custom Applications Upgradation to MS CRM 4.0

Dear CRM developers,

I have written many applications and get requirement of upgradation to new version CRM 4.0, from bigning of this year, it was painful activity I was performing. Microsoft CRM Team should work for such things while new version release as it will be problamatic for every one and every time in future versions. Anyhow there are few things keep in mind while doing your upgradation of custom applications.

I have done upgradation of following things and done successfuly with passage of time.

1. Callouts / Pluggins (mostly work , but some time need to modify the dlls and Code

2. Reports (Custom reports need to modify most of the cases)

3. Javascript ( Normall Javascript code related to customization works fine , but some time like filters lookups, accessing CRM webservices in Javascript need to modify with new code. For more see CRM SDK or my upcoming posts related to Javascripts upgradation etc.

4. ASP.Net Application, As I have written many ASP.Net applications for customers , need to modify the code.


a. Remove your web reference and then add new one
Server Path/MSCRMServices/2007/CRMService.asmx

b. Your code should be migrated to VS 2005 / .Net 2.0

c. Check CRM new data types like double , CRM Money etc

5. Restart Async Service if you are attempt to do IIS restart (iisreset).

Above Points need to check regarding upgradation of your code.

6. .Net Assemblies for CRM Workflow. Also check your custom applications link to workflow (Workflow .net assemblies), some time you have to recompile and link that.

If you have any issues, let me know - might be with my experience you save your time. email me with your issue and screen shots (mscrmexpert@gmail.com)

Regards,
Imran

Entity Relationships in MS CRM 4.0

Dear Programmers,

here is some stuff for you, I was working on Entity relationships of MS CRM 4.0, how you will use and how you will work with them,

1. One-to-Many System-System (1:n)

In CRM 4.0 you can link system entity to another system entity. The child system entity has a lookup field to associate it with a parent system entity.

2. Self-Referential

In CRM 4.0 you can link An entity to itself. For example a Case can be linked to a master Case.

3. Multiple Relationships Between Entities

Many of you know about mulitple lookups issues with same entity, now it can be achieved in MS CRM 4.0 e.g the Account entity might have two relationships with a Contact entity - a primary and secondary Contact.

4. Many-to-Many System-System, System-Custom & Custom-Custom (n:n)

In CRM 4.0 this is major requirement for many to many relationship, now it is possible . Not only will this remove the need to build a “joining” entity, but you have control over how the relationships show up in the UI.

Here is sample code how to associate many to many in MS CRM Code.

// Create an AssociateEntities request

AssociateEntitiesRequest request = new AssociateEntitiesRequest();

// Set the ID of Moniker1 to the ID of the lead.request.

Moniker1 = new Moniker();
request.Moniker1.Id = new Guid("B050F053-6968-DC11-BB3A-0003FFBAD37A");

request.Moniker1.Name = EntityName.lead.ToString();

// Set the ID of Moniker2 to the ID of the contact.request.

Moniker2 = new Moniker();
request.Moniker2.Id = new Guid("1DCDEE97-35BB-44BE-8353-58BC36592656");
request.Moniker2.Name = EntityName.contact.ToString();

// Set the relationship name to associate on.
request.RelationshipName = "contactleads_association";

// Execute the request.

service.Execute(request);


Happy Programming with MS CRM

REgards,
Imran