Connecting to CRM 2013/2015/2016 and Dynamics 365 in C#

Dynamics CRM 2013/2015/2016/Dynamics 365

In our day to day tasks we often need to connect CRM in C# either in a plugin, a console application or a service. In this article I will present different ways to do that.

Method 1
Use this method to connect when you want to use your connection info directly in code. This method can be used for CRM 2013/2015/2016.

Method 2
Use this method to connect with CRM 2013/2015/2016 when your connection info is in config file.

Config settings will be like this

Method 3
Use this method to connect with CRM 2013/2015/2016 when your connection string is in config file.

Config settings will be like this

Method 4
User this method to connect with Dynamics 365 On-Premise

//– Note: In order to use CrmServiceClient class, you need to use namespace “Microsoft.Xrm.Tooling.Connector” which exists in Dynamics 365 Dll named “Microsoft.Xrm.Tooling.Dll”

Config settings will be like this

Method 5

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Dynamics 365 v9: Limitations Of Unified Interface

Author: Zohaib Uddin Khan

Version:  Dynamics 365 v9

On the other day, I had a conversation with Andrew Ly (MVP) and he shared with me that there are a couple of well-known functionalities which are not available in Unified Interface. Then, I started looking into this matter and I was just stunned!!

Limitations of Unified Interface:

• Advanced Find is missing (Global as well as on the list views).
• Bulk Update records by selecting two or more records is not available.
• Run Workflow is missing in a view.
• No filters available on columns in a view.
  • After adding ‘Editable Grid’ control, filter feature will be available.
• Run Report is missing from view.
• Bulk Delete is missing in a view.
• Quick create for Activities and Custom entities is not available.
• Sitemap Designer behavior is not consistent. I configuredCampaign, Quick Campaign and Work order, but they are not appearing in the App while browsing.
• [Misunderstanding, my bad!] Through App/Sitemap Designer, I didn’t expose the ‘Case’ entity. But, ‘Case’ entity is marked for ‘Quick Create’ and Security role has the access to it. So, I can create the case record through ‘Quick Create’ button. Make sure Security role is updated for the App accordingly.

I’ll keep updating this list based on new findings. Ciao!

Dynamics 365 Session and inactivity timeout

Author: Zohaib Uddin Khan

Version:  Dynamics 365 v8.1 and onwards

In this blog, we will be discussing two features which are available under Dynamics 365 – Settings – Administration – System Settings

• User session timeout
  • A user is not required to log in with their credentials for up to 24 hours regardless of whether the user was active or inactive.
• Inactivity timeout
  • A user can remain logged in the application until the session timeout expires.

Both of the above features can have custom values set by System Administrators.

Limitation of Inactivity timeout:

In the following cases, inactivity timeout wouldn’t get enforce:-

1. Dynamics 365 for Outlook
2. Dynamics 365 for phones and Dynamics 365 for tablets
3. Unified Service Desk client using WPF browser (Internet Explorer is supported)
4. Live Assist (Chat)

More information can be read here.

 

 

Dynamics 365 Portal – Access Denied on all pages

Author: Zohaib Uddin Khan

Credit to this Solution: Chid

Problem:

I’m browsing the ‘Dynamics 365 Portal’ Homepage and I’m always redirected to Login page. I even tried to directly access the Images/JavaScript/CSS files, but still redirected to Login page.

Solution:

Since I come from web development background, so restart the portal and clear cache of the browser are my first bet. And, I highly recommend doing that in case you are experiencing absurd behavior. But, in my case, the problem didn’t get solved. Luckily, I found a thread on MS Community forum where I found the solution:

• Do ‘Advanced Find’ the entity ‘Publishing States’.
• Open the ‘Published’ record for your portal. In one Dynamics 365 organization, the number of ‘Published’ records is equal to the number of portals configured.
• Make sure IsVisible and IsDefault are checked as shown below:

Dynamics Portal 365 – Resolving Errors

Reached office, grabbed the hot latte and I was informed that Dynamics Portal 365 is not working. Bummer!!

So the exception is,

Since I don’t have the Psychic powers, so I start looking into more descriptive and informative exception log. In order to find more information about the exception, you have to ‘Disable Custom Errors’ for the portal.

Following are the Steps to do:-

• Log in with your Global Administrator to Dynamics 365 Administration Center > Applications.
• Select your Portal application and click on ‘Manage’ button.

• Click on ‘Portal Actions’ and ‘Disable Custom Errors’

• Browse your Dynamics 365 Portal and viola!!

 

Dynamics 365 for Marketing Public Preview

Yes, you’re reading right, Dynamics 365 for Marketing Public Preview is available for trial. So, let’s start making our hands dirty like a sparky.

1. Browse for Dynamics 365 for Marketing trial.
2. Follow the simple sign-up and Marketing setup process.
3. Once Marketing setup process gets completed, you will be landed in Dynamics 365 for Marketing. In my case, it took more than an hour to complete the setup.
4. After the browsing, I realize it has two broad categories:
   1. Marketing.
   2. Events
5. In the Marketing section, following are the important ones:
   1. Activities.
   2. Customers.
   3. Marketing Execution.
   4. Lead Management.
   5. Internet Marketing. (New area to explore)
   6. Templates.
   7. LinkedIn Lead Generation. (New area to explore)
6. In the Event section (fairly new area to explore), following are the important ones:
   1. Events (registration)
   2. Participants.
   3. Venue Management.
   4. Logistics.
   5. Sponsorship Management.
   6. Post Event actions.

I didn’t get much time to explore, but its worth to put an extra mile to explore. I’ll write another couple of detailed post for the new area. Till then Ciao!

Fit Requirements into D365 Features, Not Features into Requirements

I would like to present my advance apologies if you disagree with me but give another thought about it. OK, let’s start with the conclusion first and then we will discuss in detail.

For some time, I noticed that whenever Dynamics Product team release some new cool features into D365, we start talking about them and by all means we try to utilize these new features in our next implementation no matter whether requirements need these features or not. I’m not saying don’t use new features but here my point is to do proper Fit-Gap analysis and identify whether the new feature is needed in our next implementation or not. If requirements can easily be achieved by the features which are available from CRM 4.0/2011, then go ahead and design your system using those old features. There is no harm to use them, you don’t need to impress someone who is sitting next to you. Take the accountability and trust your guts!

Example: Let me drag you into the Music industry and we will analyse through this example.

• Every day some new songs are coming, we start listening them dozens of times a week.
  • Why? because we love it at that moment, but it doesn’t mean we will use this song for some special event or occasion.
• We still love to listen to the songs of 90’s or older.
  • Why? because our mood wants to listen to them, even they are old but still we love it!

So, our mood and special event or occasion become our Requirements and Songs become our Features.

p.s. Ed Sheeran and Katy Perry are my recent favourites.

D365 v9: Limitations of Virtual Entity

Let’s first discuss the definition and architecture of the Virtual Entities. Following excerpt from Technet.

A virtual entity is an entity in the Dynamics 365 platform metadata without the associated physical tables for entity instances created in the Dynamics 365 database. Instead, during runtime when an entity instance is required, its state is dynamically retrieved from the associated external system. Each virtual entity type is associated with a virtual entity data provider and (optionally) some configuration information from an associated virtual entity data source.

Because of this, there are a couple of limitations associated with Virtual Entities.

Limitations of Virtual Entities

Hight Impact:

1. GUID (primary key) in the source system.
2. Auditing is not supported means no track of what got changed?
3. Dynamics Security model can’t be implemented.

Low Impact:

1. They are read-only (which seems reasonable because its only one way pull).
2. You can’t create an Activity type custom entity.
3. Workflows are not triggering, even Business Process Flows are not available.
4. Duplicate Detection is not available, so when you’re pulling data you need to implement that logic.
5. Roll Up and Calculated Field calculation not supported.

Next time, when you are considering to use Virtual Entities try to do Pros/Cons according to the requirements you are planning to achieve. With current design and limitation of Virtual Entities, it cannot be considered for all the scenarios. In the meantime, if you found any other limitations, then feel free to write down in comments and I’ll incorporate them in the article.

Ciao!!

[Issue] Dashboard: Click on record, Opening new record

Recently, one of my colleagues faced a little weird issue. Let me try to explain the issue and then we will look for the resolution.

Issue:

In the Dashboard, an activity view is placed and whenever he is clicking on the record in the view, a new activity creation form is opening rather than the activity record form with proper data. Weird!!

Even, we tried to check it in different browsers such as IE, Firefox, Chrome or Safari, but the behaviour is same.

 

Resolution:

• Go to Settings – Customization – Customization the System – Entities – Activity –  Views – <open concerned view>
• Add Columns – <select any column> – click on OK.
• Select this newly added column in view and click on ‘Remove’ button.
• Click on Save and Close & Publish all Customization.
• Do Ctrl + F5 and behaviour start working as expected.

Happy Hump Day!!

Dynamics 365 v9 – NOT IN support for Advanced Find

Let’s discuss all the new features of Dynamics 365 v9 updates. One of the interesting ones is ‘NOT IN Support for Advanced Find’.

Purpose of this new feature is to find all those Cases that do not contain a Task using Advanced Find.  Let’s kick in to play with it.

Go to Dynamics 365 – click on Advanced Find

Scenario # 1:

• Look for: Cases
• in the below pane, do ‘Tasks (regarding) = Contains Data”
• Click on Results button.

This query will return all the Cases which have at least one Task associated with it.

If you click on the ‘Download Fetch XML’, you will find the below info:

Scenario # 2:

• Look for: Cases
• in the below pane, do ‘Tasks (regarding) = Does Not Contain Data”
• Click on Results button.

This query will return all the Cases which don’t have any Task associated with it.

If you click on the ‘Download Fetch XML’, you will find the below info:

This feature is indeed very needed one. Hope it will help the D365 community in a greater good.