So, it finally happened  :). We were asked by our friends from Project Management Institue Poland Chapter (www.pmi.org.pl) to present our approach to CRM projects (using Sure Step Methodology)

We presented our findings on CRM project management:

1. why CRM projects fail
2. what is our methodology and what are key differentiators
3. how we deal with day-to-day project management 
4. how do we implement PMI recommendations

Event took place in Warsaw School of Economics. It was a great opportunity to share our experience with top polish Project Managers and to share Microsoft Dynamics vision and Sure Step methodology with them.

Link to the event https://www.pmi.org.pl/content/view/343/52/

 For the 90 days trial version please visit https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A9C110FD-AAC8-4D2A-B401-7801B1866E82&displaylang=en

1.  Run Microsoft CRM Deployment Manager (Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Dynamics CRM Deployment Manager).

2.  Go to "Organizations" node, press right mouse button on the organization that uses the database whose name you want to change. Choose the "Disable" option.

3. Repeat all the activities described in point 2, but this time select "Delete" option.

4. Connect to your database server (for example, using Microsoft SQL Management Studio) and rename your [OrganizationName]_MSCRM database to the desired name. Sometimes you may get the information: “The database cannot be exclusively locked to perform this operation”. In such a situation the SQL Server restart will help.

5.  Use the CRM Deployment Manager to Import Organization (Deployment Manager -> Organization -> “Import Organization” option). It will run the wizard which allows for importing an organization from an existing SQL database

6. Choose SQL Server and new database names.

7.  Specify the "organization name", "display name" and report server network location.

8. Select appropriate method for mapping CRM users.

9. Finally, import new organization. J

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 French Language Version is now available for download.

To get it (90 days trial) please visit https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A9C110FD-AAC8-4D2A-B401-7801B1866E82&displaylang=en

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 English, German and Spanish Language Packs are now available for download.

 To get them please visit https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=50761E58-6040-4CF3-853A-F5AB535F7194&displaylang=en

Today we were trying to deploy new plug-in assembly into CRM 4.0 database. First we used Plug-in Registration Tool for CRM 4.0 delivered with CRM 4.0 SDK. After that we were trying to register plug-in assembly with our custom application.

Unfortunately in both cases the operation was unsuccessful and we were getting the strange looking Soap Exception "Not have enough privilege to complete Create operation for an Sdk entity". At the same time we were able to create any other business entities like contacts, accounts...

1.       Microsoft CRM 3.0 is installed

2.       Microsoft Exchange 2003 is installed (on Windows Server 2003 – this is supported configuration)

3.       Microsoft CRM Exchange E-Mail Router is installed.

I suppose that installed software is configured correctly, and replying for a message with valid CRM token generates CRM activity. In such a clean situation we can start to add a queue. First of all, create user in AD, but user has to be disabled and should have proper rights granted. Just to verify, open Active Directory Users and Computers and

-          on the Account tab verify, that ‘Account is disabled’ option is checked

-          on the ‘Exchange Advanced’ tab click Mailbox Rights and verify, that Allow is checked for the SELF account for “Full mailbox access” and “Associated external account” permissions

-          on the ‘Exchange Advanced’ tab click “Custom Attributes” and verify, that CRMEmailEnabled value is present

In some places we can encounter attribute CrmMailEnabled instead of CrmEmailEnabled. As far as I know, queue works with both of them, but I use CRMEmailEnabled, following the “CRM Installation and Configuration course”. Before closing User Properties, copy user’s E-mail to clipboard. That’s all stuff, that we need from Active Directory.

Second part will be done in Microsoft CRM, so open main CRM page and go to Settings -> Business Unit Settings -> Queues and click New. Type Queue Name, paste e-mail copied just before, choose Owner and Business Unit and click ‘Save and Close’.  Verify that ‘All incoming e-mail’ option is checked. That all the stuff from the CRM side…

And now… that it is the place where I lost much time. I was thinking (following the mentioned CRM Installation and Configuration course) that it should works at this place… But in effect, if I send message to CRM Queue nothing happens. I checked, that messages are sent (I mean present in Exchange Mailbox – it can be checked in Microsoft Exchange System Manager), but message is not delivered to CRM Queue. The question is why message cannot be delivered? Or maybe, why CRM cannot receive message? Solution is simple, and it is described in Microsoft CRM Implementation Guide:

Choose to Deploy Rule to Users Mailboxes

This is done by “Rule Deployment Wizard” tool, which is installed with Microsoft CRM Exchange E-mail Router.

After that everything should works properly. If not, there is one more issue, described in KB 921389 – “E-mail messages from internal Microsoft Dynamics CRM users are not delivered…”  where the key is internal CRM user. In such a case, verify that mails from CRM users are not excluded. This option can be found in “Settings -> Organizational Settings -> System Settings” on the “E-mail Tracking tab”. Verify that “No” is selected in “Set whether to exclude e-mails between Microsoft CRM users” option.

We should begin with noticing the fact that there are three types of marketing list by default in MS CRM - one for Leads, one for Contacts and one for Accounts. So if you want to customize the Marketing List Mamber view, you will have to know for which entity you would like to customize it. Once you know, it is worth noting somewhere the type codes for these entities, i.e. Account = 1, Contact = 2, Lead = 4. Knowing these values, we can proceed further.

For each entity type there are several views (e.g. "All members"). So you have to decide which one you would like to customize before you begin with the customization.

 Once you have done all this, follow these steps to customize the Marketing List Member view and enjoy all the advantages of MS CRM customization :)

1. We assume that we want to customize the All Members view for the Marketing List containing accounts. 

Go to the MS CRM database and use SQL Server Management Studio or Query Analyzer to enter the following query:

SELECT * FROM SavedQueryBasy WHERE name LIKE '%members%

2. You will be presented with the list of views containing members. Find the one that you want to customize and be sure that you look at the one for the entity, you would like to customize. So, in our example, we want to customize the view containing accounts. Thus, find the row that contains 1 in the ReturnedTypeCode column.

3. Once you've done this, copy the GUID of this view from the SavedQueryId column

4. You can leave the Management Studio now and go to CRM web client

5. Go to "Settings" / "Customize entities" and select the Account entity

6.  Go to "Forms and views" and open any view to customize it

7. Now, press CTRL+N on your keyboard to open the address bar

8. In the URL, replace the GUID of currently customized view to the one you have copied in point 3. and press enter to refresh the window

9. Wow! You are now presented with the Marketing List Member view that you would like to customize. Customize it using normal MS CRM mechanisms!

10. Once you finish, "Save & Close" the window and the entity window

11. In the "Customize entities" view click "More actions" / "Publish all customizations"

12. Once the customizations are published, you have your new Marketing List Member view :)

 Happy Customization! :)

You can follow these steps for all other views.

Please note that this customization (simply saying, as any other requiring to query the db and not shown on the web client) is NOT SUPPORTED!

However, there is a very common question "Why are some fields disabled when I use 'Bulk Edit'?" although they are enabled on the form? The answer is: each field that has an event enabled will be disabled in 'Bulk Edit'. Even if there is no client side script attached - it is enough that the event is enabled.

There is a rationale for this - what should happen when a script should be run on OnChange event when several records are edited?...

There are two properties in Iframe object - URL and SRC. SDK says in one of examples that url property should be used. In fact, the src is the one that will guarantee our Iframe to load appropriate page. The src property is a valid DOM property and the only one that works.

Remember about this!