Dynamics Biz Apps Blog

This article is focused on recent and upcoming compatibility testing along with the most common compatibility asks seen in support. This article does not list every product that is compatible or not compatible with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The purpose of this article is to supplement the information found in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Implementation Guide.

The products that have a status of “TBD” means they are being considered for future compatibility and when that is determined and the testing is complete this article will be updated with the status.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

The following list of products have been tested or are currently being tested with Dynamics CRM 2011. The “Minimum CRM Version” and CRM Build Number” field list the minimum Microsoft Dynamics CRM version that has been tested an has compatibility with the listed product.

Sourced From: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2669061

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If you have ever analyzed network traffic you would notice that IIS will automatically compress many types of content including images, jscript, and css pages. Compression is used improve the network performance by decreasing the number of round trips required to transfer data from the server to the client machine.

The CRM 2011 Outlook client uses WCF to retrieve data from the server. By default IIS will not compress WCF responses which have a mimeType of  ‘application/soap+xml;charset=utf-8′.  Since the WCF traffic is not compressed you may notice there is increased network traffic or performance is degraded when comparing CRM 2011 to CRM 4.0.  Typically I have seen a 30-40% reduction in response size once compression is enabled for the WCF responses. However once SSL is enabled on the CRM website the compression can reduce the size by 80-90%.

Below is a chart showing response size before and after compression is enabled within IIS. This is captured from a non-customized CRM 2011 environment with the sample data loaded. This shows improvements when loading the various views in the Outlook client.

How to Enable WCF compression

You may enable compression either by using a command line or by manually modifying the ApplicationHost.config file on the CRM Server. Below are the steps for each process.

Note: You may notice an increase in CPU utilization with compression enabled so be sure to monitor CPU accordingly.

Enable compression using a command line.

a. Open the Command Prompt on the CRM Server.

b. Run the following command:

%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /+”dynamicTypes.[mimeType='application/soap%u002bxml; charset=utf-8',enabled='true']” /commit:apphost

c. Reset IIS for the setting to take effect.

Enable compression by manually updating the ApplicationHost.Config

a. On the CRM Server Navigate to:C:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv\Config\applicationHost.config and open it with notepad.

b. Search for the Section:“<dynamicTypes>” and in that section you should fine an entry that looks like this:
<add mimeType=”application/x-javascript” enabled=”true” />

c. Below that, add the following line:
<add mimeType=”application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8″ enabled=”true”/>

d. Save the file and reset IIS for the setting to take effect.

Note: For additional information about configuring HTTP compression, on TechNet, see the article Configuring HTTP Compression in IIS 7 at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771003(WS.10).aspx

The Optimizing and Maintaining the Performance of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server Infrastructure whitepaper also includes a section on HTTP compression .

Sourced From:  Jeremy Morlock Microsoft Premier Field Engineer

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During the import of an organization an error message may display “Fragmented indexes were detected in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database”

Re-index the organisation databases

USE Org_MSCRM
GO
EXEC sp_MSforeachtable @command1=”print ‘?’ DBCC DBREINDEX (‘?’, ‘ ‘, 80)”
GO
EXEC sp_updatestats
GO

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Error message presented when accessing MS CRM 2011 Online with IE9.

“Unsupported Security Settings – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online requires that ActiveX Controls be enabled. Your current security settings prevent this”

The resolution: The standard online URL format (https://organization.crm.dynamics.com/) was adequate for IE8. For IE9 however, you needed to include a path to the loader page. (https://organization.crm.dynamics.com/loader.aspx)

Sources From: Microsoft CRM Deployment Forum

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MS CRM 2011 100 Dedicated Videos

Resourced From: Slow xRM

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Microsoft has released Update Rollup 5. This is a tested, cumulative set of updates for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. It includes performance enhancements that are packaged together for easy deployment.

Information Here

Download Here

Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 does not contain any hotfixes or any updates that you must configure manually.

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Within MS CRM 2011 the Lead notes and attachements do not convert to the Account, Contact or Opportunity when converting the Lead. The following is a work around that allows for the information to be mapped to one or all of these entities.

Steps to copy lead notes to account:

1. Create Jscript type of web resource which holds the following Script

Download Script Here

2. Save this web resource and publish it.
3. Create an Iframe on Account form with name like “IFRAME_LeadNotes”
4. Do not select Restrict cross frame scripting checkbox.

5. After creating IFrame. Call the function from script on onLoad event of Account. Make sure that you have selected “Pass execution context as first parameter”.

6. On qualifying a lead to account. All notes of lead will be shown on account as shown in below screen shot.

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook Client 2011

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Report Authoring Extension

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Software Development Kit (SDK)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Implementation Guide

90 Day Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011 (no CAL limit):
MQM2H-JYYRB-RRD6J-8WBBC-CVBD3

90 Day Microsoft Dynamics CRM Workgroup Server 2011 (5 CAL limit):
H84KC-JH8DF-7PDYK-TXBXR-2RMMT

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NOTE: This process works in 2011 or 4.0, the following screen shots are form a 4.0 system.

MS CRM does not give you the ability to, in a straightforward manner, convert Leads in bulk. The widespread knowledge is that you have to convert them one by one. However, there is a workaround…

This would be through Marketing Lists – it’s a way to exploit the features of the Marketing Lists functionality, without using the Marketing Lists to “market” per se. And there’s another plus – no plug-ins or custom development work required!
Create a new Marketing List called “Bulk Disqualify” or something; you can reuse it if this comes up later, so it’s good to know what it was used for. Set it to use Leads as the Member Type.

Add all the Leads to the Marketing List (you can do this in bulk on the toolbar, or individually). You go to More Actions (or just Actions from inside of a record), and then click Add to Marketing List.

Once you have all the Leads in the list, you can highlight them all, then click More Actions, and then click Convert Lead. It will then allow you to qualify……

…….or disqualify each of the records selected at once.

NOTE: If you have more than one page of Leads in the Marketing List, you will probably have to do the conversion process more than once (but it beats doing it 200 times!). I would do the first page entirely – then click to view the next page. Follow those steps until you have all of them disqualified. It may allow you to do all of them at once, but you’ll have to see.

Sourced From: Dynamics Care

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With CRM 2011, custom reports now look for read permission on the “Entity” and “Field” entities. IF you apply those permissions to the user, they will be able to run the report. The “Entity” and “Field” entities can be found under the customizations tab in the Security roles.

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Released May 2011

Download Here

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After installation of MS CRM 2011 to a non default location the Video bar shows a 500 Internal Server Error.

The video section is looking for the default help page which is pointed to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\CRMWeb\Help\Default.aspx. However, if you do not install into the default location the system will not dynamically adjust to the new installation area.

Moving the help directory to the location it is pointing to corrected the issue.

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While using custom forms for Cases you cannot Resolve the Case or Reactivate the Case like you can on the default form. This is due to a file that the default forms sources but the custom forms do not.

To resolve this you can add the Javascript to the Onload event of the custom form to activite the buttons on the ribbon which then allow you to Resolve or Reactivate a Case.

Download Javascript

Sourced: Thanks to Adam Nafke with Magma Design Automation for discovering and resolving.

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Recently we discovered that we could not log into the Plugin Registration tool. It would display the follow error message:

unable to retrieve the organization from the discovery service

Followed by this long detailed error message.

Unhandled Exception: System.InvalidOperationException: Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: ‘https://crmnaorg54346.crm.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc?wsdl’.
at System.ServiceModel.Description.MetadataExchangeClient.MetadataRetriever.Retrieve(TimeoutHelper timeoutHelper)
at System.ServiceModel.Description.MetadataExchangeClient.ResolveNext(ResolveCallState resolveCallState)
at System.ServiceModel.Description.MetadataExchangeClient.GetMetadata(MetadataRetriever retriever)
at System.ServiceModel.Description.MetadataExchangeClient.GetMetadata(Uri address, MetadataExchangeClientMode mode)
at Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.ServiceMetadataUtility.RetrieveServiceEndpoints(Type contractType, Uri serviceUri)
at Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.ServiceConfiguration`1..ctor(Uri serviceUri)
at Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.ServiceConfigurationFactory.CreateConfiguration[TService](Uri serviceUri)
at Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.ServiceProxy`1..ctor(Uri uri, Uri homeRealmUri, ClientCredentials clientCredentials, ClientCredentials deviceCredentials)
at Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.DiscoveryServiceProxy..ctor(Uri uri, Uri homeRealmUri, ClientCredentials clientCredentials, ClientCredentials deviceCredentials)
at PluginRegistrationTool.CrmConnection.get_DiscoveryService()
at PluginRegistrationTool.CrmConnection.RetrieveOrganizations()
at PluginRegistrationTool.ConnectionsForm.OpenConnection(CrmConnection con)
Inner Exception: System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
at System.ServiceModel.Description.MetadataExchangeClient.MetadataLocationRetriever.DownloadMetadata(TimeoutHelper timeoutHelper)
at System.ServiceModel.Description.MetadataExchangeClient.MetadataRetriever.Retrieve(TimeoutHelper timeoutHelper)
Inner Exception: System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond 72.215.225.9:443
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)
at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address, ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Int32 timeout, Exception& exception)

To solve this we had to delete two files.

1. Under Users\username\LiveDeviceID delete the LiveDevice.xml file.
2. Within the Plugin Registration Folder delete the Connections.config file.
3. I have run into cases where you did not have to reboot and cases where you did have to reboot as well, no set pattern.

After these two files were removed (they regenerate), were we able to access the Discovery Service via the Plugin Registration tool.

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With the release of 2011 the list.aspx Metadata Browser has gone away. However, in viewing the new internal Metadata Browser it appears to have more than made up for it’s loss.

The new Metadata Browser has been released with the lastest SDK and is now  internal to 2011. To view the browser you need to import the solution from the SDK file. The browser installation files are located in SDK\Tools\Metadatabrowser and is imported to 2011 as a Solution.

Once the Solution has been added and published the Metadata Browser can be accessed via Settings within the Customizations section. The initial view is basic but allow for filtering from some list selections on the Entity and a search filter on the Properties.

However, the real information becomes available by right clicking the Entity Schema Name and choosing View Details. You can also choose Edit which will take you to the Entity within Customizations. The Copy function only copies the text value of the name.

Once the Entity Metadata View is open you have access to a lot more details within the Entity. You even have the ability to expand properties to gain more information. On the left is a navagation bar that gives you all the information the previous Metadata Browser provided before as well as a new Privileges view.

Option Sets
Option Sets can be expanded significantly showing all relevant details.

Attribues
The Attributes view provides a list of all the fields as well as a Property window on the right. Within this view you can expand some properties to gain more information.

Privileges
The new Privileges view will provide an excellent location for troubleshooting security and Role permission issues.

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Did the administrator approve the email address? As that is new in CRM 2011, where the system administrator will have to go to the user records that are set to use the Email Router and click on “Approve Email” in the CRM Ribbon. If the user Outgoing profile is set to Router, and they have a valid Primary Email address, the user still will not show up in the Email Router until the administrator selects Approve E-mail on the user record.

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If the SystemUser entity is modified so the AccessMode attribute defaults to ReadOnly you will recieve the following error message when trying to add a user to CRM 2011 Online.

Error: Read-Only mode is not supported in this version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The following user was not added: username (LiveID Email)

To correct this, you need to modify the attribute and have it default to Read-Write. After making the change and publishing the customizations, you will be able to add new users.

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Server: router server

Outgoing Status: Failure – An error occurred while checking the connection to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server https://dev.crm.dynamics.com/orgname. Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: ‘https://dev.crm.dynamics.com/orgname/XrmServices/2011/Organization.svc?wsdl’. The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.

The proxy settings are configured in the browser for the current user. Email router configuration manager process is run as the current user and hence is able to pick up the proxy settings. Email router service is run on the “LocalSystem” account which does not pick up the proxy settings.

To allow the router service to detect proxy settings, you should configure the service to run as the logged in user.

Open Services Management (Services.msc)
Stop the MSCRM Email Router Service
In properties of the service, change the Log on account from “LocalSystem” to the current logged in user.
Start MSCRM Email Router service and test.

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The Email Router will not work with CRM Online Beta out of the box, you must modify the configuration file for it to be compatible with Online. 

Setting the E-mail Router to work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

1. On the computer where the E-mail Router was installed, open the Service folder in the E-mail Router installation folder. If you chose the default installation folder during Setup, this is <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Email\Service

2. Open the file Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Management.config file for editing.

3. Remove the XML comments (<!– and –>) from around the following statement: <add key=”DiscoveryUrl” value=”https://dev.crm.dynamics.com” />

<!–  (remove)

<add key=”DiscoveryUrl” value=”https://dev.crm.dynamics.com” />  (keep)

–>  (remove)

Note

4. Follow the steps in this procedure only to connect the E-mail Router to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. For connections to Microsoft Dynamics CRM (On-Premises Edition), leave the XML comments in place in the Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Management.config configuration file.

5. Save the file.

6. Start the E-mail Router Configuration Manager.

7. When configuring the email router for CRM Online you must enter the Organization name. Previously this would be the name as it in the upper right of the CRM client. However, with CRM Online you need to use the Unique as found in the following location.

Setting \ Customizations \ Development Resources \ Organizations Unique Name

 Organizations Unique Name           crmNAorg63505

 Therefore your deployment URL for CRM Online will be displayed as:

https://dev.crm.dynamics.com/crmNAorg63505

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