Tip #939: Need to reschedule an update again?

When a new release of Dynamics 365 is released, existing online environments are scheduled for an upgrade. If the date selected is not optimal, an administrator can reschedule that update one time.

But what if you later change your mind and want to reschedule it again? the Instance picker will not let you reschedule an update a second time. Does this mean you are stuck?

No–it simply means that you cannot reschedule it again via the O365 console. Log a support ticket with Microsoft support, and your friendly Microsoft support tech will be glad to help you reschedule the update for the desired date.

 

Tip #938: Talent is now generally available

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent is now generally available (GA). Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/talent and sign-up for a free 60-day test drive of Dynamics 365 for Talent.

Dynamics 365 for Talent is quite important from technical perspective – I believe that it’s the first fully-fledged app built entirely on CDS platform. The first drop may not deliver all the features we’ve been waiting for but it’s available and it looks good.

Tip #937: Flush that portal cache

When I’ve got the tip email from Kevin Ingrey, my first reaction was “Groan… Not the portal cache again!”

Didn’t we beat the cache refresh for the portal to a pulp in Tip 740 and Tip 784? Looks like we did but obviously not to death.

Latest news in the portal science: append /_service/about to your portal URL in the latest release of Dynamics 365 Portals to get the handy ‘Clear cache‘ button.

EDIT: Correct URL is /_services/about – thanks, Chadi!

Portals clear cache button

It’s a heavy-duty tool and should be used in production as a last resort only (but developers – rejoice!). If change tracking does not work for you, I still recommend figuring out why and raising a support request with Microsoft if required.

Got a tip? Send it to jar@crmtipoftheday.com!

Tip #936: Grow up to Azure Logic Apps

Grow upIt was never a secret that Microsoft Flow was built on top of Azure Logic Apps. However, until recently, two platforms were independent, one designed to attract end-users and customizers and another – developers and DevOps.

The day has come to grow up – it is now possible for Flow users to save any flow they have as a Logic App resource template. This template can be managed like any other Logic App resource – and deployed through Visual Studio or directly in the Azure portal to a subscription of the user’s choice.

Why is it important? Because the relationship between Flow and Logic Apps is now similar to Report Wizard and SSRS Reports in Dynamics 365 – it’s a great time-saver. Instead of torturing user to give up those precious specifications, we can simply tell them to create that report or that flow themselves, but without sweating over the details. Once the overall intent is clear, developers can pick it up, convert into more powerful counterpart and apply a layer of polish.

Tip #935: Notifications for Dynamics 365 Online service updates

The following clarifies how and when users of Dynamics 365 Online are notified for service updates, such as patches and hotfixes.

Notifications are not sent out for regular maintenance activities on servers, like security patches or OS updates, as there is no impact on the customer, their orgs or their environments.

Notifications are sent out for weekly releases, hotfixes, major releases, and maintenance activities that impact the customer and cause downtime. All notifications that are sent get posted to the Office 365 message center and if there is the potential for downtime, Microsoft will send out emails to System Administrators, but those are extremely rare.

Microsoft targets at least a two day notification for normal releases that do not impact the customer (aka no downtime) and five days for anything the will cause downtime, even if it is during a maintenance window.

Basically any user with any type of O365 admin role will see these messages. You don’t have to be a global admin in O365—you can be a more limited admin (like the Dynamics service admin role).

Tip #934: Duplicate detection and tracking contacts in Outlook

When I track a contact in Outlook, does CRM notify me if it triggers a duplicate detection rule?

Yes, but the experience may differ, depending on what client you are using. This tip assumes you are using server-side synchronization, as Outlook synchronization has been deprecated and will be removed in the upcoming release.

  • If you use the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook and track contacts via the new Contacts add-in, you will be notified if your tracked contact duplicates an existing contact.

  • If you use the traditional Outlook client and track a contact, you will not receive a duplicate detection notification, but the contact will not be created in CRM
  • If you update an existing tracked Outlook client and by making the update the record now triggers a duplicate detection rule, the change will not synchronize to CRM.

So in the final two scenarios, does this mean that the duplicate detection didn’t fire? No–it just means that in these scenarios the tracking/synchronization is happening asynchronously/in the background. The new app is designed to do the duplicate check before flagging the contact to be tracked. Given that the legacy Outlook client is in maintenance mode, it is unlikely that this behavior will change in the legacy CRM for Outlook. Switch to the new app if it is available for you.

So what should you do if you tracked or updated a contact and the sync isn’t happening due to duplicate detection? Check the mailbox log. Go to Settings>>Email Configuration>>Mailboxes and open your mailbox record. Click on “Alerts.”

If a tracked contact was unable to be saved in CRM due to duplicate detection, you should see an alert log entry for that contact. Hovering over the alert should give you a yes/no choice of whether or not to save the duplicate in CRM.

 

Tip #933: When a field is not a field

Here’s a Dynamics riddle for you: When is a field not a field? Answer: when it is 2 or more fields.

Way back in tip 273, we discussed the maximum number of fields you can have in a Dynamics 365 entity. That maximum is for text/string fields. You should be aware that certain types of fields will consume more than one field in the database, reducing the limit on total fields. (To clarify: 1,024 columns per table is one of the limits imposed by SQL Server).

Adam Vero clarifies:

  • Option sets and two options (bit fields) each use 2 columns, regardless of how many possible options.
  • Lookups are also two – the GUID and name.
  • Polymorphic lookups like customer and regarding may use an extra one for the target entity type.
  • Currency fields will also be two each, plus 3 overall on the entity for the exchange rate and currency ID and name.
  • Rollup fields of any kind, because these will add two additional fields for the current status of the rollup field and the date/time it was last calculated

Tipp Jaar: The rollup currency field where it’s the only currency field on the entity takes the cake with 8 fields being consumed in the process.

Tip #932: If a garage was like Dynamics 365

This recent Facebook discussion illustrates what would happen if common CRM support methods were applied to other areas of life..

When you are looking for help with Dynamics 365 or with your garage door, clearly state the issue and the steps to reproduce the problem. Let’s see what advice the Dynamics community has for this issue.

Tipp Jaar: Sounds very familiar. Use Edge as your Dynamics 365 browser, except when performing any form customizations, then use Firefox for that. Ah, yes, and Chrome for script debugging.



Tipp Jaar: Yes, next release will fix that one, for sure! What do you mean, you have to use your Dynamics 365 in the meantime?


Tipp Jaar: Secure the social security number field? Easy – apply javascript to hide it. Javascript is fast, typical user won’t be able to read the number before it disappears from the screen.


Tipp Jaar: Users discovered that pressing F12 gives them access to all fields hidden by javascript


Tipp Jaar: Wrong base currency? Reprovision the entire Dynamics 365 organization


Tipp Jaar: That’s right, fill in your Dynamics 365 with junk so that the users give up and go back to the Excel spreadsheets. You can still use Dynamics organization for prototyping and training.

So the lesson is don’t trust the Dynamics community with home improvement suggestions.

Tip #931: Too Few Business Units

Organizational charts updateIn Tip 917 we talked about what happens if you have too many business units in Dynamics 365. But what about the opposite — can you have too few business units?

If you are implementing Dynamics for a single group, it is common to only use the base business unit for all users. “We don’t have any secrets, let’s keep it simple.”

While I agree and encourage the “keep it simple” approach, there is a strong possibility that you may at some point have some things that you want to keep secret from a subset of the users. Consider the following scenarios:

  • You grow Dynamics usage to other parts of the company
  • Your company gets acquired by a large multi-national company
  • The CEO decides that he wants to track emails and doesn’t want everybody to read them
  • The VP of sales discovers that there are number of contacts in her address book that need to be in Dynamics but better kept private from the rest of the crew

As discussed in 917, moving people between business units is painful, and you will want to only do it whenever necessary. If you start with all users in the base business unit, if a change comes along that requires a subset of data to be separate, you may find yourself having to relocate many or all of the existing users, as the base business unit cannot be reparented.

To guard against this eventuality, it may be a good idea to initially create one child business unit and put all users in that business unit. Should your business change to require further segmentation of data, this will simplify those changes, as the business unit with the bulk of the users can be reparented, or select users, like the CEO, can be moved to the base business unit. You will avoid full-scale business unit moves of all users.

Tip #930: Important changes to the Voice of the Customer installation process

A new version of the Voice of the Customer solution was recently released (v.9). The new solutions introduces some changes in the way the solution authenticates with CRM to improve security.

  1. To start the installation of the solution, the admin should log in to the Dynamics 365 Administration Center portal in Office 365.
  2. In the Administration Center portal, click on the Applications tab
  3.  Select “Voice of the Customer” application and click on the manage icon which launches the Voice of the Customer installation page.

Please note that you must be a tenant admin to complete this installation.