Tip #986: Specify language for Online Management API

International flags

As soon as the word got out that I managed to use Online Management API to create backups in Azure, Marius Agur Pedersen reached out to me about the support case with Microsoft that he had in the limbo for a number of weeks. Basically, Marius was able to retrieve instances but any attempt to […]

Tip #985: Use Azure for permanent instance backups

Floppy disk backup

In the tip 759 we suggested keeping a sandbox instance as your persistent backup because Dynamics 365 Management Center provides no control over the backup lifetime. Later, we were excited about introduction of the Online Management API and, as it turned out, all for the right reasons. Using the API, administrators can now backup a […]

Tip #979: Start planning farewell party for the email router

Retirement

We always liked email router, we even called it “good, old, and fairly reliable“, and asked people not to leave it behind. But, as the server-side synchronization becomes better and better with every release, it’s time to reconsider. According to the list of the upcoming important changes, “Email Router will become deprecated in the next […]

Tip #977: Moving forward with the portals

Alice in Wonderland choice

If you are a past or present Adxstudio partner, you might have received the email from adxquest@microsoft.com (quest, er?) with the subject Legacy Adxstudio Portals v7 Partner Announcement. The email is all about the changes coming for legacy Adxstudio Portals v7. I don’t believe there is any new information but it’s really nice to have […]

Tip #971: Be careful when using unsupported solutions

Martian left alone

It does not happen often but it does happen. After some retrospection, I urge everyone to be very careful when following Joel’s advice on using attachment extractor solution. (Some say one needs to be careful when following any Joel’s advice but that’d be a discussion for another day). My arguments (both of them): It is […]

Tip #967: UI testing for Dynamics 365

Fake

Software testing is important and Dynamics 365 is no exception. Fundamentally, developing for Dynamics 365 is different from developing, say, an ASP.NET MVC application but, users don’t really care, do they? It’s a software that hopefully delivers business value, deal with it. Developers who recognize the importance of the process, have always been making inroads […]

Tip #966: E-mail integration in team or department deployment

Mailboxes

Joel has been producing tips by a truckload, I don’t think he’ll notice if I sneak this one in, especially when a fellow comrade developer David “Xrm.Tools” Yack is in pain. David Anyone have any suggestions for where let’s say a Team/Department gets CRM in their own subscription but their e-mail is still managed by […]

Tip #964: Use latest language features

Food evolution

I often find that developers like comfort zones. They tend to use the constructs that they already know and are comfortable with. That includes language features as well. However, programming languages are evolving all the time and new features are introduced with every new release. Those features aren’t just cool, they make developer’s life much […]

Tip #962: Microsoft Portals Source Code Is Available

Portal Source Code

After a very short private preview program, Microsoft has just made the source code for the Dynamics 365 Portals available on the Microsoft Download Center. We’ve already reviewed the topic on the podcast but this milestone is quite significant to deserve another discussion. tl;dr One-off release of portal source code is available for download. If […]