Tip #515: Why lookup control appears disabled

The other day the client asked us to verify the field level security settings on the system. The reason, as they explained it, was that one of the lookup controls appeared disabled and wouldn’t become enabled regardless of what they did to FLS settings. Long story short, the control was disabled not because of the […]

Tip #497: Avoid multi-column sections if using mobile

Multi-column tabs and sections

Another awesome TIL from Scott “Captain Redlaces” Sewell. tl;dr Avoid multi-column sections on your CRM forms. (If you’re going to use the Mobile Apps) Today I Learned If you’re going to use one of the mobile apps in your implementation, avoid using multi-column sections – the layout of these fields will be significantly different from […]

Tip #489: Limitations of Retrieve plugins

Calculated fields is one of the best new features and is indispensable for simple calculations. Keyword here is simple. Range of functions available in calculated fields is limited (though it continues to expand from release to release). One of the “traditional” methods to add calculated field is to add a simple field and then create […]

Tip #486: Don’t hard code currency in workflows

Bad currency workflow

If you have a workflow dealing with the entities that include money fields, avoid setting explicit currency. Instead, try to infer the currency from the related records. For mere mortals, it’s just a bad practice, for ISVs, it’s definitely a case of spießrutenlaufen. Why? Because if you activate your workflow and add it to a […]

Tip #475: Keep CRM form tidy with hidden OneNote sections

OneNote section group in OneNote Online

After the very detailed OneNote introduction by Pablo “CRMGamified” Peralta, the only features that are left to cover are undocumented or pure bugs. I’m not quite sure which category the discovery belongs to. As you know by now, sections in OneNote notebook map quite nicely into the list of sections in Dynamics CRM. However, if […]

Tip #471: What will stop your form from closing

Failed import using business rule

tl;dr Setting data validation error on the form level with Xrm.Page.ui.setFormNotification call will NOT stop form from closing, setting errors on individual controls with Xrm.Page.getControl(arg).setNotification, on the other hand, will. To achieve even better results, use business rule instead of the javascript. Slightly longer version Friend of mine pinged me to help with the script […]

Tip #462: Waiting for developer toolkit

CRM developers have been patiently waiting for Godo CRM Developer Toolkit that works with something better than Visual Studio 2012. Now being two version behind, it does not look like it’s coming any time soon. The good news is that, acknowledging both the demand and the delay, the team has been releasing the most important […]

Tip #461: Getting started with that mysterious USD development

Kamaji - the perfect call center employee

Not United States Dollars, I’m afraid. Unified Service Desk, the quite achiever in the Dynamics family, and the secret sauce to any successful call center implementation. In addition to having CRM (any version from 2013 SP1 up to CRM Online 2015 Update 1 will do), USD initial setup even for the development is very trivial: […]

Tip #459: Don’t touch that file. Or that one. Or this one.

Do not touch the thermostat

From time to time people complain that, after applying the update rollup X, their CRM deployment suddenly starts spitting out errors. One of the most popular ones is “Parser Error Message: Could not load type ‘Microsoft.Crm.MapOrgEngine’”. They complain here. And here. And here, here, here, and there. And then they give bad advice here. Why […]