One of the advantages of the Web API is its ability to fine-tune and annotate the returned data thus avoiding excessive round trips and generally relying on the server to do the heavy lifting. Even Daryl “New MVP on the block” LaBar admits in his tip that he was not aware that it is possible […]
Tip #669: Organizing Unified Service Desk development environment
This is for folks who write code as part of their jobs and for whom USD stands for Unified Service Desk and not United States Dollar. If you’re developing custom hosted controls, the easiest way to ensure that the version is correct and all dependencies are included is to set up USD program folder as […]
Tip #644: Async Dynamics CRM awaits you
Gayan “Performance Wizard” Perera hates waiting. Be smart, be like Gayan. For anyone who’s been waiting to get async/await support for the CRM SDK, you can now get a simple extension class from https://github.com/NZxRMGuy/crmsdk-async The downside with my one is that it’s a wrapper around the sync method – some people do frown upon this […]
Tip #636: Use all attributes and miss some of the data
Laziness is the engine of the progress. If it was not for Josephine Cochrane trying to avoid the house duties, we’d still be doing dishes by hand. So we all guilty from time to time using all attributes when retrieving information from CRM. The consequences are not only spießrutenlaufen and eternal condemnation, but also dreadful […]
Tip #629: If your CRM report comes back empty
We observed this behavior on CRM 2013 SP1 and and CRM 2015 Update 0.2 on-premises. The report runs fine for small ranges (e.g. dates) but, as the range (and number of records to be processed) increases, report comes back blank, as if it didn’t run at all. No errors in CRM, SQL Server or SSRS […]
Tip #628: Get jQuery the hacker’s way
The official word is: We do not recommend using jQuery in form scripts and ribbon commands. Right. And what are we to do with thousands lines of code already relying on that miracle? People insert libraries and keep their fingers crossed or follow the wise ones and encapsulate the instance with jQuery.noConflict() call. There is […]
Tip #624: Updating won opportunity fields
When I receive an email from Mitch “Only in Texas” Milam with the subject “Well, this is interesting”, I know it will be just that. Last week was no exception: Did you know (in 2015 at least) you can change the processed and staged fields on a Won Opportunity, without reopening it? No, I didn’t […]
Tip #608: Generate documents in code
CRM 2016 has the ability to generate documents using Word templates. For workflows there’s a custom action called SetWordTemplate which can be added via Add Step > Perform Action > SetWordTemplate. But what if you want to generate the document in a plugin, javascript or in external application so that the functionality can be used by custom […]
Tip #601: Reliably send email in workflow
Sometimes, instead of a simple Send Email action in the workflow, it’s necessary to prepare the email in the workflow (Create Email action), perform some additional manipulations (like adding attachments) and then send it. To do just that, setting email status to Pending Send has been reliably working for everyone since CRM 2011. Until now. […]
Tip #592: Tipster guide to Deploying a Dynamics CRM Package
Last week we showed you how to create Dynamics CRM Package Deployer package using Visual Studio. In this week’s video we finish our series on the Configuration Migration tool and Package Deployer by putting the items we created together and walking though an install. Give us your feedback, all of it: good, bad, and ugly, […]