Tip #961: When you want Resco

I’m a big fan of the Dynamics 365 mobile apps. I’ve written a book about it, I present CRMUG summit sessions about it, and I fight the misguided app reviewers about it. However, there are several scenarios where it may not be the best fit, and a good third party mobile app (like Resco) is a better choice.

The following are some of the primary scenarios where Resco may be a better fit than the standard Dynamics 365 mobile app:

  • You want a different form for mobile. Dynamics 365 mobile is based on the strategy “design once, deploy anywhere.” This means that users on mobile see the same form that users in the web client see. There is not a “mobile only” form (the one you see that says “mobile” is for the old Mobile Express). For many users, this works great, but in some scenarios, having a form that is radically different on mobile makes sense.
  • You are on premises but don’t want to turn on ADFS. Dynamics 365 mobile assumes that you are running claims based authentication with IFD. If you can’t get your information security team to approve ADFS, Resco is an option to have mobile CRM without IFD.
  • You want to use entities that are not available on Dynamics 365 mobile. As we have covered in numerous tips, the list of system entities that are not available on mobile has shrunk in recent years, but if you have to have campaigns, campaign responses, letters, or some of the other entities that don’t work on Dynamics 365 mobile, Resco is a great option. It can even send email activities directly from the app.
  • You want document integration from mobile but don’t yet have server-side SharePoint. As we have covered here, the client-side SharePoint grid control is deprecated in version 9, but say you still have SharePoint 2010 integrated with CRM 2016? The only option to see documents in Dynamics 365 mobile is server-side SharePoint integration, which requires SharePoint 2013 or later. Instead of waiting until SharePoint is upgraded to see documents on mobile, Resco can work with the grid control based SharePoint document integration and display CRM documents in mobile.
  • Mobile mapping: Bing maps are available with the Windows version of Dynamics 365 mobile; however, you do not have maps with the iOS or Android versions of the standard Dynamics 365 mobile apps. Resco includes mapping on all versions, and it integrates with the device GPS and geocoding (lat/long) on records to not only display the address of a record, but also show the location of the user/device. So it not only can show you where a customer is, but also help you get there.

What’s the point?

The point is not Dynamics mobile bad, Resco good. Dynamics 365 mobile provides a very fully featured experience that will meet the needs of many Dynamics users. But my motto is “use the right tool for the job.” Keep in mind that it’s not either/or. You can easily have some users using standard Dynamics 365 mobile while others are using Resco.

What do you think? Leave a comment letting us know what you use, and why.

Tip #960: If your FetchXML-based report preview is not working

You are writing a FetchXML based custom SSRS report . When you click the “preview” tab in SQL data tools, the report runs without error, but does not display correctly. Maybe there are records missing, or you enter a parameter value that should return data, and it does not display any results. Is your report wrong? Are you crazy?

Report

The answer is maybe, but probably not. You are likely running into what almost every FetchXML report author has experienced from time to time–when you preview a report in SQL data tools, the Report Authoring Extensions only retrieve the first 250 records. So if you select a parameter value that doesn’t have any results in the first 250 rows, your report will not display any data.

That’s why the first rule of FetchXML SSRS Report test club is

Test the report in CRM, not in Visual Studio

(Rule number two is move to a more powerful reporting platform like Power BI).

Tip #959: Getting ready for D365 v9: Learn Microsoft Flow

So you have probably heard the news that Microsoft Flow is going to be integrated in Dynamics 365 v.9, allowing Flow to be managed and run directly from the Dynamics 365 menu.

But maybe you haven’t paid much attention to Flow (not even Tip 880), but now that it is going to be “in” CRM, you want to start learning more about it and how you might use it. But where do you start?

  • Start with this post from the Microsoft Flow team. It does a good job of succinctly describing the primary Dynamics 365 triggers and actions, and shows examples.
  • Sign up for Microsoft Flow at flow.microsoft.com.  If you don’t already have a license, you can sign up for the free version (which has limitations) or you can sign up for a 90-day trial.
  • Once you sign in to Flow, click “connectors” and scroll down to “all connectors” and click on Dynamics 365. Under the description of Dynamics 365, you will see a link to see documentation. This will give you documentation for the triggers and actions available for the Dynamics 365 connector.

  • Look at the templates. There are dozens of great templates for common Dynamics Flows that you can use as a starting point. Things like synchronizing records between Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and operations, creating records like cases based on social media posts, adding records to Dynamics from a spreadhseet, and more. Even if these aren’t exactly what you are looking for, they can give you great examples of how to build Dynamics Flows, and you may be able to find one that is close and make some minor modifications rather than starting from scratch.
  • Learn the plans. There are several different Flow plans, and pricing differs based on number of executions per month, frequency of execution, and connectors needed. As you think through how Flow will be used in your Dynamics 365 deployment, consider what the expected volume will be to determine the associated cost.

Bonus tip: When you get deep into Flow, you will likely want to filter a list of Dynamics records to be updated or deleted by a Flow, and you will want to use an odata query. But if you are not a developer that speaks odata, the good news is there is a tool for that (actually several).

One such tool is Jason Lattimer’s Rest Builder.

 

*note the original post suggested the XRM Toolbox FetchXML Builder, however, Daryl LaBar reminded me that tool is now deprecated.

Tip #958: Segmented solutions and lookup fields

Dynamics CRM 2016 or later allows configurators to build segmented solutions that only include the fields, views, and entity components necessary, rather than adding the entire entity to the solution.

Be aware that if you add a lookup field to your solution that references an entity that is not already part of the solution, Dynamics will automatically add the entire lookup entity to the solution. This will make your solution not so skinny.

The recommended best practice to avoid this from happening is to first add the lookup entity to your solution, without all of its baggage, then create your lookup field.

Tip #957: Configurator’s Dilemma Revisited

Last week I was in a discussion with a colleague and the topic of whether or not he should re purpose the opportunity entity came up. He had a scenario that was somewhat similar to opportunities, but was not a sales opportunity. This lead me to rediscover a blog post I wrote 8 years ago for the Dynamics team blog called The CRM Configurator’s Dilemma to answer the question “should you re-purpose system entities or create new entities?”

My advice from the post, with updated comments:

  1. Consider the future

Still valid, even more so. The future of Dynamics is moving much faster than it was back then, using entities in non standard ways can cause problems if Microsoft makes changes to the entity that you are using. Also, if you choose to re-purpose a little uses system entity like contracts, there is a good chance that Microsoft will elect to deprecate that entity in the future. Custom entities don’t get deprecated.

2. Consider the overhead

When I wrote the original post, there were a number of system entities that had certain fields that could not be removed from the forms. This has changed somewhat as system entities have been refreshed and modernized, but there are still fields on entities like opportunity, case, and campaign that cannot be removed from the form. 

3. Consider the user experience

This still applies–if your use case is less that 50% in line with the standard entity functionality, a custom entity will typically give users a more simple user experience than scaling down a more complex system entity. Plus we now have the ability to add business process flows to any entity, including custom entities, which can easily make a custom entity use experience as good or better than re-purposing a system entity.

Final thoughts

The advice 8 years later is still the same–don’t re-purpose system entities. There is even less reason to do so now–one of the biggest reasons that configurators 10 years ago would re-purpose system entities was activities–users wanted an activity type that wasn’t a fax, email, appointment, or task, so the configurator would grab one that wasn’t being used and re-purpose it. Now we have custom activity entities, this is no longer necessary.

 

Tip #956: Encryption error when configuring Dynamics 365 for Outlook

You try to configure Dynamics 365 for Outlook (legacy Outlook Client) against a sandbox organization that has been copied from production, but when you do, you get an encryption error.

This error can be caused by restoring a copy of a production environment that has data encryption enabled and not restoring the encryption key. If your production environment still exists, in Production go to Settings | Data Management | Data Encryption and show the key.  Copy it.

Then in the sandbox organization, go to the same location and paste that key into the activate box.

In case you no longer have the original organization, follow the instructions in Tip 243 to wipe out the encrypted fields.

Tip #955: If your Flow is not flowing

In a recent MVP discussion, a question was asked about a Microsoft Flow that was not being triggered on update of a custom entity.

David Yack pointed out that Microsoft Flow currently uses Change Tracking to trigger on record updates and deletions. If you find that your Flows are not flowing when changes happen in Dynamics, verify that change tracking is enabled for the entities upon which the Flows are based.

 

Tip #954: Voice of the Customer image file size limit

One of the ways that you can make Voice of the Customer your own is to brand it–change the theme colors and add images. However, the image files are a bit of a mystery–they are not CRM image web resources, and don’t follow the same logic for file sizing. And the available documentation does not clarify the size limits of VOC images.

So you get your snazzy logo and try to upload it, you may see the following error.

Based on my experiences with VOC, the file size is limited to PNG or JPG <100 KB. It doesn’t seem to matter the actual image size, but rather the size of the file cannot be more that 100KB.

If you upload your file and find it fails, reduce the resolution of your file to get it below 100KB and try again. Once you have a file that is below 100KB, refresh the image form and upload the new file.

If you are a Microsoft Paint jockey and don’t have the tools to reduce image size, you can use an online image compression site lite tinyPNG.com to compress the image without significantly degrading the image quality.

Tip #953: If Voice of the Customer installation fails

You try to install Voice of the Customer, but the installation fails repeatedly. What is going on?

You are doing it wrong.

Don’t just go to the Dynamics 365 instance picker, click solutions, and then install Voice of the Customer. First go to the Application tab of the instance picker, configure and approve the T&C’s for Voice of the Customer, then install the solution.

We warned you about this but you didn’t listen.

(those of you still posting about this in August).

Next time, pay attention 🙂

 

Tip #952: Why you should create records from cross-entity search results

In Dynamics CRM 2015 or later we have cross entity search. This allows users to search across multiple entities and displays the results on a single screen. If you don’t find the record you want, you can hit the + button.

So when you are training users, should you train them to create new records from the view, from the quick create button, or the cross-entity search results page? I maintain that you should teach users to create from search results for two big reasons:

  1. It forces them to search before creating, which protects against creating duplicate records.
  2. When you click the + button on the search results, the new record form will prepend the words you searched for to the “name” field of the created record.

So if I search for CRM Tip of the Day and don’t get any results…

When I click the + button, the quick create form will already contain “CRM Tip of the Day” as the record name.

This will reinforce good data quality practices and save users time.