Warning message when multiple Outlook clients are set to synchronize with CRM

Posted by Matt Weiler on August 19, 2010 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (1)

A client of ours recently began deploying the CRM Outlook client to its users and they ran across a new scenario for them. If a user has the Outlook client installed on more than one computer, they will see this message when Outlook opens:

"You already have Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook installed on another computer. Only one client computer per user can run the automated process that does bulk updates of outlook items with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data. This client should be the computer that is most often online (such as a desktop computer) or the users primary computer. To change the Synchronizing client, on the CRM Menu, click options, and click the synchronizing tab."

After reading this message, you might find yourself asking what's the difference between being a primary and secondary client? Does that affect when or how CRM data is synchronized to the client? What about Outlook items being synchronized back to CRM?

Luckily for us (and our client), the MS CRM E2 team's "Nuts and Bolts" series covered this exact topic! The full white paper is chock full of great information about the Outlook synchronization process, but for anyone else who's been curious about this message, here's a summary of the differences beween the primary and any secondary clients: 

1. Being the primary synchronization client only affects Outlook data. All CRM data is synced the same way no matter if the client is the primary or a secondary.
2. Contacts, Tasks, and Appointments sync slightly differently between primary and secondary clients. When the primary client tracks, updates, or deletes one of these Outlook objects, they will immediately be synced back to CRM. When a secondary client does, the changes will not be synced back to CRM until the primary client performs its next sync.
3. Emails and the tracking of emails are handled the same for both primary and secondary client.

Hope this helps!

Microsoft CRM Outlook Client and Update Rollup 11 (UR11)

Posted by Mike Snyder on June 10, 2010 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (8)

Last week Microsoft released Update Rollup 11, which I had been patiently waiting for to see how it works with Outlook 2010. I am happy to report that it delivers the goods!

I have had Microsoft Outlook 2010 installed on my laptop for a while but I was not happy with how the CRM Outlook client worked on UR10. Instead of adding the “Track in CRM” and other related CRM buttons on the home tab in the ribbon, it added a new tab called “Add-Ins” and put all the CRM functionality there. As a heavy Outlook client user, this simply didn’t work for me because every time I wanted to do something with CRM I had to click on the Add-Ins tab first. Very annoying.

Outlook Client UR10 – Uses Add-Ins Tab

When Microsoft released UR11, the first thing I tested was to see if they fixed this problem. Great news, the all of the CRM functionality including the critical “Track in CRM” button is now front and center on the home tab!

Outlook Client UR11 – CRM Functionality on Home Tab

Even better, you can play around with the Ribbon to customize the location of the CRM section and move it further to the left in the ribbon if you want (clicking the up arrow moves the ribbon section closer to the left side of the screen). You can access this menu by right-clicking on the ribbon and selecting “Customize the Ribbon”.

(Side note: What the heck does the Chinese Conversion section do? I don’t see it on the ribbon at all, weird.)

Vibe – Social Networking for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Posted by Ryan Toenies on May 26, 2010 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0,   |  Vibe Social Networking  |  Comments (2)

In my last post I pointed out that Vibe stacks up pretty well against Chatter for Salesforce.com.  In this post I thought I would provide you a little more detail on what Vibe looks like when it’s being used.  But before I begin, there’s a key component to Vibe that I feel makes it very powerful.  Vibe is a WPF client that runs on the host PC.  It leverages One-Click deployment technology and will automatically check for product upgrades.  Upgrades are managed in the cloud so that users are assured of the latest product changes whenever they log into Vibe.  This is a great way of leveraging cloud computing with the rich interface that WPF brings to the table.  It’s the best of both worlds.

Vibe supports both On Premise and Internet Facing Deployments.  This works well for companies who have users travelling but might not be able to connect via VPN to their native network. 

Vibe provides users with an easy-to-use search feature.  You can search by text, author, feed and/or date range.  The search is performed against the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database and returns the results in-window.  This works extremely well.  In honor of the Chicago Blackhawks making it to the Stanley Cup Finals I searched on “blackhawks” for this example.  ;-)

Vibe allows you to drill down into specific feeds and see recent posts.  In this example, I clicked on myself and can see who/what I am following, those who are following me and my most recent posts.  I am following 61 people, groups, or topics and have 24 followers.

Here are some quick takeaways:

• Vibe is 100% dependent on Microsoft Dynamics CRM (it’s the brains behind the user interface)
• Vibe is just another example of why Microsoft Dynamics CRM is truly a XRM platform
• Vibe has become a critical way we communicate information internally at Sonoma Partners
• Vibe will send you email recaps of information posted on a daily/weekly basis
• Vibe utilizes the Windows Workflow Foundation to automatically post feeds based upon CRM data (like new leads, cases, accounts, opportunities, orders, or any other custom entity created)
• Vibe allows end users to create and maintain their own workflow feed rules
• Vibe can integrate to internal and external applications allowing posts to be created from other sources (we have integrated Vibe to our blog site)
• Vibe is available for our customers today
• Vibe is not sold as a standalone product – we provide Vibe to our customers at NO COST

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM – The Possibilities are Endless!

CRM Tips and Tricks from Recent Denver CRMUG

Posted by Kristie Reid on May 26, 2010 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (1)

Our project management and quality assurance teams meet on a weekly basis to showcase what we have built for customers and share any insights that we have learned. I was recently given the opportunity to share some of these "tips and tricks" with the Denver CRMUG. I've received a lot of good feedback from these items at the meeting so I thought I would share them with a broader audience. Hopefully you all will find them useful as well.

Issue #1:

You receive errors on security permissions which don’t seem logical

 

Tips/Tricks:

• ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS create new security roles by copying an out of the box role and then remove permissions from there.
• Check the Privileges by Message documentation on MSDN to make sure everything is covered (Mike previously blogged about this issue back in CRM 3.0, but I included the CRM 4.0 link and I figured a gentle reminder wouldn't hurt)

Issue #2:

Want to make changes to the site map

 

Tips/Tricks:

• Review theSite Map explanation from Dynamics CRM Resource Center
• Review the Entity Custoimzation: Relationships, Custom Entities and Site Map chapter from our book Working with Micrsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (shameless plug)
• Check out Patrick Verbeeten's CRM XML Editor for easy editing of the SiteMap file.

Issue #3:

You need to include date fields on mail merges but don’t want to include time stamps

 

Resolution:

1. Add date field added to the xml document (for example, «Created_On»)

2. Highlight the field, right click and select Toggle Field Codes:

 

 3. Add the formatting switch to the  field:

  

Formatting will display in the mail merge document:

  

4. For a list of all formatting options: http://support.softartisans.com/docs/OfficeWriter-Java/docs/WordWriter/WebHelp/topic_files/format.htm

Update Rollup 9 – To be released February 11th

Posted by Mike Snyder on February 2, 2010 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (1)

Just got this bit of news from our Microsoft Partner Advantage Newsletter:

Update Rollup 9 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 will be available February 11^th at 12:00 CST.  For the list of current Update Rollups for Microsoft Dynamics CRM click here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949256

UR7 and the Known Issues in Outlook

Posted by Kara O'Brien on November 5, 2009 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (3)

As I mentioned in my last post on Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, there are a few known issues appearing in Outlook after the rollup is installed. I've noticed a few of them on my own workstation, so I thought I’d share the details:

• The Microsoft Dynamics CRM icon does not appear in the taskbar in Windows 7. Note that this can be fixed by customizing the taskbar and selecting "Show icon and notifications" for the "Microsoft CRM Outlook" option (pictured below).
• The CRM toolbar remains active when you disable it under Manage COM Add-Ins in Outlook, but does not respond to any actions.
• The View in CRM button remains disabled after your click "Track in CRM" on an Outlook record until you close and reopen the record.
• When you track a contact, then edit the record in Outlook, the standard Outlook contact icon appears next to the record instead of the "tracked in CRM" contact icon. The correct icon displays only after the synchronization process runs.
• If the Outlook client is installed but not configured, or if you are connecting to an organization other than the one configured in the Outlook client, the following error appears in Internet Explorer: "Internet explorer has blocked this site from using an ActiveX control in an unsafe manner."
• During the configuration wizard, the debug assertion fails and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM role is removed from the user.
• If you set a record to "regarding" in Outlook when synchronizing data with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you will receive an error, since you cannot track e-mail messages when the manual sync is running. The Outlook and regarding CRM record will not be linked correctly until you open the e-mail in Outlook, click "Track in CRM" to un-track the record, and then delete the record in CRM. When the manual synchronization is finished, you can track the message in CRM again.

That said, even with a few of the issues listed above, the Outlook client is much improved with UR7 and seems to be faster and more stable. If you've run into other issues, feel free to comment.

Creating an Appointment through Workflow with a busy status

Posted by Brendan Landers on November 2, 2009 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (2)

Recently one of our clients was implementing a sales process via workflow and asked the following question:

 

"When I am creating a  Appointment record through workflow, why can’t I select  busy in the “Show Time As” field?"

 

   
 
They assumed this was a CRM defect because when a user creates a new appointment they can select the Busy value in this field.

The “Show Time As” field is actually the Status Reason (statuscode) field from the Appointment entity.  The Status Reason displays values based on the Status (statecode) of the record.  When a record is created, the status is set to ‘Open’.  As a result, the only corresponding statuscodes available are ‘Free’ and ‘Tentative’.  Therefore, within workflow you need to add a step after the appointment is created to change the record status to 'Scheduled - Busy'. 

 

Many CRM entities have similar statuscode and statecode relationships which would require similar changes in workflow.

 

Update Rollup 7 Released

Posted by Kara O'Brien on October 26, 2009 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (1)

Lucky number 7s: Microsoft released the much-anticipated Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (UR7) on Friday, the same day Windows 7 was released to the public.

UR7 focuses on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook client and there are significant improvements to performance, stability and installation in both the online and offline Outlook clients.  Here are some highlights:

• Faster startup. The load process was streamlined so that the CRM client loads in the background – so you can access e-mail and other Outlook records while the CRM client loads.
• Improved performance. There are a few big changes here:
1. Unnecessary processes were removed for the online version of the Outlook client, resulting in faster performance.
2. E-mail tagging runs as a background process, so users who have a large number of tracked e-mail messages should see faster performance in Outlook.
3. Synchronization between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Outlook runs as a background process to minimize the impact on performance.
• Improved stability. Some code updates help Microsoft Dynamics CRM handle state changes more efficiently, so authentication, hibernation and other changes in each client won't require you to restart Outlook.
• Delegate support. If an Outlook user is a delegate for another user, the delegate can now track e-mails and other Outlook records in the other user's inbox, so records are attached to the correct owner in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Improved SMS support, including silent, unattended installations of the Outlook client. Users no longer need to be logged into the workstation during the laptop client installation process.
• Better error logging in the synchronization process.
• Streamlined setup and configuration processes.

Download UR7 now – As always, try it in a test environment before going live in production if you can. Also, before installing UR7 in your environment, check the known issues published by Microsoft. Note that UR7 is inclusive of the previous Dynamics CRM 4.0 rollups released by Microsoft, so if you have not updated your system recently, all released fixes will be applied with UR7.

Problems Registering Plug-Ins after a Domain Controller Change

Posted by Kara O'Brien on October 9, 2009 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (1)

While deploying a code update to a customer last week, we ran into timeout and SQL errors when trying to register a couple plug-ins. We've worked with this client before and never had problems registering our plug-ins, but since our last project the client had changed their domain controller.

After running a trace of the registration process, our team tracked the issue to the domain controller change, based on the following errors:

Exception in FindResultInDC: The server is not operational.

CrmSoapExtension detected CrmException:
System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to process request. ---> System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

MessageProcessor fail to process message 'UnregisterSolution' for 'none'.

Exception: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)

The cause of these errors is related to properly demoting the old domain controller. The domain controller was taken offline, but there were still records in Active Directory and DNS that routed requests to the old controller.

Following are the steps that resolved the issue for our customer:

1. Added a String value in the registry under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSCRM called PreferredDc.
2. Entered the NetBios Name of the target domain controller.
3. Restarted the CRM server.

The customer was able to register the plug-ins successfully after making this fix. Note the registry key was included as a manual update in an earlier rollup and should alleviate some potential Active Directory issues. For more information, see this knowledge base article.

 

A few tips to keep you from going customization-crazy

Posted by Kara O'Brien on October 2, 2009 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0  |  Comments (0)

I’ve been working with a customer recently on ideas for managing customizations. Like many organizations, this customer has several environments running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and many people on staff making form and field changes with the customizations tools, which resulted in some errors when importing the customizations into another environment. There also were a few incidents in which one person’s changes were overwritten by another’s.

Using the handy documentation generator add-in for Microsoft Office Excel 2007, we created a change log that will be managed and updated by one administrator. The documentation generator allows you to load the customizations file from a Dynamics CRM environment, then parses it to compile form, picklist, and script configurations by entity in an Excel spreadsheet – a great tool for anyone who has had to document customizations!  It’s a free download from CodePlex if you’re interested.

I hope a future version of Dynamics CRM has auditing and a rollback feature in the customizations tools, but for now, we’ll make do with a well-defined process to manage the customizations. Here are a few other best practices to help manage customizations:

1. Limit the number of people who make customization changes and if possible, divide ownership of entities so that more than one person isn’t likely to make changes on an entity at the same time.
2. Select one environment (typically a development or test environment) as the master organization for all customizations, and make sure all changes are made and tested there before being exported and imported into another environment.
3. When possible, limit the export to only the entities that were changed.
4. The customizations are stored in the database, so all of the form layouts, client-side script and views are recoverable as long as you’re backing up your MSCRM database regularly.
5. If an entity, attribute, or relationship is deleted, you must remove the object from each environment manually.