Service Accounts

        Local System : Completely trusted account, more so than the administrator account. There is nothing on a single box that this account can not do and it has the right to access the network as the machine (this requires Active Directory and granting the machine account permissions to something)

      

      Network Service : Limited service account that is meant to run standard least-privileged services. This account is far more limited than Local System (or even Administrator) but still has the right to access the network as the machine (see caveat above).

         

      Local Service : A limited service account that is very similar to Network Service and meant to run standard least-privileged services. However unlike Network Service it has no ability to access the network as the machine.

Cheers !!!

Extending CRM 2011 - Microsoft Official Course Launched

It gives me a lot of joy to post about the Microsoft's Latest launched course , "Extending CRM 2011 (Instructor Led) ".

You can find the related information by clicking here

About this CourseThis course offers detailed and interactive information on how to develop extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, with focus on extension methods documented in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK.  It provides instruction on the use of a number of Common Platform Operations, on how to query and execute these operations, as well as on developing a concise understanding of business process implementation and workflows.  In addition, the course describes how to use Plug-ins, application event programming, client extensions and web resources.  Finally, it includes a summary overview of the integration between Windows Azure and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Audience Profile This course is a CRM development course intended primarily for partners and customers who have a technical background and familiarity with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.  The audience must also be experienced in basic form customizations and workflows.

Enjoy CRM........

Cheers !!!

Pictures in CRM Email

One of my biggest issues with CRM emails, versus an Outlook email, is how difficult it can be to tailor up your emails that you want to send out. Getting a good looking email sent out of CRM is about as complex as writing a static web page. And since CRM emails are rendered in HTML, that's actually exactly what it takes to get a good looking email out.

Now, not everyone wants to send out an amazing document all the time, sometimes a picture or logo at the end of the email would suffice. Theoretically this would be simple, only CRM doesn't let you copy and paste images from your local machine into an email.

But there is a solution, it doesn't require too much effort, but it does require whatever image you want to be sent in your email to be public available to anyone. Just like a webpage cannot show an image from your local machine (unless it's hosted there) a CRM email cannot show an image that you copy from your local machine into the body of the email.

Here's how to work around this. You need to use pictures/logos that are publicly available. For instance, if you want to put your company logo in an email, go to your company web page, right click on the company logo and choose to copy the image. Then go to your CRM email and paste it in. The image will appear and when you send it out the image will carry through. The reason it will go through is because the reference you copy and paste points to a URL that all computers can reference and see.

If you can have a public folder that you store you images in and that can be accessed via a URL path from anywhere, then you are all set to put whatever images you want into your CRM emails. All this would take would be to add a folder to where your company website resides (maybe call it "CRMPictures") then you can manually browse to that location and copy and paste whatever pictures you want.

A little cludge of a work around but it works and it could give you a centralized place to place pictures/images to be used for your CRM Marketing needs.

Silverlight Map in CRM 2011

There are many cases in which an organization will need to work with maps as part of their Dynamics CRM experience. For example, you might be part of a courier company that needs to be able to see your customer locations in a map before you can deliver the goods. It is now very easy to create a map which you can then embed inside Dynamics CRM 2011 through Silverlight web resources.

 

Firstly, I’ve created a new Silverlight project inside Visual Studio and have also downloaded the Bing Maps Silverlight Control SDK. The SDK includes the required libraries which you can reference to build your own controls using a Silverlight Bing Map.

Before you can actually start building and testing your mapping application, you will need to obtain an API key for the Bing Maps Silverlight Control. You will need to insert this key into your XAML code for the map to work correctly.

<UserControl x:Class="DisplayMap.MainPage"    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"    xmlns:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Maps.MapControl;assembly=Microsoft.Maps.MapControl"    mc:Ignorable="d"    d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="400">
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">        <m:Map x:Name="mymap" CredentialsProvider="<your key goes here"></m:Map>    </Grid></UserControl>

The next step is to add the map into CRM. To do this, locate the XAP file as part of the Visual Studio project. This is the file that we want to upload as our Silverlight Web Resource.

 

Open up CRM and navigate to Settings > Customizations> Customize the System. On the left navigation, click on Web Resources and then click on New to create a new Web Resource.

 

Give the new web resource a name and also select Silverlight as the type. Once this is done, save and publish your changes.

I am going to select the Account entity to hold our map control. Expand the Entities node in the customization area, select Account and then open up the main Account form.

I have created a new section on the Account form and have added the Silverlight web resource to it.

 

Now that it’s been added to the Account form, we just need to save and publish our changes once again. Now the map will be available for our users to view.

Creating an HTML Email in Dynamics CRM 2011

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 makes bulk emailing very easy by using Mail Merge with Microsoft Word. This means you can send out newsletters to hundreds of your Dynamics CRM customers all at once, from one location. Because the Mail Merge is done within Microsoft Word, you can create full HTML emails with images and colours to reflect your company, and grab your customers’ attention.

 

For this example we will be creating a reusable Mail Merge Template for an HTML Newsletter, so we can send frequent newsletters to our customers using the same template and theme. This template will be configured to send to Contacts, and we will set the template to pull through the Contacts first name, to personalize the email.

To create a new Mail Merge Template in Dynamics CRM 2011, navigate to Settings, Templates, Mail Merge Templates, and then click New.  Enter a Name, for example ‘Newsletter’, and set the Associated Entity, in this case we will use ‘Contact’. Click ‘Save’ and the record will be created.

 

Next you need to create the word template file. If you have one already you can upload it at the bottom of the form, otherwise click ‘Create Template in Word’ at the top of the form to start from scratch.

Creating a new HTML Word Template

The template can be created in either an HTML editor, or simply within word itself. If you decide to use word to create the HTML template, you can use the default options such as tables, images, colours, and fonts to customize the template to look how you want. It is recommended that you use tables to colour and align your objects within your HTML email templates, as they show up best in email readers.

 

For more complex designs, it is recommended that you use an HTML editor to create your template, such as Expression Web or Dreamweaver. This way you can customize and position objects exactly where you need them, and you can apply custom styles to your HTML.

NOTE: Make sure all CSS is embedded inline, and not called internally or externally. Also make sure to use full URL references for images and hyperlinks.

If you have created your template in an HTML editor, you can copy the whole page content when viewing the template in your internet browser, and paste it into word. You may need to change some things around to make it look right again. (It can help to change the view to web layout - click the View tab and select Web Layout in Word 2010)

Once you are happy with your template, save it as an .xml file, as something meaningful, for example ‘newsletter.xml’. You can save the template in .xml format by click File, Save As, and selecting ‘Word XML Document (*.xml)’ from the Save as type menu in Word 2010.

 

You can now go back to your Mail Merge Template in Dynamics CRM 2011 and upload the .xml file using the ‘Browse’ button at the bottom of the form. Once selected click ‘Attach’.

Note: To make the template Organization Owned (usable by everyone) select ‘Make Available to Organization’ from the Actions menu.

To start using the template, navigate to Contacts, and select the contacts you wish to send the newsletter to (it might pay to run a test on yourself before emailing your customers). From the ‘Add’ tab, select Mail Mergeunder ‘Marketing’. In the Mail Merge window, select to start with an Organization or Personal template depending on which option you set earlier. From the lookup select the ‘Newsletter’ template. Choose whether to run the mail merge on all records, or just the ones selected, and then click OK.

 

When the word document opens, you will need to click the CRM icon to enable the CRM add-in, which can be located under either the Mailings tab or the Add-Ins tab in Word 2010. After clicking this you will be able to see your template.

If the step by step mail merge wizard doesn’t appear automatically on the right side of the document, you can click Start Mail Merge, and select Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard from under the Mailings tab. From this wizard you can click through the steps until step 4 where you can choose to insert More Items, which will allow you to insert fields from the Dynamics CRM 2011 Contact form, such as ‘First Name’ for personalizing the emails.

 

Note: If you want to insert Merge Fields you can resave the .xml file and upload it again to your Mail Merge Template record to save them for next time.

At this point you can update the template to contain the content and images you want added to the email. Once you have done this, and you are ready to send the email, you can click Finish & Merge from the Mailings tab, and then select Send E-mail Messages. You will be prompted to select the ‘To’ field, which is ‘E_mail’, and the subject that will be displayed in the Email messages. Leave the Mail format in HTML, and click ‘OK’ to send the emails to all records.

 

Each email you send from the Mail Merge will be added to your Outlooks queue, and will one by one be sent from Outlook with the email account you have configured. That’s all there is to it, the emails will now be sent to your customers, and each email will be personalized with the appropriate name.

http://www.magnetism.co.nz/blog/paul/11-05-10/Creating_an_HTML_Email_in_Dynamics_CRM_2011.aspx

Source : 

Restrict Sales and Marketing Controls in CRM 2011

Historically in CRM 4.0 if a user wanted to have the Sales and Marketing Controls not displayed for an given user, this could not be as were by design.

Although areas would not be shown when all subareas are not visible by the security role.

It is not possible to remove the entire buttons. However, for Sales, Marketing, Service, etc... the application does contain the logic to not show a button "Area" if there are no sub-areas under it to show.
It is possible to limit visibility to a sub-area based on the security access. This is documented in the SDK and if you search for the "SiteMap XML Reference" and click on privilege, you will see the documentation on this.

More on this on how simple it is to modify the sitemap and hide areas is below:

http://technet.microsoft.com/de-at/library/gg334280(en-us).aspx

If you put both these factors together you could limit the sub-area access for every sub-area based on privileges, then the main area buttons would go away since nothing would be visible for the user.

Do a database backup and also backup the site map first. Review the CRM 2011 "SiteMap XML Reference" before performing these actions.

1. Go to Settings > Customizations > Export Customizations/ Solutions
2. Choose Site Map from the list and click Export Selected Customizations.
3. Make sure to save a copy of the Site Map before making any changes.
4. Open up the site map and search for text that begins <Area ID="MA" ResourceId=Area_Marketing" and ends with </Area> remove the entities (sub-areas) the visible entities like account and contact from this area.
5. Save this as your edited site map.
6. Go to Settings > Customizations > Import Customizations.
7. Browse to your edited site map and import it into CRM.
8. Publish your customizations.

Access CRM with REST

Hi,

Dynamics CRM 2011 supports a rich REST based endpoint allowing Javascript, Silverlight and other resources to access your CRM data.  The latest CRM 2011 SDK contains some (beta) details on the request and response structures needed to perform the CRUD operations.

These CRM 2011 web services also support the OData Protocol and $select, $filter, $orderbyand $top can be applied to a query string request to return ATOM formatted data to your client application.  For example, operations against the Contact recordset cover

$Select

Select specific columns from the ContactSet using

https://.../organizationdata.svc/ContactSet?$select=FullName,Address1_Country

or select the Contact Fullname and the Parent Customer record

https://.../organizationdata.svc/ContactSet?$select=FullName,ParentCustomerId

In the resultset, the Parent Customer ID is resolved to a record id (GUID) and, by default, includes the Primary Field of the related record (as we would expect with CRM)

$orderby

The sort order can be specified with the $orderby clause, for example

https://.../organizationdata.svc/ContactSet?$select=FullName,Address1_Country&$orderby=FullName desc

$top

You can also limit the number of records returned using the $top clause, for example the first 5 records ordered by descending FullName is

https://.../organizationdata.svc/ContactSet?$select=FullName,Address1_Country&$orderby=FullName desc&$top=5

$Filter

Search for all the Contacts in the country of Ireland is possible with

https://.../organizationdata.svc/ContactSet?$filter=Address1_Country%20eq%20'Ireland'

Click Here for more Details on REST with CRM 2011.

Enjoy CRM !!!

Removing Ribbon Elements from CRM 2011

Hi,

  Following is the procedure to remove the Ribbon Elements from CRM 2011.

 Just open account entity form, select “Navigation”, it will highlight navigation area in entity form like below screen

Select navigation link that you want to delete and select remove

Cheers !!!

Solutions in CRM 2011

Note : Deleting an Unmanaged Solutions will delete the Solution but will not delete the components.

Note : Deleting an Managed Solution will delete the Solution and Components both (except the Components that are the part of another solution including Default(System) solution )

The follow options are available for modifying Solution Components:-

Creating a New Component: When you will create the New Components in Solutions, this action will create the component on the system, and create a reference to it in the Solution.

Adding an Existing Component: When you will add an existing component, where you have the choice to include the related components or not , Two specific components can be added here for which there is no New option; Site Map and Application Ribbon.

Delete: This will remove the component from the system. It also removes any references to the component in unmanaged Solutions. You may not be allowed to do this if the component is part of managed Solutions.

Remove: This option removes the reference to the component from the Solution. If you are trying to Remove two or more components at the same time, you may see the error i.e. "You can only Perform this Action on Records with the same type."

Publish: Changes to components may need to be published before they take effect. This does not apply to all changes, but for those that need Publishing, this button will do it.

Show Dependencies: Components frequently depend on other components. For example, relationships depend on the entities they relate to, and charts depend on data from entities, and so on. For component X, this button will present a dialog box showing the components that depend on X, and the components upon which X depends. This is useful for checking before a component is deleted (you will not be allowed to delete it if other components depend on it). It also tells you what components must be in your Solution or guaranteed to present on the target System when the Solution is imported.

Add Required Components: Because of dependencies between components, you may need to include other components in your Solution to make the existing component function. When you add an existing component, the system will ask you if you want to include the components it depends on (if any). The Add Required Component button will check the current component and add to the Solution any other components it depends on.

Export/Import Solutions

• For Export : Only Unmanaged Solution can be Exported
• For Import : You can import the solution as Managed or as Unmanaged
• When an unmanaged Solution is imported, the customizations it contains 
• overwrite any customizations already in place. This applies only to 
• customizations explicably present in the Solution.
• EXAMPLE: Joe exports his Vacation Solution, which contains a custom entity, 
• as unmanaged. He then adds a field to the entity named Special to store a bit 
• value. He adds the field to the form for the entity as a check box. The form is used 
• so that data in the Special field is accumulated for some records. Joe then 
• imports his Solution from the file he exported. When he publishes the changes 
• and looks at the form, he finds his Special field disappeared. However, the field 
• is still available to add to the form.
• In the preceding example, the customization placing the field on the form is 
• overwritten by the import. However the field (and the data in it) is left intact 
• since it is not explicitly referenced.
• If an import contains changes that conflict with existing data, it will fail.
• EXAMPLE: Connie exports a Solution as unmanaged containing a Customer 
• Interest entity. The entity contains a field called Interest Time of data type 
• Integer. After the export, Pete deletes the Interest Time field from the entity. 
• Connie recreates the field but, although she specifies the same name, she makes 
• the new field Date and Time. If Connie tries to import the Solution she exported 
• earlier, the import will fail. The Import Summary screen will show that the 
• failure occurred in the Customer Interest component.
• In the preceding example,Connie can downloaded the log file to see the error.

Permissions Required

• By default, only the System Administrator and System Customizer have these permissions, but you can set them on any other Security Role you choose.

EXAMPLE: A Solution is exported as unmanaged and includes System Settings under General. The Solution contains references to three new entities. The Name Format at the time the Solution is exported is set to First Name Last Name. The Solution is imported onto an organization for which the Name Format is Last Name First Name. The import changes the name format for all name fields in all entities, not just the three custom entities in the Solution.

CRM 2011 - Web Services Path

CRM 2011 Discovery and Web Service URL’s to use, based on the Developer Resources Page in CRM.

Here is the information that you need:

For CRM Online customers:

The following URLs should be used to access the discovery service (use the appropriate URL for your location):

https://dev.crm.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc
https://dev.crm4.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc
https://dev.crm5.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc

For CRM On-premises customers:

http://{server:port}/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc for the Discovery service endpoint
http://{server:port}/{OrgName}/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc for the Organization Service endpoint (SOAP)
http://{server:port}/{OrgName}/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc

How to Change Language in CRM 2011

Hi,

I am going to share here how to install a language pack, enable it and then change the UI language of the logged user. In essense, all the steps required to change the language. In particular, some steps may be not so easy to realize how they are in 2011.

So, I decided to share here the step by step. The example is based on the installation and configuration of the Spanish language pack (my native language BTW) but it does apply to any other language.

Step by step: changing the language in Dynamics CRM 2011

1. Download the corresponding language pack from here.

It’s important to note the following:

• before downloading the packacge, you have to select the language in the 'Change Language' combo box and press ‘Change’ as shown below:

• Language pack has to be installed not only in the server but also on the clients which are using Outlook. This will apply localization to CRM client actions (i.e. Track button)

• Labels and entity-level actions strings come from server, so that will be localized without installig language pack as far as the user changes his/her language preferences. 

• Another way is: if user still didn't installed Outlook client and sets his personal language setting in the web client first (to say Spanish for example) and then clicks on the “Get CRM For Outlook” button in the web, the installation is automatically redirected to the Spanish version of the client and user gets all UI (coming from the server like ribbons and local to the client like Track in CRM form region) in Spanish.
  

2. Once downloaded, start the installation of it. In the first step, we will be asked to select a folder to extract the content of the package to.

3. After extraction, setup wizard starts automatically and asks us to accept the licensing terms and conditions. Press ‘Install'  to continue.

4. Installation starts..

5. Installation continues and succeeds. Just press ‘Finish’.

6. Once installed the package we need to enable it so it can be used by the users and also us as administrators. For doing so, logged as administrator, go to Settings->Administration and press 'Languages'.

This is an only once operation (unless you decide to disable it later for any reason).

7. A new dialog pops up where we are able to choose the language or languages to enable. (spanish in the example)

8. Press ‘Apply’ to enable the language pack. A new dialog pops up asking for confirmation and warning that the operation may take sevaral mins..

9. Press ‘OK’ to enable the package…

10. Once finished, the package should change its state to ‘Enabled’.

Now, it’s available to be chose by you and the rest of the users.

11. Up to this point we enabled the package but still didn’t change the UI language at all. To actually change the UI language in the CRM web application, you have to click on File->Options in the ribbon, as shown here:

Note: In case of Outlook, you need to go to File->CRM->Options.

12. Within Options window, go to ‘Languages’. Now you can choose the new language both for the UI and the help pages as shown below.

Base language (english in this case) is shown only for information purposes, in read-only mode as it cannot be changed once the organization is created.

13. Press ‘OK’ to apply the change.

14. Now, the web application is automatically refreshed and we should see the UI in the desired language.

Important:

Bear in mind that as administrators / customizers if we need to customize any entity and/or solution, this can only be done if the logged user is using the base language(english in this case).

Hence, if we will need to change the language back to base language in case we changed our default preference. On the contrary, the customization options will be disabled as shown below:

Hope you find this useful,

Source : http://weblogs.asp.net/pabloperalta/archive/2011/03/28/how-to-change-the-language-in-dynamics-crm-2011.aspx

CRM Certifications

Note Microsoft Certified Business Management Solutions Professional certifications have been renamed to Microsoft Certified IT Professional certifications.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization and Configuration

Exam MB2-866:

• About this Exam This certification exam measures your ability to understand and articulate how to customize and configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 including configuring a Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizational structure, managing users & teams and security, customizing attributes and entities, customizing relationships and mappings, configuring auditing, managing forms & views and charts, and implementing a Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution.

  Exam Topics Covered The following list includes the topic areas covered on this exam.  Configuring a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Organizational Structure  Managing Users & Teams and Security  Customizing Attributes and Entities  Customizing Relationships and Mappings  Configuring Auditing  Managing Forms, Views, and Charts  Implementing a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solution

  Audience Profile This exam is intended for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Implementation Consultants and Customizers who will configure the application’s organizational settings and customize the application using built-in customization tools.    Additional Skills Recommended: Must have a working knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 usage and of solving real-world business problems by using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. It is recommended, but not required, that examinees have completed Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications training.

Microsoft Certified IT Professional – Applications for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Note You must pass the one required exam and two elective exams to obtain a certification.

Exam title	Exam number
Required: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Applications	Exam MB2-632
Elective: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration	Exam MB2-631
Elective: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – Implementation and Maintenance Or Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance	Exam 70-431 or Exam 70-432
Elective: Configuring Windows Vista Client	Exam 70-620
Elective: Deploying Business Desktops with Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Office 2003	Exam 74-139

Microsoft Certified IT Professional – Developer for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Note You must pass two required exams and two elective exams to obtain a certification.

Exam title	Exam number
Required: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration	Exam MB2-631
Required: CRM 4.0 Extending Microsoft Dynamics or Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0	Exam MB2-634 or Exam MB2-498
Elective: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Applications	Exam MB2-632
Elective: Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation	Exam 70-536
Elective: Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Note This exam is retired, but if you already passed it, you can apply it toward this certification. Or Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Note This exam is retired, but if you already passed it, you can apply it toward this certification.	Exam 70-306 Exam 70-316
Elective: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 – Distributed Application Development Or Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Windows Communication Foundation Application Development	Exam 70-529 Exam 70-503
Elective: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 – Web-Based Client Development	Exam 70-528
Elective: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 – Windows-Based Client Development	Exam 70-526

Microsoft Certified IT Professional – Installation and Deployment for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Note You must pass the one required exam and three elective exams to obtain a certification.

Exam title	Exam number
Required: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Installation and Deployment	Exam MB2-633
Elective: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration	Exam MB2-631
Elective: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – Implementation and Maintenance Or Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance	Exam 70-431 or Exam 70-432
Elective: Exchange Server 2007, Configuring	Exam 70-236
Elective: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring	Exam 70-642
Elective: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuring	Exam 70-643
Elective: Windows Server 2008, Enterprise Administrator	Exam 70-647

Source : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/dynamics-crm-professional.aspx#tab2