Blogs


  • Sharepoint On-Line and Microsoft Crm On-line Integration


    Let me show you a very easy way to integrate Sharepoint Online with Microsoft Crm Online.

    This is extremely helpful in many ways.

    For example: you can upload documents to Sharepoint Libraries directly from Crm. This integration keep synchronized all libraries and create libraries hierarchy for you, as simple as click one button.

    Well. The first thing what we need to have is Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component

    Download to your computer. Choose a folder to extract the zip file.

    You will see the following documents:

    Now we need to go to our sharepoint online organization. In the main menu of your Office 365 Account click the Sharepoint Online Link:

    Then choose the site to integrate:

    At this point you are seeing the usual Sharepoint interface.

    We need to go to Site Actions – Site Settings:

    Once there go to Galleries – Solution:

    At ribbon click "Upload Solution":

    Upload your .wsp File

    Weel. All set in Sharepoint. Now we need to go to our Crm.

    In Crm go to Settings – Document Management – Document Management Settings:

    Crm will show a window where you can select the entities which integration will be applied.

    Also, We'll need to enter our Sharepoint Url, for example:

    Click Next.

    The Url is validated and you need to choose if you will use or not a specific folder structure and which you are going to use. For example:

    a. Entities related to accounts    

    •Structure: <DefaultSite>/Accounts/<accountname>/<EntityName>/<recordname>

    •Example: Opportunity called Opportunity1 related to Michael account http://SPServer/Accounts/ Michael /Opportunity/ Opportunity1

    b. Entities related to Contacts

    •Structure: <DefaultSite>/ Contacts /<accountname>/<EntityName>/<recordname>

    •Example: Opportunity called Opportunity1 related to Michael Contacts http://SPServer/Contacts/ Michael/Opportunity/ Opportunity1

    c. For entities not related to Acounts/ Contacts

    •Structure:<DefaultSite>/<EntityName>/<recordname>

    •Examples:

    • Opportunity called Opportunity1 :

    http://SPServer/Opportunity/Opportunity1

    • Quote called MichaelQuote related to Michael account:

    http://SPServer/Quotes/ MichaelQuoted.

    If you haven't selected anything

    • Structure:<DefaultSite>/<EntityName>/<recordname>
    • Examples:

    • Opportunity called Opportunity1:

    • http://SPServer/Opportunity/Opportunity1

    • Quote called MichaelQuote related to Michael account:

    http://S    PServer/Quotes/ MichaelQuote

    CLICK NEXT.

    Click Ok.

    At this point document libraries are being created in Sharepoint.

    Click Finish

    Your Crm – Sharepoint integration it's already set!.

    Now the only thing you have to do it's to use it. How do we do that?. Easy!. Just go to the CRM record to which you want to upload files. For example: Account.

    At the navigation panel select "Documents":

    You'll see a list of the documents uploaded for this account. You can upload documents as easy as click the 'Add button'

    The file will be uploaded and sharepoint will create a document library to each account insofar as it is used.

    Add Location

    You can add more than one Sharepoint location to the same Crm Record. To do this here are the steps you have to follow:

    • Go to the CRM record for which you want to create a folder and start storing documents in.

    • Click on "Add location" in the ribbon.

    Here we have two different options:

    •"Specify the UR of an existing Sharepoint folder"

    •"Create a SharePoint folder".

    If you already have a Sharepoint location that you want to associate to your Crm record just select "Specify the UR of an existing Sharepoint folder" option.

    •Type the url of your existing Sharepoint Option and click Save.

    If you want to create a new Sharepoint folder into your Sharepoint Site then follow the next steps:

    •Select "Create a SharePoint folder".

    (You can change the parent site if you want).

    •Change the folder name to the desired folder

    •Click Ok.

    •Accept the confirmation dialog that pops up

    DONE!: This will create a new folder in Sharepoint where users can store documents in.

    References :

    http://crmbusiness.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/crm-2011-how-to-setup-sharepoint-integration


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  • New CRM 2011 SDK available for download


    On February 7 Microsoft released a new version of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK

    You can download it from this link

    http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24004


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  • CRM 2011 Rollup 6 now available for download


    After some issues that made this rollup to be unavailable after the firsts days of release it is now available again.

    You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28712

    Just in case wait a couple of days or weeks before applying it on a real production environment J.


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  • ActiveDirectoryObjectNotFoundException: Global catalog not found in forest


    Yesterday all of our CRM servers went down and nobody was able to enter to any organization. This happened to both CRM 4.0 and CRM 2011 versions.

    When a user tried to access with a web browser they got this error



     

    After looking at different Blogs and forums I tried removing the servers from the domain and rejoining the domain without luck.

    Also tried uninstalling the CRM product but when tried to install it back again I was not able due this same error! So I don't recommend trying this approach.

    Finally the solution was installing Active Directory Domain Services Role on the CRM servers.

    Restart the server after installing the role.

    All the CRM servers started working back again!

    Good luck!


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  • Enable Equation Objects in Microsoft Word 2010. (Windows 7)


    If you can't see mathematical equation objects inside a ".doc or .docx file"

    For example:

    You can follow the next steps to enable the feature which allows these objects:

    1. Close all programs and windows related to Microsoft Office 2010.

    2. Click the "Start" button and choose "Control Panel." Click "Add/Remove Programs."

    3. Click "Microsoft Office" in the installed programs list or "Microsoft Word" if you installed the Word program by itself. Choose "Change".

    4. Click "Add or Remove Features" in the Maintenance section. Click "Continue".

    5. Click "Office Tools" to expand the menu.

    6. Click "Equation Editor" and choose "Run from my computer."

    7. Click "Continue". When finished, press "close" button and start Microsoft Office Word. Now the equation objects will be available.

    Reference Links

    1. http://www.ehow.com/how_5049820_install-microsoft-word-equation-editor.html

    2. http://www.technipages.com/word-2010-2007-enable-equation-editor.html


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  • Display mixed content in IE9 (http and https)


    If you get this yellow bar

    There are cases where you don't want to be prompted on this problem.

    To fix this issue navigate to Tools | Internet Options | Security | Custom level

    Under Miscellaneous | Display mixed content change from 'Prompt' to "Enable"

    Click OK.

    Reference

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ieitprocurrentver/thread/30c0c726-4286-417b-96ea-d1bccfdb4eaa


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  • How to get a multiple value parameter and put the values in a textbox within Reporting Services.


    If you have a parameter array as the following:
     

    Parameters!ParameterName.Label(0) = "Hello"

    Parameters!ParameterName.Label(1) = "Parameters"

    Parameters!ParameterName.Label(2) = "World"
     

    With the Join function In the F(x) Expression
     

    =Join(Parameters!ParameterName.Label, " ")
     

    The result would be a string like the following one:
     

    "Hello Parameters World".
     

    You also can use any other separator:
     

    =Join(Parameters!ParameterName.Label, ", ")
     

    And the result would be:
     

    "Hello, Parameters, World".


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  • How to put multiple values within a fetchXML condition through parameters in Reporting Services.


    If you need to use dynamic multiple value parameters in a fetch condition the correct syntax would be something like this:
     

    <filter type="and">

    <condition attribute="code" operator="in" value="@Code" />

    <condition attribute="productname" operator="in" value="@ProductName" />

    </filter>
     

    @Code and @ProductName are multiple value parameters.
     

    Or maybe you want to do this manually. In that case the syntax would be:
     

    <fetch mapping='logical'>

    <entity name='product'>

    <filter type="and">

    <condition attribute="code" operator="in" >

        <value>111</value>

        <value>222</value>

        <value>333</value>

    </condition>

    </filter>

    </entity>
    </fetch>
     

    The values were invented for the example.


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  • How to Print using Acrobat Reader X by Command Line Arguments


    In this post I will cover how to print a PDF document with Acrobat Reader X using Command Line Arguments in Visual Studio 2010.

    Using C# - WPF

    Common Declarations:

    public string PrintPdf(string FilePath)
    {
        //The name of the Printer we are going to use
        //This name is taken from App.Config for after deployment edit
        string printerName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["PrinterName"];
        //Path to Acrobat Reader X 
        //This path is taken from App.Config for after deployment edit
        String pathToExecutable = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AcrobatExePath"];
        //Now we pass the arguments For Printing to the ProcessStartInfo Constructor
        //We are using the Parameter /t <filename> <printername> <drivername> <portname> 
        //To Print the file the specified printer
        ProcessStartInfo myProcessStartInfo= new ProcessStartInfo(pathToExecutable, @"/t """ + FilePath     + @""" xps """+ printerName + @"""");
        //Open the process and set the StartInfo to myProcessStartInfo
        Process myProcess = new Process();
        myProcess.StartInfo = myProcessStartInfo;
        myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
        myProcess.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
        myProcess.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
        myProcess.Start();
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000);
    }

    Now if we want to use the Microsoft XPS Document Writer and don't want user interaction we should do the following: 

    public string PrintPdf(string FilePath)
    {
        //Set the Output File Path
        string outputFilePath = FilePath.Replace(".pdf", ".xps");
        //The name of the Printer we are going to use
        //This name is taken from App.Config for after deployment edit
        string printerName ="Microsoft XPS Document Writer";
        //Path to Acrobat Reader X 
        //This path is taken from App.Config for after deployment edit
        String pathToExecutable = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AcrobatExePath"];
        //Now we pass the arguments For Printing to the ProcessStartInfo Constructor
        //We are using the Parameter /t <filename> <printername> <drivername> <portname> 
        //To Print the file the specified printer
        ProcessStartInfo myProcessStartInfo= new ProcessStartInfo(pathToExecutable, @"/t """ + FilePath
        + @""" """ + printerName+ @""" /t """ + outputFilePath + @"""");
        //Open the process and set the StartInfo to myProcessStartInfo
        Process myProcess = new Process();
        myProcess.StartInfo = myProcessStartInfo;
        myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
        myProcess.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
        myProcess.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
        myProcess.Start();
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000);
    }

    This Method will print an XPS document using Microsoft XPS Document Writer without user interaction at all.
     
    I got some references from here:

    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/619158/adobe-reader-command-line-reference

    http://bytes.com/topic/c-sharp/answers/256956-printing-pdf-process-start-without-user-prompt


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  • New CRM 2011 SDK available for download


    On December 12 Microsoft released a new version of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK

    You can download it from this link

    http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24004

    The new features that this version of the SDK comes are the following

    1. There is a new version of the metadata browser 1.0.3. It is no longer added in the sitemap as before and now you can launch it and use it directly from the solution in the Configuration page.


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