Dynamics CRM SDK for the iPhone

About 3 months ago I wrote that we were working on making the Dynamics CRM SDK available to the iPhone via MonoTouch. We have finally completed porting the crm sdk to the iPhone.

If you look closely at the previous blog entry you'll notice we used a "CrmWebRequest" class to perform operations on the crm server, we decided to scrap that idea and make the code consistant, what this means for you is that the code you write is exactly the same for Windows and the iPhone, you can take existing code samples from msdn, forums, blogs ...etc and copy paste them directly into an iPhone project.

Click here to see the full screenshot.

Migrate ACT! to Dynamics CRM

We had a customer using ACT! (we forgave them for that) who wanted data migrated to Dynamics CRM. Here is a generic overview of how it was done.

• Backup the existing ACT! database into a .zip file
• Download the ACT! Reader Utility
• Run it and enable SQL read-only access
• Use SQL Management Studio to connect to the ACT! database instance, default is "ACT7"
• The database structure is very straight forward
• Write some .NET code to import the data into SQL

Things to watch out for

• Notes in ACT! are in RTF format, you'll need to convert them to plain text before importing into Dynamics CRM
• Attachments are stored in the file system, you'll need to lookup the filename and find the correct physical location if you want to attach the file into Dynamics CRM
• Only the subject line of emails are stored in ACT! 

Tools used

ACT! Reader Utility - http://kb.sagesoftwareonline.com/cgi-bin/sagesoftwareonline.cfg/php/enduser/fattach_get.php?p_sid=3ROImuPj&p_li=&p_accessibility=&p_redirect=&p_file_id=16370&p_tbl=9&p_id=22989&p_created=1240323461&p_olh=0

SQL Management Studio 2005 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&displaylang=en

XrmLinq - http://www.xrmlinq.com

SSRS Report Show Dynamics CRM Note Attachment

We've had couple of instances where we needed to embed existing image attachments in dynamics crm into sql server reporting services reports. Here are the steps you need to take in order to make it happen. It's pretty straight forward.

1. Create a new report
2. Add a new table
3. Drag an image control onto the table and place it into the column that you want, select 'Database' from the options
4. Click on the image -> go to the 'Properties' tab -> from the 'Value' dropdownlist select '<Expression...>' and use the following bit of code
   

   =System.Convert.FromBase64String(Fields!documentbody.Value)

5. 'documentbody' is the field from the FilteredAnnotation view.
   
   EXAMPLE
   
   
   
   RESULT
   
   

Enjoy!

Dynamics CRM 4 SDK for the iPhone via MonoTouch

We are working on a version of the Dynamics CRM 4 SDK that will work with the iPhone via MonoTouch. Here is a preview of it creating an account in Dynamics CRM using the MonoTouch C# library. We're creating this to speed up development of xRM solutions that can leverage the power of touch based mobile devices as well as the Dynamics CRM platform.

Challenges so far...

MonoTouch doesn't support web services natively yet, therefore we had to use the HttpWebRequest class to make raw calls to the crm web service. We also had to duplicate Request, Response, CreateRequest, CreateResponse, TargetCreateDynamic as well as all Dynamics CRM specific data types (CrmDateTime, CrmDateTimeProperty...etc).

Sample Code

// IFD not supported yet

CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken

{

    AuthenticationType = 0,

    OrganizationName = "MagnetismLimited",

    CallerId = Guid.Empty

};

CrmWebRequest sdk = new CrmWebRequest("http://virtualcrm03/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx",

    "MAGNETISM", "Administrator", "h3rew3g0", token);

// only difference here is that entity.Properties is an array instead of type PropertyCollection

DynamicEntity entity = new DynamicEntity("account");

entity.Properties = new Property[] { 

    new StringProperty("name", accountName),

};

TargetCreateDynamic target = new TargetCreateDynamic { Entity = entity };

CreateRequest cr = new CreateRequest { Target = target };

CreateResponse response = sdk.Execute(cr) as CreateResponse;

Console.WriteLine(response.id);

Dynamics CRM SDK for the iPhone is still in its early stages, we plan to release a public beta by the end  of October. If you'd like to be part of our test team please contact me.

Dynamics CRM - Programmatically Block Outbound Emails

Time for another crm goodie...

We've been working on a little project that needed blocking of certain outbound emails, with the Dynamics CRM plugin architecture this made it very very simple. For whatever reason, if you want to block outbound emails from Dynamics CRM programmatically, hook into the Send message on the email entity at the Pre stage synchronously then set the IssueSend property to false.

A bit of code
if (context.MessageName.Equals("Send", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
{
    context.InputParameters["IssueSend"] = false;
}

A little gotcha, the system marks the email as Sent even though we've blocked it, so be careful with that one. Hopefully this is useful to someone else. We've used this technique to write a neat little addon for Dynamics CRM, keep an eye out for it!

Dynamics CRM 4 Mobile Express Released!

Main	Accounts
Active Accounts	New Account

Dynamics CRM - Backup, Restore & Publish Customizations Programmatically

Here is a simple class you can use to backup, restore and publish dynamics crm customizations programmatically. Please keep in mind that dynamics crm customizations are additive, which means, if you import a set of customizations lets say a new attribute on the account entity and you restore a backup of the old customizations the new attribute on the account entity that was imported will not be deleted.

Usage
CrmCustomizations customizations = new CrmCustomizations(service);

You can backup to an xml file or a zip file by calling the Backup method. Backup method takes care of creating the xml or zip file by looking at the output file extension.
    bool backedup = customizations.Backup(@".\customizations_backup.xml");
    // or to a zip file
    backedup = customizations.Backup(@".\customizations_backup.zip");

To restore a backup call the Restore method. You can pass it a .zip file or a .xml file path.
    bool restored = customizations.Restore(@".\customizations.xml");

Once you have restored you need to publish the customizations, to publish call the Publish method. It will publish all customizations.
    bool published = customizations.Publish();

Download the class file

Enjoy!

Dynamics CRM - Synchronize with Xero Accounting Software

Here is a sneak preview of Dynamics CRM integrated with Xero that we have just completed. Yesterdays post (automatically emailing pdf invoices) is part of this whole system we've been working on. If you are using Xero as your accounting software it can now be integrated seemlessly into Dynamics CRM.

 
   Take a look at this 5 minute video (audio coming soon...)

What Can It Do?

In real-time

• Synchronize accounts in Dynamics CRM to and from Xero
• Synchronize invoices from Dynamics CRM to Xero
• Synchronize invoice payments from Xero to Dynamics CRM
• Synchronize account codes from Xero to Dynamics CRM

It has been a pleasure working with the Xero API, Xero has done a very nice job. Looking forward to v2 which will provide the ability to synchronize credit notes, currency, additional payment options and more...

Thanks to Tony Rule from Xero for guiding us through the API and Amanda Mattson from XrmLinq for the LINQ to Dynamics CRM tool.

Dynamics CRM Workflow - Automatically Email any Report generated in CRM as a PDF attachment

Time for another Dynamics CRM goodie...



We try to automate as many things as we can, automatically sending invoices is one of them. Workflow as you know in Dynamics CRM is very powerful, specially the ability to create custom activities and hook into the pipeline. We took advantage of this, we created a custom workflow activity that takes in any entity, Email and a Report, automatically turn it into a PDF, attach it to the email and send the email.

Take a look at this 5 minute video to see how it works. If you're interested in using this in your organization contact me via this link.

Under The Hood

public class Report2Pdf

{

    public static byte[] Download(string rsUrl, string rseUrl, 

        System.Net.NetworkCredential credentials, string report, 

        Report2PdfParameter[] inputParameters, string culture)

    {

byte[] data = Report2Pdf.Download(config.Url, config.ExecutionUrl,

    new NetworkCredential(config.UserName, config.Password, config.Domain),

    report.Location, rps.ToArray(), config.Culture);

var config = (from c in xrm.ReportServerConfigurations

              where c.ReportServerConfigurationId == report.ConfigurationId

              select c).SingleOrDefault();

Dynamics CRM 4 - Progress Bar

I was browsing the dynamics forums the other day and saw a post asking about the progress bar in CRM, we created one awhile back, here it is for anyone else that's looking for something similar.

Click here to download a working sample.



What you'll need

• jQuery 1.3.2
• step.gif
• statusbar.gif - You can get this from the /_imgs/ folder in CRM

crmprogressbar.js

function crmProgressBar(id) {
    this.bar = $("#" + id);

    this.bar.css({
        'height': '23px',
        'width': '357px',
        'background': 'transparent url(img/statusbar.gif) no-repeat'
    });

    this.bar.find("div").css({
        'height': '19px',
        'width': '1px',
        'background': 'transparent url(img/step.gif) repeat-x',
        'position': 'relative',
        'top': '2px',
        'left': '3px'
    });

    this.step = function(percentage) {
        var width = parseInt((percentage / 100) * 351);
        if (width > 351) { width = 351; }

        this.bar.find("div").css({ 'width': width + 'px' });
    }
}

Example

1. Create a new html file
2. Create a new javascript file and copy the above code into it
3. Include a reference to the jQuery javascript library
4. Include a reference to the javascript in your html file
5. Add a "div" tag to the html file and give it an "id"
6. Add another "div" tag inside the "div" you created in step 4. and put a blank space
7. To initialize the progress bar; create a new variable to hold the progress bar, then create a new instance of the progress bar by specifying the "id" of the div you created in step 4.
   eg: var progressBar1 = new crmProgressBar("id-of-div");
8. To step/increment the progress bar use the step() instance method
   eg: progressBar1.step(10); // will increment to 10%;

<div id="p1">
    <div>
        &nbsp;</div>
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var i = 5;
    var cpb = null;

    $(document).ready(function() {
        cpb = new crmProgressBar("p1");
        increment();
    });

    function increment() {
        if (i <= 100) {
            i += 5;
            cpb.step(i);
            setTimeout(increment, 1000);
        }
    }
    
</script>