MS CRM 2013 Entity Sub-grid constantly refreshes

We are making some customizations to the Account, Contact and Opportunity entities and the developers are finding out that the subgrids for Contacts, Accounts an Opportunities keep refreshing (or Flashing) as we called now.
I when and look for the cause and how to eliminate the flashing on the sub-grids.

• Select from the Navidation Settings
• Select again from the navigation Solutions or Customizations
• Click on the Main Solution we are working on or select Customize the system
• Select the Entity tab (Account, Contact, Opportunity)
• Click on Forms
• Edit the main Form for the Entity in this case Account
• Click on the Contacts sub-grid on the right column
• On the ribbon click Change Properties
• Under Data Source Section update the Default View and select the Active Contacts replacing the view called Active Contacts Subgrid View
• click on the Set button to complete the propertie changes
• Save and Close
• Do the same for the Recent Opportunities, change the subgrid default view to another
• when all the customization are completed then Publish All Customizations

Do not forget to refresh your internet explorer and try again.
So far I seen a lot better improvement on the form with a different subgrid default view and stop with the flashing notification.

hope this help!

New CRMBuzz.co blog post

abe.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and Compatibility View

We are working on a demo for a customer, and the lead asked me if I have done any code changes on the Opportunity OnLoad event, where i responded to no changes on the OnLoad event, after that I asked what was the issue and he just show me the following error message

I was looking at the Privacy settings that I just blogged about and was not related to that issue, also I check the settings for Internet Explorer in my case I’m using IE 10 and not the laters, so I change the Compatibility Settings and it seems that was the solution.


What are the Internet Explorer Compatibility settings and where to find them?

• use the ALT key to get to the tool bar for IE
• Select the Tools tab
• Under the Tools Tab you can find the Compatibility View Settings like show in the following image

• Click on the Compatibility View Settings
• The following form will show to add the website

• Click on the Add button to add the website
• Also check the option with the message “Display all websites in Compatibility View”
• Click on the Close button to complete the process

That seems to eliminate the issue with the Opportunity refresh behavior, however I seen some interesting behavior on other IE versions and it seems will not work for other versions like IE 11.


Hope this will help you to discipate some of the most common user distractions and support calls for the same IE behavior.


Please send me your comments and questions or other tips to eliminate some of these issues.

New Blog site post: microsoft-dynamics-crm-2013-and-compatibility-view

Abe.

MS Dynamics CRM Eliminating Error Notifications

Working on Mirosoft Dynamics CRM 2013 or 2011 some times we get error message notifications when we are clicking to fast or want to return to a previous screen, this is common due that we are not allowing the application to complete with client side scripts or leting complete the retrieve process, ther error message will ask if you want to send the error message to Microsoft support or discard the error message; we can disable the error message notification updating the system settings.

The following steps will gide you to update the Privacy settings that will disable the error message notification

• On the top Navigation select Settings
• When in the Settings Navigation select and Click the Administration option
• In the Administration page, on the right column click on the option for Privacy Preferences
• Select the Web error notification preference, and click on the checkbox for Specify the Web Application error notification preference on behalf of users
• Select on the option Never send an error report to Microsoft
• Click Ok button
• Refresh the page and test the changes

Now we can test the error notification is disable to ask for sending or not the error message to Microsoft. To test you can open an Opportunity and then inmediately when the information is loading, click the Back button on the browser and the web application will not display the error message notification.

This will eliminate a lot of support calls and frustrated users!

Hope this help!

Abe Saldana
CRMBuzz

CRM 2013 Custom Site Map section and Ribbon Button

 

Working on updating and upgrading solutions to the new UI for CRM 2013, we encounter that the customer and sometimes even us (Developers and Customizers) are lost in the new CRM 2013 navigation, and need to remember where we put the custom entities and how the development was assigned to the original sections (Sales, Service, Marketing, Settings). for that reason I used the Sitemap tool and created a section called “Custom Area” and added the custom entities to that section or tab.

These are some of the screen shots I got for the  demo version I created as a proof of concept

then next I was able to add custom entities to the navigation tab

when I created the Sitemap I was able to see the custom area as part of the entity definition and configuration, also I was able to assign the custom entity or other entities to the same custom area, like in the previous screen shoot I was able to assign the Account entity.

 

Using the SiteMap tool (XRMToolBox by Tanguy92 )

The sitemap tool used to customize the navigation was a CRM 2011 version, so you can use the tool and make updates to  CRM 2013

 

 

Our customer is now happier to find the custom entities and related information on a single location.

This will help is some cases, however having an option for the customer to continue be productive and not to be looking all over the navigation and try to remember the location that was on the previous version site map; at the end is better to have a happier customer than been annoyed by the upgrade.

 

Abe Saldana

This is my personal opinion and not represent my employer or Microsoft.

How to add a Subgrid Ribbon Context Button to Update a field using oData!

I got the request on one of my projects for Dynamics CRM 2011, to add a button for the subgrid context, that when the user selected one of more than one record the button will be enable and the button will update one of the status fields for the Event Attendance, not the most common thing for me, however I decided to tackle the request.

I used the following Tool Visual Ribbon Editor, and you will see screenshots for the button configuration.

Created the Button and called "Attendance", the next step is to create the Actions and the Enable Rules

in the actions I created a JavaScript function with the name "processrecords" a lot of imagination on the function name. Added to the library EventAttendee_Ribbon.js  web resource file, and the most important part was the CRM Parameter

Cmd Parameters: SelectedControlSelectedItemIds (this will pass the parameters for the function and then assign the Grid Selected ID’s)

Next the options for Enable the button when selecting 1 or more records from the subgrid.

Applies to: SelectedEntity
Maximum:
Minimun: 1

Save and Publish the button configuration, update the web resources for the JavaScript

Testing the Button and selecting a couple of records

Final Test Results and Validation.

The following is the Javescript code I used to update the values for the record. the code was using oData and JQuery to update the selected records.

 in the same web resourse file I included the Jquery.js, also the SDZK.Rest.js and finally the code on the next image

Hope this help you in your projects.


Abe Saldana.

Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is available

 

Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is available.  you can find the download  on the following location:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26912

Rollup Summary information

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2547347

The build number of the update packages for the following components is 5.0.9688.1244.

The file names for the 32-bit versions of the update rollup packages are as follows:

• CRM2011-Client-KB2547347-LangID-i386.exe
• CRM2011-Router-KB2547347-LangID-i386.exe
• CRM2011-Bids-KB2547347-LangID-i386.exe
• CRM2011-Mui-KB2547347-LangID-i386.exe

The file names for the 64-bit versions of the update packages are as follows:

• CRM2011-Server-KB2547347-LangID-amd64.exe
• CRM2011-Client-KB2547347-LangID-amd64.exe
• CRM2011-Mui-KB2547347-LangID-amd64.exe
• CRM2011-Router-KB2547347-LangID-amd64.exe
• CRM2011-Srs-KB2547347-LangID-amd64.3exe

 

Highlights of Update Rollup 3

·         69 total fixes

·         24 customer-escalated issues (see KB for details)

 

 

 

Abe.

SCOM Management Pack for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is now Available…

 

The System Center Monitoring Pack for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 enables you to administer the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 application in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 SP1 and System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

By managing these Microsoft Dynamics CRM components in Operations Manager, the administrator can respond quickly to critical events and key performance indicators, and take action to prevent service outages, reduce the resolution time for alert conditions, and increase the overall availability and performance of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

Monitoring Pack and Documentation is available on the following location

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26795

  To import the Monitoring Pack:

1. On a System Center Operations Manager server, open the Administration console.
2. Right click on the Management Packs node, and then click Import Management Packs.
3. Follow the instructions to import the Management Pack.

 

Abe.

Returning My Blog to Bloggers and retake blogging..

The time has come to return and continue blogging about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and now 2011.

I had been busy working on many projects, some of these are really interesting others are not so much but learning some good tricks and code among other things.

New information and categories will be added to my blog for MS CRM 2011 and PowerShell scripting is now the new way to get thinks done, I will be posting small scripts I been using to deploy CRM 4.0 and 2011 on Windows Server 2008 R2 (64bit) servers.

Keep connected I will be providing more information soon.

Abe.

Purging rows on Princiapl Object Access

[Disclaimer:All postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.]

Purging some tables on Crm is simple as calling the delete service and make sure that everything continues running properly, but when you have more than 10 million rows on one table (PrincipalObjectAccess) how do you will be able to take the delete process on stages?

[MS Crm support response: There is an un-supported option that you could try if you want to get rid of all sharing that is currently setup in CRM. You could directly update the PrincipalObjectAccess table and set the AccessRightsMask and InheritedAccessRightsMask columns to 0. Then we have a deletion service that will go through and automatically clean up that table. This is not technically supported, but if you want to remove all sharing this could be an option that you could do.

Ok that is awesome, but how to identify the rows that are not in use or ready to be deleted.

This is one of the Sql scripts to get the total of rows ready to be deleted and terminated

declare @totalRows int
declare @ToDelete int
declare @ToDeleteMarked int

SELECT @totalRows = count( * )
FROM PrincipalObjectAccess (nolock)

SELECT @ToDelete= count( *)
FROM PrincipalObjectAccess (nolock)
where AccessRightsMask = 0
and InheritedAccessRightsMask > 0

SELECT @ToDeleteMarked= count( *)
FROM PrincipalObjectAccess (nolock)
where AccessRightsMask = 0
and InheritedAccessRightsMask = 0

Select @totalRows as TotalRows,
@ToDelete as ToDelete,
(@totalRows - @ToDelete) as RemainingRows,
@ToDeleteMarked as ToDeleteMarked

Using the previous script will give you the totals only the following script is the one that will update your columns and marked the rows for deletion..

[IMPORTANT: Make sure that you have SQL database backups before trying this and know that you may have to restore your databases if you run into issues. Also this can ONLY be done if you want to remove ALL sharing. There is not a way to leave some sharing intact. ]

SELECT top 500000 *
into #TempPOAFROM
PrincipalObjectAccess (nolock)
where AccessRightsMask = 0
and InheritedAccessRightsMask > 0

update PrincipalObjectAccess
set InheritedAccessRightsMask = 0
where rowguid in (Select rowguid from #tempPOA)

drop table #TempPOA

After finishing marking all the rows for deletion, now you can run the delete service, stop the service (not required) then run the following dos command

C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM\Server\bin\CrmDeletionService.exe -runonce

[NOTE: -runonce = Clean up database right now.]

we schedule the deletion service to run only once a day, on a business downtime, this process will keep your tables purged and on optimal conditions

regards,
Abe Saldaña