Deployment of Custom Workflow activity in CRM 2011- Tips

As we all know, we could create custom workflow activities in on-premise deployments of CRM 2011.  This post is regarding the deployment of custom workflow activity.

Lets consider a scenario.

So imagine that we have a workflow say 'CalculateInterest' which has got a custom workflow activity namely 'InterestZonewise' in it. After the deployment to the production it was noticed that the workflow 'CalculateInterest' was turned into draft state and custom workflow activity in error state although it was in active state in DEVELOPMENT. 

Later it was found that we could resolve this problem by running IISRESET command in the PRODUCTION CRM Server. After the IISRESET, the custom workflow activity was identified by the CRM system and which also turned the workflow into active state. 

 

Facebook with CRM 2011 OR Facebook Image on entity Form in CRM 2011

Ref: MSDN Blogs- ("http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2011/09/28/displaying-a-contact-s-facebook-picture-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011.aspx")


Can you imagine that your contact form is displayed with contact's Facebook image? Well, lets bring this imagination into reality.


Samples:

The interesting thing is that it could be done using simple javascript code. So lets kick off.


Consider the Contact entity. Now the idea is that on the contact form we are going to place a default image. And if the contact could provide the Facebook ID, then it would be replaced by the real profile picture from Facebook.


The default image could be something like this ( Eg: Dimension of 109x108 pixels). And this is saved as a webresource.

Lets have a look at the form design.
As you all know, we need a place holder for the image. And this could be a web resource. Thanks to CRM 2011 !
Lets place a new web resource on the form.

We could choose the default image which we already uploaded to web resources.

Also lets have a quick look at the Formatting tab of Webresource properties. Certainly, you could play around further for the best display results.

Also there would be one custom attribute on the form namely ' Facebook ID' to supply the Facebook ID from the User. Here is the form Design

In our case,
Facebook ID could be supplied in 2 formats
1. As a string ID. For instance, datong, d.manjaly etc
2. As a numeric ID. For instance, 100003583160143
The javascript code will pull the profile picture using the Facebook ID.
As you all know, the javascript code should be saved as webresource and should be triggered at the Form Load event as shown below.

Javascript Code:

function profilePicture_onFormLoad() {
 var profilePictureElement = Xrm.Page.getControl("WebResource_myphoto");
    var facebookAttribute = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("ap_facebookid");
   if (facebookAttribute && facebookAttribute.getValue() != null ) {
        var profileUrl = "http://www.facebook.com/"+facebookAttribute.getValue();
        if (profileUrl) {
            var profilePictureUrl = getProfilePictureUrl(profileUrl);
            if (profilePictureUrl) {
                // set src attribute of default profile picture web resource.
                profilePictureElement.setSrc(profilePictureUrl);
                return;
            }
        }
  }
}


function getProfilePictureUrl(profileUrl) {
    // trim trailing forward slash in url
    profileUrl = profileUrl.replace(/\/*$/, "");


    var patterns = [];
    // Format is http://www.facebook.com/userid
    patterns[0] = /^http:\/\/www\.facebook\.com\/([a-zA-Z0-9\.]+?)$/;
    // Format is  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=987654321
    patterns[1] = /^http:\/\/www\.facebook\.com\/profile\.php\?id=(\d+?)$/;


    for (i in patterns) {
        var matches = patterns[i].exec(profileUrl);
        if (matches) {
            return "http://graph.facebook.com/" + matches[1] + "/picture?type=normal";
        }
    }
    return null;
}



Here we go....
A new contact form would have the default image on it

The new image would be displayed as soon as the user key in the Facebook ID and save the form.  (Refer the samples given at the beginning)

Duplicate Detection in CRM 2011 --- Pitfalls

As you all know Duplicate Detection is a very good feature in Dynamics CRM 2011. But there are some useful tips to be remembered.


Lets consider a scenario.


Imagine that a user Mr.Derek would like to import some data into CRM 2011


Data Import feature in CRM 2011 is explained here http://crmdm.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-import-data-into-crm-2011.html


So Derek sets the 'Allow Duplicates' to No as shown below.

But please remember that the above option works based on the duplicate detection settings and duplicate detection rules defined.

Sadly, after the import Derek found duplicates. What could be the reason for this?

  There is a pitfall related to duplicate detection rules. As you all know, the duplicate detection rule must be in a published state if that has to be valid.
So in our case Derek was for sure that he published all the duplicate detection rules after defining them. But from his investigation, he finds that the state of the duplicate detection rule was turned automatically into unpublished later. And this is the pitfall.

Now the very important thing how does it happens ? How and Why the state of a duplicate detection rule turns from published to unpublished ?


We found the very useful information from a blog.
"By design, whenever any entity metadata is changed all duplicate rules associated with that entity are unpublished"
Here is reference for the above information.
Ref: http://www.madronasg.com/blog/duplicate-detection-rules-automatically-unpublished


Note: In simple words, whenever we do a release (importing solution to Test OR QA OR Production) if there is any change for an entity, say  for contact entity then the duplicate detection rule for contact would turn into unpublished state. So after importing a solution we need to make sure that the duplicate detection rules are in published state. This check could be done either manually or through scripts.


Hope this helps you !

Latest SDK for CRM 2011

             Microsoft released the latest SDK for CRM 2011 ( version 5.0.9  Dated 16.01.2012) . It could be downloaded from the following link.


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

eXtremeCRM 2012 Berlin

One of our Colleagues ( Mr. Sebastian ) would be a speaker at this great event.

Hats off you Seb ! Wish you good luck !

Lets listen to his words,

"eXtremeCRM in 2012 is going to be held in Berlin and again I have a privilege to be invited as speaker. What I like about that  conference, well  eXtremeCRM is great event , deep technical readiness on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 a lot of content delivered by Microsoft product team, and technical experts within the channel, not enough new track is coming Practice Leaders Summit. Now a bit about myself, I’ll  present definitely more about Azure + XRM  working together a lot of new content in comparison to event in Prague and also some new session about SharePoint 2010 + XRM, details will be soon published on eXremeCRM website. There is still a time to register so don’t miss it and see you in Berlin" -- Mr. Sebastian

Further details could be found from his blog

http://www.mindthecloud.net/?p=605

OR From eXtremeCRM website

http://extremecrm.com/default.aspx

How to override System Ribbon Button in CRM 2011 ( Display / Enable Rule to System Ribbon Button in CRM 2011)

This post would shed light on the following.
How to override System Ribbon Button in CRM 2011 ( Display / Enable Rule to System Ribbon Button in CRM 2011)?
How to show / hide a system button based on a value on the form?


In CRM 2011, it is possible to override the System ribbon button functionality. Also we could apply Enable / Disable Rule Display / Hide Rule to the existing System Ribbon button.
In order to grasp this quickly, lets consider a scenario.


As we all know, there is a Deactivate system ribbon button on the Account form.
Suppose we would like to Enable / Disable this button based on a value on the Account form. To make it simple, lets consider the City field. 
For instance, if the city is London, then Deactivate system button should be enabled. Also we should be able to fire our custom javascript when the Deactivate System button gets clicked. This sample could take you through very useful scenarios.


There is a key to unlock the door here. what is that key ? Lets see.


If you refer the SDK, you could find the following folder and file


sdk\resources\exportedribbonxml\accountribbon.xml


Lets find out our System Deactivate button.


Please Note: We don't need to write the following piece of code. This is just an easy way to refer and then to find the key from SDK.
<Button Id="Mscrm.Form.account.Deactivate" ToolTipTitle="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.account.Record.Status.Deactivate" ToolTipDescription="$Resources(EntityPluralDisplayName):Ribbon.Tooltip.Deactivate" Command="Mscrm.Form.Deactivate" Sequence="60" Alt="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.account.Record.Status.Deactivate" LabelText="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.account.Record.Status.Deactivate" Image16by16="/_imgs/ribbon/deactivate16.png" Image32by32="/_imgs/ribbon/Deactivate_32.png" TemplateAlias="o2" />


Now can you guess what's the key in this? Its nothing but the Command.


The only key thing we need to override the System Ribbon button is to know the command value. Rest is as easy as we open a door with a valid key. We need to write the CommandDefinition as shown below.

Please make sure that the code is written under right parent tags.



          <CommandDefinition Id="Mscrm.Form.Deactivate">
            <EnableRules>
              <EnableRule Id="Mscrm.Form.account.Deactivate.EnableRule"></EnableRule>
            </EnableRules>
            <DisplayRules></DisplayRules>
            <Actions>
              <JavaScriptFunction Library="$webresource:ap_DeactivateOverride.js" FunctionName="DeactivateOverride" />
            </Actions>
          </CommandDefinition>




Also the enable rule under rule definitions as show in the above picture.

         <EnableRule Id="Mscrm.Form.account.Deactivate.EnableRule">
              <ValueRule Field="address1_city" InvertResult="false" Value="London"/>
            </EnableRule>


Here we go.


Scenario1: City value is not London -- Deactivate Button got disabled.

Scenario2: City value is London -- Deactivate Button got enabled.

Scenario3: City value is London -- Deactivate Button was clicked by the user. (alert from custom js function)

As this is my first post in 2012,

"тнєяє ѕнαℓℓ вє ѕнσωєяѕ σƒ вℓєѕѕιηg тσ уσυ αℓℓ ιη тнє вℓσωιηg ƒℓσωєя -2012"