Archive
CRM 2015 Online Update 1 – Application and Customization changes
In this article I am going to brief about new changes and updates in CRM 2015 online update 1.
Trigger Custom Action from Workflow or Dialog
- We can invoke a custom action directly from within a workflow or a dialog.
Steps on how to Create and Invoke Custom Action from Workflow
Validate Required Steps in Business Process Flow
- System will now validate all the required steps in Business Process before moving to next stage.
- Before Update 1 its possible to bypass validation using SDK calls.
Clear field values with business rules
- Business rules now let us clear field values, on the client and server
Business Process Flow – Move back to previous Stage
- We can go back to the previous stage in the business process flow regardless of entity type
- You can choose desired previous stage and click ‘Set Active’.
Date and Time field new behavior
- We got two new time zone independent behaviors for the Date and Time data type (Date Only and Time Zone Independent).
- Below are different Formats and Examples.
Calculated and Rollup Fields
- With new updates to Calculated fields we can compute the difference between the two dates by using new built-in functions
- Note that “Now” operator gives SQL Server Time in UTC not Local System Time.
Global Most Recently Used (MRU)
- With Global MRU, provided an access to most recently viewed records (up to 30 records).
“Older Than X” Enhancements in Advanced Find
- We can now filter on additional units of time including minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years.
- The Older Than X clauses can be used with Advanced Find, the saved view editor, and queries that are based on FetchXML.
Navigation and Themes
- Refer my previous Article
Plug-in Trace Logs
- System administrators and developers can now configure CRM to write trace logs to a new CRM entity – ‘Plug-in Trace Log’.
- These logs can then be viewed within the CRM web application, also from Advanced Find.
- We cannot extend the “Plug-in Trace Log entity”. We can only view or delete records of the entity.
- By default, permission to view the logs is enabled for System Administrators and System Customizers, but can be granted to other users
- Enabling Activity Tracing
- We can enable\disable from Settings -> Administration -> System Settings -> Customization
- The setting provides the following options:
- Off
- Exceptions – log messages only if an exception is encountered in the execution pipeline
- All – log all messages, even if there was no exception.
How is “Plug-in Trace Logs” different from developers logging in to their own custom entity?
- The problem with writing logs to our own Custom entity is due to the fact plug-ins execute in transaction and the transaction is rolled back whenever an exception occurs anywhere in the event pipeline. As a result, the records written to the custom entity would also be rolled back.
- And with new ‘Plug-in Trace Logs’ entity, the messages are logged even if an exception is encountered and the rest of the transaction is rolled back
References
- MSDN Article
- Application New Features – Video
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CRM online instance opening only in Mobile version – Fix
The other day, when I upgraded to IE 11 browser and when I browse my CRM online URL, I was getting only mobile version (i.e., http:// Orgname.crm5.dynamics.com/m/default.aspx).
Even if i explicitly provide the URL http:// Orgname.crm5.dynamics.com/default.aspx, it was redirecting to Mobile version Reason
- CRM online is not compatible with IE 11
Fix
- Add CRM online site to IE 11 compatibility list
- Go to Tools -> Compatibility View Settings
- Add the “dynamics.com” website to compatibility view settings by click on “Add”
- If its “OnPremise” add CRM server name to compatibility view settings.
- Refresh the browser
🙂
Debug Plug-ins using “Plug-in Profiler” – CRM 2011
In CRM, we can debug the plug-ins deployed in “on premise” by following the steps in this article. But it’s always difficult to debug Plug-ins deployed in CRM online.
Now we can debug Plug-in code registered in both online/on premise also using “Plug-in Profiler”.
In CRM 2011, with the SDK 5.0.5 and later releases we got a “Plug-in Profiler” add-in along with Plug-in registration tool.
If you open the Plugin registration tool comes with latest SDK, it would look as below with profiler options.
What all I need to debug, using “Plug-in Profiler”
- To debug using “Plug-in Profiler” all you need is
- Plugin assembly .dll
- Visual studio
- Plugin registration tool from latest SDK
How do I use “Plug-in Profiler”
- Check the Step by Step: Working with CRM2011 plugin profiler
- You can also refer, Analyze Plug-in Performance
Few more points
- “Plug-in Profiler” also provides offline debugging option using “Replaying plug-in execution”, it does not require a connection to a CRM server and organization.
- Support for registering and executing custom workflow activities in the sandbox is new in CRM 2011 UR 12 and the CRM December 2012 Service Update
🙂