Categorized search - view attributes

May be you have noticed that in the Categorized Search, you can see the results organized in groups by entities. Each record contains 3 attributes on the result page. Some of them will have "---" in place of actual values.

Here is the account. By default, the Categorized search shows account name, account number (why??? - this attribute has been removed from the form and therefore it is usually empty) and primary contact.
If you want to change what is displayed, you need to go to the appropriate entity and select Quick Find View.
Open it for editing.

You notice, that this view has the same three attributes as written above. The categorized search displays the first three attributes from this view. So if you want to change the results in categorized search, you need to modify these fields. Just click on the Add View Columns. Make changes, save and publish.

I hope this was helpful.

Have a great CRM!

Business rule can trigger custom Javascript

Recently I have discovered on feature which is documented properly, but it can be very useful.
Inside a Business rule, you can also use action called "Run script".

If you go to business rules and try to create one, you will most likely not see this option. Here is the trick.

This action is only available on the forms connected to the Task flows (accessible from mobile interface and the new unified interface).

So you need to create a new Task flow or open existing one. The go to Business rules.

Create a new Business rule there. You will notice, that this Business rule is only valid on the form which name is the same as the Task flow. It cannot be modified.

Now you can insert the Run script  component. Simple script can be inserted in the text field.

I would suggest putting only simple script here, as it is not stored as a Web resource and cannot be managed well.

I am using it for simple logic which must be implemented in the Task flow. I can access fields, change their properties and so on. But basically, any code will run. I did not hit any limit in terms of max number of characters.

I will keep investigating it and post any updates.

Unified Interface October Update

Perhaps you have read this article: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/crm/2018/10/01/announcing-ui-updates-in-october-for-sitemap-and-command-bar%e2%80%af/#comment-322725
It is promising new and improved unified interface.
Our instances received October update last weekend (we are crm4), nov on version 9.1. However, the new interface has not been enabled.

I have asked Microsoft why is that and it was explained to me, that the new interface is only for the new trials at the moment. If you want to enable it for your existing instances, it requires manual activation by MS people. So if you need, you can try to contact them and get the new update already.

I was also told, that this updated interface will be rolled out to existing customer later as an opt-in feature.

Huge icons for the custom entities in lookups

As we are all getting ready for the new updates, we are using the new unified interface more and more.

I have noticed, that the icons in the lookups are not formatted properly.
Here is what I mean:

I have two custom entities. Both of them have icons in old and new vector format. All sizes are uploaded, but the Unified Interface is somehow misformatting them in the lookups. The picture here is for the regarding field.

In order to fix this, I was advised to try to modify the svg file like this:

The point is to decsrease the default size to 16x16 pixels. Then the formatting is fixed.

I did not notice any side effects in the other areas like sitemap of entity views, so I am sharing this tip with you.

Happy CRM day.

Filter available entities in regarding field

My customer wanted to filter the entities which can be selected in the Regarding field to only few.
Fortunately there is a supported way in the latest version of Dynamics 365. Here is the short tip:

Create a js webresource:

function setregardingcontext(executionContext)

{
var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
formContext.getControl('regardingobjectid').setEntityTypes(['opportunity','account']);
}

Then you need to call this function, so in the form, add the library to the form and create an Onload event

Insert the function setregardingcontext and do not forget to tick the checkbox which enables context sending.

I tested it and it work is the classic UI and in the Unified interface as well. It is also supported in the interactive forms, but it does not work in the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook. I will be contacting Microsoft Support regarding this. Keep watching for the update.

Dynamics 365 Auto Capture and Email Engagement Error

Already for some time, we are not able to activate Auto Capture and Email Engagement in our Dynamics 365 instances.

The symptoms are that we do not have neither Auto Capture nor Email Engagement options in the analytical setting area. We only see the the relationship insights.

So I have raised this issue with Microsoft Support. It turns out that it is a global issue and Microsoft is working on the fix.

It is somehow connected with the territory (crm4) and with the licences that we are using Dynamics 365 for Sales Enterprise Edition.

Update: The fix has been deployed to our environments. So I hope to yours as well.

Another feature available in Unified interface

As mentioned in my previous post: https://www.microsoftcrmblog.com/2018/09/unified-interface-significantly-improved.html
Microsoft is pushing the unified interface to the production and in near future it will be the only UI which will be used.
You may have noticed that all individual users have now the possibility to update their settings. Microsoft replaced the UCI settings dialog with the traditional old UI setting dialog.
I am afraid, that in the end the new UCI interface will a be a mix of new and old interface and may be even of the old 2011 interface (which is still being used in some areas of Dynamics 365 such as goals).

What is your opinion about this direction? Are you happy with how the UCI is behaving?

Michal

How to change the root Business unit name in Dynamics 365

This is old trick, but still valid even in the latest version of Dynamics 365.

By default, your root business unit name is the same as the CRM instance name.

If you want to change it, you can go to the Security Settings > Business unit.

Select the root Business unit, open it. You will see that the Parent business unit is mandatory and you are not able to save your changes.

You need to go to the Customization > Business units > Fields and change the parentbusinessunitid to Optional.

Then publish the customizations and go to edit the root business unit.

You will be able to change the name of the root business unit and save it.

Stay tuned for the next tip!

Michal

Calculated/Rollup field formula modification button missing

Recently we faced an issue where we were not able to modify the formulas for Calculated and Rollup fields.

When we opened the form where you customize the field, there was no edit button and the field was marked as „Simple“ even though is was rollup or calculated.

It turned out, that there was a bug in the script which is managing the form. It never displayed the button. The error was in Czech version of the Dynamics CRM. In English it was working fine, so we have developer a „workaround“ for this situation.

As you may know, Dynamics CRM has abase language which is selected when you Create new instance. This language is then used in the UI of the customizations. You cannot do customizations in any other language by default.

If you need to open the customization area in other language than is your base language, you can do this:

1.       Enable the language which you need

2.       Switch to the base language

3.       Go to Customization

4.       Open the Solution which you need to customize

5.       Switch the language to the one which you want to use

6.       Return to the opened customization window, once you move to another part of the customization, it will get the language you just have switched to.

You will have to repeat the procedure every time you close the customization windows.

Please note, that this also might be unsupported. I’m not sure.

Enjoy your day with CRM!


Update: The issue with missing button has been resolved in version 1710 (9.0.2.2078)

Unified interface significantly improved

Microsoft is preparing new major release of Microsoft Dynamic 365 (CRM).

Majority of user should start using the new modern client aka Unified interface, so Microsoft needs to close the gaps between the old UI and new UI.

If you have been missing the Advanced find and Merge feature in the new UI, you don't have to be worried anymore.

In the latest version, these features are included in the new Unified Interface.

They have the same design as the old UI, but they work OK in standard browsers.

From my point of view, it is a step forward. I'm looking forward to optimization of these features to make them work in all clients (mobile, tablets etc.)

Have a good day

There is a new Admin interface for Microsoft Dynamics (CRM) Customer engagement

The biggest change is that the instances are no longer instances, but they are call Environments.

Also, Microsoft has pull out many instance settings into the new Admin center. Admins can now access many setting like data auditing, business configuration, languages, currencies etc. from the admin center.

However, most of them are just link into the Dynamics CRM for now. We will see how it will be improved in future.

I have noticed, that the audit setting has new option – Audit read access, that is very awaited feature.  I turned it on in our environment, but it does not work yet.

How about you? Is this working for you?

The documentation is very limited about this:

So for now, if you need to audit the read access in Dynamics 365, you need to rely on some addon or use the Office 365 audit features, which also supports read access in Dynamics 365.

At the moment, the new admin center does not support coping, reseting and creating new instances (sorry, Environment 😊), backup management, application management and so on, so it is really a preview.

Have a great CRM day!

Michal

Dynamics Troubleshooting – canmodifymobileclientvisibility

Dynamics Troubleshooting – canmodifymobileclientvisibility

Recently, I have been deploying some solution from one environment to another in Dynamics 365 online.

It failed soon after the start with this error:

The evaluation of the current component(name=Entity, id=59c9b48d-5578-41f2-9ca2-689e1dac0905) in the current operation (Update) failed during managed property evaluation of condition: The evaluation of the current component(name=Entity, id=59c9b48d-5578-41f2-9ca2-689e1dac0905) in the current operation (Update) failed during managed property evaluation of condition: Managed Property Name: canmodifymobileclientvisibility; Component Name: Entity; Attribute Name: canmodifymobileclientvisibility;

Doing some investigation, I did not find anything in the discussions, so I decided to share my observation with you.

In the meantime, I also created a case with Microsoft Support, so when this will be resolved, I will update this article as well.

The import failed when trying to import the campaign entity first. When removed, it failed with campaign activity, so the problem seems to be connected to the Marketing module of D365.

Going into the customizations I found the following.

Source environment Campaign entity mobile setting looks like this:

Target environment is looking like this:

The source version: Version 1710 (9.0.2.1725) online

The target version: Verze 1710 (9.0.2.2065) online

It is obvious that Microsoft is doing some changes in the core application which may break your customizations.

At the moment we are stuck in the situation that we cannot move solution from CRM to another, because they are not compatible.

We cannot update the older CRM to a newer one, because it is online version and we have to wait for Microsoft to update. I’m afraid it would not help, I have created a blank CRM instance with version 9.0.2.2065 and it looks the same as our source environment, so maybe only the current target instance is somehow broken. We will see what the support will do. We are not able to modify the properties which are causing the error.

Workaround

We have come up with a workaround for this situation:

1.       Export the solution

2.       Open the customization xml

3.       Edit it – replace <IsVisibleInMobileClient>0</IsVisibleInMobileClient> with <IsVisibleInMobileClient>1</IsVisibleInMobileClient> for the entities which are causing errors.
You can also use <!-- to comment out the problematic section.

4.       Import into target environment

However, at the moment you would be forced to do it before every import.

Stay tuned for the result of MS Support

Update: Microsoft is aware of this bug and they have prepared solution for it. It will be deployed soon!