Integrating JAVA, PHP with CRM 2013

I found a bit difficult to integrating CRM 2013 with any non .net application because of its secure authentication method. Although there is a walkthrough available for JAVA to CRM Online but when I try to use the same method for CRM on-premise it gives error ([ERROR] Unable to parse the authentication policy from the WSDL) because it uses Active directory authentication. So I decide to create architecture to resolve the issue. This architecture contains 3 parts

1.    Java / PHP Application
2.    Custom Web service (.NET)
3.    CRM 2013

For this purpose we need to create one custom web service in .NET which will works like a bridge in between Java and CRM.

Here are some helpful links that I use

1.    Call Web service from Java / Call Web service from PHP
2.    Create Custom Web service
3.    Connect to CRM 2013

Limitations

1.    We must need one .NET domain to deploy our web service
2.    Data must be transferred in encrypted mode from Java/PHP application to Web service.

If you have any suggestion please use comment box. Thanks :)

Why you need to be careful while exporting solutions from CRM 2013

Whenever I tried to export my solution I saw following settings and got confused which settings I need to pick and which settings I don’t need. After doing some Google I got some useful details about these settings. Some settings are clear but some needs clarification I have explained these settings in detail below.

If you want to import or export solution please check following link
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg334495.aspx

If you check any of the above settings in your Dev environment it will take these settings to your UAT environment and so on. If you are taking your solution from UAT to Production please be careful otherwise it will overwrite the existing settings with the new one. Below is the list which tells us what settings we keep and what settings to leave.

Auto-Numbering

If you select Auto-Numbering check box all the prefix settings will go with the solution. If you have a product than I think you don’t need to take these settings to the client machine because client might have different settings for auto-numbering. Below is the list of auto-numbering settings.
1. Camping Prefix
2. Case Prefix
3. Contract prefix
4. Invoice prefix
5. Article prefix
6. Order prefix
7. Unique String Length

Calendar

Second check box is calendar. If we select this check box following settings will be go with the solution. Calendar type (Calendar type could be US/ Arabic etc) Date Format Code (All the information about date format how the date will be shown in CRM i.e. DD-MM-YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY Date separator (Date separator contains that character that separate Dates) Max appointment duration (Contains settings about Max number of days for an appointment) Show week Number (Whether week number to be shown in CRM or not) Time format code (Information about Time format) Week start day code (Details of Week start day, In US start day will be Monday, In UAE start day will be Sunday)

Customization

Is Application Mode Enabled (Indicates whether loading of CRM in a browser window that does not have address, tool, and menu bars is enabled)

Email-tracking

Contains all the settings that relate to Email-tracking. i.e Allow Unresolved Address Email Send, Ignore Internal Email, Max Tracking Number, Render Secure Frame For Email, Tracking Prefix, Tracking Token Base, Tracking Token Digits

General

General contains settings for Block Attachments, Currency Format, Code Currency Symbol, Full Name Display Order,  Is Get Started Pane Content Enabled Presence Enabled, Negative Format, Number Format, Pricing Decimal Precision, Share to Previous Owner on Assign

Marketing

Allow Automatic Response Creation, Allow Automatic Unsubscribe, Allow Automatic Unsubscribe Acknowledgement, Allow Marketing Email Execution

Outlook Synchronization

Allow Address Book Synchronization, Allow Offline Scheduled Synchronization, Allow Scheduled Synchronization, Email Send Polling Frequency, Min Address Synchronization Frequency, Min Offline Synchronization Frequency, Min Synchronization Frequency, Auto-Tag Max Cycles, Auto-Tag Interval

Relationship Roles

Relationship Role Settings

ISV

Config Service Calendar Appearance Configuration

What’s new in CRM 2013 for mobile users? And how to configure CRM 2013 with Android.

Introduction

There are 12 features in CRM 2013 mobile app below is the list in detail. If I missed something please use comments section :) . There are three types of apps available in market.

1. Windows Phone 8 users http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=328765
2. Apple iPhone Users (Thanks Microsoft you save our life :p) http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=328968
3. Android phone users http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=328969

As we all know CRM 2013 comes with a lot of new feature. One feature is the Mobile APP. The UI and settings of this app is really easy. And it helps all the stack holders to stay connect and keep checking what’s going on. I am an Android user so I only configure CRM with Android.

You can download the app from following link.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.crm.crmhost

Once we installed the app and opens it shows us following screen

Give your company’s CRM Web address for example in my case the address is

https://alain786.crm.dynamics.com

After successfully checking your connection it will asks for the credentials. 

Features

That’s it following are the features of this new app

Navigation and search

We can navigate to any entity that has CRM for Phones enabled in its settings.

Search option

Views

All views are available with its first two columns. You can easily change the view from selection

Forms

We can access the Mobile forms for the entity.

Relationships related entities

That option is available when we swipe down.

Lookup fields

Lookup view is also available in this app.

Call or email

We can directly call or email any user after opening its record. Click or tap the phone number to start a call. And if you want to email just tap the email field and it will open your email app.

Complete activity

Complete activity option is available now for phone users

Add attachments

That’s my favorite feature. You can attach any file from gallery with the records.

Activity feeds

Same like activity feeds in CRM all the activity feeds are also available in this app.

Record panorama

We can see additional information of any record by just swiping down.

Offline

That option is available for only Windows user. You can access recently viewed records while you are discounted from the internet.

Clear local cache

If you made any changes in your CRM at organization level you must need to clear the cache to check its effect in CRM mobile app. In settings click about and just hit the clear local cache button then you can see your new settings.

Comparison of features

	Windows phone	iPhone	Android
Navigation and search	Yes	Yes	Yes
Views	Yes	Yes	Yes
Forms	Yes	Yes	Yes
Relationships related entities	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lookup fields	Yes	Yes	Yes
Call or email	Yes	Yes	Yes
Complete activity	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add attachments	Yes	Yes	Yes
Activity feeds	Yes	No	No
Record panorama	Yes	No	No
Offline	Yes	No	No
Clear local cache	Yes	No	No

The following table lists the browsers that CRM for phones works with. (Source)

Browser	Version	CRM for phones app	CRM for phones browser
Windows Phone - Internet Explorer Mobile	7.x		X
	8.x	X	X
Safari on iPhone iOS	5.x		X
	6.x	X	X
	7.x	X	X
Android	2.3		X
	3.3		X
	4.x	X	X
Blackberry	6.x		X
	7.x		X
	10.x		X

Thanks everyone. :)

Dynamics CRM 2011 UAE Dubai

Hi every one. This is my first post that is not technical. The basic purpose of writing this blog post is to give some idea’s that how companies of UAE are optimizing their sale and market process using CRM 2011. I have recently shifted in UAE Dubai and I am surprised to see the market of Dynamics CRM in UAE. The major companies that I visited to see there Dynamics CRM are real estates, Banks, Sea Ports, UAE government organizations and Telecom industry. They all are using Dynamics CRM in different departments. Here are the modules that are widely used in Dubai, UAE

Marketing Module in different industries

Telecom industry

The most widely used marketing module of CRM is in telecom industry is SMS gateway integration. In Telecom industry of Dubai they have integrated Dynamics CRM with some SMS gateway and they use this gateway to send SMS to their customers. They have really powerful contact DB in CRM that’s the reason the response from customers are unbelievable. They use Marketing module whenever there is any new package or new product has been launched. They are not limited to that but this is the best feature that I saw in Dynamics CRM. And I encourage other industry users to think about it and use this functionality within there domain.

Bank industry

Banks are also using the same technique but in a different way. They are using SMS functionality to update their customers on real time. If any case has been registered it will automatically sends the message to the respected customer. They have integrated a lot workflow’s to send messages to the customers.

SMS integration in Marketing using Dynamics CRM is the most widely used component in Dubai, UAE

Real estate industry

Real estates are using CRM to create Ad’s. Yes Ad’s. Most of the real estate industries have integrates their CRM with different ad posting sites. If any post has been created in the CRM it will automatically posted up to 100 sites. It’s really amazing. And when customer’s replies to the agents they receives their email in outlook and track them in CRM This is the most secure way to handle your data in one place. This is the best feature that I have seen so far. J  

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the most important thing in Dubai, UAE. Because there is a lot of competition is going on. If you don’t care about your customer’s someone else did. For customer satisfaction most of the companies are using case management in CRM because Dynamics CRM gives all the information on a single form. It’s easy for the CSR to quickly identify the customer and log his case. Some of the companies are using PABX solution for customer’s when a customer’s calls to the help desk a pop will be displayed on desktop showing the details of the customer’s if it exists in CRM otherwise displaying the new contact form.

Case management

Case management is also having a really good impact in Dynamics CRM Market in UAE. The companies those have implemented case management are now much focused on Business process. After implementing Case management queries are resolved within no time and it also improves the customer satisfaction ratio. In most companies in UAE the old process is to store the case information in Excel which is really difficult to identify the customer detail and also not a good approach to handle cases. The companies reduced their 80% of time in resolving the cases and things will be done with in no time.

Portals for Dynamics CRM

Portals are widely used in all areas of companies most of the companies are using portals for their clients and agents to create contacts, leads, and also cases. Some banks are using portals to facilitate the customers with their account statuses etc.

If I list all the experience that I got from different companies it will be book instead of a blog postJ.

If you need any solution regarding to SMS, Case management or Ad’s creation using CRM 2011 please let me know (+971 50 88 35 26).

Comments are open for every one if you think any good feature that you saw in Dynamics CRM in UAE please insert in Comments.

Send email using late binding CRM 2011

You can easily send emails using late binding in CRM 2011 here is the code snippets to send an email.              

WhoAmIRequest systemUserRequest = new WhoAmIRequest();
                WhoAmIResponse systemUserResponse =                    (WhoAmIResponse)serviceProxy.Execute(systemUserRequest);
                Guid _userId = systemUserResponse.UserId;
                Entity Fromparty = new Entity("activityparty");
                Entity Toparty = new Entity("activityparty");
                //set partyid
                //You can refer http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg328549.aspx to get acitivity party entity attribute
                Toparty["partyid"] = new EntityReference("contact", _contactId);
                Fromparty["partyid"] = new EntityReference("systemuser", _userId);
                //create email  and set attributes
                Entity emailCreate = new Entity("email");
                emailCreate["from"] = new Entity[] { Fromparty };
                emailCreate["to"] = new Entity[] { Toparty };
                emailCreate["subject"] = "subject";
                emailCreate["description"] = "EmailBody";
                emailCreate["regardingobjectid"] = new EntityReference("incident", regardindId);
                Guid emailId = serviceProxy.Create(emailCreate);

If you need more information please use comment section :) Thanks

Create Dynamic Marketing List in CRM 2011 with C# .Net

If you want to create Dynamic Marketing List in CRM using C# please follow these steps

1. Create your Desired FetchXML using Advance Find in CRM.
2. Download that FetchXML.
3. Use that FetchXML in below code (Just replace " with ' )

your final code looks like

var service = new XrmServiceContext("Xrm");
            String fetchXml = @"<fetch version='1.0' output-format='xml-platform' mapping='logical' distinct='false'>
  <entity name='contact'>
    <attribute name='fullname' />
    <attribute name='telephone1' />
    <attribute name='contactid' />
    <order attribute='fullname' descending='false' />
    <filter type='and'>
      <condition attribute='address1_city' operator='eq' value='Florida' />
      <condition attribute='address1_country' operator='like' value='%USA%' />
    </filter>
  </entity>
</fetch>";


            // Create dynamic list. Set the type to true to declare a dynamic list. Set CreatedFromCode to 1 for account member type.
            List dynamicList = new List()
            {
                Type = true, //True for Dynamic List
                ListName = "Dynamic List", //Name of the List
                CreatedFromCode = 2, //1 For Account; 2 For Contact; 3 For Lead
                Query = fetchXml
            };
            Guid _dynamicListId = service.Create(dynamicList);
         
Advantages: Some companies uses marketing list very frequently for example they want different marketing list just with a address1_city change for this purpose we can use .Net to develop such type of Marketing lists easily.

I hope it helps someone :)

5 Ways to Import Large Data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

In this article, I have mentioned possible ways to import data in CRM 2011

There are five possible ways to import data in CRM. If I have missed any, please mention in Comments

1. CRM 2011 import wizard
2. Write your own web service using ExecuteMultipleRequest
3. SSIS Packedge
4. Use third party integration software like Scribe 
5. Direct SQL Queries (Unsupported)

Which one is more efficient between these methods depends on your CRM structure, the source of your data, the complexity of the transformation, etc. Every possible solution has some advantages and some disadvantages. 

1.       CRM 2011 import wizard

We can use import wizard to import data in CRM 2011. It is very easy to use. Please follow steps to import data using import wizard.

Download template for the entity that you want to import in CRM

Open the downloaded file

 Fill the excel file with your data

Save the file and from ribbon select import data

This will open import wizard, Browse to your file and select your file as mentioned in below screenshot

Select your desire file and click on submit.

After few times the data will be, upload successfully.

Limitations:

We can’t import non-printable characters using above method.

If we want to Import any entity that has 1:N relationship we need to copy them in one zip file.

If you want to import Unicode data please use XML not Excel.

File size limit is upto 8 MB you can make chunk of data to import them in CRM.

2.       Write your own web service using ExecuteMultipleRequest

Please check my previous blog for this purpose

http://mubashersharif.blogspot.com/2013/01/using-executemultiplerequest-with-crm.html

3.       SSIS Package

We can create SSIS Package to insert data in CRM 2011. Andrii Butenko One of MVP has already write an article on how to integrate CRM 2011 using SSIS. This is really good article so I mentioned it here

http://a33ik.blogspot.com/2012/11/integrating-crm-2011-using-sql.html

4.       Use third party integration software like Scribe.

Many third party tools available that can be used to import data in CRM. Scribe is one of them.

http://www.scribesoft.com/images/pdf/DataSheet_Adapter_Dynamics_CRM.pdf

5.       Direct SQL Queries

We can also write SQL queries to insert data in CRM but it is unsupported and not recommended by Microsoft.

Limitations:

Writing direct SQL queries is not supported by Microsoft. One of the biggest disadvantage of using SQL queries is that you bypass Business logic.

I hope it helps someone :)
If you have any suggestion please comment.