Customize Application Navigation in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

You can customize the contents of the Navigation Pane, for example, add or edit areas, in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 by editing the Site Map. The Site Map is an XML document, and if you've never edited an XML document before, using tools that provide schema validation can make this much easier.

Applies To

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Introduction

You can customize the contents of the Navigation Pane in Microsoft Dynamics CRM by editing the Site Map. The Site Map is an XML document, and if you've never edited an XML document before, using tools that provide schema validation can make this much easier.

Some of the customizations you can perform include:

• Change the name of areas in the Navigation Pane
• Change the order of areas in the Navigation Pane
• Reorganize or add new areas
• Change the order of the links presented within areas
• Change the names of links in an area
• Group links in areas
• Change the Workplace profile options that people can choose from

To perform these customizations, you must have the necessary privileges to export and import customizations.

Additional information related to this task can be found in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Software Development Kit (SDK).

SiteMap

The Site Map is a part of the customizations.xml document that is the result of exporting customizations. Customizations.xml is exported as a compressed customizations.zip file.

The process of customizing the Site Map consists of the following steps:

1. Export the Site Map as part of the customizations.zip file
2. Extract the customizations.xml file from the exported customizations.zip file
3. Edit the Site Map Element in the customizations.xml file
4. Import the edited customizations.xml file.

Exporting the Site Map

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Settings, click Customization, and then click Export Customizations.

2. In the View drop-down, select Client Extensions.

3. In the list, select Site Map.

4. Click Export Selected Customizations and then click OK to close the notice about information that may be exported.

5. Click Save and save the customizations.zip file to a location of your choice.

6. Click Close.

After you modify the Site Map element in the customizations.xml file, you import the modified customizations.xml file to apply your changes.

Importing the Site Map

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Settings, click Customization, and then click Import Customizations.

2. Click Browse to locate an XML file or a compressed (.zip) file that contains customizations and settings exported from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

3. Double-click the file or select the file, and then click Open.

4. Click Upload.

If the Site Map cannot be successfully processed, a dialog box will display error messages.

Recovering from Errors

If you import a customizations.xml file that contains an incorrect Site Map, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will ignore your customizations and use the default Site Map and display a message that there is an error in the customized Site Map. In this case you should navigate to the Import Customizations area and import your backup customizations.xml file containing a correct Site Map.

Worst-case scenario

There is a slight chance that an error in the Site Map could cause the Navigation Pane to not render correctly and it could become impossible to navigate to the Import Customizations area to fix the problem. In this event, you can access the Import Customizations area directly.

To do this, type the following URL into the address field of Internet Explorer:

http://<CRM_Servername>/<Organization_name>/tools/systemcustomization/ImportCustomizations/importCustomizations.aspx

Locate your backup copy of the exported XML file. Upload and import this backup file to return to your original working state. You can then use the Navigation Pane again.

Important

It is always a good idea to keep a backup of a known, working customizations.xml file that contains a valid Site Map. The customizations.zip file that was exported provides this; be sure to keep it handy.

Site Map Schema Overview

Before you can edit the Site Map, you must understand the structure of the XML. By opening the customizations.xml file in Internet Explorer you can review the structure of the XML contents. This file represents a customizations.xml that includes the default Site Map. You may want to review this file to better understand the Site Map schema.

Like any valid XML document, the Site Map must conform to a specific structure. The Site Map uses an XML schema, which is an XML file that defines structure and uses the file extension .xsd. The Site Map schema is defined in a file called SiteMapType.xsd.

When viewed in Microsoft Visual Studio, the graphical view of the schema looks like the following illustration.

There are three major elements in the Site Map.

Area

The Area element controls the major sections visible in the bottom of the Navigation Pane. The default Areas are Workplace, Sales, Marketing, Service, Settings, and Resource Center.

Group

The Group element is a child of the Area element. The Group element provides divisions in which to group the SubArea elements in the top. Most areas don't use Groups by default. The exception is the Workplace area. The Workplace area has six default Groups; My Work, Customers, Sales, Marketing, Service, and Scheduling.

The Workplace area is also unique because the groups in this area can be configured as optional. Users can select which groups they will see in the Workplace area if they click the Personalize Workplace link at the bottom of the Workplace area.

SubArea

The SubArea element provides the clickable links that change the content displayed in the main pane of the application. By default, most links in the Navigation Pane point to pages in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. One exception is the Resource Center, which creates links to pages on the Internet.

There are also five minor elements

Titles and Title

With the Titles and Title elements you can control the localized text Titles to be added in different languages. The Titles element contains one or more Title elements. If you want to rename an existing Area, Group, or SubArea, define your Titles for the language that you want. Use the same method to add titles to new elements. Languages are identified using the locale ID (LCID) attribute, which is a four-digit number. For example, the LCID for US English is 1033. You can find valid LCID values for other languages at the Locale ID (LCID) Chart.

Note

Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports a multilingual user interface, the Title text displayed for Areas, Groups, and SubAreas may need to be presented in different languages for different users. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM multilingual functionality is managed by internal resources designated by ResourceId attributes in the Area, Group, and SubArea elements. Therefore, the default Site Map doesn't use any Titles or Title elements and you shouldn't use the ResourceId attributes for your customizations.

Descriptions and Description

Descriptions can be added to Areas, Groups, and SubAreas. Descriptions only appear in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook.

The Descriptions element contains one or more Description elements. Each Description contains attributes to assign an LCID and text for the description.

Privilege

The Privilege element is a child element of the SubArea element. This element defines specific privileges required to view the SubArea. You might use this if you create a SubArea that points to a page that requires special privileges to view.

Privileges are defined as the name of an entity and a comma-separated list of values representing actions.

The following example is a Privilege. The Privilege element will prevent users (who do not have permissions to read, write, and create knowledge-base articles) from seeing the SubArea.

<SubArea Id="nav_managekb"
         ResourceId="Homepage_KBManager"
         Icon="/_imgs/ico_18_126.gif"
         Url="/cs/home_managekb.aspx"
         Client="Web">
   <Privilege Entity="kbarticle"
              Privilege="Read,Write,Create" />
</SubArea>

Editing the Site Map

When exported, the Site Map is in a compressed file called customizations.zip. From this file you extract the customizations.xml file that contains the Site Map.

The valid elements and attributes to use for the Site Map are fully documented in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK. For more information, see Application Navigation Configuration (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK) and SiteMap XML Reference (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK).

Applications for editing XML documents

Because XML files are simple text, they can be edited with a variety of text-editing programs. Many people who are familiar with editing XML files use Notepad.

If you are not familiar with editing XML files that match a specified schema, you may want to use an XML editing tool that provides schema validation. Two free applications that support schema validation are Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition and XML Notepad 2007.

Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition has many of the capabilities of Microsoft Visual Studio and includes many features for developing Web applications. It is a large application that might take an hour to download and install. It provides schema validation in a text view using IntelliSense, which provides guidance as you type. Errors or missing required elements are underlined.

XML Notepad 2007 is a small application for editing XML files. It has a tree-view interface of the nodes for an XML document.

For links to download these applications, see the Related Links section later in this document.

Note :

Although the Import Customizations feature does perform validation of the modified customizations file, it is possible that the validation will not detect every error. An error can break the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Navigation Pane. If so, you would need to use the steps described in "Recovering from Errors" earlier in this document to return to your starting point. If you are not familiar with editing XML documents that must conform to a specified schema, it is highly recommended that you use an application that supports schema validation.

It is also a very common practice to copy and paste existing elements as a starting point to get the correct structure, and then make the necessary changes to ensure that you are conforming to schema requirements and getting the outcome you want.

Using Schema Validation

The Site Map is just one of the items that may be exported in the customizations.xml file. To edit the customizations.xml file with schema validation, you need a schema that represents all the possible contents of the customizations.xml file. The XML schema definition (XSD) for the customizations.xml file is the customizations.xsd file. The customizations.xsd schema includes a reference to the SiteMapType.xsd file as well as the isv.config.xsd file, as shown in the following illustration.

This allows the customizations.xsd file to provide a schema for all customizations that are exported from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. However, the way that the customizations.xsd references the SiteMapType.xsd in the _root folder introduces several additional steps before it can be used for XML validation.

For convenience, this article provides a modified version of the customizations.xsd called ISVConfigAndSiteMap.xsd. The ISVConfigAndSiteMap.xsd file simply consolidates the customizations.xsd, the SiteMapType.xsd, and the Isv.config.xsd files into one file. It also removes some references to Site Map element attributes that were deprecated for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

When you use Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition (or other Microsoft Visual Studio editions), you can link an exported customizations.xml file to the ISVConfigAndSiteMap.xsd to get IntelliSense, which will help you understand the valid schema elements and avoid mistakes. This isn't required, but it does make the job of modifying the XML easier.

To begin editing the files

1. 
   

   Export the Site Map and extract the customizations.xml file from the customizations.zip file.
   

   Important
   

   Remember to keep that customizations.zip file as your backup.

   
   
2. 
   

   Download this ISVConfigAndSiteMap.zip file. Extract the ISVConfigAndSiteMap.xsd file and place it in the same folder as the customizations.xml file.

Editing the Customizations.xml File using Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition

These steps introduce the process of editing XML documents with schema validation. This example begins by adding a new Area element to the Site Map to introduce how Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition uses IntelliSense to provide schema information as you type.

Edit XML documents with schema validation

1. 
   

   Open Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition and from the File menu, select Open File….

   
   
2. 
   

   Select the customizations.xml file and click Open.

   
   
3. 
   

   In the View menu, select Properties Window.

   
   
4. 
   

   In the Properties area, select the Schemas box and type ISVConfigAndSiteMap.xsd and press Enter.

   
   
5. 
   

   Locate the Resource Center Area in the customizations.xml and place the cursor after the Area ending tag: "</Area>".

   
   
6. 
   

   Type the < symbol to use IntelliSense to see the valid options for this area of the document.
   

   You should see this:
   

   
   

   Area is the only valid element in this part of the document.

   
   
7. 
   

   Type A to select the Area element and press Enter.

   
   
8. 
   

   Press the spacebar to add a space.
   

   You should see a list of valid attributes for the Area element
   

   

   
   
9. 
   

   Type I and then press the down arrow key to select Id and then press Enter. You are now ready to enter the value for the attribute.
   

   
   

   The Id attribute requires a unique string value.

   
   
10. 
    

    To understand schema errors, place your cursor over the text underlined in red.
    

    
    

    
    

    Both of these errors indicate that the Area tag is not closed. The error information will disappear when the tag for the Area element and any required attributes are provided. For example:

    <Area Id="my_unique_ID_value"></Area>
    

    
    
11. 
    

    Continue to define your elements. Use the information in the SiteMap XML Reference (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK) and the schema validation in IntelliSense to define the appearance and behavior for the elements.

    
    
12. 
    

    Save your changes when you are finished and import your customizations.xml file.

Editing the customizations.xml file using XML Notepad 2007

These steps introduce the process of editing XML documents with schema validation. This example begins by adding a new Area element to the Site Map to introduce how XML Notepad 2007 uses a tree view and a graphical user interface (GUI) to provide structure for editing XML documents.

Edit XML documents with schema validation

1. 
   

   Open XML Notepad 2007 and from the File menu select Open.

   
   
2. 
   

   Select the customizations.xml file and click Open.

   
   
3. 
   

   In the View menu, select Schemas.

   
   
4. 
   

   In the XML Schemas dialog box, from the File menu, select Add Schemas.

   
   
5. 
   

   Browse to the ISVConfigAndSiteMap.xsd, select it, and then click Open.

   
   
6. 
   

   Click OK.

   
   
7. 
   

   In the Tree View tab, expand the SiteMap node and select the last Area element.
   

   

   
   
8. 
   

   Right-click the Area node and select Element > After from the context menu.
   

   

   
   
9. 
   

   Any valid element names appear in a box. Select the Area element.
   

   
   

   Note
   

   The Error List area has the description of "The required attribute 'Id' is missing." This indicates that a valid Area element must have an Id attribute.

   
   
10. 
    

    To add an attribute, right-click the Area element you created and select Attribute > Child from the context menu.
    

    

    
    
11. 
    

    Select Id from the list of available attributes
    

    Note
    

    
    
    • The last four items in the list are not valid attributes. Type, nil, schemaLocation, and noNamespaceSchemaLocation are not relevant when editing the Site Map. These options are provided by XML Notepad 2007.
      
    • The Error List area provides the description of "The 'Id' attribute is invalid – The value '' is invalid according to the datatype 'CRM_Identifier_SiteMap' – The Pattern constraint failed." This indicates that a valid Area element Id attribute must have a value.
    
    
12. 
    

    Type a unique value for the Area Id attribute value.

    
    
13. 
    

    Continue to configure the necessary elements and attributes to achieve your goal. Use the options provided by schema validation and the information in the SiteMap XML Reference (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK).

    
    
14. 
    

    Save your changes and import your customizations.xml file to see your changes.

Tasks

These are some of the tasks you can perform by configuring the Site Map

Change the name of areas in the Navigation Pane

• 
  

  If you want to change the name of the Service area from "Service" to "Support" for the English Language:
  

  Change this:

  <Area Id="CS" ResourceId="Area_Service" Icon="/_imgs/services_24x24.gif"
        DescriptionResourceId="Customer_Service_Description">
  <Group Id="CS">
  

  
  

  To this:

  <Area Id="CS" ResourceId="Area_Service" Icon="/_imgs/services_24x24.gif"
        DescriptionResourceId="Customer_Service_Description">
  <Titles>
     <Title LCID="1033" Title="Support"/>
  </Titles>
  <Group Id="CS"> 
  
  

Note

You don't need to remove the ResourceId attribute. Adding the Titles element will override it.

Change the order of areas in the Navigation Pane

• 
  

  This is simply a matter of manipulating the order in which the areas in the Site Map are listed in the customizations.xml file.

Reorganize or add new areas

• 
  

  SubArea elements can be copied and pasted into different areas to achieve a different organization.

  
  
• 
  

  Creating new areas is usually a matter of copying an existing Area and making modifications.

Important

Be aware that each major element must have a unique Id attribute value. If you copy a SubArea element from one Area element and paste it into another, you must give it a different and unique Id attribute value if the other SubArea still exists.

Change the order of the links in areas

• 
  

  You can change the order in which the SubArea elements are listed in the Areas element.

Change the names of links in an area

• 
  

  Most of the links created by SubArea elements are actually views of specific entities, such as Leads or Opportunities. The way to change the names of those links is to change the Display Name of the entity. Those changes will be reflected in the Navigation Pane because the SubArea is associated with a specific entity using the Entity attribute. For information about changing the names of entities, see State your terms: Use your organization's nomenclature.
  

  However, for SubArea elements not associated with a particular entity, you can change the name. For example, if you want to change the name of the Product Catalog area in the Settings area to "Product List", add the Titles element as shown here.

  <SubArea Id="nav_productcatalog" ResourceId="Homepage_ProductCatalog"
           DescriptionResourceId="ProductCatalog_SubArea_Description"
           Icon="/_imgs/ico_18_productcatalog.gif"
           Url="/tools/productcatalog/productcatalog.aspx"
           AvailableOffline="false">
  <Titles>
     <Title LCID="1033" Title="Product List"/>
  </Titles>
  <Privilege Entity="product" Privilege="Read" />
  

  
  

  Depending on the application that you use to edit XML files, you can usually locate a known area of the XML file quickly by using CTRL+F to find a specific word in the file.

Group links in areas

• 
  

  Group elements provide a way to group SubArea elements with collapsible rows. By default, only the Workplace area uses Group elements, but any Area can use Group elements. However, you must be sure to set the ShowGroups attribute in the Area to "true" for the Groups to appear. Also, the IsProfile attribute only applies to Groups located in the Workplace area.
  

  For example, you can break up the SubArea elements in the Service area into two groups.
  

  Change this:

  <Area Id="CS" ResourceId="Area_Service" Icon="/_imgs/services_24x24.gif" 
        DescriptionResourceId="Customer_Service_Description">
   <Group Id="CS">
    <SubArea Id="nav_apptbook" ResourceId="Homepage_AppointmentBook" 
             DescriptionResourceId="AppointmentBook_SubArea_Description" 
             Icon="/_imgs/ico_18_servicecal.gif" Url="/sm/home_apptbook.aspx" 
             AvailableOffline="false">
     <Privilege Entity="activitypointer" Privilege="Read" />
     <Privilege Entity="service" Privilege="Read" />
    </SubArea>
    <SubArea Id="nav_cases" Entity="incident" 
             DescriptionResourceId="Cases_SubArea_Description" Url="/CS/home_cases.aspx" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_accts" Entity="account" DescriptionResourceId="Account_SubArea_Description" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_contacts" Entity="contact" DescriptionResourceId="Contact_SubArea_Description" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_managekb" ResourceId="Homepage_KBManager" 
             DescriptionResourceId="KBManager_SubArea_Description" Icon="/_imgs/ico_18_126.gif" 
             Url="/cs/home_managekb.aspx" AvailableOffline="false">
     <Privilege Entity="kbarticle" Privilege="Read,Write,Create" />
    </SubArea>
    <SubArea Id="nav_contracts" Entity="contract" 
             DescriptionResourceId="Contract_SubArea_Description" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_products" Entity="product" DescriptionResourceId="Product_SubArea_Description" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_services" Entity="service" DescriptionResourceId="Service_SubArea_Description" />
   </Group>
  </Area>
  

  
  

  To this:

  <Area Id="CS" ResourceId="Area_Service" Icon="/_imgs/services_24x24.gif" ShowGroups="true"
        DescriptionResourceId="Customer_Service_Description">
   <Group Id="CS">
    <Titles>
     <Title LCID="1033" Title="Group 1"/>
    </Titles>
    <SubArea Id="nav_apptbook" ResourceId="Homepage_AppointmentBook" 
             DescriptionResourceId="AppointmentBook_SubArea_Description" 
             Icon="/_imgs/ico_18_servicecal.gif" Url="/sm/home_apptbook.aspx" 
             AvailableOffline="false">
     <Privilege Entity="activitypointer" Privilege="Read" />
     <Privilege Entity="service" Privilege="Read" />
    </SubArea>
    <SubArea Id="nav_cases" Entity="incident" 
             DescriptionResourceId="Cases_SubArea_Description" Url="/CS/home_cases.aspx" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_accts" Entity="account" DescriptionResourceId="Account_SubArea_Description" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_contacts" Entity="contact" DescriptionResourceId="Contact_SubArea_Description" />
   </Group>
   <Group Id="CS_New_Group">
    <Titles>
     <Title LCID="1033" Title="Group 2"/>
    </Titles>
    <SubArea Id="nav_managekb" ResourceId="Homepage_KBManager" 
             DescriptionResourceId="KBManager_SubArea_Description" Icon="/_imgs/ico_18_126.gif" 
             Url="/cs/home_managekb.aspx" AvailableOffline="false">
     <Privilege Entity="kbarticle" Privilege="Read,Write,Create" />
    </SubArea>
    <SubArea Id="nav_contracts" Entity="contract" 
             DescriptionResourceId="Contract_SubArea_Description" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_products" Entity="product" DescriptionResourceId="Product_SubArea_Description" />
    <SubArea Id="nav_services" Entity="service" DescriptionResourceId="Service_SubArea_Description" />
   </Group>
  </Area>
  

  
  

  The changes are as follows:
  

  
  
  • The Area element includes the attribute ShowGroups="true"
    
  • Both Group elements now include a Title in a Titles element.
    
  • The new Group has a unique value for the Id attribute.
    
  • Some of the SubArea elements have been moved into the new Group.

Change the Workplace profile options that people can choose from

• 
  

  When you add groups to the Workplace area, you can set the IsProfile attribute to "true". This will allow users to choose whether they want this group to be displayed in their Workplace area, in their personal options.

Convert a Dynamic Entity to a System Entity

This sample code shows how to convert a dynamic entity instance into a strongly typed account entity instance. The code first creates a dynamic entity, populates its properties with account attributes and values, and then converts the dynamic entity to an account entity.

using System;
using System.Reflection;

using CrmSdk;
using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Utility;

namespace Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.HowTo
{
   public class ConvertDynamicToCore
   {
      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         // TODO: Change the server URL and organization to match your Microsoft
         // Dynamics CRM Server and Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization.
         ConvertDynamicToCore.Run("http://localhost:5555", "CRM_SDK");
      }
      
      public static bool Run(string crmServerUrl, string orgName)
      { 
         // Create an account dynamic entity.
         DynamicEntity accountDynamicEntity = new DynamicEntity();

         //Set a few account properties.
         StringProperty name = new StringProperty();
         name.Name = "name";
         name.Value = "Fabrikam Inc.";

         StringProperty accountnumber = new StringProperty();
         accountnumber.Name = "accountnumber";
         accountnumber.Value = "AZ1200";

         Picklist plist = new Picklist();
         plist.name = "UPS";
         plist.Value = 2;

         PicklistProperty shippingmethodcode = new PicklistProperty();
         shippingmethodcode.Name = "address1_shippingmethodcode";
         shippingmethodcode.Value = plist;

         accountDynamicEntity.Properties = new Property[] { name, accountnumber, shippingmethodcode };
         accountDynamicEntity.Name = EntityName.account.ToString();

         //Create a strongly typed account entity to copy the dynamic entity into.
         account coreAccount = new account();

         //Convert the dynamic entity to a strongly typed business entity.
         coreAccount = (account)Convert(accountDynamicEntity);

         Console.WriteLine("\n|Core Account Attributes\n|=======================");
         Console.WriteLine("|name:  {0}", coreAccount.name);
         Console.WriteLine("|accountnumber:  {0}", coreAccount.accountnumber);
         Console.WriteLine("|address1_shipmethodcode:  {0}", coreAccount.address1_shippingmethodcode.Value);

         return true;
      }

      /// 

      /// Convert a dynamic entity into a strongly typed business entity.
      /// 
      public static BusinessEntity Convert(DynamicEntity entity)
      {
         string coreEntityName = entity.Name;

         Type entType = (new account()).GetType();
         ConstructorInfo init = entType.GetConstructor(new Type[] { });
         object ent = init.Invoke(new object[] { });

         foreach (Property p in entity.Properties)
         {
            PropertyInfo entProp = entType.GetProperty(p.Name);
            if (null == entProp)
            {
               Console.WriteLine("Could not find attribute {0} on entity {1}.", p.Name, coreEntityName);
            }
            else
            {
               entProp.SetValue(ent, GetAttribute(entity, p.Name), null);
            }
         }
         return (BusinessEntity)ent;
      }

      /// 

      /// This method returns the value of a dynamic entity attribute.
      /// 
      public static object GetAttribute(BusinessEntity entity, string attribute)
      {
         if (entity.GetType() == typeof(DynamicEntity))
         {
            DynamicEntity de = (DynamicEntity)entity;
            foreach (Property prop in de.Properties)
            {
               if (prop.Name == attribute)
               {
                  PropertyInfo propInfo = prop.GetType().GetProperty("Value");
                  return propInfo.GetValue(prop, null);
               }
            }
            return null;
         }
         else
         {
            PropertyInfo propInfo = entity.GetType().GetProperty(attribute);
            return propInfo.GetValue(entity, null);
         }
      }
   }
}

Convert a Dynamic Entity to a System Entity

This sample code shows how to convert a dynamic entity instance into a strongly typed account entity instance. The code first creates a dynamic entity, populates its properties with account attributes and values, and then converts the dynamic entity to an account entity.

/*

convert a dynamic entity instance into a strongly typed account entity instance. 

*/

using System;

using System.Reflection;

using CrmSdk;

using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Utility;

namespace Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.HowTo

{

   public class ConvertDynamicToCore

   {

      static void Main(string[] args)

      {

         // TODO: Change the server URL and organization to match your Microsoft

         // Dynamics CRM Server and Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization.

         ConvertDynamicToCore.Run("http://localhost:5555", "CRM_SDK");

      }

      public static bool Run(string crmServerUrl, string orgName)

      { 

         // Create an account dynamic entity.

         DynamicEntity accountDynamicEntity = new DynamicEntity();

         //Set a few account properties.

         StringProperty name = new StringProperty();

         name.Name = "name";

         name.Value = "Fabrikam Inc.";

         StringProperty accountnumber = new StringProperty();

         accountnumber.Name = "accountnumber";

         accountnumber.Value = "AZ1200";

         Picklist plist = new Picklist();

         plist.name = "UPS";

         plist.Value = 2;

         PicklistProperty shippingmethodcode = new PicklistProperty();

         shippingmethodcode.Name = "address1_shippingmethodcode";

         shippingmethodcode.Value = plist;

         accountDynamicEntity.Properties = new Property[] { name, accountnumber, shippingmethodcode };

         accountDynamicEntity.Name = EntityName.account.ToString();

         //Create a strongly typed account entity to copy the dynamic entity into.

         account coreAccount = new account();

         //Convert the dynamic entity to a strongly typed business entity.

         coreAccount = (account)Convert(accountDynamicEntity);

         Console.WriteLine("\n|Core Account Attributes\n|=======================");

         Console.WriteLine("|name:  {0}", coreAccount.name);

         Console.WriteLine("|accountnumber:  {0}", coreAccount.accountnumber);

         Console.WriteLine("|address1_shipmethodcode:  {0}", coreAccount.address1_shippingmethodcode.Value);

         return true;

      }

      /// <summary>

      /// Convert a dynamic entity into a strongly typed business entity.

      /// </summary>

      public static BusinessEntity Convert(DynamicEntity entity)

      {

         string coreEntityName = entity.Name;

         Type entType = (new account()).GetType();

         ConstructorInfo init = entType.GetConstructor(new Type[] { });

         object ent = init.Invoke(new object[] { });

         foreach (Property p in entity.Properties)

         {

            PropertyInfo entProp = entType.GetProperty(p.Name);

            if (null == entProp)

            {

               Console.WriteLine("Could not find attribute {0} on entity {1}.", p.Name, coreEntityName);

            }

            else

            {

               entProp.SetValue(ent, GetAttribute(entity, p.Name), null);

            }

         }

         return (BusinessEntity)ent;

      }

      /// <summary>

      /// This method returns the value of a dynamic entity attribute.

      /// </summary>

      public static object GetAttribute(BusinessEntity entity, string attribute)

      {

         if (entity.GetType() == typeof(DynamicEntity))

         {

            DynamicEntity de = (DynamicEntity)entity;

            foreach (Property prop in de.Properties)

            {

               if (prop.Name == attribute)

               {

                  PropertyInfo propInfo = prop.GetType().GetProperty("Value");

                  return propInfo.GetValue(prop, null);

               }

            }

            return null;

         }

         else

         {

            PropertyInfo propInfo = entity.GetType().GetProperty(attribute);

            return propInfo.GetValue(entity, null);

         }

      }

   }

}

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Reports

What is Microsoft  Dynamics CRM Reports

It uses the term Report to refer to any type of data analysis file, regardless of its origin and type. Therefore, a report may be a Microsoft Office Excel file, a SQL Server Reporting Services report, a third-party reporting file, or a link to an external Web page report.

How to create Reports

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 includes approximately 24 Reporting Services reports in the default installation and those reports include an additional 28 Subreports. However we will definitely want to create new reports (or modify the default reports) as we customize our MS CRM database with new entity attributes and custom entities.
In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 we can create Reports in two methods:

Report Wizard

All users have access to the Report Wizard to create a report for their personal use, assuming they have any level of access to the Report Create Privilege. The Installation enables the Report Create Privilege on all security roles by default. By default, the Report Wizard creates the report as a personal (individual viewable) report.One can access the Report Wizard by creating a new report from the Reports grid. In addition to creating a report, one can use the Report Wizard to edit an existing Report Wizard report.

Report Definition Language with VS 2005
One can create their own Reporting Services report from scratch by using Visual Studio 2005. To develop reports in VS 2005, one should need Business Intelligence Development Studio add-in to be installed with VS 2005

Reporting Service Versions

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Supports the following Reporting Services editions:
1. SQL Server 2005, Standard Edition with SP2
2. SQL Server 2005, Enterprise Edition with SP2
3. SQL Server 2005, Workgroup Edition with SP2
4. SQL Server 2005, Standard Edition, x64 SP2
5. SQL Server 2005, Enterprise Edition x64 SP2

Data Flow Diagram

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 reports depend on the connector for Microsoft SQL server Reporting services. SSRS data connector used to proxy request between CRM 4.0, SSRS and SQL server thereby removing trust for delegation Requirement. The SRS connector runs as an SSRS Data Processing Extension and handles all of the delegation for you. The use of the data connector is recommended for Internet facing deployments and anywhere users are not using NT Auth to connect to CRM. Other way to do this in Microsoft CRM 4.0 is to use integrated authentication where trust for delegation is required between the CRM server, the SSRS server and the SQL server with the CRM DB.

Reporting Services Architecture Diagram

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Architecture Consist of three layers. First level is MS Dynamics CRM which consist of Reports and Report Viewer ASP.Net Control, here Reports is nothing but an Entity which presented in MSCRM which is not there in MSCRM 3.0 Version. The SQL Reporting Services Report Viewer is an ASP.Net control which runs on the CRM 4.0 Web server. When you choose to run a report from Microsoft CRM 4.0, the ASP.Net control requests the report and data from the remote SSRS box. In practical terms, In Microsoft CRM 4.0 the URL for a report is the CRM Web server.

Authentication in MSCRM 4.0 Reports

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server uses Report viewer to display data from SRS Server, the connection between Report Viewer and SRS Webservice uses CRM User Context for Authentication.SRS Webservice and CRM Data Connector uses SRS App pool and CRM User Context for establishing connection to MSCRM Filtered views in SQL Server. All data retrieved using CRM Data Connecter controlled by CRM Roles and Privileges Advantages of Data Connector are that it Removes trust for delegation (TFD) requirement. Enabling reports for external applications still is subject to TFD.Report entity is a full CRM entity and Sharing Report is also available. No longer need to make calls to SRS to display list of reports in CRM.RDLs are mastered in CRM.

Note:

1. If a user does not have Privileges in CRM he or she will get a blank Report.
2. Credentials supplied by the user running the report option which expects SystemUserId as the Login Name and OrganizationId as the Password.
3. Sharing Reports – Users Can share their reports to a team or any specific user.

Prerequisites for Installation of SRS Data Connector:

1. SQL Server Reporting Service 2005 or 2008
2. MS CRM 4.0 needs to be installed (Connector requires MSCRM_CONFIG db)

Installation of SRS Data Connector:

1. Run the Splash.exe file
2. Select SRS Data Connector
3. Select Update the Installation files(Recommended)
4. Select the MSCRM db Server name in the picklist

Security Privileges

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Reports are just like CRM system entity. As such, the report entity adheres to the standard security characteristic with that applies to all entities in MS CRM. Each report in MSCRM contains a viewable by attribute, with values of organization or individual. If the report viewable by value equals organization, all users will be able to run reports, provided they have read privileges. If the viewable by value equals individual, the report read privileges will determine each user’s access to the report.

Other Privileges:

1. Publish Reports – allows users to make a report available to the Organization
2. Add Reporting Services Reports – allows users to upload .rdl files
3. Create : allows users to create reports using the Report Wizard

Existing roles will get access to reports as follows:

1. Manage Reports privilege : full access
2. Other : default privileges

Get the selected items in a CRM grid in CRM 4.0

//With this function you get only the GUIDs of the records selected.
function GetSelectedItemsInGrid()
{
    return getSelected("crmGrid");
}

Use LINQ to Retrieve Data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM

The XrmDataContext class contains an underlying query provider to translate LINQ queries from C# syntax into the query API that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM can read natively. This query provider abstracts much of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK query APIs under a more familiar C# syntax; however, the querying capability of the query provider is limited to the functionality provided by Microsoft Dynamics CRM. There are some areas indicated where you may have problems with the standard LINQ to Objects capabilities when applied to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM LINQ provider. For more information about the LINQ query language, see LINQ. For more information about query features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, see Building Queries.

The Advanced Developer Extensions LINQ query provider offers the following capabilities:

• Supports the Join, Where, OrderBy, and Select functions.
• Supports the Skip, Take, Distinct, Single, and First functions.
• Handles the other IEnumerable extensions.
• Supports Select to anonymous types, constructors, and initializers.
• Supports Where conditions with Contains, StartsWith, EndsWith, and Equals String functions.
• Allows you to specify attributes statically or dynamically.

To get an idea of what the typical Microsoft Dynamics CRM LINQ queries look like, here are some samples of common data retrieval scenarios.

Examples

The following example shows how to retrieve all contact records.

// Loop through all Microsoft Dynamics CRM contacts using the IQueryable interfaces
// on the XrmDataContext object.
System.Console.WriteLine("List all contacts in CRM");
System.Console.WriteLine("========================");
foreach (var c in crm.contacts)
{
  System.Console.WriteLine(c.fullname + " " + c.emailaddress1);
}

The next sample adds a "where" clause filter and returns a single result.

// Find a contact by user name.
var namedContact = (
   from contact in crm.cContacts
   where contact.Username emailaddress1 == " allison.brown@contoso.com someuser"
   select contact).Single();

// Here is the equivalent query using an inline expression.
var namedContact2 = crm.Contacts.Where(c => c.Username == "someuser").Single();
Console.WriteLine(namedContact.Username);var allisonBrown = 
  crm.contacts.FirstOrDefault(c => c.emailaddress1 == "allison.brown@contoso.com");

if (allisonBrown != null)
{
  System.Console.WriteLine(allisonBrown.fullname)
}

A basic join can be done between two entities with a where clause added against one or both entities.

System.Console.WriteLine("List all contacts where Parent Customer = 'Contoso':");
var contosoContacts = from c in crm.contacts
                      join parentCustomer in crm.accounts
                      on c.parentcustomerid.Value equals parentCustomer.accountid
                      where parentCustomer.name == "Contoso"
                      select c;

foreach (var c in contosoContacts)
{
  System.Console.WriteLine(c.fullname + " " + c.emailaddress1);
}

A many-to-many relationship requires a more complex query that involves joining a relationship entity between the two entities.

// List the contacts in the Softball team marketing list.
System.Console.WriteLine("List all contacts in Softball Team:");

var members = from c in crm.contacts
              join mlm in crm.listmembers on c.contactid equals mlm.entityid
              join ml in crm.lists on mlm.listid equals ml.listid
              where ml.listname == "Softball Team"
              select c;

foreach (var c in members)
{
  System.Console.WriteLine(c.fullname + " " + c.emailaddress1);
}

When you access a date/time attribute value, you can use the formatted values collection to retrieve the value in the user's converted time zone.

var query = from contact in crm.contacts
                        where contact.fullname.Contains("Ken")
                        select new { contact.fullname, contact.contactid, contact.createdon };
            foreach (var c in query)
            {
                System.Console.WriteLine(c.fullname);
                System.Console.WriteLine(c.contactid);
                System.Console.WriteLine(c.FormattedValues["createdon"]);
            }