CRM users can create dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to make the business decisions, to see the sales performance and Marketing details. Set up customized dashboards around key marketing KPIs including response rates, budget tracking, revenue generated from marketing activities, lead source, etc. CRM users can create various types of dashboards on various Entities. The dashboards contains different formats including Bar Charts, Line Charts and Pie Charts.
- Select Dashboard Entity and then click on New. It will opened “Select Dashboard Layout” window. Dash boards contains different layouts like 2-column Regular, 3-column regular and Focused and 4-column Regular and focused Dashboards, etc. For this Example I have selected 2-column Regular Dashboard as follows:
- Select Dashboard Layout and then click on Create button.
- Each section in the Dashboard window contains four options to insert the dashboards. They are insert chart, insert grid, insert web Resources and insert I-Frame as follows:
- Select the Desired insert option from Each section and fill the required fields and then click ok. For the first section I have selected “Insert chart” option to show the “top ten My open Opportunities” as follows:
- Repeat the same process for all the sections then the final Dashboard design for “My Sales Dashboard is as follows:
- By default, auditing in CRM 2011 is turned OFF. Auditing needs to be turned before the Audit History starts to populate. To enable Auditing in your organization go to
Settings > Administration > System Settings
- In CRM 2011′s System Settings area there is a tab called AUDITING. Click on it and CHECK the START AUDITING check box.
- Go to Settings->Customizations-> Customize the System ->select an Entity to Enable or Disable the Auditing
- By Default, Auditing is Enabled for Entities. If you want to Disable the Auditing un Check the “Auditing” Check box as follows:
- Go to Settings->Customizations-> Customize the System ->select an Entity -> Select Field Option.
- Then it will show all the fields in the Entity
- Select the fields that u want to disable the auditing and click on Edit as follows:
- A Form Fields window will be opened. By default Auditing is enabled so you need to check the “Disable” Checkbox under “Auditing” Section so that it will disable the Auditing for selected features.
- Click on “Save” Button it will save the changes.
- At last “publish all customizations of that Entity” as follows:
- Now the Fields “Account Number and Address1_Country are disabled for auditing.
- In the example below, I will make several changes to the Account Entity as changing the “Account Number, Main Phone Number, City and Country/Region.
- The change history can be viewed by selecting Audit History on the left navigation of the Account. It shows the Changed Main Phone Number and City but its not shows the Account Number and Country/Region values because these two fields are disabled for auditing previously.
- Go Settings ---> Customizations à Customize the System -à Open the Form for any one of Entity
- On the Form, we have File Explorer at the Right side and bottom we have New Field Button. Click on New Field Button.
- Field Window will be opened and then Form the “Type” Dropdown List, select “Option Set (Pick List)” as Follows:
- Select “Yes” for “Use Existing Option Set” and then it will shows the Existing Option sets as follows:
- We can also create the New “Option set” with the “New” Button in the Above Figure.
- Go Settings ---> Customizations à Customize the System -à Open the Form for any one of Entity
- I have selected the Account Entity Form and then Select “Navigation” from the Ribbon. Then the Form left Navigation is Enabled.
- We can Rename the section names (Ex: Sales, Common, Service, etc.) and navigation Link names.
CRM 2011 allows CRM users to create their own personal views, add commonly used records and design personal dashboards to measure performance. Users can create their own views by following below steps:
- Open an Entity (for this Example Account) in which you want to create a personal View and then select “Create Personal View” from the Entity Header as shown below:
- A new window will be opened. Then write the Query to retrieve the Accounts into your personal View as follows:
- cClick on Save As then it will ask for View Information like name and Description. Provide the information for View and then Close the Window
- When you open your Personal View “My Personal Test View” it will shows the your own Account Records as follows:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains a special feature that is adding the sub-grids to Forms. For example, when working with a specific account record, you can add the related contact grid to the main form rather than accessing the related contact information from the sidebar. In this example I will add the contact grid as sub grid to Accounts Entity form as follows:
- Go to Settings -> Customizations -> Computer System Settings
- Select the “Account” Entity Form
- Go to Insert tab on the Form and then Click on Sub-Grid
- Later, Sub Grid Properties window will be opened.
- In the Sub-Grid Property window provide the name , Entity, Records and Default View type under Data source Section. If you want you can provide the additional options like Display search, Display Index and Display View Selection.
- Save the change and then “publish all the Customizations”
- You can see the Contact sub-grid in the Account Entity. To see this sub-grid go to Account Entity in Workplace and then open one record. Then it will shows the contact sub-grid as follows:
Now, every Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 form can be secured against each security role in the organization. Anyone who does not have the security roles assigned to this form will not be able to view it. In this example, I will show the functionality of Form Security in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
- Account contains two types of form such as ‘New” and ‘Information” as follows:
- Presently, administrator has the rights to view both forms and in this example I will remove the rights to view the “New Form’ for Administrator.
- Go to Form from the top of the Ribbon in Account Entity:
- Click on “Assign Security Roles” the “Assign Security Roles” window will be opened. By default “System Administrator” have assigned for Accounts Entity “New Form”. Uncheck the “System Administrator” Check box in the “Assign Security Roles” window and then click ‘ok”.
- Save and publish the form
- Now, open the Account Entity Record. Then the administrator can view only “information” form.
- Administrator do not have the rights to view “New Form” so New form is not opened in the Account record.
Sales people rejoice! The days of painful imports of sample data into your demo systems is over!
In the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 there is a built in mechanism to import sample data into your system. This will undoubtedly be a blessing to a lot of folks (sales folks running demos, consultants who want to show system customizations prior to a data migration, etc) who have had to rely on less than ‘ideal’ ways of getting sample data in a system.
Until now, we have had 3 options for bringing sample data into our systems:
1. Manually add sample data (time consuming, boring and inefficient)
2. Create CSV file(s) of sample data and use the built-in Import Tool (can be tricky for a non-technical user.)
3. Download the ‘Dynamics CRM 4.0 Sample Data’ extension from Microsoft (contains a set of CSV files of data and an XML data map. Requires use of the DATA MIGRATION MANAGER. Does not work with CRM Online)
While there are numerous options available for importing sample data, each of the above options has various drawbacks that many have found limiting. These limitations have given rise to the new SAMPLE DATA feature that is present in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
A utility that can be ran from the CRM website that automatically populates sample data into your system without use of the DMM or Import tools.
When executed, the sample data feature creates:
· 14 Accounts
· 14 Contacts (related to the above Accounts)
· 7 Opportunities (related to the above Accounts)
· 10 Cases (related to the above Accounts)
· 10 Leads
· 1 Sales Goal (and Metric)
· 8 Campaigns
· 24 Activities (due dates are based on when the sample data was imported; creates a mix of overdue and upcoming activities)
Note: All of the above records will be assigned to the user who started the Sample Data import process. Also, each record will have (sample) appended to the ‘name’ of the record
The best part about the built-in sample data in CRM 2011 is that it is easily brought into the system by clicking one button! No CSV files or XML map files! No need to install the Data Migration Manager!
1. Navigate to Settings > Data Management > Sample Data.
2. When Sample Data is clicked, the following screen will display. Simply click the ‘Import Sample Data’ button and the import process will begin (after a few seconds)!
Removing the sample data is as easy as adding it (no need for manual deletion via Advanced Find!). To remove the data, navigate to the Sample Data section again and click the ‘Remove Sample Data’ button. The process will start automatically and will remove all the sample data in the system.
Unfortunately the Sample Data tool will not populate data into your custom fields. You will still need to manually add data into any custom fields.
The sample data tool loads ‘basic’ information for each record type (name, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc).
Solution is a fantastic feature that will be released with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Refer to this blog for its introduction: CRM 2011 solutions buisness apps on Steroids. SiteMap and Form customization management is built on top of the CRM 2011 solution infrastructure.
One of the customer feedbacks with the current SiteMap and Form customization import/export feature is that whenever a new customization is imported, it wipes out previous customization. With CRM 2011, customizations from multiple imported (installed) solutions will be merged together and presented to the end user in a unified customization layer. This is made possible in part due to the design of the internal storage of SiteMap and Form customization, which is the topic of this blog.
Unmanaged solution deals with the active customization layer. SiteMap and Form customization storage format in unmanaged solution is basically the same as before. I will not spend more time on it than point out the following bullet points:
The full content of the SiteMap definition (SiteMapXml) and full content of the Form definition (FormXml) is included in the customizations.xml file that is zipped into the unmanaged solution zip file.
SiteMap definition is included as ImportExportXml-> SiteMap xml node and complies with the schema defined at \Server\ApplicationFiles\SiteMapType.xsd.
Form definition is included as ImportExportXml -> Entities -> Entity -> FormXml xml node and complies with the schema defined at \Server\ApplicationFiles\FormXml.xsd.
Here is where the major storage format change has happened since CRM V4. The main idea here is to capture SiteMap and Form customization as a diff between customized SiteMap and Form and the base upon which the customization is made. And this diff is transported in the managed solution package and applied to end user SiteMap and Form base when the solution is installed at the end user deployment.
Please note, as the end user SiteMap and Form base at installation is quite likely different from the SiteMap and Form base upon which the customization is based, some issues can happen and workaround is needed. But that is for another discussion.
SiteMap customization is captured as ImportExportXml-> SiteMap xml node in the customizations.xml file that is zipped into the managed solution zip file and complies with the schema defined at \Server\ApplicationFiles\SiteMapTypeManaged.xsd. If there is no SiteMap customization, this node does not exist in the solution customizations.xml file.
Form customization is captured as ImportExportXml -> Entities -> Entity -> FormXml xml node in the customizations.xml file that is zipped into the managed solution zip file and complies with the schema defined at \Server\ApplicationFiles\FormXmlManaged.xsd. If there is no form customization for a particular form, this node does not exist in the solution customizations.xml file for that form.
If you compare SiteMapTypeManaged.xsd to SiteMapType.xsd or FormXmlManaged.xsd to FormXml.xsd, you will notice that the main difference is that the xml definition for many elements in the managed version has an additional attribute named solutionaction with the following valid values:
<xs:simpleType name="solutionactionType">
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:enumeration value="Added" />
<xs:enumeration value="Removed" />
<xs:enumeration value="Modified" />
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType >
“Added” is used to indicate that this element (and all its child elements) is added by the customization. “Removed” is used to indicate that this element (and all its child elements) is deleted by the customization. And “Modified” means some aspect of this element (not considering its child elements) is modified by the customization. If an element is not affected by the customization, solutionaction attribute will not appear in its definition of xml node. And if an element and all its child elements are not affected by the customization, the xml node sub tree will not appear in the solution customizations.xml file.
Since the managed solution packaging for SiteMap customization and Form customization is similar and uses the same engine, I will be using SiteMap customization to illustrate the internal storage of customization in a managed solution.
I made some changes to the out of box SiteMap under SiteMap -> Area (Id="Workplace") -> Group (Id="MyWork") node:
- I changed the Icon for the nav_dashboards SubArea from /_imgs/area/18_home.gif to /_imgs/data_management.gif.
- I added a new node
- And I deleted the node of
See the following screen shots:
<SiteMap>
<SiteMap>
<Area Id="Workplace" ...="" >
<Group Id="MyWork" ...="" >
<SubArea Id="nav_dashboards" ...="" Icon="/_imgs/data_management.gif" ...="" solutionaction="Modified" />
<SubArea Id="nav_activities" ...="" />
<SubArea Id="nav_calendar" solutionaction="Removed" />
<SubArea Id="link" Title="link" ...="" solutionaction="Added" />
</Group>
</Area>
</SiteMap>
</SiteMap>
“…” above means some detail is not shown.
As you can see that the nav_dashboards SubArea node has solutionaction="Modified", the nav_calendar SubArea node has solutionaction="Removed", the link SubArea node has solutionaction="Added", and the nav_activities SubArea node does not have solutionaction attribute. That is how the customization is captured and stored in the managed solution for transport to the end users.
There you have it about the internal storage of SiteMap and Form customization in a managed solution package. I hope I have achieved my goals for this blog:
- To satisfy any curiosity about the internal storage of SiteMap and Form customization in a managed solution package of CRM 2011.
- To equip you with knowledge to help you debug issues with SiteMap and Form customization during solution import and export. During export, you can verify if all your customization is captured in the exported solution. And during import, you can identify certain cases of import failure and help you to find workarounds if necessary.
Please take a note that the manual editing of managed solution files is not supported (at your own risk) and the information presented here is accurate as of the CRM 2011 Beta release. I hope you benefit from the improvements we made in this area and let us know what can be further improved for future releases. Thank you for choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
CRM outlook client is an excellent feature in CRM 2011. By using CRM outlook Client you can decide which folders your email is stored in, how to categorize your contacts, even what color your calendar shows up in. The CRM outlook client is look likes as follows:
CRM outlook client provides the facility for RM users to rearrange the pane by doing some change like turn off charts, put the reading pane in the right side and put the navigation bar at left side and etc. CRM user can make all these changes by clicking a button on the CRM outlook client ribbon. User can rearrange any areas in the outlook by drag and drop functionality or by using CRM ribbon. Arrangement of Reading pane in the CRM outlook client shows in the following figure:
CRM outlook client is an excellent feature in CRM 2011. By using CRM outlook Client you can decide which folders your email is stored in, how to categorize your contacts, even what color your calendar shows up in. The CRM outlook client is look likes as follows:
Besides all this, CRM user can get conditional formatting (more on that in a future post), follow ups, and categories on your CRM views:
And, of course, if CRM user can categorize in Outlook, CRM user can also Group By Categories! Just pin the view, and CRM user will have all of the items in that view available locally for that user. CRM user need to right click on views to see all the items in that view grouped by category, date, location and etc.
CRM user can see the Contact Information for CRM Contacts with the help of Social Connector. If CRM users have any connection to social networks (or past emails, Communicator conversations, etc.) then he can see them all inside his CRM Folder, without ever leaving his Outlook
Fetch-based custom reports in the Microsoft Dynamic CRM 2011 can be created and run in both On-Premise and On-Line environment. Fetch xml provides a secure, performing way to retrieve data from the CRM. These reports uses data processing extension component of SQL Server Reporting Services to execute report. It enables CRM users to connect to CRM platform and retrieve the data.
A report writer writing report will use “Raw Value” fields for the computational purposes like aggregation, grouping, etc. and “Formatted Value” fields for the display purposes. The result returned from querying fetch xml in CRM contains both raw and formatted value. These formatted values are as per the user settings in CRM. Below table shows some of the examples for raw and formatted value in CRM 2011.
Data processing extension for CRM Reports also supports access to both raw and formatted value of an attribute by creating separate field in the data set corresponding to each value. Some special types like “Lookup” and “Picklist” also support additional fields
The following table illustrates the different attribute types and the different fields available for raw and formatted. Normally, “logical name of the attribute” in DataField returns the formatted value and logical name + “Value” suffix returns the raw value. However some data types like “Lookup”, “Customer”, “Owner” and “Picklist” provides access to some additional fields.
The following example create a report that shows the opportunity name, estimated revenue (in base), potential customer and the total estimated base revenue of opportunities. The display value in the table should be formatted; however, the value used for aggregation, sorting and grouping should be done on raw values.
- Start Business Intelligence Development Studio “BIDS” and create a new report which uses “Microsoft Dynamic CRM Fetch” Data source type.
- Enter the following fetch xml in the Query string. Specify the required attribute in the entity node of the fetch xml.
- Click next and complete the report wizard.
- The report wizard automatically populates the entire permissible field in the dataset. Generally, more than one field is generated for a single attribute in the fetch xml. The fields appended with “Value” text denote the raw value of the attribute. There are three different field generated for attribute “customerid” in the fetch xml.
- DataField “customerid” returns the display name of the customer.
- DataField “customeridValue” returns the raw value of the customer.
- DataField “customeridEntityName” returns the entity, customer belongs to.
- Modify the report by adding the necessary columns in the table. Since these columns will be just used to display purposes, you can use fields that correspond to the formatted value.
| Column Name |
Expression Value |
| Opportunity Name |
=Fields!name.Value |
| Customer Name |
=Fields!customerid.Value |
| Est. Revenue |
=Fields!estimatedvalue_base.Value |
| Est. Close Date |
=Fields!estimatedclosedate.Value |
- For aggregation, you can use the raw value of the attribute. Field “estimatedvalue_baseValue” denote the raw value of attribute “estimatedvalue_base”. Aggregate can be obtained using expression:
- At runtime, Data processing extension for CRM Reports will use the fetch xml to query the CRM platform and get the entity result collection. It then internally parses the result collection and returns the result for different field in data set.
A dataset contain separate field entry for the different value in attribute.
“Name” is the name to be used for the field in the report.
“DataField”is the name of field (viz. is logical name of the attribute) in the fetch xml.
To access the formatted value, use logical name in the data field.
To access the raw value, use logical name + “Value” suffix in the data field.
<DataSet Name="DataSet1">
<Fields>
<Field Name="name">
<DataField>name</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<Field Name="estimatedvalue_base">
<!--Formmatted value of the estimatedvalue_base attribute-->
<DataField>estimatedvalue_base</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<
Field Name="estimatedvalue_baseValue">
<!--Raw value of the estimatedvalue_base attribute-->
<DataField>estimatedvalue_baseValue</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.Decimal</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<Field Name="estimatedclosedate">
<!--Formmatted value of the estimatedclosedate attribute-->
<DataField>estimatedclosedate</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<Field Name="estimatedclosedateValue">
<!--Raw value of the estimatedclosedate attribute-->
<DataField>estimatedclosedateValue</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.DateTime</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<Field Name="customerid">
<!--Formmatted value of the customerid attribute-->
<DataField>customerid</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<Field Name="customeridValue">
<!--Raw value of the customerid attribute-->
<DataField>customeridValue</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.Guid</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<Field Name="customeridEntityName">
<!--Entity Name of the customerid attribute-->
<DataField>customeridEntityName</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
<Field Name="opportunityid">
<!--Formmatted value of the estimatedvalue attribute.-->
<DataField>opportunityid</DataField>
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
</Field>
</Fields>
<Query>
<DataSourceName>DataSource1</DataSourceName>
<CommandText><fetch version="1.0" output-format="xml-platform" mapping="logical">
<entity name="opportunity">
<attribute name="name" />
<attribute name="estimatedvalue_base" />
<attribute name="estimatedclosedate" />
<attribute name="customerid" />
<attribute name="opportunityid" />
<order attribute="estimatedclosedate" descending="false" />
<filter type="and">
<condition attribute="ownerid" operator="eq-userid" />
<condition attribute="statecode" operator="eq" value="0" />
</filter>
</entity>
</fetch></CommandText>
<rd:UseGenericDesigner>true</rd:UseGenericDesigner>
</Query>
</DataSet>