Announcement: CRM Grid Editor now freely available

Until now the Limited Edition CRM Grid Editor has been available as a free add on. This edition has been limited to working with out of  the box entities and views. As of today, I am pleased to announce that this restriction has been removed. You can now obtain a free and unlimited version of the CRM Grid Editor which can (drum roll) also be configured to work against custom entities and views.

The CRM Grid Editor works with all versions of Dynamics CRM - on premise, online and IFD.

You can get an overview of product capabilities by viewing the CRM Grid Editor Summary video. You can also view the product installation video.


In order for you to be able to use the product it is necessary to generate a license file for your installation. To obtain a license please send me an email (see details in Contact tab) with the following information:

On Premise
Provide your CRM server URL and organization as shown in the screenshots below.

Online:
Specify the org name that you are using to access CRM i.e.: https://orgname.crm.dynamics.com



Key features:

• Simple and intuitive Excel-like interface 
• Edit all editable CRM fields returned in view (all data types handled) 
• Based on CRM view definitions – no additional setup required 
• Bulk update of records – make changes on the fly without having to save between row edits 
• Launch Grid Editor from context sensitive CRM user interface or as a fully navigable standalone application 
• Drill down to child records from a parent record – not limited to the associated view! 
• CRM Security model enforced – you cannot do anything with the Grid Editor that cannot be done through the standard CRM user interface 
• The Grid Editor can be configured to work against all CRM entities and views – including custom entities and personal views 
• Tabbed interface allowing multiple different views to be open at the same time 
• Ability to define and save "GE Views" which allows for advanced pivot table-like grouping and filtering 
• Add new records using the CRM standard, quick or the new Grid Editor view sensitive add-new form 
• Run CRM workflows against selected records

Other features include:

• Deactivate and Activate records in line 
• Manually execute CRM workflows 
• Link back to CRM records with a single click 
• Advanced additional filtering and sorting options 
• Easy to identify color for changed cells, columns 
• Dynamic export to Excel 
• Supports opportunity and case close forms 
• Supports Drag and drop editing and Undo Changes Requirements:

CRM 2011 Copy Utility

This plugin allows you copy fields from a parent record to all child records in a 1:N relationship. For example, this plugin can be used to copy the address fields of an account to all the contacts of that parent account (a common scenario).

Out of the box you are able to map fields from a parent entity to a child entity when the child record gets created. However beyond this point in time if details are changed on the parent record they will no longer be copied to the child records. Similarly there is no out of the box capability to copy changes made to the parent record down to all child records.

This plugin allows this option to be configured. You are able to configure which 1:N relationship this plugin will work against as well as the fields that are to be mapped between the parent and child entities. The plugin does not validate attribute types so you will need to ensure in your configuration that the fields be mapped are of the same type.

The following is a walk through of how to configure this plugin:

• Download the DLL from here
• Use the Plugin Registration tool to connect to your environment and register the plugin

• Register a New Step 
• Message: Update
• Primary Entity: Parent entity
• Remaining settings: Optional

• In the Unsecure Configuration update the XML to specify the fields to copy
• <setting name="source"> : parent entity name e.g. account
• <setting name="sourceid"> :  parent entity primary key e.g. accountid
• <setting name="target">  : child entity name e.g. contact
• <setting name="targetid"> : child entity foreign key e.g. parentcustomerid
• <setting name="numberoffield"> : total number of fields being copied
• <setting name="src_fieldn"> : name of source field to copy
• <setting name="dest_fieldn"> : name of corresponding target field to be copied too

Note: There is no validation of any of these fields. You need to ensure that:

• All the field names are correct
• The corresponding "src" and "dest" fields have the same definition 

For example, the following XML can be used to copy the address fields from the parent account record to the child contact records: 

<Settings>
<setting name="source">  
<value>account</value>
</setting>
<setting name="sourceid">  
<value>accountid</value>
</setting>
<setting name="target">
 <value>contact</value>
</setting>
<setting name="targetid">
 <value>parentcustomerid</value>
</setting>
<setting name="numberoffield">
 <value>8</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field1">
 <value>Address1_line1</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field2">
 <value>Address1_line2</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field3">
 <value>Address1_line3</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field4">
 <value>Address1_city</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field5">
 <value>Address1_stateorprovince</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field6">
 <value>Address1_postalcode</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field7">
 <value>Address1_country</value>
</setting>
<setting name="src_field8">
 <value>Address1_telephone1</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field1">
 <value>Address1_line1</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field2">
 <value>Address1_line2</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field3">
 <value>Address1_line3</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field4">
 <value>Address1_city</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field5">
 <value>Address1_stateorprovince</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field6">
 <value>Address1_postalcode</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field7">
 <value>Address1_country</value>
</setting>
<setting name="dest_field8">
 <value>Address1_telephone1</value>
</setting>
</Settings>

• Register a New Image called "postEntityImage"

• Test and ensure that it is working

CRM 2011 UR12 and SharePoint Integration

After having applied the Polaris upgrade (update roll-up 12) the native CRM/SharePoint document integration stopped working. There were two different ways in which this issue manifested itself:

1. When clicking on the Documents link we just received the "spinning wheel" and the page did not load
2. On the occasion that it did succeed to load, the "New" and "Add" buttons did not work i.e. nothing happened at all when clicking those buttons preventing new documents from being added.

As I discovered, it is apparently necessary to update the List Components of SharePoint following the application of UR12. The updated List Components can be downloaded from the following location: 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5283

This issue is also described in the following KB article along with the steps required for installing the List Component:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2810528

Xrm.Utility.openEntityForm no longer working

*** Update 3/5/2013: This issue has now been fixed via a Cloud update ***

Other known issues with UR12 can be tracked here: 
https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2013/01/28/december-2012-update-has-been-released.aspx

******

If you have a CRM Online installation and the Xrm.Utility.openEntityForm jscript function which you *knew* was previously working but apparently is no longer.... well, the good news is that you're not going mad. The bad news is that it is indeed a bug that has been introduced in the current (as of this writing) version of CRM Online. Or as confirmed from Microsoft:

Issue Definition: Xrm.Utility.openEntityForm does not work anymore since Update 5.0.9690.3339 on the CRM Online organization.

I have confirmed that this is an issue with the latest update that has been done with the CRM Online organizations. We are currently working on the code review and should have the fix in place shortly. 

The Microsoft support guy I spoke to indicated that this would likely be fixed within a week although I do not have a definitive date.

For the sake of reference below is the text of the error received when trying to use this form open utility.