Tim Bardenhagen - Dynamics & .NET

Problems with AsyncFileUpload because of one Session per Control

2010-01-19T16:53:00.001+01:00

I have had the following problem with AsyncFileUpload from Ajax Toolkit:

One aspx-Page with one asyncfileupload control
Same user could open the page severval times at the same time
Problem only one session value for all page instances!

I have found out that the client id was the key to the problem and have inherited from the standard class and have overridden the important properties:

   1: public class ExtendedAsyncFileUpload : AsyncFileUpload   2:     {   3:         private string newClientID = null;   4:         private string newUniqueID = null;   5:     6:     7:         /// <summary>   8:         /// Unique ID for session of a user   9:         /// </summary>  10:         protected string SessionUniqueControlIdentifier  11:         {  12:             get  13:             {  14:                 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(ViewState["SessionUniqueControlIdentifier"] as string))  15:                     ViewState["SessionUniqueControlIdentifier"] = Guid.NewGuid().ToString().Replace("-", "");  16:                 return ViewState["SessionUniqueControlIdentifier"] as string;  17:             }  18:         }  19:    20:         protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)  21:         {  22:             base.OnPreRender(e);  23:         }  24:    25:    26:         public override string ClientID  27:         {  28:             get  29:             {  30:    31:                 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(newClientID))  32:                     newClientID = UniqueID.Replace("$", "_");  33:                 return newClientID;  34:             }  35:         }  36:    37:         public override string UniqueID  38:         {  39:             get  40:             {  41:                 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(newUniqueID) && !base.UniqueID.EndsWith(this.SessionUniqueControlIdentifier))  42:                     newUniqueID = base.UniqueID + this.SessionUniqueControlIdentifier;  43:                 return newUniqueID;  44:             }  45:         }  46:    47:         /// <summary>  48:         /// Overriden because, original method catches all exceptions, no matter what...  49:         /// </summary>  50:         public byte[] FileBytesNew  51:         {  52:             get  53:             {  54:                 HttpPostedFile file = base.PostedFile;  55:                 if (file != null)  56:                     return this.GetBytesFromStream(file.InputStream);  57:                 else  58:                     return null;  59:             }  60:         }  61:    62:     }

Prevent users from sending error messages to Microsoft

2009-08-27T15:03:00.001+02:00

If error messages are sent or can be sent is a option within the user settings. There is no global switch for that, but at least you can use the following SQL script to set the value on all existing users and prevent them from sending error messages to Microsoft:

   1: update UserSettings set ReportScriptErrors = 3;

CRM 4 - Prevent workflow execution

2008-11-20T11:00:00.001+01:00

In order to prevent workflow execution, you can intercept the CRM logic by writing your own plug-in for asyncoperation/create/pre. Within your plug-in you can apply your custom logic to decide whether the asyncoperation is a workflow and if this workflow should not be run and therefore not appear in the workflow instance list. Unfortunately you have to throw an exception to make this happen. Within you systemjobs you'll find a failed workflow expansion task.

In order to allow a plug-ing for create on asyncoperation you have to run the following SQL-statement:

update sdkmessagefilterset IsCustomProcessingStepAllowed = 1where sdkmessageid in (select sdkmessageidfrom sdkmessagewhere name = 'Create')and primaryobjecttypecode = 4700

Ronald Lemmen - CRM, C# and Cme: Get rid of "Do you want to close this window?"

2008-10-06T08:09:00.001+02:00

Interesting...

Ronald Lemmen - CRM, C# and Cme: Get rid of "Do you want to close this window?"

Showing child grids in an IFRAME without custom grid

2008-09-22T16:27:00.001+02:00

Here is some code where you can just insert some fetch xml in JavaScript and display the data in the standard grid. just replace the IFRAME_<name> and adjust the CHANGE HERE section with some custom fetch xml and the entity type name.

//Load view datafunction GetAdvFindView(entityname){var xml = "" + "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" + "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">" + GenerateAuthenticationHeader() + "  <soap:Body>" + "    <RetrieveMultiple xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\">" + "      <query xmlns:q1=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query\" xsi:type=\"q1:QueryExpression\">" + "        <q1:EntityName>savedquery</q1:EntityName>" + "        <q1:ColumnSet xsi:type=\"q1:ColumnSet\">" + "          <q1:Attributes>" + "            <q1:Attribute>savedqueryid</q1:Attribute>" + "            <q1:Attribute>layoutxml</q1:Attribute>" + "          </q1:Attributes>" + "        </q1:ColumnSet>" + "        <q1:Distinct>false</q1:Distinct>" + "        <q1:Criteria>" + "          <q1:FilterOperator>And</q1:FilterOperator>" + "          <q1:Conditions>" + "            <q1:Condition>" + "              <q1:AttributeName>querytype</q1:AttributeName>" + "              <q1:Operator>Equal</q1:Operator>" + "              <q1:Values>" + "                <q1:Value xsi:type=\"xsd:int\">1</q1:Value>" + "              </q1:Values>" + "            </q1:Condition>" + "            <q1:Condition>" + "              <q1:AttributeName>fetchxml</q1:AttributeName>" + "              <q1:Operator>Like</q1:Operator>" + "              <q1:Values>" + "                <q1:Value xsi:type=\"xsd:string\">%&lt;entity name=\""+entityname+"\"&gt;%</q1:Value>" + "              </q1:Values>" + "            </q1:Condition>" + "          </q1:Conditions>" + "        </q1:Criteria>" + "      </query>" + "    </RetrieveMultiple>" + "  </soap:Body>" + "</soap:Envelope>" + ""; var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple");xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);xmlHttpRequest.send(xml); var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML; if(resultXml.getElementsByTagName('BusinessEntity').length>0){  return resultXml.getElementsByTagName('BusinessEntity')[0];}else{ return null; }  } //Loads page with child gridfunction LoadChildGrid(){crmForm.all.IFRAME_LOCS.onreadystatechange= null; //Create a new HTTP request.    var request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");        request.onreadystatechange = function()     {       if (request.readyState == 4)       {         if (request.status == 200)         {           var newDoc=crmForm.all.IFRAME_LOCS.contentWindow.document.open();           newDoc.write(request.responseText);           newDoc.close();         }         else         {            alert('There was a problem with the request:'+request.status);        }         }    } request.Open("POST", "/AdvancedFind/fetchData.aspx",true);request.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"); //CHANGE HERE------------------var entityname='account';var fetchxml = "<fetch mapping='logical'><entity name='account'><all-attributes/></entity></fetch>";//CHANGE HERE----------------- var view = GetAdvFindView(entityname);if (view){  var layoutxml = view.getElementsByTagName('q1:layoutxml')[0].firstChild.data;  var defaultAdvFindViewId =view.getElementsByTagName('q1:savedqueryid')[0].firstChild.data;   request.send("FetchXml="+escape(fetchxml)+"&DefaultAdvFindViewId="+defaultAdvFindViewId  +"&LayoutXml="+escape(layoutxml)+"&ViewType=1039");} }crmForm.all.IFRAME_LOCS.onreadystatechange= LoadChildGrid;

Export to Excel - More than 10000 records

2008-08-29T10:30:00.002+02:00

For Dynamics CRM 4.0 run this SQL-Statement in your Organization Database:

update organizationbase set MaxRecordsForExportToExcel = 65535

Duplicate detection - non-empty fields

2008-08-07T11:21:00.001+02:00

If run a duplicate detection job with a rule that has more than one column, CRM would treat records as duplicates where at least conditions is met and the other fields are empty. In my case this lead to a huge problem, e.g.:

A rule defines that records are duplicates if full name and email address are equal. Unfortunately these two records would also be duplicates:

Full name email address Matchcode

Max max-

Max max-

But I would only like to be the next two records identified as duplicates

Full name email address Matchcode

Max max@xyz.com max-max@xyz.com

Max max@xyz.com max-max@xyz.com

There is an unsupported possibility to solve this issue. The problem is that the generate match code is compared and they are equal. So a solution would be to generate random values for empty fields when generating the match codes.

Before the match codes are generated, the message "getunprocessedrecords" is used to retrieve the records (DynamicEntities). The idea now is to intercept the read records and random values for empty fields.

public void Execute(IPluginExecutionContext context)       {           //-----------------           //Check context           //-----------------           this.CheckContext(context, "getunprocessedrecords", "none");                                  //Iterate over all records and add StringProperties with random content for empty fields           BusinessEntityCollection eColl = (BusinessEntityCollection)context.OutputParameters["UnprocessedRecords"];           foreach (DynamicEntity d in eColl.BusinessEntities)           {               foreach (string col in (string[])context.InputParameters["columns"])               {                   if (!d.Properties.Contains(col))                       d.Properties.Add(new StringProperty(col,Guid.NewGuid().ToString().Substring(0,10)));               }               }                            }

The plug-in must be registered as "sync" and "post" options and entity as "none". In order to allow registering a plug-in we must execute the following SQL statement:

update dbo.SdkMessageFilter set iscustomprocessingstepallowed=1 where Sdkmessageid='E3D6A4D6-5C39-477A-B616-C29232313779'

Queue lookup field - Hide user queues

2008-08-05T11:38:00.001+02:00

In the OnLoad-event set the lookup class to "BasicOwner":

//------------------------------------------------//Set Lookup class for queue lookup//------------------------------------------------ crmForm.all.new_queueid.lookupclass = "BasicOwner";//------------------------------------------------

How to disable all CRM fields

2008-08-04T14:38:00.001+02:00

I have found a very useful link:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Jim Wang's technical blog: How to disable / readOnly CRM fields / iframes

Here is my adjusted version in order to make the tabs work:

function setFormReadonly(nodesDisabled){    var ignoreNodes = {table:'', iframe:'', div:'', form:'', col:'', colgroup:'', lable:'', span:'', tbody:'', body:'', tr:'', td:'', a:'', ul:'', li:''};    var id = document.getElementById("areaForm");    var node, nodes;    nodes = id.getElementsByTagName('*');    if(!nodes)        return;     var i = nodes.length;    while (i--)    {        node = nodes[i];        if(node.nodeName && !(node.nodeName.toLowerCase() in ignoreNodes))        {            if((node.nodeName == "INPUT") || (node.nodeName == "TEXTAREA"))            {                node.readOnly = nodesDisabled;            }            else            {                node.disabled = nodesDisabled;            }        }    }}

How-to get the total count of records for Advance Find

2008-07-18T12:42:00.001+02:00

Put this at the end of the fetchData.aspx...

<script language="javascript"> function escapeHTML (str){   var div = document.createElement('div');   var text = document.createTextNode(str);   div.appendChild(text);   return div.innerHTML;};   function StartGetCount(fetchxmlStr, layoutxmlStr){var layoutxmlDom = CreateXmlDocument(false);layoutxmlDom.loadXML(layoutxmlStr); var fetchxmlDom = CreateXmlDocument(false);if (fetchxmlDom.loadXML(fetchxmlStr)){ //Convert to an aggregate count query//------------//Modify fetch elementvar attrAggregate= fetchxmlDom.createAttribute("aggregate");attrAggregate.nodeValue = "true";fetchxmlDom.childNodes[0].setAttributeNode(attrAggregate); //Remove all attribute elementswhile (fetchxmlDom.selectNodes("/fetch/entity/attribute").length>0)    fetchxmlDom.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].removeChild(fetchxmlDom.selectNodes("/fetch/entity/attribute")[0]);while (fetchxmlDom.selectNodes("/fetch/entity/order").length>0)    fetchxmlDom.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].removeChild(fetchxmlDom.selectNodes("/fetch/entity/order")[0]); //Add count clausevar cnt = fetchxmlDom.createElement("attribute");var attrCol= fetchxmlDom.createAttribute("name");attrCol.nodeValue = layoutxmlDom.selectSingleNode("/grid/row/@id").value;cnt.setAttributeNode(attrCol);var attrCntAggregate= fetchxmlDom.createAttribute("aggregate");attrCntAggregate.nodeValue = "count";cnt.setAttributeNode(attrCntAggregate);var attrAlias= fetchxmlDom.createAttribute("alias");attrAlias.nodeValue = "number";cnt.setAttributeNode(attrAlias); fetchxmlDom.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].insertBefore(cnt,fetchxmlDom.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].firstChild);  var xml = "" + "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" + "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">" + GenerateAuthenticationHeader()+"  <soap:Body>" + "    <Fetch xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\">" + "      <fetchXml>"+escapeHTML(fetchxmlDom.xml)+"</fetchXml>" + "    </Fetch>" + "  </soap:Body>" + "</soap:Envelope>" + "";  xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", true);xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Fetch");xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);xmlHttpRequest.onreadystatechange = setTotalCount;xmlHttpRequest.send(xml); } } function setTotalCount(){var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;if (xmlHttpRequest.readyState==4){ if (xmlHttpRequest.status ==200) {  var resultDom = CreateXmlDocument(false);  resultDom.loadXML(resultXml.text);  alert(resultDom.selectSingleNode("/resultset/result/number").text); } else {  alert('ERROR' +resultXml); }}} var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); var fetchxml = window.frameElement.parentNode.document.all.FetchXml.value;var layoutxml = window.frameElement.parentNode.document.all.LayoutXml.value; if (fetchxml){  StartGetCount(fetchxml,layoutxml);}</script>

Javascript HtmlEncode/HtmlDecode - Lunarmedia Blog

2008-07-18T09:23:00.001+02:00

function escapeHTML (str) { var div = document.createElement('div'); var text = document.createTextNode(str); div.appendChild(text); return div.innerHTML; };

Javascript HtmlEncode/HtmlDecode - Lunarmedia Blog

Finished Dynamics CRM workshop series with some students from the University of applied science in Wedel

2008-07-11T11:16:00.001+02:00

Hopefully some future Dynamics CRM consultants... ;-)

We have had a look at standard functionality (Sales, Marketing, Service), customization, JavaScript, plug-ins, workflow definitions, custom workflow activities and reporting.

Visit FH Wedel - Unversity of applied science

Iterate over all CRM fields in form

2008-07-10T11:41:00.001+02:00

Here is some JavaScript, how you can get all CRM fields in an array:

   1: function GetAllCrmFields()   2: {   3:   var fields = new Array();   4:   var cnt = 0;   5:   for (var i =0; i< crmForm.all.length; i++)   6:   {   7:     if (crmForm.all[i].IsDirty != undefined)   8:     {   9:       fields[cnt++] = crmForm.all[i];  10:      }  11:   }    12:   return fields;  13: }

Just make sure that you iterate over them like this:

   1: var fields = GetAllCrmFields();   2: for (var i = 0; i < fields.length; i++)   3: {   4:      ...fields[i]...      5: } 

How-to include escalation into a workflow

2008-06-18T16:36:00.003+02:00

If you want to escalate a workflow after e.g. a task has not been completed with in due time, simply add a parallel wait condition with the following condition:

Workflow Timout equals "Created Task (Due date)"

Afterwards you can add activities to escalate like sending an email to someone. If you publish the workflow, it is much more easy to understand, since the text says:

Timeout until Created Task: DueDate

How-to hide "Add Existing" button in an associated view

2008-05-28T18:45:00.002+02:00

The problem with hiding this button, is that it is not existing during the onLoad-Event of the detail form. So a simple "document.getElementById('buttonnid').style.visible = 'false' " won't work.

The approach to solve it is to overwrite the click event of the navigation button:

document.getElementById('<id of navigation item>').onclick = handleClick;

The custom method that gets executed does the same as the original click handler and in addition start an interval that calls a method that checks if the button already exists and tries to hide it. In case of success the interval will be stopped.

var aktiv;
function handleClick()
{
loadArea('<relationship name for association>');
aktiv = window.setInterval(removeAddExistingButton, 500); //Check every 500ms
}

function removeAddExistingButton()
{
var n = document.getElementById('<relationship name for association>Frame').contentWindow.document.getElementById('<id of add existing button>');
if (n)
{
n.parentNode.removeChild(n); //Removes the button
window.clearInterval(aktiv);
aktiv = null;
}
}

Show report for a record in an IFRAME

2008-05-28T14:43:00.001+02:00

You can create a report for an entity type as you normally would with the CRMAF_Filtered<entity name> alias and upload it to the CRM system.

The report viewer has 3 parameters to tell the viewer that the filter should be adjusted:

context=records
recordsType=<entity type code>
records=<record id> (can be serveral separated by comma)

So the whole link could look like this:

/crmreports/viewer/viewer.aspx?id=<report id>&helpID=<report name>&action=run&context=records&recordsType=<entity type code>&records=<record id>

I order to ease the usage and not to type a lot oj javascript, you can put a Proxy-ASPX in page in between:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
       {
           //Get Report
           string reportName = Request["report"];
           Response.Redirect("/crmreports/viewer/viewer.aspx?id=" + this.GetReportId(reportName) + "&helpID=" + reportName + "&action=run&context=records&recordsType=" + Request["type"] + "&records=" + Request["id"], true);
       }

The IFRAME-Url would then be:

/ReportProxy.aspx?report=<report name>

Filter custom reports according to owning business unit

2008-05-07T09:00:00.001+02:00

The idea is to limit the shown reports according to the business unit of the user, e.g. on a contact form.

There might be a lot of custom reports that should only be used within a business unit. Of course the data shown in the report can be limited by the default security, but if you have 10 business units with each 10 custom reports you have already 100 reports shown to the user on a form.

The idea is to interfere the "RetrieveMultiple" of the reports with a Plug-In and filter the returned BusinessEntityCollection. This is pretty much standard development except for the problem to register the Plug-In for "RetrieveMultiple" on "report". This is by default not allowed.

Unfortunately the only way to come around this, is to change a value in the database:

UPDATE   SdkMessageFilter
SET          IsCustomProcessingStepAllowed = 1
WHERE     PrimaryObjectTypeCode IN (9100) AND SdkMessageId IN ('03BEBB1B-EA3E-DB11-86A7-000A3A5473E8')

9100 is for the report entity and the Guid for the "RetrieveMultiple" message.

Dynamics CRM 4 and IFD (Internet Facing Deployment)

2008-05-01T10:44:00.001+02:00

When I started looking at IFD two things where really disturbing me regarding custom ASPX pages:

First how can I still run different web applications under the same web site. You are much more flexible regarding deployment and you can use your on web.config and don't have to adjust the one in the CRM root folder.
Second how can I call the CRM web service as the user that has logged on. I know, I can use the CrmImpersonator class, but this executes the web services as the SYSTEM account.

To solve the first problem you just create a new web application in the CRM web site as you usually would do. If you call the web page without changing anything you will get something like a CookieAndSoapHeaderException. The trick to fix this is to copy the CRM assemblies of the root bin to the bin of your web application or add a reference in you visual studio project to the assembly Microsoft.Crm.WebServices.

To solve the second problem, you can set the Member CallerId on the CrmAuthenticationToken object to the user id of the user who is logged in. In case of IFD the Identity object is of the type CrmPostAuthenticationIdentity and has a member UserId which is exactly the id you need. To get the identity you can call this.User.Identity on the ASPX page and cast it respectively.

From my point of view this kind of information is really missing in the CRM SDK :-(

On my way to Geneva ...

2008-04-26T18:43:00.001+02:00

About deploying workflows - Problems with queues

2008-04-26T17:32:00.005+02:00

In a scenario where you have a workflow that creates a task and assigns it to a queue, you would normally select the queue out of the lookup dialog. The primary key is saved in the workflow definition.
Fine, but what if you want to deploy this workflow to another CRM system. Maybe from a dev environment to a test or production environment. Those systems don't know the primary key. One possibility is of course after each deployment to adjust it manually by selecting a new queue.

To solve this problem I have written a custom workflow activity which returns a queue by its name and assign the task to the output of this worflow activity. So as long as queues have the same name in the different environments everything is fine.

Full name	email address	Matchcode
Max	max@xyz.com	max-max@xyz.com
Max	max@xyz.com	max-max@xyz.com