Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online Outlook Client failed to installed on Windows 2008 Server

Today I was playing with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online Outlook Client installation.  Since it is only a demo environment, I decided to go to Microsoft VHD program site to download a pre-configured VHD to kick start building the test and demo.  You will be able to find a list of pre-configured VHD here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/bb738372.aspx 

I was initially hoping to get a copy of Windows7 or WindowsVista VHD, but failed to find one. So I decided to download a copy of the Windows2008 Std server for the demo building.  Downloaded and started up the 32 bit  virtual image with Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, all went well.  Downloaded and installed a copy of 32 bit Office 2010, all went well.  Configured Outlook 2010, all went well.  Then downloaded and attempted to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online Outlook Client, failed with error message “The installation has failed.  The computer is running an operating system that Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not support…”

If you click on View the Log File on the error page, then you will see it is suggesting Windows 2008 SP2 is required.  Ran the Windows Update and spent 2 hours to download and install over 60+ updates, re-ran the CRM Outlook client file, still no go.  Decided to manually download and install KB948465. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a4dd31d5-f907-4406-9012-a5c3199ea2b3&displaylang=en

Windows 2008 SP2 installation went well.  Re-ran the CRM Outlook client, finally the install went well.

During the configuration of the Online client, it always prompt for minimum 3 times for user LiveID  and password, which I found to be a bit annoying.  Otherwise, all went well.  Loving CRM2011 with Outlook 2010.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Form Assistance

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4, there is a feature called "Form Assistant". "Form Assistant" in CRM4 allows users to populate lookup fields on the form quickly and create follow up activities without additional pop up window. Users usually find it really handy. However, "Form Assistance" also introduced additional layer of technical difficulties when filtered lookup is required. Due to the common requirement of filtered lookup requirement, consultants and developers usually disable "Form Assistant" on the form to ensure consistent user experience is acheived effectively.

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the "Form Assistant" has been removed from most entities but Case and Service Activity. The Form Assistant on the Case and Service Activity form does not work with Customer field anymore.

CRM2011 New Terms Learnt Today

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online Beta has been out for a little while and I have applied an account for myself. So I have been playing around with the new features. And today I have learnt a few new CRM2011 terms and features.

1) Dynamic Marketing List: we can now save the selection query for a Marketing List and not required to evaluate the marketing list for next run. This is one of the most frequent asked "why"s in my 7 years consultancy life. Finally I can have 1 less "yeah, I agree with you. Now let's change the topic" moments. :)

2) Sticky view vs default view: CRM2011 allows user to set their own default view per entity. However during nevigation, CRM (or the browser) will save your last view in the cache (this is called sticky view) and use sticky view over default view when cached sticky view is found.

3) Tab has been removed from record forms! So far, I found this to be an annoying change as I think tab makes the form prettier. Otherwise, enjoying the rest.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Outlook crashes when running lable mail merge

Recently, I have been helping a client to resolve Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Outlook client mail merge crashing Outlook issue. Luckily, with the help of Microsoft, we were able to identify it is actually a bug and the hotfix will be bundled in Rollup 13, which is scheduled to be released late September 2010.

To replicate the issue or test if you are affected by the same bug, try the following steps:

1. Start Outlook 2007 with CRM Outlook loaded.
2. Go to CRM Contacts, click Word Mail Merge, select Letter and Organisational template, then all records on current page. (In our case, it was a Lable template).
3. Complete Word Mail Merge steps. From the last step, click "Edit Individual Letters"
4. Send error message to Microsoft pops up. Then another pop up saying the activities have been tracked in CRM, but if you refer back to CRM, no activities are tracked.

In the Event Log, you may find something similar to below:
Event Type: Error

Event Source: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE

Event Category: None

Event ID: 5000

Date: 3/22/2010

Time: 1:22:48 PM

User: N/A

Description:

The description for Event ID ( 5000 ) in Source ( C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: crmunmanaged, 4.0.7333.2138, outlook.exe, 629, c__bt_13487_src_application_outlook_addin_mailmerge.cpp, NIL, NIL, NIL, NIL, NIL, NIL.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 OnChange Jscript to Proper Case Last Name

Copy and paste the following jscript to the OnChange event of Contact Last Name field.

///Conver Last Name to ProperCase///

function toProperCase(s)
{
return s.toLowerCase().replace( /\b((m)(a?c))?(\w)/g,
function($1, $2, $3, $4, $5) { if($2){return $3.toUpperCase()+$4+$5.toUpperCase();} return $1.toUpperCase(); });
}
var oldName = crmForm.all.lastname.DataValue;
crmForm.all.lastname.DataValue = toProperCase(oldName);

Knowledge from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/196972/convert-string-to-proper-case-with-javascript

CRM4 User Summary Report black background overtook entire report

Last week, I did a new CRM installation. After the installation and adding users, I usually run the User Summary Report just to double check if I got all users correctly setup with the appropriate security roles. When I ran the User Summary Report, I can only see a report with black background. I decided to export the report to excel and was hoping to work-around this viewing problem, the excel report showed up nicely. Digged around different forums and found it to be a known issue with IE8. If your environment is SSRS2008 being used with IE8 the user summary report is generated with a black background. However if you use IE7 or SSRS2005 then the issue does not occur. Since it is an known issue, we can expect a hotfix for IE 8 very soon. For the time being, use export to excel as a work-around.

Using service account as CRM4 Web Application Pool identity

I have been trying to resolve a low priority Microsoft Dynamic CRM 4.0 unpleasant user experience for a little while and not going anywhere until today. The user experience is related to Workflow Associated view not returning records. The user can see all Workflow jobs from system job list but not in the Workflow Associated View. There was no error anywhere.
Today, I had to change the CRMAppPool identify from a user account to Network Service temporarily as someone disabled the user account in CRM and no one can login. As soon as this is changed, all users can log into CRM and able to see records in the Workflow Associated view. This lead me to think the original odd behaviour of Workflow Associated view not returning records is related to this CRMAppPool identity user account. So I did a few tests and here are the testing outcomes.

**CRMAppPool identity user account must be a CRM user or Internet Explorer will give user Server Erro in '/'Application - Login failed for user DOMAIN\username. To resolve this, set the CRMAppPool identity to use built-in Network Service account, recycle CRMAppPool and go back to CRM to add the user account. Then change the CRMAppPool identity from Network Service to the user account.

**CRMAppPool identity user account must be Enabled CRM user. If disabled, users will get "The system could not log you on. This could be because your user account or the Business Unit you belong to has been disabled in Microsoft Dynamic CRM." To resolve this issue, set the CRMAppPool identity to built-in Network Service, recycle the CRMAppPool. Re-enable the disabled user account and set the CRMAppPool back to the user.

**CRMAppPool identity user account must have at least 1 Security role assigned or user will get Licence Error in the Workflow Associated View.

**CRMAppPool identity user account should have System Administrator role assigned to work around the issue where Workflow Associated view not returning records.


If you are using the same user account to run the MSCRMAsynService, the same user account must be assigned a full license and system administrator role in CRM.