Blogs

Member Success Story: D365UG & CRMUG, A True Sense of Community

By Delaney Freer
Company: Cherry Bekaert LLP Cherry Bekaert LLP is one of the top 25 accounting and consulting firms in the United States and has been in business for over 70 years. Industry: Accounting and Consulting Firm Headquarters: Richmond, Virginia Interviewee: Patrick Wright, Marketing Technology Lead Number of users: 20 Power users Product version: Dynamics 365 "Being a part of the D365UG & CRMUG community makes me a better employee. I am happier and the exchange of ideas that happens with other Users always gives me renewed energy." - Patrick Wright Patrick works closely with the chief marketing officer (CMO) to identify data ...
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Register before the Early Bird deadline for User Group Summit North America 2019 in Orlando!

By Gwen Toay
Big news – registration is open for User Group Summit North America. This one-of-a-kind event for learning, sharing and connecting, is happening again October 15-18, 2019! Registration is open – so register now and take advantage of our $400 early bird discount!   Summit is the premier annual conference for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and Power Platform (Power BI, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow) users, partners and Microsoft experts. Connect with the community and gain vital knowledge to maximize your software performance and further your job role, career and product investment.   There are plenty of reasons to attend this ...
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Going Deeper with the Next Phase of Dynamics 365 Academy

By Tony Stein
Back in 2013, the CRMUG "CRM Admin Black Belt" series were introduced to the community and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The program was created by 7x Microsoft MVP and CRMUG All-Star Gus Gonzalez , and the content and skills included in the program were crafted based on hundreds of Administrators trained after dozens of Dynamics CRM/365 implementations. The program became an Industry standard, and we currently have over 300 certified D365UG|CRMUG Black Belts . In addition to the CRM Admin Black Belt series, we have provided countless other courses and readiness opportunities that aim to give you the real world skills you need to be successful ...
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How to create a Note through a Console App

By Gerry Yurko
Recently I had a request to create a Note for 168 Records under an Order.  It was the same note for each instance, so I decided to create a quick Console App to do this.  There were a couple of things that needed to be resolved before creating a Note.  I needed the Record's unique Id but I also needed the Record's Object Type Code.  Fortunately I am "On-Prem" so it is pretty easy to get.  However, I wanted to make this program more generic than that and able to work On-Line.  So I needed to get the Object Type Code through a Query. In searching through the Internet, it took me looking at over 10 different Web Pages to get enough information to create my Query.  ...
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Making PowerBI Easier

By Nelson Johnson
I recently learned about a cool tool in XRMToolbox called Power Query M Builder (PQMB) by Mohamamed Rasheed (ITLec) and Ulrick “CRM Chart Guy” Carlsson (eLogic LLC) and I love the tool. It lets you generate Power Query code using Dynamics 365 views as your starting point, then you can tweek them using FetchXML Builder to get more complex queries, and then  generate a full query that produces the field names using the labels from your CRM metadata. This process is much faster than starting from scratch using the Power Query tool to build up a query to find the right data, plus, it has the added advantage that you can easily change the connection URL for all ...
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SETTINGS AREA IN UNIFIED CLIENT INTERFACE (UCI)

By Jandost Khoso
I provisioned a new Dynamics 365 environment and as I expected all applications are now in Unified Client Interface (UCI) however, despite being Administrator, I was not able to find the setting area. After spending few minutes, I found that now the setting area is accessible through the gear icon on the top navigation bar. Follow the below images to see where to find it
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Customizing Field Service Scheduling Board

By Jandost Khoso
In my opinion Field Service Schedule Board is a masterpiece. It allows resources and schedules to be viewed on nicely designed user interface. I have been working on a project where we had to customize field service schedule board and I am sharing my experience of customizing the schedule board in this article. I hope this article can be useful for the community in future. Customization Capabilities Before going further and talking about actual customization, let's set the stage by outlining some facts. The schedule board functionality can be extended using "Scheduling Board Setting" button on the schedule board. The setting tab allows you to ...
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DEMYSTIFYING DYNAMICS 365 PORTAL PROJECTS - PART 2 PROFILE PAGE

By Jandost Khoso
Part 1: Demystifying Dynamics Portals Project – Analysis and Design  https://dynamicsce212.blogspot.com/2019/03/demystifying-dynamics-365-portal.html In the  part 1  of the series, I shed light on some of planning and analysis activities involved in a Portal project. From this part, I will be writing about some common portal project requirements and the way I have addressed those requirements. Site Settings One of the most basic portal configurations happen in Site Settings. Site Settings contain some global configuration used by portal framework. The complete list of portal site settings can be found  here . However, there are some settings ...
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DEMYSTIFYING DYNAMICS 365 PORTAL PROJECTS - PART 1 ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

By Jandost Khoso
Dynamics 365 portal is one of my favorites in Dynamics 365 applications. Dynamics Portals are easy to understand, easy to setup and easy to implement and simultaneously they are very powerful and flexible at the same time. I have been part of several portal projects in the past couple of years and learned so many things from blog posts, community questions/answers and my own. I would like to share my journey of implementing portal projects with you. The way I am going to take you through this journey will be different. I aim to create a multi part blog series which enables any architect/consultant/developer to understand what common requirements in many portal ...
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 April 2019 Release Notes Overview

By Heidi Neuhauser
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Release Notes for the April 2019 release have arrived - CRM nerds rejoice! The Business Applications April 2019 release bring some enhancements and updates to the  Dynamics 365  platform which promise to deliver significant capabilities to transform your business. It's important to note that deployment of some of these features in the "April 2019" release actually happen anytime from April through September 2019. Dates and features are subject to change as well. For those of you who don't feel like spending a few hours reading through the entire notes, I've summarized some of the updates/changes/enhancements below. Without further ...
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Are you having trouble with Chrome file downloads in Dynamics? I wrote a FREE plugin for you.

By Nick Hance
Have you had trouble in the past few days with your Chrome users having to rename the files they download? This is a known bug in Dynamics exposed by a recent update in Chrome. It can be easily resolved by having your users rename the download file, but I have made it a little easier and have written a Chrome plugin for you that will automatically rename download files start start and end with `'`. Click the image or link below for the extension that will resolve this issue for you and your users automatically: Dynamics CRM File Download Fix If you've enjoyed this, please leave a comment or "Like" this post. Thanks! Nick
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How to embed Audit History (or almost any other view) inside an Entity Form

By Nick Hance
Recently, I helped a CRM Developer learn how to embed a view of his Audit History directly into his form. Keep reading for a step-by-step process explaining exactly how this is done and find a code sample you can download and use to power the same behavior inside your entity forms as well. First, let’s look at what we’re inserting. Our view of the audit history will be the same view that you see when you select Audit History from the Form Navigation. If you’re using v9, it looks like this: Now that we’re on the audit history page, let’s take a closer look at how this is displayed. If you use the Developer Tools for your browser, you’ll find that this ...
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Become a Dynamics 365 Portals Expert in Amsterdam!

By Nick Doelman
I am excited to be able to deliver my "Portals Jump Start" class at the UG Academy in Amsterdam on March 25-26th. As businesses grow in their use of Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, there is always the need for these businesses to serve their customers on a 24 x 7 basis.  While technology advancements like PowerApps and Flow help empower the staff at these organizations, Dynamics 365 Portals provide an interface for external stakeholders and an important component in building a complete business application. Portals will continue to be an important pillar in the Power Platform.  The April '19 release notes highlight that Portals will soon be available ...
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Why is D365 running so slow?

By Nelson Johnson
I hate to say it, but your system performance depends on many things. Here is my check list of possible issues, ranked from most to least likely (in my humble opinion): Synchronous workflows and plugins - You could test this (in a sandbox) by deactivating them and see if there is a difference in performance. Check your Settings/System Jobs to see if you have a lot of activity in there (especially failures). If you have years worth of system job data, I highly recommend you set up scheduled Bulk Record Deletion jobs. Data duplication rules – how many published rules do you have? Turn them off and see if there is a difference. Browser plugins (including ...
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SUMMIT HANGOVER

By Diane Taylor
SUMMIT HANGOVER!! It’s a couple of days after Summit 2018 in Phoenix and if you are anything like me, you over-indulged - not just at the partner parties, but also on information! Pre-academy classes Breakout sessions Partner showcases Medic information Conversations with vendors at the expo Keynote Not to mention all of the great people you met and had conversations with.  Now you are back home, thinking about the lengthy to do list you left behind to attend Summit as well as all of those great things you brought back from Summit. You are excited about what you learned, ...
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DynamicsCRM WordPress Customer Portal - The Best Fit for Your Business

By Maulik Shah
DynamicsCRM WordPress Customer Portal Stay connected with your customers at all times and make your connection a productive one through Microsoft DynamicsCRM - one of the most popular CRM tools! It brings a lot of convenience for your CRM users as they can manage schedules, documents, cases, accounts and order sheet details with ease. Dynamics CRM WordPress Customer Portal not only processes your database but also keep its detailed records. MS Dynamics Integrated Workspace Created with WordPress Secure Sign-In Create Mass Credentials View Quotes, Invoices, Orders and Contracts Customized Module Layout Calendar Management Role Specified ...
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The Face Behind the Subject Matter Expert: Meet the User Group Summit Medics

By Delaney Freer
The Doctors are in, October 15-18! They'll fix you right up! Do you and your co-workers have a long list of issues on any version of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement & Dynamics CRM that you face every day and would love to have answered? For example... After installing the upgrade to versions 365 2.2 we are getting bombarded with an error message. What gives? As part of our 365 upgrade, how can I change the color of these System Icons that don't have the same functionality as entities in customizations? Another example would be most anything in the "Administration" section, like the icon for "Administration". We are in the midst of an ...
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Summit 2018 is SO CLOSE!

By Malcolm McAuley
​Are you getting excited?! I am. I've been taking time to review the session calendar - so much good stuff!   This will be my third UG Summit, and I've attended several other conferences like this in the past. I recall the first time I went - I was utterly overwhelmed. There was so much goodness that I felt like I was running from session to session grasping everything I could. Alas, much leaked out of my brain because I was taking in information on so many different things. I recall flying home thinking, "What the heck just happened?!".   The next time I went in with a plan. The overall goal was to learn - that's inevitable at these things. There is literally ...
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Are you looking to learn more about extensibility and developer concepts?

By Delaney Freer
Join fellow Developers this October at CRMUG Summit Phoenix! Developers working in Dynamics 365/CRM need passion.  You don't want to do enough to just "get by" and meet the minimum criteria. In order to hone your skills and create code to be proud of, it's important to receive regular training. Where's the best place to learn new and improved developer tips?  CRMUG Summit Phoenix  is happening October 15-18 in Phoenix, AZ and there is an entire track dedicated to Development, alongside  Pre-Conference Academy classes . 13+ Hours of Developer Training The Development track is focused on beginner and advanced custom extensibility ...
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Are you responsible for Dynamics 365/CRM upgrades and implementations?

By Delaney Freer
Join fellow Project Managers this October at CRMUG Summit Phoenix! Being a project manager in the Dynamics 365/CRM world means your job has many moving parts. The business requirements you need to gather for maintaining and upgrading systems are highly important, but when you lack the training and information you need, the task becomes very difficult.  While we can't solve all your challenges in a day, we can provide you with the knowledge you need to tackle them head-on when you return to the office.  CRMUG Summit Phoenix  is happening October 15-18 in Phoenix, AZ and there is an entire track dedicated to Upgrades & Implementation, alongside  ...
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