We have a requirement that we want to change button text and description for case entity to the incident. Since the case is system entity which is managed, dynamics 365 not allowed you to make any modification in button text or description. For the unmanaged entity, you can make a modification with the help of third party tool like ribbon workbench. In this article, we will see how to change button text of system entity (managed). Kindly follow below steps. Create a new solution and add selected entity in that solution. In my example, I want only case entity. Make sure you have checked “include entity metadata”. Click on export translation The zip file will be downloaded to your system. Extract that zip file in your local system. Open CrmTranslations file in excel Select Display String sheet Find text that you want to replace. I want to replace all case word with incident. Make necessary changes and save the file. Again zip CrmTranslations folder and click on import Translation. Import zip file to the solution Publish the solution and go to entity form. You can see button text and description changed to the incident. Similar way you can do it for another system (Managed) entity.  

In this blog article, we will explain you on how to connect dynamics 365 financials service inside of Power BI. Earlier Microsoft dynamics 365 gives out of the box connectors for Sales, service Manager and Marketing to connect over Power BI for readymade dashboards but on the new powerbi updates we have direct connector for Dynamics Financial 365. Below are the steps to connect over Financial OData: Open the Power BI desktop tools and clicked on getdata Select “Dynamics 365 for financial” in Online services. When Promoted, enter your Microsoft Dynamics Financial OData URL For getting this ODAT URL, you need to first login on dynamics 365 portals and then search web services in the search button, so you get below screen and copy the OData url. Please use url up to “OData” flag only. After connecting this ODATA URL, it will ask for the authentication so choose basic authentication Mode and your User Details. Your password is the web service access key of the Admin user and you can get it from users tab. So, after connecting to the financial ODATA you will get all the tables loaded in to powerbi desktop tools and from that we can design a dashboard.  

In this blog article, we will see how we can create a Project and Deploy a Dynamics 365 Operations Environment using Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services. Prerequisites: Lifecycle Service Account Azure Subscription Steps: Create a new project in Lifecycle Service Account. Azure Settings Deploy Environment. Create New project in Lifecycle Services Navigate to https://lcs.dynamics.com/Logon/Index Click Sign in. Loginwith the account you used to subscribe. Click the + icon to create a new project. Select the project type- “Migrate, create solutions and learn Dynamics 365 for operations”. See below screenshot for reference. Enter the project information and then clickCreate. Azure Settings: Follow this link to setup your Azure connector settings, https://ax.help.dynamics.com/en/wiki/arm-onboarding/ Deploy Environments: In newly created Project, go to Environmentssection, click the plus sign (+). Refer screenshot below You can click either the Downloadlink to download the VHD or Next to deploy on Azure. Azure is the preferred path. Enter the environment name. Read the terms, and then select the check box to indicate you understand them. Click Next. Confirm the details, and then click Deploy. So, this will deploy the D365 Operations Environment. Let me know your reviews. I will soon come up with more articles, as I further explore D365 Operations.  

Auto Capture is a feature introduced in D365 so that you don’t need to go to your Outlook and explicitly tracked Emails to Dynamics 365. This is one cool feature that can help you poll your personal emails and show you if you want to track it or not! Overview Auto Capture is a sub-feature of Relationship Insights. Relationship Insights is a preview feature in December 2016 update for MS Dynamics 365 Online. Integrates with Microsoft Exchange to find and display relevant emails with other activities that are related to a given record in Dynamics 365. Auto Capture shows you message in private i.e. only to the logged in user. System Administrators too don’t see these emails. Server Side Synchronization must be enabled to use this feature. Enable the Preview Since this is in preview, you’ll need to enable it for the organization in the following manner: Navigate to Settings > Administration > System Settings. Go to the last tab, Previews. Agree to the terms on the top and scroll down to the very bottom. Select Yes for the Enable Auto Capture feature as shown below: Then, navigate to Settings > Relationship Insights. You can choose the same and agree to the terms as shown: Upon agreement, you’ll see the three tabs as shown below: Make sure the Turn on Auto Capture for your organization is already checked. If not, check it and Save the same. Auto Capture has now been enabled for your organization. Auto Capture Auto Capture messages are queried to your Microsoft Exchange account every time you open the Activities section of a record. Once this has been enabled, you can navigate to different records like Accounts, Contacts etc. and see under Activities that certain emails which are relevant to the record you are viewing have been polled and are marked with dotted border: This email is only visible and is not yet tracked into Dynamics 365. It will be tracked only once you chose to do so. You can track this email in Dynamics 365 by hovering over the email in Activities and you’ll see a TRACK link on the same as shown below: Once you click on track, the Email will be queued to pull in Dynamics 365. Once the email is successfully tracked, it will appear like a usual Activity item shown on the form under Activities: This email can then also be seen in the Activities in Dynamics 365. What Messages are captured? Below are the criteria for polling messages from your Exchange Account.  

Introduction This blog resolve a scenario requested by client to display Status Reason conditionally on Case entity. This requirement can be fulfilled by using Transitions functionality on Status Reason field on Case entity in D365 Sales. Steps of Implementation Open Status Reason field on Case entity Click on Edit Status Transitions and check the checkbox for Enable Status Reason Transitions. Select New Status Reasons for Current Status Reasons by clicking ellipses button After selecting values and click OK button. Click OK on Status Reason Transactions page Click OK on warning message Click Save and Close button on Status Reason field Publish All Customizations from Solution and Status Reason are displayed conditionally as seen below. Note: “Edit Transitions in Status Reason” functionality is only available on  Case and Custom Entities.

In legacy X++, it was possible to prescribe in metadata that certain methods were to be executed prior to and after the execution of a method. The information about what subscribes call was recorded on the publisher, which isn’t useful in the Dynamics AX environment. It’s now possible to provide Pre and Post handlers through code, by providing the SubscribesTo attribute on the subscribers. Here is a blog showing some of basic use of EVENTS handlers of the Form with respective syntax for logics. Form datasource from xFormRun [FormEventHandler(formStr(SomeForm), FormEventType::Initialized)] public static void SomeForm_OnInitialized(xFormRun sender, FormEventArgs e) { FormDataSource MyRandomTable_ds = sender.dataSource(formDataSourceStr(SomeForm, MyRandomTableDS)); … } Get FormRun from form datasource [FormDataSourceEventHandler(formDataSourceStr(MyForm, MyRandomTableDS), FormDataSourceEventType::Written)] public static void MyRandomTableDS_OnWritten(FormDataSource sender, FormDataSourceEventArgs e) { FormRun formRun = sender.formRun() as FormRun; formRun.myCustomMethod(); } Get FormRun from form control [FormControlEventHandler(formControlStr(MyForm, MyButton), FormControlEventType::Clicked)] public static void MyButton_OnClicked(FormControl sender, FormControlEventArgs e) { FormRun formRun = sender.formRun() as FormRun; formRun.myCustomMethod(); } Access form control from xFormRun [FormEventHandler(formStr(SomeForm), FormEventType::Initialized)] public static void SomeForm_OnInitialized(xFormRun sender, FormEventArgs e) { sender.design().controlName(formControlStr(SomeForm, MyControl)).visible(false); } Get current record in form control event [FormControlEventHandler(formControlStr(SomeForm, SomeButton), FormControlEventType::Clicked)] public static void SomeButton_OnClicked(FormControl sender, FormControlEventArgs e) { SomeTable callerRec = sender.formRun().dataSource(1).cursor(); }  

There were value models and depreciation books valuation concept for fixed assets in earlier releases. Value models and depreciation books functionality have been combined into a single platform that is known as a Books. This is new in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations version 1611. Value Models and Depreciation Books (earlier versions): Books (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations version 1611) Value Models: Value Models are important for fixed assets. Value Models are used to track financial values of fixed assets like accounting acquisition, depreciation, adjustment, net book value, revaluation, disposal sales, disposal scarp etc. In short, useful to get fixed assets financial information. Depreciation Books: Depreciation books are used to post depreciation that does not affect the General ledger. Books (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations version 1611): Books are useful to post depreciation that does not affect General ledger or useful to track financial information of fixed assets. Books have a new Post to general ledger option. If enable  it behaves as Value Model and if disable this option then it behaves as Depreciation books. Below is setup comparison between Depreciation Books, Value Models and Books. Conclusion Books is simplified combine functionality of Value models and Depreciation books. You can track financial information or use to post depreciation without affect the General ledger by using Books.

What is PowerApps? PowerApps is a Microsoft product which allows developer/non-developer to build an application without writing a single line of code. PowerApps creates custom business apps for web and mobile devices that help you do your job more efficiently and collaborate better with your co-workers. Use PowerApps to solve problems specific to your business and extend the software you’re already using such as apps for custom site inspections, cost estimators, budget tracking, or managing customer opportunities You can use PowerApps in any web browser, including the mobile web. You can also download PowerApps Mobile for iOSor Android to use apps on your phone or tablet. No matter where you’re working, just open PowerApps to find the apps available to you. What data sources can my apps connect to? PowerApps connects to a range of data sources out of the box, and Microsoft adding more all the time. Some examples of data sources and services include: Excel files stored on OneDrive for Business, Dropbox, or Google Drive SharePoint Online lists Salesforce objects Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online records Azure SQL Database tables Office 365 Exchange data Twitter Microsoft Translator Your own custom APIs And many more applications. What’s a work or school account, and why do I need one to use PowerApps? Because PowerApps is built for business apps that you share with your team, we require you to use an email address associated with an organization (your work or school account) to sign up. Shared email providers like Hotmail or Gmail won’t currently work with PowerApps. Who can I share apps with You can share apps with anyone in your organization, that is, anyone who has your same email domain—for instance, anyemployee@contoso.com. Anyone who uses your apps will also need access to any data sources those apps connect to. For example, if you build an app that uses an Excel file on OneDrive, people you share the app with will also need to have access to the Excel file in order to fully use the app Connection: Go to: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/ You need to sign in the powerApps portal using the given link and signin/singup Once you are logged in successfully, you can create a new app from the portal. Click on create new App. You can develop PowerApps either on desktop application or on the browser, you can download it from the Store or you can directly edit in browser. Once you have installed the PoweApps from the Store now you can develop your own application by click on the new button. Select from the existing app which is a predefined template Establish your connection with CRM: If you have already connected with the existing CRM than you don’t required to connect. If your login for the first time you need provide the connection details. Click on the Dynamics CRM Online. To design the PowerApps you need to select a table from the available list, select the table(entity) Once you have done with your app is ready and you are able to see the app with 3 different type of forms. Design app BrowseScreen1:shows a list of all items and some information about them so that users can easily browse for the item they want. DetailScreen1:shows all information about a single item. EditScreen1:provides an Edit form control for adding an item or updating information about an item. Page Search and sort the contact User can search for one or more records, sort the list of records in ascending or descending order, or both. Form Type Display Screen: You can add the records from the right side pane. this only displays the records. Edit screen: Here user can change the value of a record. Update: Controls Formula: Looking value from other data set from the other data set LookUp(Accounts, accountid=ThisItem._parentcustomerid_value).name Table– Required. Table to search. Formula– Required. This formula is evaluated for each record of the table, and the first record that results in true is returned. You can reference columns within the table. ReductionFormula– Optional. This formula is evaluated over the record that was found, reducing the record to a single value. You can reference columns within the table. If this parameter is not supplied, the function returns the full record from the table. Update = DataCardValue9.Text; Search(Contacts, TextSearchBox1.Text, “firstname”, “_defaultpricelevelid_value”, “_ownerid_type”, “_ownerid_value”) Table – Required. Table to search. SearchString – Required. The string to search for. If blank or an empty string, all records are returned. Column(s) – Required. The names of columns within Table to search. Columns to search must contain text. Column names must be strings and enclosed in double quotes. If SearchString is found within the data of any of these columns as a partial match, the full record will be returned. SortByColumns( Contacts, ” firstname “, SortOrder.Descending ) Bind data to Dropdown Table – Required. Table to sort. ColumnName(s) – Required. The column names to sort on, as strings. SortOrder(s) – Optional. SortOrder!Ascending or SortOrder!Descending. SortOrder!Ascendingis the default. If multiple ColumnNames are supplied, all but the last column must include aSortOrder. SortByColumns(Search(Contacts, TextSearchBox1.Text, “firstname”, “_defaultpricelevelid_value”, “_ownerid_type”, “_ownerid_value”), “_defaultpricelevelid_type”, If(SortDescending1, Descending, Ascending)) Reference Link 1. https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/getting-started/ 2. https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/formula-reference/ 3. https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/working-with-cards/  

In this blog article, we will see how to access Azure Blob storage and create document in CRM by reading a specific blob document in Azure. Steps: Get the following details of the Azure Blob storage Primary access key Blob container name File Name of the document Now we will write a sample plugin code which will read document from the Azure Blob storage and create an Annotation in CRM. Since we cannot use external DLL in CRM online plugins, we are going to use the Web request to access the Azure blob storage. The HTTP web request has a bunch of headers along the above details to successfully access Azure blob storage. For this, I have used a RestHelper and BlobHelper utility code files, which have all the operations of (a) making a web request and (b) performing blob operations. The Helper files and the CRM plugin sample can be found in the below GitHub link: GitHub: CRM Online Integration with Azure Blob Using this we can get the document and create Annotation in CRM using the below code: #region Connect and fetch the data from Blob storage // Replace the below values with actual details from your Azure Blob storage string storageAccount = “blobstorageaccountname”; string filename = “filenamehere”; // testdocument.pdf string containerName = “containernameHere”; //documents string storageKey = “primaryaccesskiyeofazureblobstorageaccount”; BlobHelper blobHelper = new BlobHelper(storageAccount, storageKey); KeyValuePair<byte[], string> data = blobHelper.GetBlobResponse(containerName, filename); byte[] body = data.Key; string contentType = data.Value; #endregion #region Create Annotation in CRM string encodedData = System.Convert.ToBase64String(body); Entity Annotation = new Entity(“annotation”); Annotation.Attributes[“objectid”] = new EntityReference(workOrder.LogicalName, workOrder.Id); Annotation.Attributes[“objecttypecode”] = workOrder.LogicalName; Annotation.Attributes[“subject”] = “Document from AX Integration”; Annotation.Attributes[“documentbody”] = encodedData; Annotation.Attributes[“mimetype”] = contentType; Annotation.Attributes[“notetext”] = “REST API – Sample document from AX.”; Annotation.Attributes[“filename”] = entity.GetAttributeValue<string>(“cf_name”); Guid annotation = service.Create(Annotation); #endregion  

Introduction Dynamics 365 introduced many new functionalities for Dynamics CRM Sales App but this blog will cover the enhancements for new Visual Designer and Process Unification in Dynamics 365 Sales App. Below are some key points that will show what are the new enhancements on Business Process Flow, Task Flows and Business Rules. Business Process Flow The all new Designer is embedded in the system to drag and drop the components like Steps, Stages, Conditions and now Workflows too. New Buttons like Snapshot, Cut, Copy and Paste are incorporated. Cut and Paste buttons works only for steps and workflows and not for Conditions and Stages. Whereas Copy button works for both steps, stages and conditions. Snapshot button allows developers to take a picture of the entire process flow in .png format. Snapshot image can be used to explain the flow in design and developer documents. UI is more enhanced and visually appealing in terms of Business Process Flow. Newly added and more importantly developers now can trigger workflows based on stage transition i.e. Stage Exit and Stage Entry. Note: Only On Demand Workflows show up in the list so if developers creates a new workflow, it should be On Demand workflow. Mini Map is added in the left hand side corner of the designer that allows developers to see the flow of process flow diagrammatically. Validate functionality is added on top of the ribbon. This feature checks for validation on every save of the Business Process Flow. Validation is of type that, if the step is not mapped to a field or condition is incomplete or for that matter if developer has added a workflow at the step but not defined the workflow which is supposed to be triggered. Whenever a Business Process Flow is created, a new custom entity is created with Organization Scope for that particular process which can be accessed through api. So Business Process Flow has a separate Security Tab in the Security Role named “Business Process Flow”. So based on the security requirements, one user can be given access to edit in Business Process Flow and other user can be given access to only view the Business Process Flow. A new status is added for the Business Process Flow that defines whether the Process Flow is either in Active State, Abandoned or Finished State. Once the process is abandoned, it can be reactivated again whereas once the process is finished from all the stages, the process can be set to finished. Business Rules Business Rules also have a new Visual Designer that drags the components in designer area. Business Recommendations are the key change incorporated for Business Rules which can also be shown on Business Process Flow. Business Recommendations are one new added type of action that is triggered after a condition. A Text View Window is added in the bottom right hand side of the Designer, that shows the business rule in “If- Then Format” allowing more friendly view of condition for developers. Condition which was earlier only on Entity now can be added on Business Process Flow and related stages. A new Validate Option validates every step, condition in the designer before saving the Business Rules. Task Flows in Mobile Task Flows in CRM were in preview feature from last year whereas now they are released completely only on Online and On Premise Environments. Task flows are a new way of interacting with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, allowing users to focus completely on the work at hand. With this new type of business process flow, you can easily create guided interactions for your CRM users, giving them experiences with just the information they need so they can get their work done quickly and efficiently. Task Flows in Mobile are the type of Business Process Flow where it helps users to navigate seamlessly. Task Flows also have the same Visual Designer that is there for Business Process Flow with Mini Map in left bottom of the designer. Task Flows on Mobile is accessed from the clock icon, on Home Dashboard on Mobile Device. Based on Business Requirements, number of pages and conditions can be added to enhance the process and save the time. Actions in Workflows New Process Actions are incorporated in workflows. Below image shows the list of actions enabled. Thus, these were the Process and Designer enhancements that are added in Dynamics 365.