Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based chat and collaboration platform, designed to simplify group work. Whether you prefer any chat options available across the markets, if it is not user-friendly, it won’t make any sense. For being user-friendly, the first and foremost requirement is the notifications. Of course, you would not want the hassle of logging and checking into the app every moment. So, we all rely heavily on notifications on the chat to persuade us to open it. This ensures you are updated in the real time. Such kind of wonderful notifications features is available in MS Teams. Now, having said this, let’s check out all the fabulous notification features one by one. Channel notification: To turn ON notifications for any new activity or messages on channels in Microsoft Teams, you need to follow the channel. You will not be able to follow the Team (Team is a group of personnel’s together for work, projects, etc and team are made up of channels), so you need to follow the channels within that team. Once you follow the channel, for any new message or activity in the channel you will be getting a notification (see below image). Chat notifications: You will be automatically getting a notification for one to one chat (see below image). Customize your notification settings: To further customize your notification settings, click your profile picture at the right-hand top of the application and then click Settings > Notifications. You can select, how you want your notifications from the given options (see below image). Do not disturb: As we know that if we are in a Do not disturb mode, we do not get notifications for any messages. In Microsoft Teams, we have this feature that we can still receive notifications from people who have priority access when your status is Do not disturb. You just need to add those people to Manage priority access. Click your profile picture at the right-hand top of the application and then click Settings > Privacy Mobile Notifications: Turning ON notifications on MS Teams mobile app, go to the Menu option (Hamburger button) and then click on Settings > Notifications. And then you can select from given options, how you want the notifications. To ensure you are updated in the real-time, we heavily rely on the notifications. And this is how we can manage notifications in Microsoft Teams.

Introduction: This blog explains how to rename the Dynamics 365 Sales Entity Scenario: In this we will rename Account Entity To Company. Steps: 1. Rename the Entity. Go to your solution. Select the entity and change the Display Name and Plural Name of entity. Save and Publish your Customizations. 2. Export Translations Click on Translations –> Export Translations. Extract the downloaded .zip file.  Open the CrmTranslations.xml file in Excel 3. Now we have to make changes in CrmTranslation file.  Steps: a. Unprotect all the sheets. Go to Review tab –> Click on Unprotect Sheet button Repeat this for all the sheets. Information Display Strings Localized Labels b. Go to Display Strings Sheet Highlight the whole column C Find and Replace (or press Ctrl-H) Open Options on the Replace window and ensure that Match Case is ticked You need to replace the plural names first and then the singular names. Find – Accounts, Replace with – Companies Find – accounts, Replace with – companies Find – Account, Replace with – Company Find – account, Replace with – company c.  Go to Localized Label sheet. Highlight the whole column D and repeat the steps performed in Display Strings sheet. d. Save the file. 4. Import Translation File Create .zip file. Make sure you select both the files and zip them rather than zip the folder. Go To solutions. Click on Translations -> Import Translations. Choose your .zip file and click import. Publish your Customization after Successful Import. Now you can see  changes Account entity is renamed as Company.

Introduction: In this blog we will see how to filter customer type field in Dynamics 365 to only show Accounts/Contacts dropdown. Implementation: Step 1: For demonstration purpose we will filter to only show Accounts. In the below image we can see that we have  a Customer type field which allows to choose from Contacts as well as Accounts. Note: Here accounts are called as Companies. Step 2: To display only Companies in the dropdown we register an event on Form Load. Here we are working on the Contacts form, hence we first write a JavaScript code to filter the lookup to show only companies. Below shown in the code: Code: var oContactFormCustomization = { setCustomerLookupToShowCompany: function (execContext) { var formContext = execContext.getFormContext(); if (formContext.getControl(“parentcustomerid”)) { var company = formContext.getControl(‘parentcustomerid’); if (company.getEntityTypes().length > 1) { company.setEntityTypes([‘account’]); } } }}; We add this script in CRM JS Web resource and add the library on the Contact form Properties Below shown is the Handler Properties Once this is done we can see when the form loads the scripts executes and we can now view only the Companies and not the Contacts Hope this helped!

I would like to share a consideration I take while designing Teams that you might need to make certain records shareable. I faced an issue once when users started to use Default Teams created on Business Units. And after several months, it occurred that some users from other Business Units too needed to be on that Team. And several records were already assigned to BU provided Default Teams. Scenario Priyesh belongs to Southeast Asia BU and Somesh belongs to North America BU. Some records were assigned to North America team which is the Default Team created by BU. Priyesh wanted to be in the North America team and hence the user tried to add him in that Team. So adding North America to Teams under the user Priyesh, but I get the below error – That is because you cannot add Default Teams to users in some other BUs. As a workaround, I only created a new Team and named it “<BU Name> – Shareable” team and assigned records to this team so that I know where I want the records to be visible as per my Security Roles setup. And hence, added the North America – Shared team for Priyesh. I would also like to hear your suggestions and any workarounds you may have. Thanks! 😊  

Introduction: Activity alerts play a very important role while setting up Security & Compliance. You can create an alert that will send you an email notification when users perform specific activities in Office 365.  In this article, you can see how we can get alerts if someone accesses any document in SharePoint Online. Similarly, you can also set alerts for different activities such as common user activities, file & folder activities, file sharing activities, synchronization activities & also for administration activities. Difference between Alerts and Audit logs search in O365 Security & Compliance? Activity alerts are similar to searching the Office 365 audit log for events, except that you’ll be sent an email message when an event that you’ve created an alert for occurs. In Audit logs search, we can see the results as soon we search for it within the period of 90 days since the activity occurred (retention of the audit records depends on the subscription you have). Creating Alerts  Office 365 Security & Compliance center > Alerts > Dashboard You can also go to Office 365  Security & Compliance center using URL – https://protection.office.com Name your alert, add description, severity & select category. Next, you will need to choose an activity & when to trigger an alert. So, in our case alert needs to be triggered whenever a file is accessed from SharePoint Online. You can also add a condition, for this alert. Such as in this case you can mention the Site Collection URL so that if the file is accessed in SharePoint Online from that Site Collection an alert will be triggered. After that click on NEXT. The last step is setting up your recipients & daily notification limits. You can choose a user to whom the alerts will be sent. After the alert is all set, you can now review your settings, turn ON the policy and click FINISH. Alert result – If any user tries to access any file in SharePoint Online, the recipients (the user which has been mentioned as a recipient in the alert policy) will get an email notification (see below image). Conclusion: In this way, we can create different types of alert policies with respect to Security & Compliance of any organization and this is how you can monitor each activity within your organization. We can create alert policies for different activities like common user activities, file & folder activities, file sharing activities, synchronization activities & also for administration activities.

Introduction: In this blog we will demonstrate how to set visibility of a field in Dynamics CRM based on Security Roles using JavaScript. Implementation: Step 1: First we create a security role, Here for our demonstration I have created a Blank Security Role with the name “CustomEditAccess”. Copy the GUID of the security Role as this will be used later in the Code. Step 2: If the user does not have the custom security role that we have created we will hide the Parent Account field else we will show the Parent Account field. For this first we go to the Form Editor and set the Visible by Default to “No” for the field “Parent Account” Step 3: Create a new JavaScript Web resource  and add the following code: var accountFormCustomization = { customEditAccess: function (execContext) { debugger; var formContext = execContext.getFormContext(); var userSettings = Xrm.Utility.getGlobalContext().userSettings; //Get Security Roles of the current User var securityRoles = userSettings.securityRoles; //Below is the GUID of the Security Role “CustomEditAccess” var securityRoleId = “B9E23C5A-F5F9-E811-A96C-000D3AF29D99”; for (i = 0; i < securityRoles.length; i++) { //If current User contains the Required Security Role if (securityRoles[i].toUpperCase() == securityRoleId.toUpperCase()) { //Field should be Set to Visible formContext.getControl(“parentaccountid”).setVisible(true); }}}} Note: Here we have set the visibility of the Parent Account(parentaccountid) field to “True” to show the field on the form. Step 4: Once this is done we register an Event On Form Load, as shown below: Remember to pass the Execution context as the first parameter Step 5: Once this is done when the form is loaded, the script will check if the User has the required Security Role, if yes then the “Parent Account” field will be shown else it will be hidden by default. Tip: Here we have hardcoded the GUID of the security role, what we could also do if fetch the GUID of the security role based on the Name of the Security role and then follow with the Hide/Show visibility logic. Conclusion: This is another alternative to field level security and this can be implemented if you find Field level security too complex as your requirements in the organization grow.

Introduction: When coding an app that uses Webservices to connect to the integration solutions, it is generally recommended that there is a Setup, which we can configure, where the Webservices are created as well as deleted. Pre-requisites: Business Central VS Code with AL Language Extension Demonstration: Create a Setup Page having a boolean variable say ‘SetupExtension‘ and create a field having value as ‘SetupExtension Variable’.Output: On the OnOpenPage trigger add a code to Check if Web Services are already created and accordingly set the ‘SetupExtension‘ boolean field.Thus, whenever the Setup Page is Opened, the ‘SetupExtension‘ field is set as per the records in Web Services. On the OnQueryClosePage trigger write a code which will create the Web Services when ‘SetupExtension‘ boolean is set as ‘TRUE‘ and delete the Web Services if ‘SetupExtension‘ boolean is set as ‘FALSE‘.Output:i. When ‘SetupExtension‘ is set to ‘TRUE‘New Webservices are created.ii. When ‘SetupExtension‘ is set to ‘FALSE‘Web Services are deleted.  Conclusion: Thus this way we can keep the existing app installed and enable/disable Web Services as needed. As compared to creating WebServices.xml file which directly creates the Web Services on installation of the app, I’ll be demonstrating it in my next blog.

Introduction: This blog explains how to Authenticate Dynamics 365 Online with Client Credentials. Steps: Steps in Azure 1. Register a App in Azure Active Directory. Login to portal.azure.com Navigate to Azure Active Directory –> App Registration –> New Application registration 2.  Create App with Application type -> Web app/ API. Copy the Value of Application ID. 3. Give permission to Dynamics 365 Online. Go to Settings –> Required permissions –> Add –> Dynamics CRM Online –> Select  Select the following permission. 4. Click on Grant Permissions –> Yes 5. Generating client secret key. Go to Settings –> Keys Create a new key and copy its value Steps in D365 Sales Create Application user. 1. Add a user from Portal.office.com 2. Go to settings -> security -> users. Change the view to Application Users. Add New user. 3. Enter User name and Application ID. Value of Application ID is obtained from MS Azure. 4. save 5. After Saving values of Application ID and Azure AD Object ID will come automatically. Steps in Azure 1. Add this user as Owner of the App which we created in MS Azure. Settings –> Owners –> Add owner 2. Obtain tenant id Azure Active Directory –> Properties –> Directory ID   Making a Request using Postman POST URL: https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenant id> /oauth2/token Header:Content-Type: application/json Body: Key Value client_id Application ID of the registered app in Azure resource https://trial.crm.dynamics.com (Dynamics 365 Online Insance URL Client_secret Key value from the registered app in Azure Grant_type client_credentials Below screen shows how to use above given keys to generate the access token. This token has expiration time. You need to refresh this token.

Sales Quote use to record an offer to a customer to sell certain product on certain delivery and payment term. You can send quote to customer, negotiate with the customer, you can change and resend the sales quote as much as needed. When the customer accepts the quote, you convert the sales quote to a sales order or a sales Invoice in which you process the sale. In the Search box, enter Sales Quotes, and select the related link. Click on new to create new Sales quote. In the Customer No. field, enter the name of the customer Enter the Order date, Due Date, Requested Delivery date, Quote valid to date on Sales quote header. Select item or G/L Account in the type field in quote line. In the field, select the item number or GL number to be ordered. Enter the quantity you want to order in quantity field. Enter the price in in Unit Price Excl. Tax field When the sales quote lines are completed, choose the Send by Email action. If Customer Accept the quote, then on Process tab click on Make order to create Sales order from Sales quote or Make Invoice to create Sales Invoice. You will get below Infolog when Sales order will be created.  

Introduction: In this blog, I have introduced how to fetch a custom table from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central into Microsoft PowerApps using Common Data Service(CDS) and OData. The table that was created in Business Central was fetched into a custom entity(MatchingLists) in CDS that allows me to create a local database in PowerApps for storing the entity data and OData that helps to fetch and integrate the data. Pre-requisites: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Microsoft PowerApps Steps: 1. Create a custom entity within Common Data Service(CDS) whose data you want to retrieve from Business Central. 2. Add the fields with their required data types. 3. Get Data from Business Central using OData Integration. 4. Go to web services in Business Central, add the custom page in the web services and use its OData V4 URL.  5.Enter the OData URL and the Organization credentials. 6. You will be shown the list of tables in each and every company. 7. Go to the table whose data you want to get into PowerApps, and select that table. 8. Next is to select the entity to be mapped with this table and field by field mapping of the same. 9. Refresh can be set manual or automatically, if automatic then select the time. 10. Create a list structure to dsiplay the table.