Hi,

I have users in a single Business Unit, where they are then split into Teams within the Business Unit.  I have given the users write access to their records only - set privilege at User.  I now want to allow members of each team to have write access to all records within the team they are a member of. I have set up a new security role which I was planning on assigning to the team,  however the permissions only allow me to set write access at User, then Business Unit. Can anyone advise how I can/if I can set this overriding permission at a team level?

Thanks in advance.

Agnes 

Hi All,

My question is i have a 4 instance of my crm, test environment, dev environment, prepoduction environment and production.

see the below scenario-

1)if i have a custom code which  i am  develping in dev env then i need to test this code in test env which kind of solution is created for this managed and unmanaged.

2)if the development is correct and testing is also correct then you need to deploy to preprod and prod env which kind of solution you created at this point of time.

every time requirement is changed. you need to develop according to this,

please explain me.

Thanks & Regards,

Jyotsna

In CRM Online and CRM 2016 on prem, there now is a Due field on the phone call entity in the Activity Pane. What is the point of this field? As soon as I save the phone call it is saved as completed. It never shows up on My Activities list.

I would have thought the idea was to create an active phone call.

Is the field there so you can build a workflow that sets the phone call to active?

Not very user friendly.

Does anyone have a Connect issue on this, that can be upvoted?

There doesn't seem to be a lot of training material for this exam. The Microsoft site points to the DLP\PartnerSource for the self-paced. I am just wondering, is this actually enough to pass the certification exam? The DLP\PartnerSource site is only 4 hours of video.

I have never done a CRM exam before but have done multiple 70- series exams which generally require a lot more then one set of training materials.

Any thoughts?

Hello,

I have a problem with my configuration of the USD. I have followed a training of Neil Parkhurst on Youtube. I configured the USD exactly as he described, but i am getting some errors with my sessions.

When i click on a record from a view, the session opens and the record is been shown, so far so good.

Error1

However, as the record is being opened, a extra screen pops up saying: This page cannot be displayed. The URL of this screen is: http://event/?eventname=usdrawdataload&dataloadstate=1&turboform=true. If i look at the debugger, i can see that there a two problems: with Expander Left Splitter Collapse and Expander Right Panel Collapse. Anybody know how to fix this?

Error2

• The account's name does not show up in the Account Tab, it stays: Account
• The session's name does not change. It stays: New session
• An overview of the account is not being shown

I don't know if the bulletpoints of the second error are caused by the first error. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to fix this?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Arne Bok

Hi all.

I was wondering if you could please assist.

I have created a custom lookup field on the email record that i want to populate with the "From" field (PartyList).

Does anyone have the correct JavaScript to help with this situation?

My JavaScript does not seem to be working.

Any advise will be highly appreciated.

In the Opportunity "Business Process Flow" I added a workflow at the Last Stage of the process "Close".

The workflow is supposed to trigger on "Stage Exit".  But it doesn´t.

The workflow just update a field on the Opportunity.

Hello All,

Please anybody share some sample questions for MB2-713

Thanks in Advance

In this post I want to quickly review some of the commonly used methods of XRM.Page.data.entity in terms of Dynamics 365 JavaScript.

I won’t document all of the capabilities here, just some of the methods I commonly use. If you need a full reference guide, please consult;

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg334720.aspx#Xrm.Page.data.entity Properties and Methods

getEntityName

Useful if you need the entity name for the current record.

Var entityName = Xrm.Page.data.entity.getEntityName();

getId

Useful if you want to know the GUID for the current record

Xrm.Page.data.entity.getID();

getIsDirty

Useful if you want to know if any unsaved changes exist.

var isDirty = Xrm.Page.data.entity.getIsDirty();

This will return true is false is the page is dirty or not.

getPrimaryNameAttribute

Useful if you want to return then primary name of the current entity. (So on contact it would show fullname, on account name etc etc.)

var name = Xrm.Page.data.entity.getPrimaryAttributeValue();

save

Saves the current record!

Xrm.Page.data.entity.save(); // ** Just saves current record

Xrm.Page.data.entity.save("saveandclose") // ** Does a save and close

Xrm.Page.data.entity.save("saveandnew") // ** Save and new

These are all simple code snippets that are often used in JavaScript in Dynamics 365 forms. J

I have recently been working on a project when the customer needed access to CRM whilst offline. We therefore researched a number of options and highlighted strengths and weaknesses of each. The details we considered are shown below, I hope that they may assist anyone planning a similar capability.

The options we considered included;

1. Outlook Client – Offline Access
   
2. RESCO Mobile Application
   
3. Dynamics 365 Mobile application
   

Outlook Client – Offline Access

How it works:
The Dynamics 365 Outlook client includes an offline capability, which once enabled will create a local database that will contain your CRM data and customizations. To go offline you need to select the “Go Offline” button which will synchronize data with the local database. Once off line you can load your CRM data from within Outlook that will show in the full web client.

Strengths:

• CRM data is shown in browser, meaning the experience of using the data offline is very familiar.
• Works with latest and older CRM versions.
• Will work with CRM online and on premise installations.

Weaknesses:

• Additional software needs to be installed on your client.
• Only available on Windows 10 laptop / desktop devices, meaning no mobile option exists.
• Prior to going offline, a sync process needs to be run. (This can take several minutes.)
• Computers running the Outlook client will need to be a reasonable specification. (4Gb minimum ram, ideally 8Gb. And a decent processor.) In my experience the Outlook client has tended to run slow at times.

When to use:

When you want a full browser experience off line. (And you don’t need mobile access.) Or if you are an on premise Dynamics user.

RESCO Mobile Application

How it works:

The RESCO mobile application is a 3^rd party addition to Dynamics 365. It comes “free” with Field Service. You can also customize to use any system or custom entity. Data is synchronised to the local device as you connect / disconnect from the internet.

Strengths:

• Strong offline capability with a lot of flexibility around offline sync rules.
• Customizable.
• Field Service capabilities.
• Tailored to using on mobile devices, I have found it especially good on phones!

Weaknesses:

• Doesn’t leverage your CRM forms, meaning more customization maybe needed.
• Being a 3^rd party add-in license fees may apply. (If using RESCO for anything other than Field Service entities.)

When to use:

If you are using Field Service. Or if you any specific requirements for a customized mobile application.

Dynamics 365 Mobile Client

Note:
Any comments here are about the latest Dynamics 365 mobile client. The mobile client previously available for CRM2016 did contain off line capability. But that was limited to creation of drafts and viewing existing data. In my situation its capabilities were not fit for purpose!

How it works:

Your Dynamics 365 entities can be enabled for offline access in the Dynamics 365 mobile client. Then an offline profile is created to govern what each user will see. Uses Microsoft Azure services to periodically synchronize entities with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets apps so synchronized records are available when users’ mobile devices are disconnected

Strengths:

• No additional license fees.
• Being part of the mobile app means you can run it on ipads, phones etc.
• Sync process is very intuitive.
• If required, you can enable a feature to help you resolve sync conflicts.

Weaknesses:

• You will need to create a mobile offline profile and assign users. So, some admin exists.
• Can only be used on a production Dynamics 365 environment. (So, no testing in a sandbox!)
• You must have a minimum of 5 app or plan 1 licenses.
• Not available for older versions of Dynamics. (You will need CRM 2016 Update 1 or later.)
• Not available on premise.
• The sync to Azure seems to happen every 20 to 30 minutes. Meaning very recent changes might not be available offline.

When to use:

If you want to access CRM data offline on a tablet or phone and you are using Dynamics 365 online.

Which did I select???

We went with the offline capability in the Dynamics 365 mobile application. As this proved the best user interface and worked well on iPads. (Which in my case was the device users preferred.) I did “suffer” some initial teething problems. But after these problems were resolved the offline feature in the mobile application worked really well.

I hope this summary of the offline options helps you select the right option for your circumstance. In a future post I will give more details on how I configured the Dynamics 365 client. J

I’m travelling home from a wonderful few days at summit EMEA 2017. The Summit was amazing it was really motivating to mix with so many people excited about Dynamics 365 and “CRM”. Whilst at EMEA I picked up a lapel badge containing the words “CRM Manifesto”, what was that all about???

The badge had a really dodgy logo. (@Whitson, maybe an update could be considered???) It made me think of George Orwell’s, 1984. Or some other slightly oppressive political regime. Despite this (or maybe because of this) I decided to read the manifesto.

I am currently on a KLM flight from Amsterdam! During my flight, I must say the airhostess is providing excellent service. And I’m liking what I read in the manifesto, my Dutch attendant seems to embody every “commandment”.

But I have a problem! As one of its “customers”! I found the manifesto wordy and therefore slightly hard to digest. Less is more. So, I’ve decided to present the essence of the manifesto in a few sound bites. If these resonate please read the full version here. AND leave a comment to show your support. I would love to think that everyone engaging in a CRM project would (and should) review their implementation to ensure it truly embodies the aspirations reflected in this manifesto.

My “version” of the manifesto ….

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a total business strategy, not just a sales generation tool.
   
2. CRM is not a “system”.
   
3. CRM includes carefully defined / repeatable customer journeys.
   
4. Change is a given.
   
5. CRM should be multi-Channel , with customers free to select their preferred channel.
   
6. Process automation must have a customer focus.
   
7. All data must add customer value.
   
8. Every customer engagement matters.
   
9. Measure satisfaction again and again (and again).
   
10. As much as possible create transparent processes, your internal processes do not concern the customer.
    
11. The system does not deliver increased revenue, good customer service might.
    
12. Consistency, consistency, consistency.
    
13. CRM is forever.
    

Maybe you could also consider this super short version which simply contains the key buzz words …. “CRM is a Total business strategy, not a system. It has repeatable customer journeys. Change is a given. It is multi-channel and has a customer focus. Use your data to add customer value, improving customer engagement and allowing you to measure satisfaction. Good customer service comes from consistency delivered with processes transparent to the customer. And most importantly remember CRM is forever“.

I borrowed the phrase “CRM is Forever” from a presentation I saw at CRM Saturday. I did this for two reasons, firstly I liked it! But importantly also to show that the concept of a CRM manifesto is not linked to any group of users, software package or industry sector.

The CRM manifesto has been created by Simon Whitson (thanks Simon), he’d love you to contact him at simon@whitsonconsulting.co.uk.

Don’t forget, you can view the full version here. And please leave a comment in the “signatories” option to show your support (or otherwise). If you like it Simon might also send you an inappropriate badge!! J

Note:
If you like the concept of a CRM manifesto, please include it in your blogs posts, tweets, training material etc etc. But when you do please also include a link back to Simon’s site so that people can register their support for this concept. Did I say, you can find the manifesto here!

In a previous post, I explained how we could trigger events from JavaScript when using Unified Service Desk (USD) for Microsoft Dynamics 365. In this post, I will show how a similar approach can be applied to actions in USD.

If you’d would like to view that previous post on events, you can find it here.

I always like to explain things by showing an example. In this case my example will be a small feature I have implemented in my USD application.

When viewing an account (or other entity) I can add contacts from a sub grid on the account form. Doing this will open the contact Quick Create form. I wanted to have a note on the account that a contact had been created. Meaning I’d need to trigger a USD on the save of the contact.

I could have achieved this requirement in several different ways! But I decided to use an action called from JavaScript.

This simple example was very easy to achieve!

You can see the end result of my change below. I have added a contact and a note has been created on the account to say who created the contact and when.

I simply created a small amount of JavaScript that was added to the “On Save” event of my CRM Quick Create form. My code looked like this;

function OnSave() {

    // ** When we save a contact, in quick create form.
    // **    then ...
    // **        if in USD then fire an action that will add a note to the account (or other entity)
    // **        the note will show us that a contact has been added.
    // ** Notice that I use %0D%0A, this gives an essential line feed!

    var name = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("firstname").getValue() + " " + Xrm.Page.getAttribute("lastname").getValue();
    if (window.IsUSD == true) {
       var data = "LogicalName=annotation " + "%0D%0A";
        data += "objectid=EntityReference(\"[[$Context.LogicalName]]\",[[$Context.Id]]) " + "%0D%0A";
        data += "notetext=$Escaped(CONTACT ADDED Name is " + name + ")";
        window.open("http://uii/CRM Global Manager/CreateEntity?" + data);
    } // End if
} // End function

Hopefully you can see in my window.IsUSD command how I ensure this code only runs whilst inside USD. Also notice the winow.open command that contains the instruction to run the USD action. This is essentially made up of the hosted control name, action name and data parameters.

Tip:My data parameter has several lines, this means I need to add a carriage return / line feed at the end of each line. I do this with %0D%0A!

In my case the hosted control was my global manager and the action was CreateEntity. You can find details of how we can use the CreateEntity action to create notes here.

Hopefully you can see that it is actually pretty easy to adapt this logic to work with any action in USD. J

Unified Service Desk for Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a great product. (I have no doubt about that.) But there are many people out there who don’t know much about it.

On 20^th April, I will be hosting a webinar to help people understand how to make the most of CRM in a contact centre.

The webinar will start at 2pm (UK time) on Thursday 20^th April and is open to all CRMUG members.

During the webinar, I will explain why we need USD, how it works and also give a live demonstration. In my demonstration, I will show how easy it is to build a USD application by creating a working app in just a few minutes.

If you are interested in finding out more about USD, please register for this event now.

You can register now for this event, here.

I look forward to meeting you soon …..

I am very excited to be starting to use Cafex’s Live Assist product for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Unified Service Desk (USD), in this post I will explain how to install Live Assist and start to give you a little detail about the product. (More information will follow in later posts as I become familiar with this product.)

Before I start I guess a quick explanation of what Live Assist is might be useful. Live Assist gives web chat capabilities that can be directly built into Dynamics 365 and Unified Service Desk. Beyond that you can also co-browser, video chat and much more. I think it is a really cool piece of software. I plan to publish multi posts on my experiences of installing, using and configuring Live Assist.

This blog post will focus on the initial install process. Later posts will look at how to use and configure Live Assist.

Prerequisites

• An online instance of Microsoft Dynamics 365 (I will be using a trial version)
• Unified Service Desk, version 2.2 or later

Note:
Using USD is optional. You can run Live Assist simply in the browser. However as Live Assist will commonly be used in call centres I suspect (hope) the use of USD will be pretty common.

Live Assist is not free! For a live deployment, you will need Live Assist licenses. But the trial will give you 30 licences for 30 days. At the time of writing this post I am unsure of exact pricing and I guess it may also vary depending on your GEO region, currency and number of users. I suggest you speak to your Microsoft Account Manager or Partner for pricing detail.

My Install Process

You can find some great information about doing a standard / trial installation on CafeX website. I also referenced these videos;

Free Trial – Getting Started with LiveAssist for Microsoft Dynamics 365

Enabling Live Assist on a Dynamics Account

Adding a Dynamics User and Enabling them for Live Assist

I have installed CafeX multiple times! The first time I when installed Unified Service Desk I used the Package Deployer to install Microsoft’s sample solution. On that occasional the Live Assist installation went pretty cleanly.

My second installation was more ambitious as I wanted to add CafeX capabilities into my existing USD environment. Like most people, I have a USD solution that has been configured for my specific purposes. So, my goal was to install Live Assist into that, so that I can then begin the fun task of tailoring how it will operate in my application.

1. Create a trial solution
   
2. Download USD
   
3. Run the USD Package Deployer
   
4. Install the USD client
   
5. Import my USD application (Including importing its data.zip using the CRM Configuration Migration Tool.)
   
6. Configure Live Assist
   
7. Review what happened and test
   
8. Fix my USD Panel Layout
   
9. Fix my Knowledge Base
   

Note:
When I ran the package deployer I did a blank install and then imported my data.zip. You may wish to install the sample web application! If you do that the fixes I describe will not be required.

I am going to highlight the issues I observed and fixes I applied. But you should keep in mind that you may not hit these issues. And equally you may get different ones. (If you do get different ones I will be interested to hear your experiences.)

Steps one to five.

I am not going to describe these in detail. As they are either standard install processes or very specific to my environment.

Step Six – Configure Live Assist

In Office 365, go to the Admin option and select Dynamics 365. Here you will see the Dynamics 365 Administration Center. Click on the applications option.

You should see Live Assist for Dynamics 365 and its status will be Not Configured.

Clicking Manage will launch the Live Assist sign up process. Initially you will need to accept to grant permission for Live Assist to access your “CRM” online instance.

Now we configure Live Assist. To do this first select your Dynamics 365 instance. (I called mine “Neil Parkhurst MVP”!)

Then enter a contact email address.

Next select that you want to install Live Assist Powered by CafesX for USD.

And of course, you will need to “read” and accept the license agreement.

Next you will be told that provisioning is in progress and you’ll receive an email once completed.

Whilst this was happening I had a coffee! After about five minutes I received an email that looked like the one below ….

Clicking the Live Assist admin link took me to a login page;

Now I have to accept that Live Assist can read my profile.

And I confirmed my contact details …

And sign in ….

Eventually I arrived at a page which looks like this, which will enable me to manage Live Assist users. (I will add some additional users in a second, for now we are done!)

Step Seven – Review what happened and test

With the install process completed I could review what had been installed and start testing. Back in Dynamics 365, we can see that the Live Assist option has been added into our settings.

Additionally, Live Assist will have been added into the right panel navigation in the browser.

Viewing solutions will show you that the LiveAssistByCafeX solution will have been added;

Also, you will find that a number of hosted controls (etc) will have been added into your USD solution. (More on these later!)

Note:
When I have installed Live Assist with the sample package, as provided within the USD Package Deployer, it worked straight away. Installing into my customized copy of Unified Service Desk presented a few issues. (More on those later!)

Below you can see a list of the hosted controls that get added. Notice the “Custom Panel” that conflicted with the MainWorkArea I already had defined. (Whilst this was a problem it didn’t take me long to alter my actions to use the panel layout added by Live Assist.)

Step Eight – Fix my Panel Layout

Once I opened Unified Service Desk, I immediately observed that my panel layout was broken. I had two layouts which presented as two tabs. The one called “Main Layout” was my originaly. The one called “Custom Panel” had been added by the Live Assist install process.

In my hosted controls I could see both of these layouts. In my case I wanted to disable the one that CafeX had added. To do this I did an advanced find search to look for all actions linked to the hosted control added by Live Assist. So the one called “Custom Panel”. You can see my advanced find below.

Next I amended each of the actions using this hosted control to use my “Main Layout” instead. I had to change something like six actions.

You can see below that after I had made these changes my USD solution loaded correctly. Notice the Live Assist right panel.

Step Nine – Fix my KB Search

I already had the knowledge base configured and working in my application but after I’d installed Live Assist I found I received the following types of error.

Running an advance find on actions showed me that a number of actions had been added connected with the knowledge base. And that these were linked to a hosted control called “KB Search”, which existed in my application before installing Live Assist.

The actions that had been added by my Live Assist installation are shown below.

Reviewing the detail of my KB Search hosted control I found two issues. The install of Live Assist has duplicated my “default” and “Search” UII Actions. This in turn was preventing the KB Search control from loading.

Once I had found this resolving this issue was simple. I deleted one of the Search UII actions and one of the default UII actions. (It didn’t matter which as they were identical!)

But make sure isDefault is still set to “Yes” on the default UII action.

Conclusion / Opinion

I did hit some issues with my install process but they were very easy to resolve. So, overall I remain impressed with how easy Live Assist is to install. I managed to get it up and running in my “live” USD application within a couple of hours. Not bad going.

I can now start the process of reviewing what hosted controls, actions (etc) have been added. And then using that information to tailor the use of Live Assist in my solution. I will of course blog about anything and everything I uncover. J

Live Assist for Microsoft Dynamics 365 can integrate with Unified Service Desk (USD). When it is installed most of the configuration you’ll require is automatically added to your USD config. But in production environments you’ll want to tweak this config. I haven’t found any detailed technical documentation (yet!), so I have created this guide to provide additional detail.

Background

To create this post, I have reviewed the changes that were applied to my USD environment as a result of installing Live Assist. It is worth noting that this information was created in April 2017. I am currently unsure on the frequency of future updates, we have to assume that future updates to Live Assist could add to or change these details.

I am sorry but if this documentation is technical or long. It aimed at a USD expert! I will create future blog posts that give worked examples for specific use cases that maybe more appropriate for someone newer to USD.

I am also sorry for any omissions from this information! This post is a result of me reviewing the configuration in an attempt to improve my own understanding. I am therefore simply sharing what I have found so far. (As my knowledge improves I will obviously update with additional detail.)

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How Live Assist Adds to Your USD Configuration

Another observation I have is the way Live Assist seems to apply changes into your USD environment! Associated Contact and KB Search might be good examples. In my USD application, I already had a hosted control “KB Search”, meaning an additional one wasn’t added. However, I hadn’t got a hosted control called “Associated Contact”, so one was created. This behaviour is “interesting”! As it means if you import Live Assist into a USD environment other than the Microsoft sample package you may need to review everything that has been created. Which is what I have just done, hence this blog post!

Examples of what I mean include ….

1. I already had a panel layout called “Main Layout”, Live Assist adds a panel layout called “Custom Panel”. I therefore altered all of the actions that used “Custom Panel” to use my existing “Main Layout” instead.
2. I have a hosted control to show an associated view of contacts already, except mine was called “Associated Contacts“. Again, I will need to alter any actions / navigation created by Live Assist to use my control rather than the one it created.
3. “KB Search” was not added as a hosted control but the import of Live Assist did seem to add a couple of UII Actions. In my case these were “Search” and “default”. This process actually created duplicate actions. To resolve this I had to remove these UII Actions from “KB Search”.
4. My KB Search toolbar had a couple of buttons that had no actions. I had to manually create those actions.

If your USD application is based on the Microsoft sample package supplied with USD you will probably have no issues. If your USD package (like mine) is bespoke but follows similar lines you may also be fine, with some “tweaks”. But I’ve seen several implementations that are very custom, maybe only using custom entities or maybe with a completely custom panel layout. In these you may need to review of the hosted controls, actions, window navigation rules (etc) and build a variation that will work in your environment from scratch. (A task that would involve significant effort!)

Additions made to my USD configuration included;

• Hosted Controls
• Actions
• Customizations File
• Session Lines
• Scriptlets
• Toolbars (And toolbar buttons)
• Window Navigation Rules

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Additions – Hosted Controls

The logic I have mentioned above means that the hosted controls added into your environment may differ slightly from mine! The hosted controls that were added into my USD solution included;

• Associated Contact
• Chat Activity
• Chat Context
• Chat Control
• Chat Search Page
• Cobrowse Control
• Custom Panel
• LeftPanelActivities
• Presence Control
• Transcript Control for CHat Activity

Note:
Many hosted controls will have standard actions such as MoveToPanel etc. I will not document these as they are common to all USD controls. Instead I will try to highlight all of the “custom” actions and events.

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Additions – Actions

The following actions were added into my USD configuration. Notice the items in read! When I did the advanced find to produce this list I spotted that these values were incorrectly blank and therefore needed to be added.

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Additions – Customization File

Any additions such a custom hosted control will need to be added to a customization file that can in turn be cached to the local desktop. Live Assist handles this by the addition of a customizations file called “UnifiedServiceDesk.ChatControl”.

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Additions – Session Lines

Two session lines were added to my organisation. One the chat session overview and one for the session name.

It might be worth noting that this was another area of conflict! The session lines are not associated with an entity. I already had a session line that wasn’t linked to an entity, so initially I was seeing that session name not the intended name.

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Additions – ScriptLets

Four scriptlets were added;

Generate New Chat Session Name– This scriptlet returns a session name. Either as “New Session” or with the customer name.

Generate Chat Contact Session Name– This scriptlet returns the name to be sued for the contact sessions.

Get Chat Contact Full Name– Returns the concatenation of first name and last name for the chat customer.

Generate Title for Case– Returns the first 12 characters of the case title

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Additions – Toolbars

Three toolbars were added to my configuration.

KM Article Toolbar, associated with the KB Article hosted control. It has one button;

• Send Link to Chat – This triggers one action called “Send Article PublicUrl”. Which in turn uses a “WriteMessage” action on the chat control to send the public url for the knowledge article to the customer.
  

KM Search Toolbar, associated with the KB Search hosted control and has four buttons.

• Send Link to Chat – This trigger one action called “Send Article PublicUrl”. Which in turn uses a “WriteMessage” action on the chat control to send the public url for the knowledge article to the customer.
  
• Read Last Message – This triggers an action to search the knowledge base using the last chat message as an input.
  
• Link Article – This called one action which associates the article with the current incident.
  
• Copy Link – This called an action that copies the current article to the clipboard.
  

Note: I actually found that my “Link Article” and “Copy Link” toolbar buttons did not call any action. To resolve this I viewed the action as defined in the sample packaged from Microsoft and replicated in my environment.

Chat Activity Toolbar, associated with the chat activity hosted control and has two buttons.

• Associate to Case – This button triggers two actions. “AttachCasetoChatActivity” and “RefreshChatActivity”.
  
• Refresh Chat Activity – This button just triggers the “RefreshChatActivity” action.
  

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Additions – Window Navigation Rules

Just four window navigation rules were added into my organisation.

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Additional Hosted Control Detail

In the remainder of this document I will describe additional details about each of the hosted controls added to my solution.

• Associated Contact
• Chat Activity
• Chat Context
• Chat Control
• Chat Search Page
• Cobrowse Control
• Custom Panel
• LeftPanelActivities
• Presence Control
• Transcript Control for CHat Activity

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Associated Contact

The “Associated Contact” hosted control is a CRM Web Page. As I described in my introduction this control seems to have been added as I didn’t already have a hosted control called “Associated Contact”. I had however got one called “Associated Contacts“. This means I may need to revise later.

UII Actions

In my USD system, this control had no UII Actions! (But this wouldn’t be the case if added into the Microsoft sample package.)

Events

In my USD system, this control no Events! (But this wouldn’t be the case if added into the Microsoft sample package.)

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Chat Activity

The “Chat Activity” hosted control is a CRM Page ….

UII Actions

Only standard UII actions existed.

Events

Only standard Events existed.

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Chat Context

The chat context hosted control is a standard web application ….

UII Actions

Only standard UII actions existed.

Events

Only standard Events existed.

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Chat Control

The “Chat Control” hosted control is a custom USD hosted control. This fact is interesting! As any custom code will need to be copied to the USD client. Therefore, we also have a customization file that is associated with the chat control. See screen shot below!

UII Actions

32 UII Actions existed after importing Live Assist, Including;

Events

14 Events existed after importing Live Assist, Including;

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Chat Search Page

The “Chat Search Page” is a CRM Page that is placed into a session when a chat is opened. It holds a multi-entity search that contains the name of the contact.

UII Actions

Only standard UII actions existed.

Events

Only standard Events existed.

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Cobrowse Control

The cobrowse hosted control is a standard web application ….

UII Actions

Only standard UII actions existed.

Events

Only standard Events existed.

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Custom Panel

The “Custom Panel” hosted control is the panel layout used by Live Assist. As explained in my introduction I altered any actions that used this hosted control to use my existing panel layout instead. This included roughly 6 actions that use the SetVisualProperty action.

UII Actions

Only standard UII actions existed.

Events

Only standard Events existed.

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LeftPanelActivities

The LeftPanelActivities hosted control is a CRM Page ….

UII Actions

In my USD system, this control had no UII Actions! (But this wouldn’t be the case if added into the Microsoft sample package.)

Events

In my USD system, this control no Events! (But this wouldn’t be the case if added into the Microsoft sample package.)

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Presence Control

The “Presence Control” is another significant hosted control, as like the chat control it is a custom control. (And will therefore also be include in the customization file added when Live Assist is installed.

UII Actions

10 UII Actions existed after importing Live Assist, Including;

Events

1 Events existed after importing Live Assist, Including;

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Transcript Control for Chat Activity

The “Transcript Control for Chat Activity” hosted control is a standard web page ….

UII Actions

Only standard UII actions existed.

Events

Only standard Events existed.
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Hey guys and girls,

i have a question about my small Office365 CRM (online)-Setup.

I am using two instances of CRM - one "productive", one "sandbox".

The "productive"-instance has already a few data in it and the sandbox is still emtpy. Both have the Project Service Automation App enabled.

Now i want to install some Project Service Automation demo-data into the sandbox and there is a package for that from Microsoft.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/use-demo-data-project-service-automation.aspx

I found some PackageDeployer-Youtube-Videos and i haven't seen an option to choose the CRM-instance for the data deployment.

Now i am a bit afraid, that the Project Service Automation demo-data installer (PackageDeployer) will simply override my "productive"-data, instead of importing everything into my sandbox.

Do you people know something about this?

Thank in advance :-)

Hi ,

I would like to ask about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Customization and Configuration Exam (MB2-712),

I want to take this exam but I need to prepare for this exam first, so please can you give me any advice before taking this exam, and if you have some resources like books, materials.... etc that can help me, please provide it. :)

Your help in this regard will be highly appreciated!

Thanks,

Best Regard ..

Hello,

I am trying to find out how to enable and use the new Resource scheduling optimization for Field Service feature but I cannot find this anywhere! Can someone help with this please?

According to the Microsoft features FAQ page (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/dynamics-365-online-vs-on-premises-features-faq.aspx#BKMK_2016Update1) the feature was included in the December update to Dynamics 365 which I believe relates to the version 8.2.0.561 which is the version my new trial has (created this morning).

I have enabled the Field Service Trial and configured it but cannot find any documentation or settings to show me how to actually USE the feature or if it even exists in the solution.

Cheers,
Reece

Project Service Automation (PSA) for Microsoft Dynamics 365 gives us powerful / flexible project management capability in “CRM”. I have recently created several blog posts explaining its capabilities. I have also created a series of videos to demonstrate PSA.

In this fifth episode I explain how resources can complete time sheets and submit expense claims. Plus how the project manager can then  approve these to update actuals against the project.

Project Service Automation (PSA) for Microsoft Dynamics 365 gives us powerful / flexible project management capability in “CRM”. I have recently created several blog posts explaining its capabilities. I have also created a series of videos to demonstrate PSA.

In this sixth episode I explain how we create, amend and confirm invoices.