Author: Carl

Data Contract Cannot be Serialized Error in Dynamics 365 Plugin

When running a plugin, developers may see the error: The data contract type ‘Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.OrganizationServiceFault’ cannot be serialized in partial trust because the property ‘ExceptionRetriable’ does not have a public getter. One reason for this, is when you are using tracing in your plugin, you should have tracing enabled in Dynamics 365 settings. Code: [sourcecode language=”CSharp”] ITracingService tracingService = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService)); tracingService.Trace("Tracing"); [/sourcecode] In System Settings, enable:  

Installing and Using the Word Cloud Visualization for Power BI

To install the Word Cloud Visual by Microsoft for Power BI, first open Power BI Desktop, and under Visualizations, select Import from marketplace: Find Word Cloud and click Add: Click OK: Now under Visualizations you will see the Word Cloud icon: Select it. In our example, our Opportunity records have a name field, which describes customer opportunities. We will use that as the Category of the word cloud. You can … Continue reading Installing and Using the Word Cloud Visualization for Power BI

Creating a Dashboard from Within Power BI Service

To create a dashboard in the Power BI service, go through the following steps. First, select your workspace: From the top right, select Create->Dashboard: Provide a dashboard name, e.g. Carl’s Dashboard: You will see a blank screen with options. Select + Add Tile: You can select from: Web Content Image Text box Video Real-Time Data Web Content Select web content. Click Next: Here we can add web content such as … Continue reading Creating a Dashboard from Within Power BI Service

How to Change the Theme in Azure Portal

To change the theme in Azure Portal, log into the portal at https://portal.azure.com and select the Settings icon in the top right: Here you will see the options to choose a theme, and the high contrast theme settings: Selecting a theme will change it right away:

Cloning a GitHub Repository using Command Line

Let’s clone the GitHub repo located here. Click on Code: And copy the link: Make sure you have Git installed. Now open a command prompt, browse to the directory you want to clone the repo, and type in: git clone <paste your clipboard here> This will download the repo: And the files will be downloaded:  

Power BI Home – Exploring the Features

Power BI has now moved into a preview feature. In a previous post, I spoke about the announcement of Power BI Home and what it means. In this post we will explore using the new home. We can see the welcome message – “Everything you need in one place: Your top visuals are displayed for easy consumption. Your favorites, frequents, and recents are close at hand. And you can explore learning … Continue reading Power BI Home – Exploring the Features

Deep Dive into Comments and @Mentions in Power BI

Power BI announced a new collaborative feature of allowing users to provide comments in dashboards as well as to specific visuals. In this post, we will look at how to use this new feature. First, sign into https://powerbi.com and select an app. We will open the Sales Analytics for Dynamics 365 app: This will open a dashboard: In the toolbar, you will see Comments. Select it: On first selecting, you will … Continue reading Deep Dive into Comments and @Mentions in Power BI

Thinking of Learning Power BI? Check Out My Top Learning Resources

Thinking of learning Power BI? There are plenty of great ways to learn Power BI and get Power BI training. Below is a list of my favorite resources. All are free, except the paid courses as mentioned at the end (no affiliation, but including these for completeness). 1. Guy in a Cube Guy in a Cube is a YouTube Channel by Microsoft employees Adam Saxton and Patrick LeBlanc: The guys do … Continue reading Thinking of Learning Power BI? Check Out My Top Learning Resources

Recognize Your Customers with Face Recognition, Cloud AI, and Dynamics 365

Artificial Intelligence has been influencing how we live for some time. And now more than ever, the tech giants have been competing to win businesses and developers with their AI services. Microsoft is one of these, and through it’s Azure cloud it has been democratizing the power of various AI capabilities for businesses and developers to take advantage of. In previous posts I have blogged about using voice recognition technology … Continue reading Recognize Your Customers with Face Recognition, Cloud AI, and Dynamics 365