Author: Carl

Deploying a Plugin Across Different Dynamics 365 Environments

A common scenario with plugins is they will be developed in one environment, then tested in another environment and then deployed to production for use. Here we will show how to deploy the plugins across different environments. Let’s say we have a plugin that updates the description of an opportunity when it is created that we want to deploy from a dev environment to a QA/test environment. First we will … Continue reading Deploying a Plugin Across Different Dynamics 365 Environments

Unified Service Desk – Entity Search

In Unified Service Desk, there is the concept of Entity Search. These allow you to query Dynamics 365 through FetchXml in order to retrieve data. You can use Entity Search in Windows Navigation Rules and in the DoSearch action of the CRM Global Manager. You can also call Entity Search through code. Entity Search is useful to retrieve data that is not currently on the USD form, but exists in … Continue reading Unified Service Desk – Entity Search

Understanding StateCode, StatusCode, Status and Status Reason in Dynamics 365

In Dynamics 365, entities contain the fields StateCode and StatusCode. If we create a new entity, we can see the statecode (display name Status) and statuscode (display name Status Reason) fields are automatically created: We can also see the types of these fields are Status and Status Reason respectively. Let’s look at the Status field. We can see it is of type Status, but we do not see any values … Continue reading Understanding StateCode, StatusCode, Status and Status Reason in Dynamics 365

USD – SetWindowProperty Action

The Unified Service Desk SetWindowProperty action allows you to set the Window state of a USD application. To use it, we will create an action that runs off DesktopReady, so it will run with USD loads. Go to DesktopReady: Create a new action call. Note the options for SetWindowProperty are: maximized minimized normal We will be setting USD to be maximized on load: Start USD. It will now be loaded … Continue reading USD – SetWindowProperty Action

Signing Up For and Using Salesforce Trailhead to Learn Salesforce

Salesforce Trailhead is a free online training site to learn Salesforce. To access the site, go to: https://trailhead.salesforce.com and click Sign Up or Login on the top right: Signing up will take you through a sign up process: Selecting Login will prompt you with options to log in using Salesforce, Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn: You will be taken to the login page: Selecting Trails will take you to various guided learning … Continue reading Signing Up For and Using Salesforce Trailhead to Learn Salesforce

Dynamics 365 – Running JavaScript on Activate and Deactivate

In Dynamics 365, some entities contain the ability to activate and deactivate records. For example, with Accounts: Clicking Deactivate will raise an alert that will prompt the user to Confirm Deactivation: Which then changes the status of the item to Inactive: We can add JavaScript code to the OnSave event of this entity that will tell us when a record status has changed to activated or deactivated. For example: Edit … Continue reading Dynamics 365 – Running JavaScript on Activate and Deactivate

Using the Unified Service Desk Generic Adapter for CTI

Unified Service Desk contains functionality for Computer Telephony Integration (CTI). Here we will go through an example of using the USD Generic Listener with a sample application to simulate an incoming phone call. To set up the generic listener, go to USD in Dynamics 365 and create a new Hosted Control. To install the phone call simulator, go here and download the Sample CTI application: Extract the files, and you will … Continue reading Using the Unified Service Desk Generic Adapter for CTI

Unified Service Desk – Pause Action

In Unified Service Desk, the Pause action pauses the execution of an action without blocking message processing. This is useful if you are waiting for the application you are integrating with to complete a task. Here we will go through an example of using this. Let’s say we have a hosted control of type CRM Page. We would like to display a web page, wait for 10 seconds, then display … Continue reading Unified Service Desk – Pause Action

Checking IsDirty in Dynamics 365 using JavaScript

In Dynamics 365, a user may change field values on a form. A common development requirement is to determine if the form is in a “dirty” state. Here we will go through an example of how to check for this using Xrm.Page. We will check if any fields on the account record have changed. We will run our check by pressing a Submit button in the toolbar, before and after … Continue reading Checking IsDirty in Dynamics 365 using JavaScript

Deploying USD Customizations to Client Workstations

In Unified Service Desk, after you create customizations such as custom hosted controls, you will need to deploy these to each USD workstation so every user has the latest code. You could do this manually, copying the code to each workstation, or you could take advantage of the automated customization deployment functionality within USD. First, go to https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/usd/2015/11/19/customization-files-in-unified-service-desk/ and download the USDCustomizationPackageCreator.zip file. Note this is an unsupported method of generating the customization … Continue reading Deploying USD Customizations to Client Workstations