How to integrate SharePoint online with CRM Online - Part 2 -> Integration of CRM and SharePoint online

This is the second part of the blog post following this post. This post focuses on configuring the SharePoint site within CRM online 2011, integrating the both, uploading documents from with CRM to the SharePoint respective folder. Following are the steps for the same:

1) To Configure SharePoint, first you need to download List Component for SharePoint Site. You Can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5283

2) Extract downloaded component, you will see 2 imp Files Namely:

       a) AllowHtcExtn.ps1: This is the Power Shell script, which “Allows” SharePoint to allow    users to use *.htc files.

       b) crmlistcomponent.wsp: This is the solution that we will upload to the SharePoint site    solution gallery that will enable SharePoint to “Speak” with CRM. It enables to automatically create a hierarchical folder Structure on SharePoint for CRM Records

3)  To install List Component in SharePoint, please Click on the “Sites” in the homepage of Office 365 and then click on the Settings (Next to your name) >> Site Settings >> Solutions. Please refer below screenshot

4) After clicking on the Solutions hyperlink, click on “Upload Solutions” and browse “crmlistcomponent.wsp” file and click Ok.

5)Then select uploaded solution and activate it

 
6) You can see status for uploaded solution to Activated in below screenshot

   
7) Now create a new record of Default SharePoint Site in Document Management >> SharePoint Sites. Make sure you have installed List Component in Team Site and activated it

  8)  Now you can Configure SharePoint site for your CRM by visiting CRM Online Homepage. Please follow this path in CRM online to configure SharePoint site and then click on Settings >> Document Management >> Document Management Settings


       

    


 9) Select the entities for which you want to add folder locations in SharePoint and add SharePoint Team Site URL in below textbox. Then click Next


       

       


10) Ignore Based on Entity Part and Click Next  

   

     

11)  Now you can see the folder locations created for the selected Entities

   

    


  12) You can further check any selected Entity Records to see whether Documents is created or not. Note: On the First Load it will ask to create Document location for particular record. Here just click OK to continue


     

    

 
13)   After Clicking on OK button, you can easily Upload files to SharePoint by clicking on new button
         

     

Hope this article helps!

How to integrate SharePoint online with CRM Online - Part 1 -> Creation of CRM Online and SharePoint online common user account

This is a two part blog post illustrating the functionality of integrating SharePoint online with CRM online. The first part of the blog focuses on creating CRM and SharePoint online accounts having common Office 365 user account. Then the second part of the blog talks about integrating the two systems and uploading files from CRM to SharePoint site.

Steps for creating CRM Online Account

1) Visit http://crm.dynamics.com/en-in/on-demand and create Trial Dynamics CRM online Account. If you already have account then ignore these steps and proceed with the 2^nd Part of this blog.

Note: While creating an Account please keep a note of created Login User ID and Password.

2) After creation of Account, just refresh the page after few minutes and you can see “CRM” hyperlink in the top right corner. It will redirect you to the Settings of CRM Online. Please make a Note of Office 365 homepage Link for further use

3) After Clicking on the CRM Link It will ask you to confirm your settings. Here you can modify your CRM instance URL and Default Currency or you can ignore this process and come to the last point of settings where you can “Launch CRM Online” homepage.

 

Steps for creating SharePoint Online Account

1) Visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/jj819267.aspx to create SharePoint Online Account and Click on the “Office 365 Enterprise E3”. This plan will allow you to associate SharePoint online site with same user Id of CRM online

2) After clicking on the “Office 365 Enterprise E3”, it will redirect you to the SharePoint Online Page. Please click on “Try now” button to proceed.

3) After clicking on the “Try Now” button, click on “an Existing Account” Link at the top.

    4)  Now it will ask you to type in the existing office 365 Account ID and Password. Please enter the User ID and Password and then Sign in     


 

  
  

 5)   Now it will ask you to confirm your order. Please click on the “Try now” to Proceed Further   

   

   


6) In the Next process Click on the “Continue” Button to proceed

7)   Now it will redirect you to the Homepage of Office 365 Account. You will see SharePoint is configuring for your Account

8)  Now refresh the page after installation and Click on “Admin” Link on the top right and Select “SharePoint”

 
9) It will give following Error Msg. This means logged in user has no rights to access SharePoint site, hence SharePoint site is not created for that user

10) Our Next step is to assign rights to that user for accessing SharePoint. Please Go to the Homepage of Office365 and then follow below steps:


a) Click Users and Groups

b) Select an User

c) Click on Edit Button

11)  Click on following options and Click on “Save” Button

12)    Now click on SharePoint to redirect to the SharePoint site

13) This is the default site for the user to access SharePoint. Now this particular user can access SharePoint Site and CRM Online with just one common Office 365 Account

Note: To create another user for SharePoint, you can create it from users and Group section under Office 365 Homepage and assign CRM Online and SharePoint Online rights as per your needs 


Follow the next part of this blog here for Integrating these two systems.

Looking for more real estate on Dynamics CRM page

This articles shows various ways in which you can increase the space on Microsoft Dynamics CRM home page. 

Hide the Get Started Pane from the home page

We always see Get started pane above each view as shown below.

If user wishes to disable/hide this pane by default then it can be done, follow below steps.

Click on options as shown below

Under General Tab, uncheck the option “show Get started panes on all lists” as shown below

If you are system administrator and you want to hide or remove this get started pane for all users then it can also be done, please follow below steps for this.

Go to Settings -- Administration -- System Settings

Under General tab, set the “Show Get started pane on all lists for all users” option to NO as shown below. After this you can see all the views without Get Started pane for all users

Collapse the Ribbon bar

In order to collapse the Ribbon bar in CRM follow the outlined steps below:

In CRM we can see arrow at top right corner as shown in below image.

         

Click on that arrow so that ribbon bar get collapsed and we can see full screen records as shown below. In below image, as you can see, only menu is visible without the Ribbon bar.

To see ribbon bar again click on the same arrow at top right corner or else you can click on menu options like view, charts, customize etc. to see the menu items

Reduce the width of the CRM Wonderbar

Reducing the width of the sitemap area in CRM is also very simple so you have more space for your CRM page

In CRM we can see resize option on the sitemap as shown in below image

Click on that resize option and resize sitemap as per your needs, you can drag it to left or right side

After resizing the sitemap you can see it as shown in below image

If you want to increase the size of sitemap again drag the resize option as shown below

Show different Header/Footer on different pages of SSRS report

Sometimes, there are requirements to show different Header/ Footer on different pages of the report.

Like say, on the first page, header/ footer of report should be some text and on the second page it should be some different text. Please refer below screenshots.

First Page Footer

Second Page Footer

This can be achieved using the solution as described below:

You need to write a simple expression on the textbox control which is placed on the footer. Here you can utilize expression “Globals!PageNumber” which is used to show page numbers. This expression returns the page number, and we can alter this to show different footer on different pages.

You need to write following expression on the textbox control.

=IIf(cstr(Globals!PageNumber)="1","1111-XYZ (2012/12)      © ABC Sol, 2012","1111-XYZ (2012/12)")

If the report page is the first page, then this expression would set the specified text else it would display alternate text.

General Syntax

=IIF(cstr(Globals!PageNumber)=”<Page Number>”,” <Text to display on the specified Page number> ” , ” <Text to display on other page>”)

Similarly, you can use this expression to show different header on different pages as well.

Hope this article helps!

iPad Sales Experience for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online

Now we can access Dynamic CRM online on an iPad in a supported manner. This means that iPad experience only supports the new look & feel of the updated Polaris forms. Now existing CRM online user turns this on by installing product updates. For new customers in CRM Online, this functionality will be enabled by default.

After installation you’ll be able to see iPad Sales Experience on your iPad by simply hitting the CRM URL on your Safari browser.

 

Things that you must have for using CRM 2011 on your iPad

• You must have iOS6 installed to use CRM online in your iPad
• You can only access this from Safari on an iPad
• For Safari, Dynamics CRM will work with:  Mac OS-X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), Mac OS-X 10.7 (Lion), Mac OS-X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) will offer full support.

Things those are available on the iPad and Functionality in the iPad

• COLA(Contact, Opportunity, Lead & Account) entities will open up in the new process based forms of Polaris. (screen shots for lead & account are attached at the end of blog)

• Other Entities in Dashboards & Sub Grids can’t be accessed through Sitemap & while opening other entities they’ll open up in either Mobile Express UI or Read Optimized format. (If you disable the new UI through any security role then the mobile express form is displayed.)

• Customized forms will always open in Mobile Express. The Home and Most Recently Used buttons are removed, and the navigation pane is collapsed by default when in portrait mode.

• Whenever the task is created/ updated for the customer you will see the feeds posted on your as well as your followers’ wall in CRM as shown below.

 

 

With what’s new feature you can delete, like and, reply in a comment for the post which is similar to well known social networking site, Facebook. You can also follow Entities like opportunities, Leads so the team will have an update regarding the progress on each customer task; whose functionality is similar to another popular social networking site, twitter.

• Polaris is designed to load quicker

• All fields can be easily modified on the iPad including lookup fields. Lookup fields are now available in a dropdown fashion. However, when you click Lookup More Records you get a lookup dialog that’ll appear overlaid on the CRM window.

 

 

 

• You can work with the Charts and Dashboards like you did within CRM. When on a grid, you can expand the Charts pane to click on a section of the chart, the data in the grid automatically refresh’s for those records that section applies to, and even selects a new field and chart type to report on different data.

The updated Polaris forms have few limitations which if handled correctly are quite manageable. Few limitations which are quite observable I’m listing out as follows.

·         You won’t see any ribbon extensions.

·         You can only add a phone call & task with a record. If you want to add appointment, Email or a Fax you have to switch to classic or add via a sub grid.

·         Unlike the ribbon, the command bar is not customizable.

·         You can see related records but you can’t add new ones. Though this can be achieved using sub-grid or switching back to classic.

·         On Load, on change or On Save event handlers don’t support JavaScript.

·         You cannot create dashboards for the new UI.

·         Customized forms will show up only in a very basic layout. If you have added client scripts to any of the forms listed above, you’ll still be able to access them normally on other devices, but your customizations will not be present on the iPad.

·         You won’t be able to access the process editor for sales (or service) forms.

·         You won’t be able to share records.

·         You won’t be able to access the form editor.

·         Most of the commands that were available in the ribbon at the top of the screen have been moved to the command bar at the bottom of the screen.

·         You will be able to edit records individually, but you won’t be able to edit them in bulk.

·         You can’t re-size a chart, but you can maximize and minimize it.

·         Entities like Quote, Product, Goal, Marketing List, Rollup Query, Rollup Field, & Article do not open on the iPad.

 

[Screen Shots]

 

1.  Dashboard

 

 

2.  Account

 

 

 

 

3. Lead