Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.

Course Objectives

Course Topics include:

Customization Overview
Customizing Forms and Views
Customizing Entities and Attributes
Customizing Relationships and Mappings
Introduction to Advanced Customizations
Configuring Business Units, Security and Users

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server integrates with the following
technologies:
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 2008
Microsoft Active Directory
Microsoft Small Business Server
Microsoft SQL Server 2005
SQL Reporting Services 2005
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, 2007

Customization Overview

An effective implementation methodology must

consider each of the ways in which an organization
can implement customizations. These can include:

Deployment customizations
Re-Using Customizations
ISV Products
Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step Methodology

An end-to-end, scalable implementation methodology

model for Microsoft Dynamics solutions to be delivered
by partners and Microsoft Services to drive successful
implementations
Project management techniques, tools, deliverables,
processes, roles and best practices
Structured engagements delivered to customers

Customization Overview

Levels of Customizations

CRM customizations can be

considered a continuum of
enhancements from Simple
to Complex
Business Requirements
should drive changes

Simple
Out of the Box

Customizing
Forms and
Views
Customizing
Schema &
Reports
Application
Event
Programming
SDK & .NET
Extensions

Advanced ISV
Customizations

Complex

Types of Customizations

Customizations covered in this training:

Customizing forms and views

Customizing entities and attributes
Customizing relationships and mappings
Renaming entities

Customizations not covered in this training:

Extending the application using application event
programming
Extending the application using .NET
Using client extensions to link the Microsoft Dynamics CRM
portal in other applications
Automating business processes via Workflow
Customizing reports

Basic UI Customization Capabilities

The basic customization tools can be found in the

Settings > Customization area of the Navigation pane.
The customization tools described in this training are
included in the Customize Entities group.

Lesson: Form Customization Overview

You can modify the defiinition, appearance and behavior

of the forms using customizations tools

Form Customization Overview

Forms are composed of:

Tabs
These four tabs are common to most entity forms

Sections
Sections are used to group fields within a tab. Section names
can be displayed or hidden

Fields
Fields are located within each section

Form changes must be published

Form Customization

Customizing Fields
You can edit the properties, the position, and the behavior of the field.
Do not confuse this with changing the properties associated with each attribute on
the entity this is covered in the next chapter.
Field properties refer to how the field is presented and behaves on the entity form.
When adding fields in a section, be aware of the location of the field and how an
end-user tabs through the fields - top to bottom in each column, starting with the
left-most column and moving to the right.
Field properties are grouped into the following four tabs:
Display
Formatting
Schema
Events

Lab 6.1 - Form Customization

Add and Move Tabs

Add, Modify, and Move Sections
Add and Move Fields
Change Field Display properties
Change Field Layout properties

Customizing Views

Customizing Views
Views are a type of saved query that returns lists of records for a
given entity that meet a certain criteria
View customizations typically include:

Modify fields displayed and where they are displayed on the view
Modify filter criteria used to select records to display
Change sorting rules
Modify column width for each field

Lab 6.2: View Customization

Customize the system views

Create new publics views

Customization Concepts

Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes three types of

entities:
System
Customizable
Custom

Each entity includes attributes, which are columns in a

table, and referred to in the UI as fields
There are two types of attributes:
System
Custom

Customizing Attributes

If your organization requires a field not currently found in

Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can:
create a new field by adding a custom attribute; or
edit the properties of an existing attribute

If you create a new attribute:

Expose it on the entity's form in order to make the attribute
available for use on views, reports, and workflow rules
A custom attribute can be deleted if you later decide that it
is no longer needed.

Creating a Custom Attribute

Create a custom attribute

Add it to the entitys form
Create a new view displaying the
attribute
Publish and test

Creating a Custom Entity

Carefully plan your configuration of the properties on the entity

Form before creating the entity
There are several properties you cannot change once you save
a new custom entity:
Display Name, Plural Name and (Schema) Name
Ownership type
Associated entities (Notes and Activities)
Additional properties include:
Areas showing this entity
Offline availability
Primary attribute

Creating a Custom Entity

Entity Icons
Every custom entity is assigned the same generic icon
You can customize the following icons for each entity by uploading
graphic files to replace the default icons:
Icon in the Web application - 16x16 pixels in size and in a .gif
format
Outlook Shortcut icon - 32x32 pixels in size and in a .ico format
Icon in Entity Forms - 66x48 pixels in size and in a .gif format
All image files cannot be larger than 10 KB in size, and they must have
transparency for best results.
NOTE: You cannot customize the icons for system entities.

Creating a Custom Entity

Create a custom entity

Create custom attributes
Update the entitys form
Update the entitys Active view
Update an end-user security role for
the entity
Publish and test

Entity Relationships

Entity relationships represent how the entities are related to

each other within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform.
When you create custom entities, you need to describe their
relationships with other entities.
Although system entities already have relationships, you can
change the behavior of these relationships.
NOTE: See the Appendix topic "Entity Eligibility List to see
which relationship types apply to each system entity.

Entity Relationships

Supported relationships:

1:N System to Custom

1:N Custom to System
1:N Custom to Activity/Note
1:N Custom to Custom
Self-Referential
N:N
System to System

Unsupported relationships:
1:N Customer (Account or Contact) to Custom
1:1 Any to Any

Entity Relationships

1-to-Many (1:N) Relationships

Create a Manual N:N relationship

Class Discussion in Goal Description

Create a custom entity that will act as
the intersect entity
Create N:1 relationships from the
intersect entity to two existing entities
Create new attributes in the intersect
entity
Add these attributes to the intersect
entitys form
Edit the intersect entitys Associated
View
Publish and test

Create a Native N:N relationship

Review many of the previous concepts

Add new attribute to Accounts
Create a new Account view
Create a custom entity and add new
attributes to it
Update the new entitys form
Create a N:N relationship between the
new entity and Accounts
Create a new N:1 relationship
Modify views
Publish and test

Entity Mappings

Attribute mapping facilitates data entry when creating new

records that are related to a parent record.
The mapping pre-populates defined fields in a new record with
information from the parent object.
Users can overwrite any of the mapped values before saving
the record.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows mapping one source attribute
to many attributes in the target entity.
For example, this allows address fields in an Account to be mapped to
both the Billing Address and the Shipping Address fields in an Order.

Add a Mapping

Modify entity picklist values in Leads

and Accounts
Add custom attributes to the Lead
and Contact entities and their
respective forms
Create a mapping between picklist
fields in Leads and Contacts
Publish and Test

Introduction to Advanced Customization

Introduction to Workflow
Introduction to Application Event Programming

Core Concepts
Common Uses for Client-side code
Using Form Events
Using Field Events
Configuring Event Detail Properties

Introduction to Client Extensions

Dynamic IFrame
URL Addressable Forms
Creating Custom Menus, Side Tabs and Buttons
ISV.Config Integration Points
SiteMap
SDK Capabilities
ISV Solutions

Introduction to Workflow

Workflow allows companies to automate their business processes

Workflow enables actions to occur without direct interaction by the
users, based on rules set up by the business.
Workflow rules are triggered by events within Microsoft Dynamics CRM
when specific actions are performed and specified conditions are met.

Activity Creation in Workflow

Create a phone call activity when

a new contact is created

Lesson: Application Event Programming

Events
Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows custom programming logic to be
applied when specific events occur within the application.
The following table outlines the events available on each form in
Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
These events are on either the Form or Field level events.
Level

Event

Description

Form

OnLoad

Occurs when the CRM form loads

OnSave

Occurs when the save (or save and close) button is clicked
in the CRM Form

OnChange

Occurs when the data in any field in the form is changed

and the field loses focus

Field

Common uses for Event Programming

Data Validation
Duplicate Detection
Dynamic Picklist
Field Masking

Extending Functionality
Extending the application's functionality can be performed at many
levels.
Some functionality may require extensive development that might best be
achieved through purchasing a solution from an ISV.
Other levels of functionality can be achieved relatively simply by a web
developer with an understanding of how Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports
client-side code.

IFrame

The term IFrame refers to Inline Frame.

An IFrame allows you to display the web page of another
application within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM form.

IFrame

You can use an IFrame for a variety of purposes, such as

displaying:
Another web site
Static web content can be displayed from an intranet or extranet site.

Dynamic web application

The URL for the IFrame can be manipulated using Dynamic HTML
(DHTML) to pass arguments to a web application to display
information related to the record within the IFrame.

Dynamic help
The IFrame can interact with the CRM form to:
display information relevant to the data found on the form
respond to events triggered by the user's actions within the form

URL Addressable Forms

You can use URL Addressable forms to:

Create new records
Access existing records
Copy and Send Shortcuts

Creating Custom Menus, Side Tabs and Buttons

Custom menus, navigation items, and buttons allow you to display or

access another application from within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
These customizations are defined for the Web application and the
Outlook Client by:
exporting the ISV.Config information from the customization area
editing it
re-importing it

ISV.config is not a file that you can manipulate and save.

Because the ISV.config information is generated from the metadata,
you must export the ISV.config configuration just as you would any
customizations that you want to move from one deployment to another.

Creating Custom Menus, Side Tabs and Buttons

After you have enabled your customizations, you need to set

the ISV Extensions privilege for any security roles that need
to use the customizations.
By default, the security roles that do not represent a
management position do not have ISV Extensions privilege.
NOTE: Because the access rights and privileges a user enjoys are
the union of all the security roles they belong to, you can create a
specialized role that only grants the ISV Extensions privilege.
To control access to ISV extensions on an individual basis, remove
the ISV Extensions privilege from other roles and assign this role to
selected users along with their regular security role(s).

ISV.Config Integration Points

Application Level
Global Toolbar

Global Menu bar

ISV.Config Integration Points

Detail Level
Detail Form Toolbar

ISV.Config Integration Points

Detail Level
Detail Form Menubar

ISV.Config Integration Points

Detail Level
Detail Level Navigation Pane

ISV.Config Integration Points

Entity Grid Level

Grid Button
Grid Action Menu

Lesson: SiteMap

Granular control of the Application Level Navigation pane

Combines data from isv.config and metadata
Also controls Go To menu and User Settings
Add new Workplace Profiles

Outlook
Areas, Workplace groups, and Sub-areas appear in Outlook
Outlook overrides order to display folders alphabetically

SDK Capabilities

SDK available on MSDN and on Microsoft CRM CD

Includes:
Server Programming Guide
Client Programming Guide
Report Writers Guide

Server Programming Guide documents methods to

interact with the Microsoft CRM Platform
Includes Sample code
Microsoft CRM Platform uses Web Services
If it is not in the SDK, it is not supported

SDK Capabilities

CRUD APIs
Create, Read, Update (write), Delete

Query
Create queries

Plug-ins
Pre- and Post-plug-ins
Create assemblies that listen for events
Registered in XML Configuration file

Metadata Service
Provides current description of platform metadata
Used in Metadata Browser

Workflow .NET Assemblies

How to create them

Business Units

Business Units provide the framework upon

which you define your organizational hierarchy:
User management (users, managers, and teams)
Security (data access)
Reporting
Root Business Unit

Business Unit 1

Business Unit 2

Business Unit 3

Business Unit 4

Business Unit 5

Access Levels

User Management Overview

Steps to create a user account in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM:

1) Add the user to Active Directory.
2) Add a new user account in Microsoft CRM
Active Directory
CRM

3
1

3) Assign one or more security roles to the user.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM User Licenses:

Full
Administrative
Read Only