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Known issues when developing for MSCRM 4.0

If you get the MSCRM 4.0 SDK there is a little html file called sdkreadme.htm, which you would assume (incorrectly) is about the SDK itself and not the development side. Well in there is a number of issues that can occur. So in the interest of helping someone out who is searching for this particular issue on the net (instead of reading the manual, like we ever do that) here are the issues (related to development only. There is some samples stuff which I have removed):
  • Organization specific URL requests to CrmService.asmx are case-sensitive (32068)
  • PreReturnValue.Stop Callout in 3.0 does not show any error (22605)
    • Returning a Stop value from a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 callout has been deprecated and is made equivalent to returning an Abort value. Callouts returning a Stop value will result in an Abort. However, a standard error message will be displayed to the user instead of a custom message.
  • Offline plug-ins or offline SDK creating entities   (10858)
    • Inside a plug-in, if an entity is created or updated, the action is recorded as offline user even though it is impersonated as SYSTEM.
  • Offline plug-ins that create entities use the offline user's credentials, even if the plug-in specifies impersonation.
  • Deletion of plug-ins   (8574)
    • When an Asynchronous plug-in or Custom Workflow Activity is deleted, it is recommended that you stop and restart the Async Service so that entries in the Async queue are aware of the plug-in or custom workflow deletion.
  • Metadata API: Failure on update of system required attribute  (32170)
    • When you try to update an attribute that is system required, an exception is thrown.
    • Workaround: Set the required level to NULL before calling update.
  • Metadata API: Unable to update the default value on the statuscode attribute (31251)
    • There is no method in the MetadataAPI that allows you to update the default value for a statuscode attribute.
    • Workaround: Use import or edit the value using the application user interface.
  • Metadata API: GetValidReferencingEntities and GetValidReferencedEntities messages return results for entities that cannot be referenced from the task entity (32116)
    • The task entity cannot be a referenced or referencing entity in a custom relationship. However, the GetValidReferencing and GetValidReferenced messages return a list of possibile entities for a relationship.
    • Workaround: Use the CanBeReferenced or CanBeReferencing messages to determine if the task entity can participate in a relationship.
  • Text attribute value cannot contain escape characters   (2134)
    • When you create an entity instance such as an account, the name attribute value cannot contain escape characters. For example, if you create an account where the name is "Name_\r_123", after the create the actual name of the account will be "Name_\n_123".
  • Bulk Delete UI: Deleted records not shown in Bulk Record Deletion Grid (31741) 
    • When executing the BulkDelete message, if the BulkDeleteRequest.RecurrenceStartTime property is set to "today", the Bulk Record Deletion grid will not show the correct number of deleted records and the number of failures for the bulk delete job.
  • Lookup Type is not always populated (31612)
    • For the following attributes, the lookup type is not set when you retrieve an entity instance:
    • activitypointer.serviceid
      annotation.objectid
      appointment.serviceid
      customeraddress.parentid
      documentindex.documentid
      fax.serviceid
      incidentresolution.serviceid
      letter.serviceid
      listmember.entityid
      opportunityclose.serviceid
      orderclose.serviceid
      phonecall.serviceid
      queueitem.objectid
      quoteclose.serviceid
      site.createdby
      site.modifiedby
      task.serviceid
      timezonelocalizedname.timezonedefinitionid
      timezonerule.timezonedefinitionid
  • AssociateRequest message does not work for several relationships (28900)
    • The AssociateRequest message will fail for these relationships: systemuserroles_association and teammembership_association.
    • Workaround: Use the following specialized requests that are available for these relationships: AssignUserRolesRoleRequest and AddMembersTeamRequest.
  • SPLA/IFD: Anonymous access for DiscoveryService in SPLA is not allowed on all methods (32683)
    • In some configurations, download of the WSDL will fail because anonymous access is not allowed.
    • Workaround:  You can publish the Discovery service WSDL for partners/developers. You can use the static WSDL shipped with the SDK, located in the folder \SDK\WSDL.
File attachments
sdkreadme.htm (24.88 KB)

MSCRM 4.0 Duplicate Detection Publishing Statuses

I recently was looking for some concrete information on the various status meanings in MSCRM 4.0 for the duplicate rules publishing. Checking the help didn't help, so I used the feedback option on it to say so. This morning I got a response answering the exact question. Anyway for anyone else looking for this information here it is (not like you couldn't guess, but better to be safe than sorry):
  • Unpublished: Rule has been created, but matchcodes have not yet been created.
  • Publishing: Matchcodes are in process of being created. Rule is not yet in effect. This step can take a while if you have many records.
  • Published: Matchcodes have been created for each record in the base and matching record type for the rule. Records created or updated after the rule is published will be checked against existing records.

MSCRM Requirements - Server

If you downloaded MSCRM and you do the server install you are likely presented with a lovely missing requirements screen like the one below, which you then need to download the requirements and install. Besides the waste of time and bandwidth, there are occasions where this isn't possible so this is how you can download the files yourself (using your favorite download manager for added speed) and put them in the install location so the installer finds them. It also helps with the fact that no matter if the Visual C++ runtime is installed it wants to download and install it each time.

Note: This is compiled from a x86 install. The x64 install mileage may vary.
The file locations are relative to the setupserver.exe.

Note you find this information in the crm40srvsetup.log file in <system drive>:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\MSCRM\Logs

File attachments
requirements.PNG (17.25 KB)

Trend Micro OfficeScan Password when Uninstall - How to Bypass

This is a great proof of how NOT to protect software. When you try to uninstall it can ask for a password configured by the network admin, but what it the server admin, servers or entire infrastructure is gone basically giving you no chance of getting the password back. Well facing that scenario myself, I hacked around and found a work around.
First off I would not have figured this out if it wasn't for a similar post about bypassing the protection on the server available at http://www.sbsfaq.com/Lists/FAQs/DispForm.aspx?ID=23
The differences on the client side (compared with article above) start with the location of the file it's in C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client. Next the keys are a little different, first you need to find the [INI_CLIENT_SECTION] and in that file, change the following keys:
  • Client_Allow_Uninstall to 1
  • Client_Allow_Unload to 1
  • Uninstall_Pwd to 70
  • Unload_Protect to 0
  • RemoveCTA to 1
Save the ini file and launch the uninstall. Now enter 1 as the password and viola it's gone! From a development point of view this is an example of how not to use encryption. The machine encryption in the patterns&practises Enterprise Library is a much better place to start, and in addition you should also look into using hash to sign files like this, so that tampering with them, invalidates them and requires an update from the server.

Windows Complete Backup - Report from the trenches

Vista has a great feature called complete backup with makes a VHD of your hard drive (more details see channel 9: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=229767), or so I'm told. Yesterday was the first chance I got to sit down and use it, and I'm not over the moon by it. I used an external SATA drive (connects via USB) to store the backup and that was fine. It didn't run the first time cause the laptop was on battery mode (probably a good thing that it warned me).
The VHD was created in an acceptable time and I moved to the new machine and popped the Vista disk in and started the restore. That was quick. However when I tried to boot it blue screened. So I popped the Vista disk back in and tried to use the startup repair tool, it said ti found a problem but couldn't repair itCry. So in the end I installed Vista over the restored version, which has it's plus in that it meant any files out side of the My documents of the user also got copied across but meant cleanup of the Windows.Old folder.
Looking around this morning it seems there are some issues in it To be fair thought some people have good luck with it, like this guy: http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/11/vista-complete-pc-backup-it-winner-in.html

How to set all your users to use the same email handling methods

In MSCRM 4.0 you can specify how the user works with their incoming and outgoing email. Incoming is none, the router, outlook client or the forward mail box while outgoing is the router, outlook client or none. There is two ways to config this, one get the user to set it in their settings (yeah right) or go through the users in the admin side, manually, one by one (boring and a waste of time). Well you can create a simple workflow to do it bulk: And voila now you have the users updated to the correct method. Another nice option for the network admins is once you installed the email router the ad users and groups has a menu option to launch the config tool for them (see http://www.sadev.co.za/files/ad.png)
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MSCRM Email Router: Incoming Status: Failure - The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.

When configuring the MSCRM 4.0 email router for Exchange incoming you may get the following message when testing: Incoming Status: Failure - The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.

This is actually caused by a bad UI (IMHO) which kinda gets you to configure it wrong. What has happened is that the outgoing has a tick box saying to use SSL and asks for a server name, while the incoming asks for a URL. It automatically puts in http:// so naturally you fill in your server, i.e. http://myexchange

However Exchange runs on SSL so it actually needs to be https://myexchange

If that doesn't help then open up the URL you are putting in, in a web browser and see if it works. You'll get a lot more information on the real cause.

Find your MSCRM License Key

In MSCRM 3.0 I did a few redeployments of MSCRM and what was nice was in the database was the license table which contained the key. This was great since most of the time the customer couldn't find the original media a year down the line.

Well for MSCRM 4.0 the license table is gone, but fear not you can still get the key. If you have the media the key is in a file called license.txt (atleast according to the implementation guide). If you got the download version there is no such file but you can still get it from the MSCRM_CONFIG database in the ConfigSettings table.

Essential Developer Tools - Part 4: Static Analysis Tool

Static analysis is the process of having a tool scan at your compiled and/or uncompiled code for things like bad practises, maintainabilty, performance and security issues and so on. If you have Visual Studio Team Edition or better then you have the built in tool which is based on the free FxCop. Wikipedia contains a nice list of various tools available, but the reason why FxCop/VS is so much better is the help on the issues. All the help contains samples and information on the how and why of the problem and solutions for it. This actually becomes more than a tool to ship software but a great learning aid for the developer using it.

I'm a knitting term?!

There is an interesting site called spock which you put your name in and it finds details about you. Seems very poor results for anyone beside the brits and the yanks (aka the rest of the world!) but once I put in South Africa it did find one thing about me.

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