Dynamics CRM 4.0 to 2011 upgrade - ISV tab dilemma

Currently, I am working on one of my projects where in I was told to develop an upgrade plan, to upgrade an organization from CRM 4.0 to 2011. The customer uses couple of third party add-ons and these add-ons have applied some changes in ISV.config file in CRM 4.0. I have prepared my lists for upgrade and started with test runs, during this time I found some unwanted ISV tab(highlighted in below screen shot) on some of the in-built and custom entities.

After some binging, I came to know that this is by design. All Custom Menu and Grid Buttons of CRM 4.0 would be upgraded as new tab besides Customize tab in CRM 2011. To know more about this symptom, you can refer below link.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2501761

There are couple of solutions which could be applied to get rid of this ISV tab as explained below,

1. You can remove these buttons from CRM 4.0 via updating ISV.config file before upgrade.

2. You can change the RibbonDiffXml part of customization xml file, as described in above link after upgrading an organization.

If you want to apply second solution then you can use Ribbon Workbench tool for CRM 2011. You can download & import this add-on with the help of below URL.

http://www.develop1.net/public/page/Ribbon-Workbench-for-Dynamics-CRM-2011.aspx

And then,

1. Create a solution with just the application ribbon in it.

2. Find the ISV tab

3. Right click on it and select 'Un-customise Tab'

4. Publish your solution.

According to my knowledge the Visual Ribbon Editor tool does not support this feature as of now.

I hope this would be helpful.

Dynamics CRM 2011 - Role Updater

Role Updater makes it easier for administrator and developers to add/ remove privileges to multiple roles at a single time.

Download this tool with the help of below link

http://roleupdater.codeplex.com/

Role Updater is available as an executable. Run the exe and a window is displayed as viewed in screenshot below

You can add a new Connection or select an existing connection. After selecting the connection press the orange button as highlighted in below screenshot and you will be asked for your credentials

If you still find the loading message click on the highlighted button once again. You will see a window as displayed in the screenshot below. Select the roles for which you want to change privileges

Add/Remove privileges from the window that is displayed on selecting role and clicking next.

On clicking next the roles are updated and a window is displayed as viewed in screenshot below.

Dynamics CRM 2011 - View Layout Replicator

 

As the name suggests View Layout Replicator is useful for replicating same view layout in other views of same entity.

You can download the View layout replicator from

http://viewlayoutreplicator.codeplex.com/

Run the View Replicator executable file and a window is displayed as viewed above .Select Load Entities as highlighted in image above you will get a window to select connection as viewed above. You can even add a new connection from this window.

Select an entity from the list and the views of the entity are loaded as Source Views and Target Views.

Select the view which you want to change as ‘Target View’ and select the view to which you want to replicate as ‘Source View’.

After selecting Source and target views select the Save Views option as highlighted above. A message is displayed as above. Select the ‘Publish Entity’ option which is next to the highlighted option. On publishing the entity the changes are reflected in the view.

Dynamics CRM 2011 - User Settings Tool

 

You can download this tool from http://crm2011usersettings.codeplex.com/

CRM2011 User Settings Tool can be used to update the user settings of multiple users from one location. The Administrators can select users for whom they want to change settings like Default Pane, Default Tab, Records Per page, Timezone, calendar, start time, end time, email settings and some miscellaneous settings.

You don't have to depend on individual users to update these settings.

The CRM 2011 User Settings is available as a managed solution.

Once you import the solution Go to SettingsàSystemàUser Settings as viewed in screenshot below.

Click on the text “Silverlight User Settings Tool”. A Silverlight control is opened in a new window as viewed in below screenshot.

You can select the users for whom you want to change the settings. Change the settings and click save.

Dynamics CRM 2011 - Dynamics XRM Tools

 

Today, I would like to describe Dynamics XRM Tools.

You can download the Dynamics XRM Tools from http://dynamicsxrmtools.codeplex.com/

Dynamic XRM Tools is available as a managed solution. You just have to import solution and start using it. The toolset consists of a Silverlight application framework that provides a central location for accessing the tools which includes the following:-

• Trace Tool (on premise only)
• Statistics
• OData Query Designer
• Metadata Browser
• JavaScript Converter (CRM 4 to CRM 2011)

After importing the solution Go Toà SettingsàDynamics XRM Tools àStart

The Trace Tool is available for On Premise only. This helps you to view the server errors. Two different types of solutions are available for download, CRM Online and CRM On-Premise.

Moving to the Statistics tab as the name suggests it provides record count of total entities and records count per entity. You can even download the generated statistics in excel format. The statistics tab can be viewed as under.

The OData Query Designer can help you to generate an oData query if you are not familiar with oData query syntax and structure.

Select the EntitySet, add required filter criteria, select attribute that should be returned by the query and you can even specify the order by criteria. Click on Generate to generate the query based on your selections. You can click execute to view the results of the query. Check the “Results (ATOM) and Results (JSON)” tabs to view the respective results.

The JavaScript Converter can be used to convert java script from CRM 4 to CRM 2011.

The metadata browser can be used for getting entity and attributes metadata and you can even export the list.

Hope this will be helpful.