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IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This blog is deprecated since July 2020.The articles below are no longer maintained and might contain outdated information. 
You can find the most acutal and relevenat information in our Knowledge Base at support.mscrm-addons.com

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Hello and welcome to our blog! What can we do for you? Are you looking for further technical information or step-by-step instructions to our products? Or would you like to read the latest news on mscrm-addons? Please feel free to browse our blog for detailed information and to share our posts!


Add Config SiteMap entries manually

This blog article outlines how to manually add SiteMap entries linking to our product config pages. 

After installing our products you normally get an entry for our product entity "Products" and an entry for each of our products linking to its configuration page. By default, these entries can be found in Dynamics 365 under Settings as you can see in the figure below.

 

In the SiteMap Designer please select the SiteMap entry you want to customize - in this case, ❶ Settings. Next, hit the  [Add]-button and select Group.  

 

 

Arrange your Subarea by setting the values below:
 Type = Entity
Entity = MSCRM-ADDONS.com Products
Title = Products 

As explained before, please add another Subarea and set the values below:

DocumentsCorePack: 

 Type = Web Ressource 
 URL  = AutoMergeConfig (ptm_AutoMerge/AutoMergeConfig.html)
 Title = DocumentsCorePack
Icon = ptm_Icon32x32_White.png

 

Now you can see your first product in the MSCRM-ADDONS area - in this case DocumentsCorePack. This process is the same for all our other products. 

Below please find the right values for each product. As Type always please select Web Resource and the Icon value is always the same: Icon = ptm_Icon32x32_White.png

AttachmentExtractor: 
URL  = ptm_attachmentextractor/solutionconfig/SolutionConfig.html
Title = AttachmentExtractor 

ActivityTools
URL  = 
ptm_ActivityTools/config/Settings.html
Title = ActivityTools

GroupCalendar
URL  = ptm_groupcalendar/solutionconfig/SolutionConfig.html 
Title = GroupCalendar

PowerSearch
URL  = ptm_PowerSearch/html/Config.html
Title = PowerSearch

SmartBar
URL  = ptm_SmartBar/solutionconfig/SolutionConfig2.html 
Title = SmartBar

TelephoneIntegration
URL  = ptm_telephoneintegration/solutionconfig/SolutionConfig.html 
Title = TelephoneIntegration

That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.

 


HTML Settings for DocumentsCorePack Fields

If you are using DocumentsCorePack with HTML this guidance will help you maximize your user experience. This blog article outlines:

How to enable file-based formatting with DCP

When you want to insert complex HTML codes or want to provide special formatting, you can use the following step-by-step instruction to achieve that. 

 1) Make sure your HTML code is valid and in a ready to use format within Dynamics 365. 

HTML codeFigure 1: HTML code

 
2) Insert the field into your Template by using the [Insert Field]-Button. Next select Insert as HTML like you can see highlighted in yellow below. 

3) Click once into the field and navigate to ❶ Field Properties to open it.

This gives you the possibility to define complex formats in your HTML code. To provide a coherent look and feel of the Template, you can mix it with your Word formats - just define a style within the Content Control properties. To do so, please follow the next steps:

How to enable field-based formatting with DCP

 1) Click once into the Content Control and go to Developer to open the Properties like you can see highlighted in yellow in the figure below. 

That's it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com!

Step-by-Step: How to set up a proposal using MultiPart

This step-by-step description outlines how to create and custom a one-click-actions using MultiPart. In this example, we want to create a proposal which consists of severalDocParts: a cover letter, a company profile, the proposal, terms and conditions (in different languages) and the appendix.  

Usually, you create a document from a single template. By using the MultiPart-function, you have the possibility to create a document from several elements, which can be dynamic (template) or static (docuemnt stored as note or on SharePoint). For more information, please also have a look at the corresponding documentation here

To start the configuration, please open your Dynamics 365 Settings, navigate to the MSCRM-ADDONS-section and select DocumentsCorePack(DCP), like you can see in the figure below.

 

 

In the window below click on the❶ [New Single]-button, which opens the dialog above, where you have to enter the ❷ name of your action, "Proposal" in this example. 

 

Next, define your DocParts

❹ Proposal
This DocPart contains two templates - the "Proposal long version" and the "Proposal short version". Therefore please create two DocParts as explained before, select them by checking the checkbox on the left side and combine them by hitting the [Combine selected DocParts]-button (highlighted in yellow). 

❻ Appendix
Define the appendix like the other DocParts before and set it to optional. 

 

 Step 3: Processing Settings
At this step, you can define the actions which should be done. In our example, we want our action to send the document as  a pdf as  email attachment to  a potential customer and ❹ save it to SharePoint.

 

Step 4: Review Settings
You have the possibility to review your document, create PNG preview and automatically open your document like you can see in the figure below. 

After configuring all steps, you have to save your actual one-click-action. 

 

If a Dynamics 365 user now clicks on the [Create Document]-button, the user will be automatically provided with the new one-click-action (here: Proposal). 

Hit the [Next]-button to see how this example looks like. In the figure below, you can see the result of your proposal which contains the elements defined before.   As configured above, some DocParts are optional, where the user can decide if he wants to add these to his document by checking the checkbox. The "combined DocParts" like you can see below Terms and Conditions, allow users to select between the different DocParts by opening the drop-down menu. 

 

That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.


The new Attachment Extractor Plugin for transparent attachment access

AttachmentExtractor now features a new Plugin which streams the actual attachments instead of the SharePoint link on every file access.

With older AttachmentExtractor versions, the attachment was moved to SharePoint and replaced with a link in CRM. When users or programs tried to access the attachments, they were only able to get a link file that pointed to the same new save location. 



How to insert Condition Fields in DocumentsCorePack Template Designer

Certain properties of DocumentsCorePack templates consist of conditions based on Dynamics 365 fields. The Condition field property allows you to define dynamic content that is either displayed or removed from the final document based on a certain condition. 

This step-by-step description will show you how to set conditions in DocumentsCorePack Template Designer. In this example, we want to create a quote and choose between Mr and Ms depending on the gender of the recipient. 

Step 1: Create a quote template
First, we need to create the basic layout of the template. Clicking on the [Insert MailMerge Fields]-button in the www.mscrm-addons.com command bar will open the DocumentsCorePack Designer on the right side. More information about how to create DocumentsCorePack templates can be found here

The figure below shows an example template of a quote.  

 

Step 2: Use the Condition field option
After creating your template, please set the cursor at the position where you would like to insert a condition field. In our example, we want to set the condition in the subject line after "Dear" choosing between Mr and Ms based on the recipient like you can see highlighted in yellow in the figure above. Then, go to Insert Computed Item and select Condition field. 

Step 3: Configure the setup of your condition fields 

 

❶ Give your condition a descriptive name. It makes it easy to re-use existing conditions in a template.

Enable the creation of an else block and define the layout of the inserted condition fields - in this case next to each other. 

 Use the condition designer to create your condition. In this example, we want to create the condition for the entity "Primary Contact (Contact)". We want our condition to choose between Mr and Ms depending on the gender of the recipient. Therefore we select in the first drop-down menu the field Gender and as operator equals. Depending on the data type of the field you either have an additional control that opens a new dialog to select the compare value - in this case, Male.  

A more detailed description of the condition designer can be found here.

Below you can see placeholders for the formatting options next to each other. Because you selected to insert an "ELSE" block you have the second placeholder like you can see in the figure below. 

 

Step 3: Set your custom text block 
Within these placeholders, you can now enter the content of your conditions. In this example, IF Gender equals to Male it should display "Mr" and ELSE "Ms".

Step 4: Save your template
Before you can use or test your template you have to save it. Either you save your template locally with the standard Save or Save as the functionality of Word or you use the Save template-option of the DocumentsCorePack client in order to publish the template to Dynamics 365.

Step 5: Test your template
As you have made changes to your template you might want to test them quickly. A step by step description of how to test your template can be found here. Below you can see the result of your created template containing the condition we set, highlighted in yellow. 

That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.

 


Step-by-Step: How to configure a One-Click-Action

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create a new one-click-action based on a single record. In this example, we want to create a new action based on the Quote entity. We want our action to send a quote as pdf by email to a customer and save it to SharePoint. Please also have a look at the corresponding documentation here

To do so, please open your Dynamics 365 Settings, navigate to the MSCRM-ADDONS-section and select DocumentsCorePack, like you can see below.  

 

The main configuration window provides you with a few tabs that allow you configure DCP in general. Please go to the  One-Click-Actions-tab, the new feature of DCP ServerBased. It opens the window below, which shows you all ❷ available entities. The ❸ search function helps you find the entity for which you want to create a one-click-action. 

 

 

Step 2: Template Settings 
These settings help you to configure your template selection in detail. In our example, we choose the ❶ Predefine Template option and select our template - in this case, ❷ Quote.docx. This means the user does not have a DocumentsCorePack template selection, the template is used automatically. For more information on how to create a template, please have a look at this blog article.

Step 3: Processing Settings
At this step, you can define the actions which should be done. In our example, we want our action to send a quote as ❶ pdf by ❷ email to a customer and ❸ save it to SharePoint.

 
Step 4: Review Settings
You have the possibility to review your document, create PNG preview and automatically open your document like you can see in the figure below. 

After configuring all steps, you have to save your actual one-click-action. 


That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.

 


Licensing Guide for Microsoft Dynamics 365

This blog article is intended to guide you through the usage of the License Manager for Dynamics 365. The License Manager allows you to manage your existing licenses and is part of the MSCRM-ADDONS installation.

There are two ways to get the License information:

1) The Web License Manager
    The web license manager has been designed to facilitate the installation of license keys within Dynamics 365.

2) The Local License Manager
   The local license manager is accessible as a standalone application or from the main configuration tool of the
    addon


1. The Web License Manager

Open your Dynamics 365 Settings, navigate to MSCRM-ADDONS-section and click on the addon you want to manage the license for e. g. ActivityTools. 

 

The main configuration window provides you with a few tabs that allow you to configure your addon in general, in this example ActivityTools. Please navigate to the Licensing-tab (highlighted in yellow below). 

 

 

 

Anyway, after the starting process, the window (see screenshot below) pops up: 

 
Upgrading your license

To update or upgrade your license, you have two options:

1) Purchase a new license or an upgrade license directly in our online shop:
http://www.mscrm-addons.com/OnlineShop/tabid/80/language/de-DE/Default.aspx

OR

2) Contact our support 

 

 


How to activate AAD TeamMember Licensing

The following step-by-step instruction shows you how to enable the TeamMember licensing for our add-ons. This makes sense for Dynamics 365 Online organizations which use "Microsoft Dynamics 365 Team Member" licenses. 

 Please also have a look at the corresponding blog article Licensing Guide for Microsoft Dynamics 365

Open your Dynamics 365 Settings, navigate to MSCRM-ADDONS-section (highlighted in yellow) and select the add-on you want to activate the TeamMember Licensing for. This activation process has to be done for each add-on separately. Depending on which of our solutions you choose, the main configuration window will provide you with different tabs. 

 

For example, if you select DocumentsCorePack, the main configuration window looks like in the figure below. To activate the TeamMember Licensing for DCP, please navigate to the License Server-tab. 

❶  You have to click on the [Enable Team licensing]-button like you can see in the figure below. 

 

 Next, this window pops up where you have to type in the username of a Dynamics 365 administrator like you can see below. Then hit the [Start]-button.

 

❸ A new window will open, where you have to sign in with an Office 365 admin account. Please note, that it could be possible that you first must disable your popup blocker for that. Then sign in and hit the [Next]-button. 

 

 

❺ If the process was successful you will be linked to our website showing the information below. 

 

After enabling successfully the TeamMember licensing, please go back to the license dialog and click on the [Enable]-button to finish the process. 

 

 

 After activating, you will be provided with the window below, which shows you the license summary. 

 

❶ The General license information shows you that your AAD TeamMember licensing is enabled.

 Licenses for TeamMembers shows the amount of Dynamics 365 TeamMember users and the Number of site licenses above shows you the amount of normal Dynamics  365 licenses reduced by the TeamMember users. 

❸ Here you can edit your TeamMember licensing. By clicking this you will be provided with the window below, where you are able to Renew or Disable your TeamMember licensing. 


How to modify the Hyperlink style

This short blog article describes how you can easily modify the style of a hyperlink.

 

Open MS Word and follow the steps below:  

1. Open styles
2. Click on "Manage styles"
3. Search for the Hyperlink Style and click on "Modify"
4. Change the Hyperlink Style to your linking in the "Modify Style" Settings of the Hyperlink Style 

That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.


How to enable debugging for the show-license-info plugin for Dynamics 365

This blog article describes how you can activate debugging for the Licensing page plugin.

 The article is relevant if you get the following error message although this setting exists. The message below can appear on the licensing tab of the web configuration. 

 

First, you have to enable tracing for your organization: Open a browser and navigate to Dynamics 365 -> Settings -> Administration -> System Settings -> [Customization]-tab and select "All" from the drop-down menu of the Enable logging to plug-in trace log. 

 

Next, go to Dynamics 365 -> Settings -> Products and check if a record named "Plugin" already exists. If not create a new one by hitting the "NEW" button.
Name: Plugin
Product Type: server

In the subgrid in its body ensure that a Settings Key with the following information exists:
Name: debug
KeyValue: true

The result will look like in the figure below: 

 

Next, reload the licensing page to generate log files. 

Then access the log files: Dynamics 365 -> Settings -> Plug-In Trace Log and look for "PTM.Plugins.CheckLicense.CheckLicensePlugin". 

 

 

Finally please send us the content of the "Message Block" field. 

That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.