In mid-October, we had the opportunity to be part of the eXtreme365 and the UG Summit in Orlando, Florida.Both events exceeded all of our expectations. Thank you for giving us your precious time and attention! It was a great pleasure meeting you at our booth. 

The week started with extreme365 with a lot of great content from Microsoft and partners. It offered us the opportunity to shape future strategies and was a high-energy event where we could gain a deep-dive understanding of Microsoft´s roadmap, expert community insight on overcoming real-world challenges and exceptional relationship building. The value of eXtreme365 is entdless, which was due to the excellent speakers and truly informative sessions. The event was amazing and full of great people.

Followed by User Group Summit with crowds of people, great exhibitors and a lot of new contacts and customer meetings. Amazing keynote speakers, small group sessions, gripping speeches and lots of networking opportunities converted this event into a Microsoft Dynamics 365 festival. All in one we had great sessions and learned great Dynamics people! 

eXtreme365 & UG Summit - photo gallery

Both events were amazing and full of great people. From the very first moment, we knew that being a sponsor had been a great decision. All in all, the events were a complete success for partners and customers. Being part was a great and really very special experience! We want to thank the organizers of that outstanding event for their commitment! 

 There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet.
- William Butler Yeats

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Power Automate is becoming more powerful every day and potentially is about to replace the long-standing classic Dynamics 365 workflows. In this blog, we will present and showcase how DocumentsCorePack allows us to generate and process documents within Power Automate (Microsoft Flow).

How it works:
When using DocumentsCorePack every document that has to be generated is defined by a record of an entity called “AutoMergeWorkingItem”. This record holds all mandatory definitions to generate the document: 

1. Record to use:  What record should the document be generated for (e.g. account, quote, etc.)
2. Template to execute: ​ Defines the DocumentsCorePack template that should be used to generate the document.
3. Output format: ​The Filetype the document should be generated and returned as Pdf, docx, Html. 
4. (Optional) Processing settings: This is not a necessity but DocumentsCorePack allows to not just generate a document but also process the document by definitions on the AutoMerkeWorkingItem record (e.g. Print, Save to SharePoint, Send for e-Signing, etc.). 

Once such an AutoMergeWorkingItem is created, the DocumentsCorePack service will generate the document and deliver it back as an attachment to this record. It becomes clear that in order to generate a document within Flow the only thing that needs to be done is to “Create an AutoMergeWorking Item Record”.

Note: The mandatory parameters required can be brought into flow in various ways. E.g. you could build a Canvas App that passes the parameters to the Flow or you can simply use the Common Data Service or Dynamics 365 connectors within Flow to load them (see figure below).

Figure 1: Document generation request schema of DocumentsCorePack

Step-by-Step: Create an AutoMergeWorkingItem in Power Automate (Microsoft Flow)
Now that we know what is needed: Let’s take a look at how such a document generation request has to look like.

Our use case is to generate a quote document in PDF – format upon activation of the quote.

Note: In our scenario, we are using the common data service connector. Especially with the October 2019 update for the “Common Data Service (current environment)” it became a lot easier to do certain things like creating records. I want to emphasize though that it's of course also possible to use the Dynamics 365 connector.

1. The Trigger of the flow: In our scenario, the flow is defined to trigger a change of the status field of the quote entity as follows:

Figure 2: The Trigger of the flow

What’s important: We will need the context of this step as it defines the record our document needs to pull the data from. So we have the first required parameter: The record to use!

2. Get Template to execute: Here we use the Common Data Service- 'Get Record' action to load our template. Since we always want to use the same quote-template we make it simple and “hardcode” our template. 

Figure 3: Get template to execute

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So what do we have here? Where does this GUID in the item identifier come from? To answer this we have to know that every template designed with the DocumentsCorePack Template Designer is stored as a record of the “mscrm-addons.com DocumentsCorePack Template” entity. As can be seen on the screenshot this is the entity we are getting a record of.

You can e.g. open the template record you want to use and copy the GUID from the URL as you can see below. 

Figure 4: Open template record

To summarize: This 'Get Record' step will provide us with the second parameter: The template to use! As we also know that our output format should be PDF we are all set to finally define our document generation request! 

3. Create AutoMergeWorking Item: As all parameters are now clear we can use the Common Data Service – Create Record action to create our document generation request as follows: 

Figure 5: Create AutoMergeWorking Item

We create a record of the Entity “MSCRM-ADDONS.COM AutoMergeWorkingItem” and choose the Action to be “Create Document”. We can also give it a name that is quite handy to maybe later identify and review the documents generated via this Flow. Now we need to set our parameters:

a. Record to pull data from (PrimaryRecordUrl):

Figure 6: Record to pull data from (PrimaryRecordUrl)

This is kind of challenging at this point. We did copy the URL of a quote we opened in Dynamics and replaced it with the “Quote”-parameter (Unique identifier of the quote from our Flow-Trigger action). 

b. Template to Execute (TemplateToExecute):

Figure 7: Template to Execute (TemplateToExecute)

Here we reference the Unique Identifier parameter of our “Get Record” step where we did load the template above. 

c. FileType (SaveAs Value): This is a simple one – we simply select “PDF” from our picklist. 

Figure 8: FileType (SaveAs Value)

And that’s it! We did it. So every time a quote gets activated we will now get a document generated.

Next steps: Naturally you want to do something with the document once generated. As outlined above you can either use the AutoMergeWorkingItem to process the document but you can also process the document within your flow. The generated document can be found on the AutoMergeWorkingItem record -> Created Document section.

 Note: This field will be filled when DocumentsCorePack successfully created the document. You will have to wait for the AutoMergeWorkingItem record to become “inactive”. This tells you that the document is ready. 

Figure 9: AutoMergeWorkingItem information: Inactive status

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

This blog article outlines how to import, export and transfer templates using the DCP online service configuration.Our DocumentsCorePack (DCP) Online Service Configuration allows users to configure DCP easily online. For further information on how to configure DCP Online, please have a look at our DCP Online Configuration video. ​

The DCP Online Config offers lots of useful functionalities, such as for example import, export and transfer templates. This step-by-step tutorial outlines how to use them properly.

1. Login to www.mscrm-addons.com, go to My Account and then My Cloud Service. 

2. Select the ❶ service that you want to import/export your templates from and click on the ❷ [import/export documentscorepack templates]-button . 

Figure 1: Select service to import/export templates

3. This opens the Template Management-window, which allows you to import, export and transfer templates as you can see below.

Figure 2: Template Management window

❶ Import templates 
Please click on the [Import]-button if you would like to import DCP templates. You may select multiple *.docx/ *.docm/ *.dot templates or *.zip file containing multiple templates. ​You can also drag and drop files form the explorer to this dialog. Furthermore, you will be asked to specify how to proceed with the templates you import, if that already exists in the system. You have the possibility to select between the following three options, as you can see in the figure below. These options are also available if you want to transfer a template. 

Figure 3: Options on how to proceed if template already exists

1) Overwrite
The template GUID stays the same. 

2) Create new
The 'old' version will be kept with the 'old' template GUID and the 'new' version of the template will be imported with a 'new' template GUID. 

3) Skip 
All existing templates will be ignored. Only new templates will be imported.

❷ Export templates
Please click on the [Export]-button in order to export all DCP templates as .*zip-files.

❸ Transfer templates 
You have the posibility to move templates to another organization. Select the organization where you want to transfer your templates to and click on the [Transfer]-button. If a template already exists, you can choose as explained before between overwrite, create new and skip. 

IMPORTANT: Should the templates not be extracted correctly, make sure you do not export to a folder that has a lot of subfolders. The maximum length should not be over 260 characters. 

Examples:
Correct folder structure for exporting:
C:\temp\DCP_Templates

Incorrect folder path for exporting:
C:\Users\MyUSerAccount\Documents\CRMData\DocumentsCorePackTemplates\28_11_2017\DCP_Templates

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

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This blog article outlines how to install and use the DCP Template Import Manager. Please notice: This blog article is intended for On-Premise version and DocumentsCorePack local intallations. If you are using the online version, please have a look at this blog article. 

If you are using the latest version of DCP, you will find the DCPIE (highlighted in yellow) in the install directory, which allow you to easily import, export or transfer templates from a source organization to a target organization.

Figure 1: The DCPIE

Open your DocumentsCorePack install directory and select the TemplateImportManager.  A double-click on the application opens the Template Import Manager dialog, which allows you to either import, export or transfer your DocumentsCorePack templates. These three options will be explained below: 

Figure 2: The Template Import Manager

  

Import from Zip
Like it says the first opion allows you to import templates. ​After hitting on the [Import from Zip]-button, the window below opens. Here you have to specify a connection to the organization where you want to import your templates. Therefore, select an ❶ existing profile, click on the ❷ [Retrieve all]-button, select the ❸ target organization you wish and hit the [OK]-button.

Figure 3: Connect to Target Organization

Next, double-click on the ❶ [Load from Zip]-button and open the directory containing your Zip-file – ❷ “Export” in this case. 

Figure 4: Load from Zip

Next, open your Zip-file and select the templates you want to import. It is possible to ❶ ”Select All” or single templates from your Zip-file by checking the corresponding checkboxes on the left side. Click on the ❷ [Import selected templates]-button to finish the Import. 

Figure 5: Select templates to import

Export from Zip
Hit on the [Export from Zip]-button to export DCP templates. Here you have to specify a connection to the organization from where you want to export your templates. Like explained before, select an ❶ existing profile, click on the ❷ [Retrieve all]-button, select the ❸ source organization you wish and hit on the [OK]-button.

Figure 6: Connect to Source Organization

​As mentioned before, double-click on the [Load from Zip]-button and select the templates you want to export by selecting ❶ all or only single template from your Zip-files. Click on the ❷ [Export]-button to finish the Export. 

​The third option allows you to transfer DCP templates from a source organization to a target organization. Therefore, please select the ❶ source and the ❷ target organization, like explained before. Next, select the ❸ templates you want to transfer and hit the ❹ [Transfer]-button.

Figure 8: Transfer templates between organizations

DCPIE
The TemplateImportExportConsoleApplication does the same as the TemplateImportManager – it automates the actions: import and export.

Figure 9: List of parameters of the DCPIE

Export/import templates via the DCPIE
The following scenario explains the syntax of an export process. If you want to export templates and handle the necessary arguments by yourself, you need to use the params argument, which indicates that you are providing these parameters. The function looks like in the figure below: 

Figure 10: Syntax to export templates

The arguments in the export scenario are the following:

• Connectionvariant:

o    Parameter:
action: Defines which operation should be performed (allowed are  „import“ and „export“).
You can find the profile ID in the registry under the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PTM EDV-Systeme\Profil

connectionvariant: Defines how to connect to Dynamics 365 (allowed options are: params, registry and dialog).
o    Registry: You have to enter your profile ID here.
o    Dialog: Opens the default CRM connection dialog.

Only if the connectionvariant is “params” you will need the following additional parameters.

• Server: dyn365srv2:555
  This is the Dynamics 365 server on which you want to perform the actions.
  

• Connectiontype: standard
  Here you have the possibility to choose between standard, online and hosted

• Organization: ptmedvsystemegmbh
  Enter the name of the organization you want to use.

• Action: export
  You can choose between export, import and transfer.
  

• Exportdirectory: c:\users\administrator\desktop\myTemplates
  Please specify here the directory which serves as destination for your exported templates.
  

• Username: mpoelzl@ptm-edv
  This is the username you use to login to Dynamics 365.
  

• Password: xxx
  Please enter your secret password here.

The example above showes the syntax for the export functionality. The import functinality shares the same syntax with the export functionality, except that the parameters zip and zippath are removed. The parameter exportdirectory is replaced with templatefolder. ​

In the templatefolder parameter you need to specify the folder which contains your templates. And there also is a new parameter called mbresult.

Mbresult: Valid options are Yes or No.

This indicates that all templates should be overwritten if they are already existing.

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

This blog article outlines how to configure the DocumentsCorePack Print Application for Microsoft Dynamics 365. More information about how to install the DCP Print Application can be found here. 

Please notice: The DCP Print Application is intended for small local printer installation. It does not work on servers with multiple printers. In this case, it is recommended to use DCP ServerBased where the services are better managed. For further information, please contact our support team. 

DCPPrintService Configuration
After finishing the installation, the DCPPrintService Configuration window opens. This window provides you with different tabs to configure your DCP Print Application as you can see  in the figure below highlighted in yellow. 

Figure 1: DCPPrintService Overview-tabs

1. The General-tab
​The General-tab provides you with the opportunity to set the general settings of your future service (see figure above). You have the possibility to activate debugging, set a batch delay  (90 seconds is set per default, which is the delay between the service checking for new print jobs).

You can also add & remove printers, that your application will use.

​2. The Printer-tab
The Printer-tab provides you with the possibility to create a ❶ new configuration, edit an existing one, copy a configuration and change the settings and also to ❷ delete configurations.

Figure 2: DCPPrintService Printer-tab

In order to create a new configuration, click on the [New]-button in the Printer-tab, highlighted in yellow.

This action will open the following dialog.  Here you have to:

❶ Specify a configuration name to be able to create a printer configuration. The configuration name (highlighted in yellow below) consists of printer@username (the user which has access to the local printer) + computer name (the computer on which the service is running)

❷ Select the printer from the drop-down menu. You can only use the printer created with your user and your machine.

❸ Hit the [Save & Close]-button.

Figure 3: Configure a printer

After saving, you will see the saved printer configuration in the Printer-tab. 

Figure 4: DCPPrintService Printer-tab: Configured printer

The saved printer configuration is also automatically added in the General-tab in the Filter-area (see in the figure below). To remove a printer, please select it and click on Delete on your keyboard.

Figure 5: DCPPrintService General-tab: Configured printer

3. The License-tab
The License-tab enables you to quickly check your license state. If the license is invalid, the service will not start. For more information on the license manager, please have a brief look at our Licensing Guide.

4. The Log-tab
The log prvides an excerpt of the DCPPrintService event log, filtered for this specific service. This helps you to identify any issues with the service. 

​That´s it! 

Hit the [Save & Close]-button in order to finish the DCPPrintService configuration. You will now find the DCPPrintService in your system tray. Right-clicking on the icon brings up a context menu, allowing you to connect to a different organization, open the config, restart the service or quit it.

The installer also adds an autorun entry to your local user account, starting the DCP Print service with your windows.

Figure 6: DCPPrintService in the Task Pane

If you now hit the [Create Document]-button, the DocumentsCorePack Dialog provides you with the new “Print document”-option, where you are able to select the printer you have configured before (highlighted in yellow).

Please notice: You can configure as many local printers as you like.

Figure 7: DocumentsCorePack Dialog – Print

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

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This blog article outlines how to add display rules for One-Click-Actions. The purpose of display rules is that users only see One-Click-Actions that are relevant to them.

More information about how to configure a One-Click-Action can be found here. 

Please open your Dynamics 365 Settings, navigate to MSCRM-ADDONS-section and select DocumentsCorePack. In the main configuration window please go to the One-Click-Actions-tab. Select the entity for which you want to configure the one-click-action (in this case Contact) and hit the [Edit]-button. 

In the so opened window, you are provided with all one-click-actions for the entity Contact. With a klick on the [+]-button on the right side, you can add a display rule for your one-click-action.

Display rules via security roles
In this example, we want to assign the "Send  quote to customer via email" OCA to a security role by hitting the [+]-button. 

Figure 1: Add display rules for OCA

​In the window below, please select the security role that a user has to have to see this one-click-action. In this case, we select Customer Service Representative as you can see highlighted in yellow below. ONLY users with this security role will be able to see the OCA. If nothing is selected everyone will see the one-click-action. 

Figure 2: Select security role

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​Display rules via field values 
You also have the possibility to  add additional conditions as display rules. Therefore, please hit the [Advanced]-button at the bottom of the window above.  Here you can find all attributes of the entity Contact. In this example we select Status and Active from the drop-down menu, which means that this OCA will ony be shown for contacts that are active as you can see in  the figure below. 
Please notice:If in addition to a field condition a security role is selected they are considered to be of type "AND", which in our example, means that only Customer Service Representative with the status Active can see this one-click-action. 

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

This blog article guides you through the test of the compatibility of your phone system with the TelephoneIntegration addon for Microsoft Dynamics 365. For more information, please also have a look at the corresponding documentation. 

The tool offers two communication channels. You need only one of them to be able to use our CTI.

Via TAPI
For testing, via TAPI you require a valid TAPI driver from your phone system vendor.

​Via SIP
For testing SIP protocol, you need a valid sip user account. For this, you require SIP username, SIP password and SIP domain (PBX server).
​

The testing consists of 7 steps you have to follow:
1. The tool can be downloaded and downloaded from our website.
2. After the extraction, start the PhoneTest.exe.
3. Select your desired channel of communication (TAPI or SIP).
4. Test an incoming call.
5. Test an outgoing call.
6. Evaluate the results.

​Step 1: Download and start the tool
​First, please download the ZIP file here, extract and open it by hitting the PhoneTest.exe file. Start the tool and press the [Get Startted]-button. 

Step 2: Select the plugin 
Next, please choose the plugin interface you want to test.

Figure 1: Choose the plugin interface you want to test

Step 2: Configure plugin  
If selecting TAPI, you need to select your TAPI line provided by your TAPI driver and hit the [Next]-button. Please note: If the selected line cannot be activated, the [Next]-button will stay disabled.

Figure 2: Configure plugin via TAPI

If selecting SIP, you need to type in your SIP credentials – your username, password and the domain as you can see below.

Figure 3: Configure plugin via SIP

 
Step 3: Grant access
In the firewall-window please grant access to the phone test tool as you can see in the figure below. ​

Figure 4: Grant access to the phone test tool

Step 4: Test incoming call
After successful registration with your SIP user account, you can now test an incoming call. Hit the [Continue]-button in order to do that.

Figure 5: Test incoming call

Accept or decline the call by clicking one of the buttons.

Figure 6: Accept or decline call

 

​It is also possible to perform direct call like for example to transfer it to another extension.

Figure 7: Transfer the phone call to another extension

 

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Step 5: Test outgoing call
In order to test outgoing calls, please type in the number you want to call and hit the phone symbol to dial the number.

Figure 8: Test outgoing calls

 

At the bottom, you will find enabled features listed that were successfully tested.

Figure 9: Successfully tested features

 

Step 6: Evaluation of all inocoming and outgoing calls
In the end, we evaluate the incoming and outgoing call. We check if the caller/caller number was detected if the Answer/EndCall operation is possible and if we can observe the state of the call. If everything is green, then the TelephoneIntegration addon is compatible with your phone system as you can see in the figure below.

Figure 10: Evaluation of the incoming and outgoing calls

 

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

 

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The Microsoft Applications Summit event in Atlanta exceeded all our expectations. To begin with, we would like to thank you for giving us your precious time and attention! It was a great pleasure meeting you at our booth!

This event focused on the development of business applications and the important concept of enterprise digital transformation. A successful business enterprise in 2019 must transform itself from old analog and on-premise technologies to digital and cloud-based technologies. This summit explained how to accomplish that task. Every session and workshop was filled with demos, hints and hacks to help you ramp up your skills and transform your business. There were plenty of learning opportunties featuring a range of tools and topics for all levels of expertise. Visionary leaders presented exclusive looks at the latest trends and product roadmaps. 

It was the perfect place for Dynamics 365, Power BI, Excel, PowerApps and Flow users to connect, collaborate and pack in as much learning as possible. ​Our team was overwhelmed by the big interest in our products and booth! All our team members enjoyed presenting the visitors how our addons can simplify the daily business.

Our team at Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2019

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All in all, the event was a complete success for partners and customers. Being part of this event was a great and really very special experience! ​Thank you again for your interest in our products. We really enjoyed being part of this great Microsoft Event! We also want to thank the organizers of that outstanding event for their commitment! We hope to see you again at the Microsoft Business Summit 2020, April 20-21 in Anaheim, CA! 

When using DocumentsCorePack with workflows it is sometimes necessary to wait for some reasons. This blog article describes how to avoid this issue. 

For example: If you want to create a new document, you have to wait until a document has been created. When DocumentsCorePack has processed an AutoMergeWorkingItem, it sets the status to inactive.

To delay the workflow wait conditions inside, workflows have been set up to wait for this change. So the following steps could already work with the document and send it to DocuSign for example. Unfortunately recently it occurred more often that those wait conditions can cause the system job to get stuck at that point. 

One solution to continue those system jobs is to change the status of the AutoMergeWorkingItem to active and back to inactive. To avoid this issue in the beginning you can also change the wait condition (see figure 1 highlighted in yellow).

DocumentsCorePack service is setting the ReturnValue after completing the AutoMergeWorkingItem to the name of the server where it is running. So instead of checking for the state inactive, please check if the ReturnValue starts with [servername of the service].

If you are using DocumentsCorePack online service, the server name you have to check is “AUTOMERGE”. For On-Premise services please use the server name where the DocumentsCorePack service is configured.

Example for DocumentsCorePack online:

Figure 1:DocumentsCorePack Wait Condition

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

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This blog article outlines what to do if no toolbar is visible in Microsoft Word. After WordMailMerge has been installed on your computer, it is possible that our toolbar does not appear in Microsoft Word. To sort this problem out, please follow the steps of this article. 

Please note: Although the below example displays Word 2016 only, the steps are similar for all other Word versions. 

First, you have to open the Word Options (File > Options) . Then, please click on the ❶ Add-ins-tab. The so opened window gives you an overview of all active add-ins and all inactive add-ins. Please select the ❷ Disabled Items from the drop-down menu and hit the ❸ [Go...]-button. 

Figure 1: Word Options: Add-in overview

​In the window below, you would find the disabled items, if there were any. 

Figure 2: Disabled Items

Likewise in the❶Add-ins-window,  please select the ❷ COM Add-ins from the drop-down menu and hit the [Go...]-button. 

Figure 3: COM Add-ins

In the so opened window, please enable the DocumentsCorePack for Dynamics 365-checkbox. 

Figure 4: Enable DCP in the COM Add-ins window

When you start Microsoft Office Word 2016 the next time, the mscrm-addons.com toolbar will be available  in the ribbon as you can see in the figure below. 

Figure 5: The mscrm-addons.com toolbar

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