Hiding Business Process Flow on Dynamics 365 Form

At the moment, there isn’t a way to hide a Business Process Flow on a Dynamics 365 form, out-of-the-box.

However, there is a way to do this using xRM JavaScript – this JavaScript will need to be created on the form where the BPF is being displayed.

 

 

Here is the code:

var knowledgeArticle = {

onLoad: function(executionContext)
{
var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
formContext.ui.process.setVisible(false);
}

};

 

Note: The JavaScript syntax being used is from Dynamics 365 V9, which is using the latest V9 JavaScript Model.

 

 

Hope this helps.

Cheers

How to Use Two Options Data Type With JavaScript – Dynamics CRM

If you want to use the Two Options Data Type using JavaScript, it’s worth noting that you can’t call the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ option using their respective label – you have to use the value.

So for example, if you create an IF condition and you want it to match Yes, you initialise the value 1 and if you wish to use No, you initialise the value 0. Bear in mind, if you’ve already created an IF condition for Yes (1), then you won’t have to add No (0) to your condition, you can use the else statement.

See script below. In summary, when a user selects Yes the tab will be visible and when the user selects No, the tab won’t be.

function onChange()

{
// 1 represents Yes from the Two Option Data Type
// 0 represents No from the Two Option Data Type
// However if you’ve used ‘Yes’ (1) already, then you won’t have to add ‘No’ (0) to the condition as you can use the else statement.

var addInfo = Xrm.Page.getAttribute(“new_additionalinformation”).getValue();

if (addInfo == 1)
{
Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(“tab_2”).setVisible(true);
}

else
{
Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(“tab_2”).setVisible(false);
}
}

How To Edit Ribbons in CRM/Dynamics 365? Ribbon Workbench.

If you want to edit the ribbon within your CRM/Dynamics 365 environment, then I would suggest using a tool called, Ribbon Workbench. The tool is simple to use and it makes editing the ribbon much easier. If you currently amend the ribbon in XML and you feel comfortable doing so, there is no harm.

With Ribbon Workbench you can hide buttons from users, you can display buttons for specific users, add buttons to the ribbon, remove buttons from the ribbon and also add JavaScript functions to the buttons on the ribbon to execute ( clicking a button to open a form in a new window for example) and more!

The Ribbon Workbench can be downloaded here – Ribbon Workbench

When you’re on the web page simply click ‘download’ and fill in the required information. Once the information has been filled in and you have submitted the details, you will then be sent a download link. Next, click download and the file will be downloaded to your machine as a Managed Solution (zip file).

Go to your CRM/Dynamics 365 environment and import this solution. Once the solution has been imported, go to customisations and you will see the Ribbon Workbench on the ribbon.

If you want more information on how the Ribbon Workbench is used, check out Scott Durow’s (author of Ribbon Workbench) YouTube tutorials. Links below.

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5.

Cheers!

Tips for the Dynamics 365 exam – MB2-716: Customization and Configuration

I recently passed the Dynamics 365 exam on Customization and Configuration and I’m going to use this article to list what I did for the exam preparation.

Firstly, I would strongly suggest downloading the Dynamics 365 trial version so you can get hands on experience with the application. Personally, I don’t think reading is enough and you will only get better with practical experience. You can download the trial version here.

Secondly, it’s worth reading the syllabus to get an understanding of each module, what the components do and how it works in Dynamics 365. The syllabus can be found here.

Thirdly, I used the Dynamics Learning Portal for my revision, which I thought was really useful as a Microsoft MVP gives an overview on the Customization and Configuration topics. You can view and download the PowerPoint slides and practice with ‘test your knowledge’ questions. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to this, but if you do, I would definitely recommend it. Dynamics Learning Portal.

Finally, I would suggest using the CRM Community as there are good articles which will help with your revision. I have read study notes from Neil Parkhurst (here) and I have also read other articles on the CRM Community sites, like Andre Margono’s article, which directed me to other useful sources of information on Technet.

I hope this helps and good luck to everyone who wishes to take the exam.

Cheers

Unable to Insert Email Template

If you’re attempting to insert an email template and you’re unable to view an email template you have created, I would suggest checking two things:

1. Ownership of the template.

If the template is owned by a user or team in a different business unit to the individual who would want to use the template, then the ownership would need to be changed to an owner who shares the same Business Unit. I would advise creating a team with the appropriate Business Unit, adding the users who need to view the template to that team and assigning ownership of that template to the team you have created. Unfortunately, you can’t assign templates when changing ownership – this will have to be done via workflow. You can see how to do this in my previous blog post here.

2. To/Regarding field are populated.

The ‘To’ field will need to be populated in order to retrieve templates and the regarding field will need to be populated with the specific component you’re looking for.

For example: If you have created a template for a Lead, you have to populate the regarding field with a Lead record, then you will see the templates for the Lead. Note – to use the Insert Template option, the ‘to’ field will need to be populated as a minimum requirement.

As you can see, I have selected a recipient, but I haven’t populated the Regarding field – only these templates are available. Note – these templates are available as they’re Global templates and Adventure Works is an Account.

If I now populate the regarding field and select Insert Template, firstly I will be given this option:

I will select Adrian Dumitrascu, the Regarding Object (being the Lead) and then select. (If I selected Adventure Works, I would see the Account Templates)

Now, I will be given the option of selecting Lead templates:

Dynamics CRM – Pending Email Warning

You may have encountered this pop-up at some point using Dynamics CRM:

The reason why this pop-up is being displayed is because there are pending emails which need sending. At some point, you, or a user, have made an attempt to send an email, and rather than the email be sent to it’s destination, fails to send and stalls in a ‘pending send’ state. To resolve, you have to remove the Pending Send emails. If you wish to send this email, my suggestion is copying the content within the email, paste into a Word document, delete the email, then re-create the email, copy the content from Word and paste into the re-created email and send.

To retrieve the pending emails, you will need to run this query in Advanced Find:

 

Results:

(The From, To and Regarding columns are blank purposely due to confidential data).

 

Go into a record and action:

As mentioned, I would copy the content from the email and paste into a new email, then remove this record (Delete). Replying or Forwarding this email will not resolve the issue as the record will still remain. Once you have removed all ‘pending send’ emails under the Owners name, the ‘pending email warning’ pop-up will no longer be displayed.

UPDATE! Reference to Previous Article – Interactive Service Hub – An Error has Occurred

Back in June 2017, I uploaded an article in regards to the Interactive Service Hub, which you can read here. The purpose of this particular article is to make a few points in case readers are unaware of the future updates regarding the Interactive Service Hub.

Firstly, it appears this issue has been fixed in Dynamics 365, version 8.2. The previous article post I uploaded contained a screenshot of the issue from a Dynamics 365 environment – version 8.1. In my current role, my colleagues and I are in the process of upgrading our CRM environment from CRM 2016 to Dynamics 365 version 8.2 and this was an area we had in our test scripts, as we currently using the ISH for our Customer Services team. After testing this thoroughly in the Dynamics 365 (8.2) environment, we couldn’t recreate the issue, which suggests this has been fixed.

Secondly, the Interactive Service Hub will no longer exist in the Dynamics 365 upgrade to version 9. Microsoft have decided to revamp the ISH and change it to the Customer Service Hub. I’ve not managed to use the revamped feature as of yet, but it has a new look and word is, there will be new features! See here (author – Joe D365) for the new look of the Customer Service Hub (point 6), as well as other Dynamics 365 updates for version 9.

Lastly, if you’re still using CRM 2016 or Dynamics 365’s Interactive Service Hub (version 8.1) and you’re still experiencing ‘an error has occurred’ issue with the ISH, this hasn’t been confirmed by Microsoft (to my knowledge), but I think this error is due to a caching issue. Please refer to my article, here, which can assist.

Becoming Familiar with Dynamics 365

If you want to become more familiar with Dynamics 365, my suggestion would be to download a trial version of the product. This can be found here.

Dynamics is moving at a fast pace and it’s important to keep up-to-date with the latest features and functionalities.

If your company doesn’t support Dynamics 365, I would definitely recommend downloading the trial version, especially if you wish to purse a career in this area.

Worth noting, the trial edition may not contain all features a full edition would, but remember, it is a trial and it’s just as beneficial for exposure to Dynamics 365.

Advanced Find CRM Dynamics 2016 – Share Option (Where is it?)

Just a quick ‘good to know’ in case anyone thought the share functionality was removed from Advanced Find!

So, in Dynamics 2013, when selecting a personal view under Saved Views, you see the share option:

However, in Dynamics 2016, you don’t:

Well, so I thought.

This is because in Dynamics 2013, by default, the Advanced Find stays on the ‘Saved Views’ tab, which gives you the options to share, run workflow and assign views etc. In Dynamics 2016, it doesn’t default to this tab and stays on the current tab (Advanced Find), so you’ll have to click on the ‘Saved Views’ tab to see these options.

 

So thankfully, the share option hasn’t been removed!

Changing Ownership of Email Templates

For whatever reason, you may need to change the ownership of an Email template – most likely due to security reasons. First and foremost, there isn’t a way you can directly assign ownership of a template (if there is, please inform me!) – which means you’ll have to create a Workflow in order to assign the ownership of the Email Template.

Workflow:

As you can see I’ve created a Workflow to assign the template to ‘Scott Beaumont’ (me!) – assigning a record to someone will make that person the owner of the record. I’ve created this to be a on-demand Workflow so I can call the Workflow on demand, rather than wait for an event to occur.

Advanced Find:

I’ve created this Advanced Find so I can see the Templates as well as the Owner of these Templates. The Owner column wasn’t present by default, so I selected Edit Columns and added the Owner column to the view. (There were other columns present by default, but I removed these as it wasn’t needed for this example).

As you can see, I’ve selected the templates which I want to change the ownership of, selected Run Workflow and as you can see, the Workflow I created is here – run the workflow.

Once completed, you’ll see the ownership of the Templates have changed successfully: