SharePoint Integration Reloaded – Part 5 (belated)

In previous articles in this series we've talked about the differences between Server Side Sync and the old List Component. Since I published the first articles, a new MSDN article on the topic has been posted which I thought would be good to signpost folks to => Important considerations for serv... [More]

Option-Set, Lookup or Autocomplete

In the constant struggle to improve data quality it is common to avoid using free-text fields in favour of select fields. This approach has the advantage of ensuring that data is entered consistently such that it can easily be searched and reported upon. There are a number of choices of approaches ... [More]

Introducing SparkleXRM Metadata Server

Speed up your HTML web resources by caching metadata such as localised field labels and options sets. If you've developed an HTML web resource for Dynamics CRM that includes field labels, option sets or any other element that is stored in the Dynamics CRM metadata then you’ll know about t... [More]

Control Async Workflow Retries

The Dynamics CRM Async Server is a great mechanism to host integrations to external systems without affecting the responsiveness of the user interface. Once such example is calling SharePoint as I describe in my series – SharePoint Integration Reloaded. A draw back of this approach (compared ... [More]

The cream cracker conundrum (or customising the sub grid command bar)

I still find the streamlined user experience offered by the Command Bar a welcome change from the CRM2011 Ribbon. The sub-grid command bar is the only possible exception with the loss of the ability to add custom sub-grid buttons. There are only at most two buttons on a sub grid – 'Add' and 'O... [More]

SharePoint Integration Reloaded – Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series we have discussed how the new server-to-server integration with SharePoint works under the covers. In this post I'll show you how to integrate with SharePoint directly from a sandboxed workflow activty/plugin rather than relying on the out of the box integration. ... [More]

SharePoint Integration Reloaded – Part 2

Part 1 of in this series described how SharePoint Server to Server SharePoint integration (new to CRM2013 SP1) works from the client interface perspective. In this post I'd like to share a bit more how this all works from the server side. Authentication When this feature was introduced my first qu... [More]

Early Binding vs Late Binding Performance (Revisited)

After having an interesting debate on the CRM Community forums about the performance of Early verses Late Bound entities my friend Guido Preite pointed me at a good blog post on this subject by James Wood named 'CRM 2011 Early Binding vs Late Binding Performance'. I have always been an advocate of E... [More]