Simple, No fuss, Dynamics 365 Deployment Task Runner

Why? I've used the Dynamics Developer Toolkit since it was first released by MCS for CRM4! I love the functionality it brings however the latest version is still in beta, it isn't supported on VS2017 and there isn't a date when it's likely to be either (yes, you can hack it to make it work but that... [More]

Simplified Connection Management & Thread Safety (Revisited)

There is one certainty in the world and that is that things don't stay the same! In the Dynamics 365 world, this is no exception, with new features and SDK features being released with a pleasing regularity. Writing 'revisited' posts has become somewhat of a regular thing these days. In my previous... [More]

How to get assistance without the Relationship Assistant!

Dynamics 365 has brought with it a new and amazing feature called the 'Relationship Assistant'. It is part of a preview feature (unsupported and US only) called 'Relationship Insights' which promises to bring some amazing productivity tools to the Dynamics 365 platform. Relationship Assistant shows... [More]

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]

Refreshed Connections UI Solution

Following on from my recent video series called 'Building a Refreshed Connections UI using SpakleXRM' this post shows you how to use the final solution to add a bit of sparkle to the otherwise slightly neglected connections feature in Dynamics CRM. Connections first saw an appearance in CRM2011 rep... [More]

Turbo Forms: Get your JavaScript ready for CRM2015 Update 1

With the introduction of 'Turbo Forms' in CRM2015 Update 1 I thought I'd give you a heads up on what you'll need to address in your JavaScript to support this new form rendering engine. The Dynamics CRM Team Blog has a very good article on the changes but there have been some misunderstandings of th... [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]

Building a Refreshed Connection UI using SparkleXRM

I've now published all 5 videos in this series.  If you find yourself needing to create HTML Webresource in Dynamics CRM then I'm sure you will find something here of interest. Part 5 shows how to use the new SparkleXRM Metadata Server that I'll be publishing a post on very soon. Part 1 - Cre... [More]

Can I do that (in Dynamics CRM) ?

I'm sure by now that you've seen the new hierarchical visualisations in Dynamics CRM 2015. By clicking on the little icon in lists or on a form you can see the records graphically laid out. In true Dynamics CRM style anything you can do through the user interface is accessible through the SDK and s... [More]