Displaying Files or Documents List in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011/2013 Dashboard

As a consultant, we will face many clients with their various and unique requirements as well.

Now, they want to upload the files into CRM, then the Management can download the files after they log in to CRM. This circumstance, I’ve experienced before, when customer wants the Dealer after log in to the system can download the files uploaded by Marketing Team, for example, new pricing guide FY 2014, events list, promotion buy 1 get 1 gadget, membership upgrading, new model launching, and many more.

For example, every week or every month for each branch, they create Report using Excel, then they want the Management to see the periodic reports after log in to CRM on the one of the CRM Dashboards. They just go to the Dashboard, then double click and download the files. They don’t integrate CRM with SharePoint, so is that possible to let the users attach documents and download the documents as well? I found this requirement also in the forum.

So, as far as attachment is concerned, I always think to utilize Notes, but… Notes entity is too common and not too specific, and we cannot place Note to the Dashboard, I could not find in the View List that can be added to Dashboard as well. Well..you can still use IFrame. Okay, but I was considering to use Reports.

So, now, my choice…I was doing research to utilize Reports in this case.

So, here are my steps:

1. Create a new Category for Reports:

*For example: Weekly Report

You can refer to this link: 

http://www.powerobjects.com/blog/2012/07/25/adding-new-report-category-crm-2011-2/

This category is so important for grouping purposes and it makes your reports in manageable structure.

2. Create a new View for Reports:

Don’t’ forget to tidy your form, by editing the Filter Criteria

 and doing Configure Sorting

You can add Columns as well.

Save it and Publish it.

3. Go to the Reports, and Select the View (new View)

Then click “Of Current View”

This steps is purposely to get the View Link

With Format:

Weekly Reports <http://servername:port/orgname/main.aspx?etc=9100&extraqs=%3fpagemode%3diframe%26sitemappath%3dSFA%257cTools%257cnav_reports&pagetype=entitylist&viewid=%7bED57501E-1614-E411-944A-001CC4EECDD4%7d&viewtype=1039>

4. Then, just get the characters inside angle brackets <>

http://servername:port/orgname/main.aspx?etc=9100&extraqs=%3fpagemode%3diframe%26sitemappath%3dSFA%257cTools%257cnav_reports&pagetype=entitylist&viewid=%7bED57501E-1614-E411-944A-001CC4EECDD4%7d&viewtype=1039

This will be your IFrame URL

5. Go to Customization and Create a New Dashboard

Inset an IFrame Component:

Then set the URL and uncheck the checkbox in Security section

Increase the Height and Width as well to prettify your Dashboard..

Save it and Publish it

6. You also can use View List as well

*You will know the difference between using IFrame or View/List View

- For the IFrame, I give name ’Weekly Reports Dashboard’

- Then, for List, I give name ‘Reports Dashboard

Set Properties screen:

Click Set...

Save and Publish All Customizations.

7. Go to the Report and add the Reports

Don’t forget to set ‘Categories’ and ‘Display In’ based on your Criteria you’ve set for your View.

You also can attach or upload images, .PDF, .txt, and .rar as well.

8. Go to the Dashboard and see the result:

*Weekly Report Dashboard (IFrame)

*Reports Dashboard (List View)

9. Download the Reports

Now, let’s do testing the result for this user requirement’s solution

*Report Dashboard (List View)

When you do double click, it will Run the Report immediately.



So that, to download this Report, user should go to the View from Dashboard:



Then it will open the View



And by doing double click action on the file link it will automatically download the file



*Weekly Report Dashboard (IFrame)

Since it will directly open the view, then the user just needs to do double click:



10. You can upload files through the Reports and the other users can download the files.

This is what we can do if they want to upload and download reports or files or documents from CRM, especially, can access from Dashboard.

CRM 2011/2013: Where is My New Report?

After you create reports in CRM then you tell your friend that you’ve uploaded into CRM, it is possible for them to not be able to see your newly uploaded report in CRM, but you can see this report.

Why??

Well..Actually, they are two types of Report: Organization and Individual



If you set Organization, so all users with privilege to view Report can view this report.
If you set Individual, then this report is yours, basically, then you can let other users to see, just after you share the report to them.

So, why some reports after I check are set to Organization and other reports are set to Individual? What is the default value? Or why and when we will have Organization or Individual?

Actually, to upload the report, if you notice, you can have two ways, one is through Reports in sitemap and another one is through Customization or Solution

So, in this post I also explain about uploading Reports.

1. Through Reports (sitemap)



Then you create new Report

*New reports created from ‘Reports’ in sitemap is by default set to Individual.

Then, you will not see the reports in the Customization and Solution, so that you cannot export import to other CRM environment since it is not considered as component.

To make the reports available in Solution Components, you need to change the ‘Viewable By’ from Individual to Organization.

2. Through Customization



*Notice: now 55 reports.



If through Customization, you cannot set back to Individual, later if you need, you can set it to Individual through Report Area.

You cannot add Existing Report, which is from Individual Report as well.
Then, back to topic, where is my report?? Why my colleague cannot see my report?

You need to go to the Reports, and you will know that your report is actually an individual report, change from Individual to Organization to make other users can see your report.



Save it.

Go back to the Customization or Solution, and refresh the Grid.



*Now, it is showing 56 records and you can see your new report as a solution component.
And..you cannot change back the report to Individual for new custom reports.

Now, you can find and run the reports from the Reports section in sitemap as well.

Just double click the report or click ‘Run Report’

Next Question, How to Download the Reports

1. You can go to the ‘Reports’ sitemap to see all of the report in CRM (both Organization and Individual if you set the to Display in Reports Area)

Then, you will see the list of your reports.

*If you cannot find the report in Available Reports View., you can change the view to All Reports, including Sub-Reports’'.

Then, choose the Report you want to download, don’t double click, instead, click Edit.

Now, go to Action and Download Report

2. Or you can go to Default Solution through Settings –> Customization –> Customize the System –> Reports component.

*If you cannot find the Report through the Customization, so it means that your report is still not visible or viewable by Organization, your report is still in Individual mode and not a solution component, so you should change the Viewable By to ‘Organization.

You will find the Report List which you can do double click.

And can download the Reports

After you download the report, it will opened as .RDL file, you can open using Notepad, but the recommended tool to open is Visual Studio with BIDS Installed or Report Builder.

Important Notes:

1. To make your reports to be viewable by other users, you should set to Organization.
2. If you set Individual, you can assign and share the report as well to selected users or teams.
3. If you create new report through Customization or Solution, then by default,the ‘Viewable By’ will be set to Organization.
4. If you create new report through Reports in sitemap, then by default, the ‘Viewable By’ will be set to Individual.
5. After you change the ‘Viewable By’ setting from Individual to Organization, it will be considered as solution component.
6. It means, only Organization Reports that will be export-able and import-able during export and import solution from one environment to another one.
7. Individual report cannot be transferred to another environment as a solution component.
8. Once you change from Individual to Organization, you cannot revert back to Individual.

This might be a simple thing, but sometimes I still encounter this issue after creating the report

Hope it is helpful for you.
Thank you, have a nice day, and happy holiday!

Show and Hide Business Process Flow in CRM 2013/2015

Business Process Flow is a great feature in CRM 2013.

But, sometimes, in some conditions or simple situation, customer does not need this Business Process Flow, so we should hide it in certain conditions. You can enable or disable Business Process Flow by adjusting the security role, but, what if you want to hide the Business Process based on field value, form type, or selected form?

For example, I want to hide the Business Process Flow based on this field:



Once the ‘Show BPF’ field is checked, then I should Show the Business Process Flow, and vice versa, I should Hide it if this fields is unchecked.

*You can have your own scenario and certain condition, this is just one of the example.

So, here is the code:

function hideBusinessProcessFlow()
{
  document.getElementById('header_process_d').style.display = "none";
}

function showBusinessProcessFlow()
{
  document.getElementById('header_process_d').style.display = "block";
}

function showHideBusinessProcessFlow()
{
    if (Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_showbpf").getValue() == true)
    {
        showBusinessProcessFlow();
    }
    else
    {
        hideBusinessProcessFlow();
    }
}

Then, as usual, register the showHideBusinessProcessFlow() function in the onChange Event Handler of the ‘Show BPF’ field.

And test the result:

*Checked



*Unchecked



NB: This is unsupported Customization, and you might be aware during the version upgrading I the future.

For your additional information, to switch or to change the Business Process Flow Process and Stage programmatically, you should refer to this great link:

http://develop1.net/public/post/How-to-change-process-and-stage-programmatically.aspx

[Updates for CRM 2015]

For those who are using CRM 2015, there is update in the Form Scripting to access the BPF Process.

Xrm.Page.ui.process

So, please use:

Xrm.Page.ui.process.setVisible(false); and Xrm.Page.ui.process.setVisible(true); 

function hideBusinessProcessFlow()
{
    Xrm.Page.ui.process.setVisible(false);
}

function showBusinessProcessFlow()
{
    Xrm.Page.ui.process.setVisible(true);
}

function showHideBusinessProcessFlow()
{
    if (Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_showbpf").getValue() == true)
    {
        showBusinessProcessFlow();
    }
    else
    {
        hideBusinessProcessFlow();
    }
}

Good source here:
https://www.powerobjects.com/blog/2014/12/11/setting-visibility-of-a-business-process-flow-with-javascript-dynamics-crm-2015/

Hope it helps!
Thank you and God Bless You!

Calm Down Your Upset Customer by Sending an Auto-Reply Email in CRM 2011/2013

Customers, they are upset!
They send emails containing complaints and the CS team was so busy!

But, they need action and also need an email to convince them that they were sending to right support email.
So that, you will need an automatic reply email.

In earlier version, we should create a workflow to convert email to case, but in CRM 2013 SP1 or CRM 2013 Online with Spring Wave Updates, that is possible without workflow.

Here is the steps to send automatic reply email after customers submitted case through email.

1. Make sure you’ve done the email setting and have a dedicated queue with specific email because we need CRM to receive the incoming email to this Queue.

2. Assuming you’ve done the number 1, then go to Service Management and go to Automatic Case Creation Rules.



3. Create a new one ‘Case Creation Rule’

Use this setting!



4. Save and don’t forget to Activate it.

5. You also can set a criteria or a condition in the ‘Specify Case Details’

For example, you want to set special treatment only if from specific customer, etc.

6. Test the result

7. Send an email to the ‘Support Email’ Queue’s email address.



8. Wait for seconds…..

And here is the automatic reply email to the customer:



9. And as well…Yes, we have a new case from this customer….



10. If the Customer record has been recorded in CRM and you change the full name, then every time he/she sends the Email, she or he will get the right full name:



Hope it helps!
Thanks.

SSRS Show Currency Symbol to the Report

When creating a report, including report to CRM, sometimes you need to have Currency Symbol.

Here are the tips:

1. Go to the Text Box Properties and go to Number

2. Select the Currency in the Category selection.



3. You can adjust the Decimal places, separators, show values and zero as methods, negative numbers display setting, and select the Symbol.

4. You can also show Symbol after value, for example : 12345 RM and also include a space.

5. You can see the Sample.

Here is the result:






Hope it helps!
Thanks.