How to change the default Lookup type on ‘Customer’ fields

In CRM 4, this used to be a very popular request: "Please change the default lookup type on the customer field to contact" Also… "Please limit the lookup type on the customer field to only allow selection of contacts" In CRM 2011, there still doesn't seem to be an easy way of doing this, ... [More]

How to clear options without leaving an empty entry

Using the clearOptions method on PickLists, can leave an empty entry because Drop Down lists in HTML must have at least one entry. To work around use the following code that removes all options other than the current value to avoid the empty entry.

var attribute = Xrm.Page.getAttribute(“attri... [More]

Microsoft deliver last milestone of Dynamics CRM 2011 release schedule

Following Januaries release of the Online Version, the last milestone in the Dynamics CRM 2011 project has been reached with the release of the On-Premises and Partner-Hosted Deployments. The new version can be downloaded at the Microsoft Download Centre. 90 Day Trial Product Keys: Microsoft Dyna... [More]

CRM2011 Support reference numbers

Support reference numbers are now provided to the user in CRM2011 when an exception is thrown where the details may contain sensitive information. Initially we thought that they could be standard codes with corresponding meanings, however the code is a random code that is used to cross reference ag... [More]

View un-encrypted SOAP xml when calling CRM2011 WCF end point

If you've ever used an HTTP Proxy (like Fiddler) to debug web service calls to ASMX endpoints, you'll probably try the same with the CRM2011 WCF web services only to be greeted with an encrypted soap packet. If you want to see the plain soap xml calls your client application or web application is ma... [More]

Automatically Generate CRM2011 Entity Data Model Documentation

I am a firm believer in using a tool to generate documentation; it makes it more accurate and ultimately more useful. With CRM 4.0 we used a tool that parsed the Customizations.xml to produce the documentation. A significant difference between CRM2011 and CRM4.0 is the managed solutions approach to ... [More]

Speed up JavaScript Web Resource development time

Don't waste time re-publishing JavaScript web resources during development The new solution framework in Dynamics CRM 2011 is a fantastic addition to the Xrm platform – especially with the new Web Resources functionality. The ability to include JavaScript files rather than including the script in t... [More]

Things Dynamics CRM 4.0 Developers must know about CRM 2011 #1:

Nulls are handled differently by the SDK Web services: Using the CRM 4.0 SDK webservice and pipeline context, you could always exclude an attribute from an update by setting it to null. This has now changed: CRM 4.0: entity.attributename = null; CRM 2011: entity.Remove("attributename");  ... [More]