Adding an Advanced Find Query to a Form Sub grid

I've yet to see a clear post on how to add an Advanced Find Query as a subgrid on an entity form for CRM 2011. This is something that was quite common in CRM 4 due to the lack of sub grid support - but with CRM 2011 occationally we come up against the limitation of only showing related records and f... [More]

Convert CRM2011 LINQ Query into QueryExpression / FetchXml

With the introduction of Linq within the Dynamics CRM 2011 sdk, I've more or less stopped using QueryExpressions and FetchXml in server side code. This makes it increasingly painful when I've got to convert my queries to fetchXml or QueryExpressions for use in Javascript or Silverlight code. This sa... [More]

Dynamically construct a where query on a Dynamics CRM 2011 Linq query

Linq is an excellent way of homogenising the way we query our data – the CRM 2011 Linq provider is no exception. One thing that we occasionally come up against is the need to query based on a variable number of where clauses. With FetchXml and QueryExpressions dynamic filters were straightfor... [More]

Dynamics CRM DateTimes - the last word?

The subject of DateTimes in Dynamics CRM 2011 seems to always raises its ugly head on every project – I thought I'd try and create a guide for developers on future projects on how to deal with DateTimes in Dynamics CRM 2011. Time Zones Dynamics CRM stored Date/Time fields in the database ... [More]

The future of Silverlight for Dynamics CRM

Recently there has been much talk and rumours of Microsoft discontinuing Silverlight keeping in the tradition of speculating over the Flash vs. Silverlight vs. HTML 5 battle. The thing is; it is an imaginary struggle. It results from our deep seated need to keep things simple and 'black and white'. ... [More]

Generate Early Bound OptionSet enums

The latest release of the CRM 2011 SDK includes an extension to the CrmSvcUtil to generate OptionSet enumerations. Previously, the tool only generated enums for the StateCode attributes, leaving it as a manual task to create your own enums for any OptionSet values you needed. Using the extension ha... [More]

AddItem & RemoveItem Plugin Message‘gotchas’

When registering a Plug-In Step on the 'AddItem' and 'RemoveItem' messages I've found a couple of things to watch out for. 1. Missing InputParameters When registering on Campaign Activity in response to adding a Marketing List, the InputParameters collection on the 'AddItem' step should contain th... [More]

SQL Queries from Transactional Plugin Pipeline

Sometimes the LINQ, Query Expressions or Fetch just doesn't give you the ability to quickly query your data in the way you want to. A good example of this is the lack of left outer join support if you want a where clause to filter results based on the joined entity. Sometime, you just need to query ... [More]

Embedding CRM reports in IFrames using the CRM2011 Report Viewer

It is quite common for users to request that reports be included in Iframes on forms, or in Dashboards. Although this can be done by pointing the Iframe directly at SQL Reporting services, this essentially bypasses the CRM Report connector and relies on the user authenticating directly with SQL Repo... [More]