CRM 2011 – ePDF – how to quickly email pdf reports in CRM 2011

I got an email from someone at MyCrm Group asking me to have a look at their product ePDF.

The good news is you can get a free trail of the product on their website here

if you want a general overview of the product then watch the video below

The product offers the functionality to enable users to easily attach a report to an email.

I have had a quick go with it and it works easily, once you have gone through the tricky installing procedure.  It install a solution and then you pass a code into the solution which downloads another solution!!!

I’m sure it’s all in the name of security and it’s not as difficult as it sounds to install.

The code seems to be done using Silverlight and it adds a button onto the entities which you can create pdf reports for.

The theory is quite clever, it runs the reports, saves the value to the notes field I think and then attaches this to an email.

If you wanted you could run a report and save it to PDF and then attach it to an email.  According to the documentation this would take 13 steps but using their solution it takes 3.

 

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CRM 2011 – Do custom fields appear a mail merge?

I was asked a question about mail merge fields today  and if custom fields can appear in the address part of the mail merge and into the mail merge document in general.  I don’t do much mail merging so I usually have to try it out myself.

So I ran through the process using some dummy data and then going through a mail merge.  The good news is you can change the address information by choosing what information matches with the defaults it’s expecting, you basically change the mapping.

If you do a mail merge and then wonder why you new custom fields haven’t come across then you need to click the data fields which allows you to chose what fields are brought into the mail merge document.

Any talk from me, here are the screen shots which will be a lot more helpful.

70-515 – .NET 4 Web applications exam prep resources

The .NET Code Catto has some brilliant pages to help you prepare for the 70-515 .NET web applications exam

http://chriscatto.blogspot.com/search?q=70-515

he doesn’t even have one good blog entry but there are quite a few.  What I found most useful is the layout of the information, it helps keep the exam in mind all the time by focusing on what you are being tested on.

This is an extract of one of the pages but there are some other posts which are probably more useful

1 Developing Web Forms Pages (19%)

• 1.1 Configure Web Forms pages.
• 1.2 Implement master pages & themes.
• 1.3 Implement globalization.
• 1.4 Handle page life cycle events.
• 1.5 Implement caching.
• 1.6 Manage state.

2 Developing and Using Web Forms Controls (18%)

• 2.1 Validate user input.
• 2.2 Create page layout.
• 2.3 Implement user controls.
• 2.4 Implement server controls.
• 2.5 Manipulate user interface controls from code-behind.

3 Implementing Client-Side Scripting and AJAX (16%)

• 3.1 Add dynamic features to a page by using JavaScript.
• 3.2 Alter a page dynamically by manipulating the DOM.
• 3.3 Handle JavaScript events.
• 3.4 Implement ASP.NET AJAX.
• 3.5 Implement AJAX by using jQuery.

4 Configuring and Extending a Web Application (15%)

• 4.1 Configure authentication & authorization.
• 4.2 Configure providers.
• 4.3 Create and configure HttpHandlers and HttpModules.
• 4.4 Configure initialization and error handling.
• 4.5 Reference and configure ASMX and WCF services.
• 4.6 Configure projects and solutions, and reference assemblies.
• 4.7 Debug a Web application.
• 4.8 Deploy a Web application.

5 Displaying and Manipulating Data (19%)

• 5.1 Implement data-bound controls.
• 5.2 Implement DataSource controls.
• 5.3 Query and manipulate data by using LINQ.
• 5.4 Create and consume a data service.
• 5.5 Create and configure a Dynamic Data project.

6 Developing a Web Application by Using ASP.NET MVC 2 (13%)

• 6.1 Create custom routes.
• 6.2 Create controllers & actions.
• 6.3 Structure an ASP.NET MVC application.
• 6.4 Create and customize views.

Here is a list of good flix too along with a summary of them.

Also the WhitePaper & Scott Gu have some good .NET 4 content