Video – Reporting Options in CRM 2011

An excellent video from zero2ten about the available reporting options in CRM 2011. This video goes through the available options and shows you an example.  I was impressed with the excel pivot tables and I didn’t know you could upload them into CRM with the other reports

In this video the 4 main ways in which reporting can be done in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 are covered:

1) Advanced Find and Charts
2) Excel Pivot Tables and Worksheets
3) SQL Report Services – Report Wizard
4) CRM Dashboards

CRM 2011 – Videos – Services and scheduling

The service section of CRM 2011 is not something I have done much with.  I have had a few customers who want to use the call logging facilities but I have not seen anyone use the scheduling.  So it was with interest I saw the video below which explained the fucntionality quite well.

I get the feeling that the functionality is ok but for people to use it they would probably need to customize it.

The videos are by the company PythagorasCRM.

 

Service Scenario

CRM 4 – Plugin registration problems – Could not load file or assembly

I tried registering a plugin in CRM 4 and it was hard work.

Firstly I had to build the Plugin Registration Tool, WHY???

I then initially tried to register my plugin, only to find I had not implemented the plugin interface.  I tried to compile the simple walkthrough in the SDK which had compile errors in!!

I signed my plugin (although it was pfx and snk)

but then when I tried to registered the plugin I got this error

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.Crm.Sdk, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
at System.Reflection.Assembly._GetExportedTypes()
at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExportedTypes()
at PluginRegistrationTool.AssemblyReader.RetrievePluginsFromAssembly(String path) in C:\<path>\PluginRegistrationV2\PluginRegistration\AssemblyReader.cs:line 59
at PluginRegistrationTool.AssemblyReader.RetrievePluginsFromAssembly(String path)
at PluginRegistrationTool.RegistrationHelper.RetrievePluginsFromAssembly(String pathToAssembly) in C:\<path>\PluginRegistrationV2\PluginRegistration\RegistrationHelper.cs:line 49
at PluginRegistrationTool.PluginRegistrationForm.btnLoadAssembly_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\<path>\PluginRegistrationV2\PluginRegistration\PluginRegistrationForm.cs:line 127

This forum post was very helpful the problem was the microsoft.crm.sdk.dll has to be in the same directory as the Plugin Registration tool.

I put this in the same folder but I was still having problems.

The reason for this was because I had copied in the 32 bit microsoft.crm.sdk.dll and instead I swapped this with the 64 bit microsoft.crm.sdk.dll and then it worked.

I don’t know why Microsoft make this so difficult because there is nothing worse than having to go through these problems when you are just setting up a system.

There must be some reason they don’t add the plugin registration tool as an Exe but I have never figured it out.

New Company Adventures at Metaphorix

I have been in my new job for 3 months and it has been an active time, the company I joined is called Metaphorix and they specialise in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and CRM.

I have moved from being a CRM developer to Mr CRM who now does everything.  It’s quite daunting at first because you start off doing lots of things you haven’t done before.

Over the last 3 months I have

Setup and installed 1 CRM 4 server

Setup and installed CRM 2011 6 times, 3 customer installations.

imported 1 customer organisation

done one upgrade from CRM 4 to CRM 2011.

 

I have done one workshop and requirements gathering exercise.

I have installed setup my laptop from scratch installing windows server 2008.

I have setup three virtual pcs.

I have installed and setup subversion

passed Sure Step 2010 certification.

Written my first FRD and FDD

Setup, installed and used the NAV/CRM connector

started the company blog for metaphorix which you can read here, we have just had 1000 views.

I have also managed to write plenty of blog posts for my CRM blog.

It has been a very interesting 3 months.  I am working on 3 customer projects, two CRM 2011 and one CRM 4.  I have also upgraded the internal CRM system from CRM 4 to CRM 2011.  Finally as Metaphorix specialise in NAV, I have also had a look at Microsoft Dynamics NAV and I have to say I prefer CRM hands down, Nav is very confusing and they don’t have a save button!!!!!

Things are also about to get even more interesting because my lovely wife is about to give birth to my first child at any time.