CRM 2011/2013 – Step by Step guide to installing the CRM Developer Toolkit

The CRM Developer Toolkit has become the standard way for developers to develop CRM Customizations.

I personally like this because it means the codes is standardized. It’s not totally standardized because people can still have lots of different ways of storing all the various parts of CRM development.

The first step to installing the CRM Developer Toolkit is to download the CRM SDK, which will be either CRM 2011 or CRM 2013, depending on what project you are developing for.

CRM 2011 SDK

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=24004

CRM 2013 SDK

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=40321

The reason you need to download the CRM SDK is because you will need the CRM Dll’s in your code and the the developer toolkit is hiding away in one of the folders (with lots of other great things, so get nosing around)

 

Download SDK

Then inside the SDK you will find a folder called Tools

SDK\Tools\DeveloperToolkit

 

There will be two installers

CrmDeveloperTools_Installer

CrmDeveloperToolsVS12_Installer

 

If you have visual studio 2012 chose the vs12 otherwise choose the other one.

 

If it’s a new machine you will probably get  a message saying you need to install Microsoft Identity foundation (I have seen this message many times)

You can download it here

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17331

 

You probably have a 64 bit, so select that one, I chose the 6.1

 

You have slipped down the snake and need to click the visual studio installer again, it doesn’t take very long so don’t worry.

 

You will hopefully get further this time and then press next and get to the loading screen, which will sit there for a while.

 

 

Hopefully you will see this beautiful popup, which means you have successfully installed the CRM Developer Toolkit

Close  visual studio if you have it open.

 

Open visual studio, initially you won’t notice any difference, but you will if you create a new project or open an existing project which used the CRM Developer toolkit.

 

When you open or create a new CRM project, then the Connect to Dynamics CRM Server popup will appear.

You need to fill in the CRM details, this is used to deploy your plugins, javascript to the server, selected organizations and solution .  Below is one I filled in for CRM 2013 online trial

Fantastic you have installed the CRM Developer Toolkit.  The next step is to set it up for your CRM Project and connect it up.  I have written a blog post about that already, click the link to continue your journey and get developing

https://crmbusiness.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/setting-up-visual-studio-with-the-developer-toolkit-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm/

I also have a bunch of video’s going through the process which you can find at Hosk CRM Dev

 

There is a good playlist for people starting out with development

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsOVDEkdRUuwKulL3l6-sca1Q9zCHiSXn

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