CRM 4.0.12 SDK Release

Microsoft have just released the Microsoft CRM 4.0.12 SDK, which has a number of new developer features.

I'm still going through them, but I'm liking what I see.

One that stood out to me is that they now have a CRM 4.0 LINQ provider included! Yay!

To download the SDK and check it out, find it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82E632A7-FAF9-41E0-8EC1-A2662AAE9DFB&displaylang=en

Cheers

Matt

LINQ to SQL Entity Base Version 1.2 Final

Hi everyone,

I've published the latest version of the Entity Base (Version 1.2) on Codeplex.

There were no source code changes since Version 1.2 Beta, although if you were previously on 1.1 there are a few bug fixes that you may be interested in.

You can find the release here:

http://linq2sqleb.codeplex.com/releases/view/43763

Cheers

Matt.

Windows 7 HomeGroup Issue - possible solution

I had been trying to setup my network at home with a home group, so that all documents, printers, movies, etc... where available easily from any PC in the house.

Although I could join the homegroup with no issue, none of the computers could see the shares on the other, nor the default profile folders (documents, pictures etc..) and when I tried to view the full network map (found under the "Network and Sharing Center"), it was showing a strange network topology that didn't look anything like what I had, and didn't show the other machines properly.

Everything was configured correctly - but it just didn't work. How Frustrating.

After fiddling a good deal and looking up a few solutions in various forums, I almost gave up when I though i might check the configuration of the computer name, and found the setting below in the screenshot which I don't recall seeing before, but there it was under the System Settings -->Change Settings-->Network ID.

Changing the value from "This computer is part of a busines network etc..." to "This is a home computer; it's not part etc.." fixed the issue.

The Network map was now correct (infact I was impressed, it was spot on - even with multiple routers!), and so I repeated these steps on each computer in the network which also fixed their maps as well.

I then removed all computers from the home group, create a new home group and joined all the PC's again to it. Once I did this, the home group was up and running. I have no idea why this works, and ever after re-booting it's back to the "business network" option, but all I can say is it solved my issue and now I can enjoy the fruits of Windows 7.

"Service Unavailable" message in CRM 4.0

If you are running Windows 2003 server with a CRM Installation and you get the "Service Unavailable" message, check the application pool for CRM in IIS.

If it's stopped, start it again, and try going to the CRM web page again. If the CRM application pool stops again, it's likely that you've just applied patch KB973917, try removing this patch from the server, reboot, this should fix the problem.

Cheers

Matt

LINQ to SQL Entity Base - Version 1.2 Beta

Hi everyone,

I've released a beta of the LINQ 2 SQL Entity Base - included in it is the following changes since the V1.1 final:

• Bug Fix: If the entity's state is "New", LINQ to SQL Tries to attach an FK references as "New" as well - even though this was unintended. Fixed it so it does not try and insert FK referenced entities when adding a new object. Thanks Mark & Stephan for finding/fixing the issue
• Bug Fix: If the onModifyKeepOriginal parameter on SetAsChangeTrackingRoot() is set to true and an object is detached from a collection (i.e. x.remove(y)), the object was not being attached properly to the data context when SynchroniseWithDataContext() was called, causing an error to be thrown. Thanks Yaki for finding the issue!
• Bug Fix: When EntityState == CanceNew, don't change to EntityState == Deleted when SetAsDeleteOnSubmit is called.
• Feature: Added ShallowCompare Method, which compares the properties of two entities and returns true if all the properties match (compare LINQ to SQL ColumnAttribute properties only).
• Feature: If the onModifyKeepOriginal parameter on SetAsChangeTrackingRoot() is set to true, and an object is modified (i.e. EntityState == Modified) and then modified again in a way which set's it back to be the same as property values as it's original state, the entity will now have it's EntityState set to back Original (instead of remaining as EntityState == "Modified").

It can be downloaded here:

http://linq2sqleb.codeplex.com

Cheers

Matt.

Address Attribute Length Fun in CRM 4.0

When you extend the length of Address attribute on a Contact or Account, this does not actually extend the length of the attribute in the database auto-magically only the length of the data that can be entered on the UI.

The address details are not stored agains the customer, they are stored in a seperate entity called "Address".

In order to extend the address you need to update the "Address" attribute too.

See this KB for more info:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973029

Data Migration Manager Troubles with CRM 4.0

Today I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out why the data migration manager would not let me sign in.

I'd just installed Rollup Pack 7, and noticed that there was no Data Migration Manager Update available in Rollup Pack 7, so I installed Rollup Pack 6's version of this update.

Everytime I tried to login, it would complain that ...

"You must have the System Administrator Security Role to use this Tool".

I was puzzled, I checked multiple times to make sure that the user I put in during the install was correct, I searched the web - but this error had not be reported anywhere by anyone.

Finally I decided to remove the Rollup Pack 6 update (only the update) for the Data Migration Manager, and to my surprise this worked! Infact I was even more surprised to find that it did not complain that there were updates available for it (which it usually does...).

Anyway, I re-installed the Data Migration Manager Rollup 6 Update and it now works.

So the fix is to Re-install if you get this error message.

[UPDATE] Came into work this morning, and a member of my team had exactly the same problem on a completely different server, Wonder if there's a Data Migration Manager Rollup-7 that hasn't been upload to the MS Download Site yet?

[UPDATE2] There's a Rollup Pack 7 installer for the Data Migration Manager Now, however haven't tried it yet to see if it works personally, but apparently it does.