CRM 2015 - Developer extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

 Developer Extensions is a set of tools provided in the SDk that intendes to simplify and accelerate development. Usually to be used in Client apps, something like Portals.

 It provide the following capabilities:

• Simplified connection to CRM servers provided by the CrmConnection class (Microsoft.Xrm.Client)
  
• Code generation of strong types provided by customizations to the code generation tool (CrmSvcUtil.exe)
  
• App.config and Web.config configurability for enabling custom extensions provided by the CrmConfigurationManager class (Microsoft.Xrm.Client)
  
• Performance enhancements through caching of service results provided by the CachedOrganizationService class (Microsoft.Xrm.Client)

Don't forget:

Developer Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports deployment for CRM on-premises and CRM Online. However, plug-ins that run in the sandbox on CRM Online shouldn’t make use of any classes or methods in Microsoft.Xrm.Client because certain functionality in that assembly isn’t supported in the sandbox.

CRM 2016 - SDK - New Messages

 New messages available in CRM 2016 below:

Request class	Web API action	Description	More information
CloneAsPatchRequest	CloneAsPatch Action	Creates a solution patch from a managed or unmanaged solution.	Create patches to simplify solution updates
CloneAsSolutionRequest	CloneAsSolution Action	Creates a new copy of an unmanaged solution that contains the original solution plus all of its patches.	Create patches to simplify solution updates
CreateKnowledgeArticleTranslationRequest	CreateKnowledgeArticleTranslation Action	Creates a translation of a knowledge article record.	Create a knowledge article translation
CreateKnowledgeArticleVersionRequest	CreateKnowledgeArticleVersion Action	Creates a major or minor version of a knowledge article record.	Create major and minor versions of a knowledge article
DeleteAndPromoteRequest	DeleteAndPromote Action	Replaces a managed solution plus all of its patches.	Create patches to simplify solution updates
FullTextSearchKnowledgeArticleRequest	N/A	Performs a full-text search on knowledge articles in CRM using the specified search text.	Search knowledge articles using full-text search
IncrementKnowledgeArticleViewCountRequest	N/A	Increments the per day view count of a knowledge article record.	Increment knowledge article view count
SetProcessRequest	SetProcess Action	Sets the process that associates with a given target entity.
UpdateSolutionComponentRequest	UpdateSolutionComponent Action	Updates a component in an unmanaged solution.	Package and distribute extensions using solutions

SRC URL:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309589.aspx

Hope it helps.

CRM 2015 - How to change max number of records per collection

Not the best thing to do in terms of performance probably, but if you need to increase the max number of records per collection, i.e: Rest call to get records and render as a table in a custom page, by default it will bring 50, to increase run the next sql statement in the MSCRM_CONFIG database:

update ServerSettingsProperties
set IntColumn = 250 
where ServerSettingsProperties.ColumnName = 'MaxResultsPerCollection'

Hope it helps.

CRM 2015 - Reports - SPN / SSPI Problems

 Running a report on CRM and if you fin an error message similar to this:

If you see an error like this:

Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ReportProcessingException: Query execution failed for dataset 'DSMain'. ---> Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.DataExtensionShim.Common.ReportExecutionException:
Microsoft.Crm.CrmException: An unexpected error occurred.
System.ServiceModel.Security.SecurityNegotiationException: A call to SSPI failed, see inner exception.
System.Security.Authentication.AuthenticationException: A call to SSPI failed, see inner exception.
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The target principal name is incorrect ---> 

It means the CRM App Pool service account SPN is not configured properly and usually the fix is the one described below:

On the CRM App Server run the following commands:

setspn  -a  HTTP/[Crm App Server Name]  [Domain]CRMAPP_Account
setspn  -a  HTTP/[Crm App Server FQDN]  [Domain]CRMAPP_Account

The Crm App Server FQDN might be something like CrmAppServerName.domain.com or something slightly different, so you'll need to figure this out for your specific environment. For example, if your server name is CrmAppServer and your domain is FooDomain.local you will have something like the following:

setspn  -a  HTTP/CrmAppServer  FooDomainCRMAPP_Account
setspn  -a  HTTP/CrmAppServer.FooDomain.local  FooDomainCRMAPP_Account

After, if SQL also runs under a domain account we'll need to log onto the SQL server and run the following commands for the SQL account:

setspn  -a  MSSQLSvc/[SQL Server Name]:1433 [Domain]SQL_Account
setspn  -a  MSSQLSvc/[Sql Server FQDN]:1433 [Domain]SQL_Account

Hope it helps.

CRM 2015 - Report Wizard - Duplicating Datetime Columns

  was creating a report from the CRM 2015 Report Wizard and i just ran the Report where i saw that a date time column was appearing two times, one with the formatted value from my options, in the case English(Ireland) format (01/01/2016 03:00:00) and the next unformatted, something like 2016/01/01 03:00:00 AM.

After digging quite a bit i have discovered that the Body XML on the database had the column in there, and for me, no direct updates/deletes/creates in the database, so i tried to find the reason.

I have discovered from one of my search results that inside the folder (your drive)/Program FilesMicrosoft Dynamics CRMSetupServiceabilityLatestActions_OrgInstall the file (dbupdate_37910.sql) could solve the problem. 

I have opened the file where i saw: 

-- CRMSE 37910 - Wizard reports when exported to excel should not duplicate the unformatted columns.

Having in mind that probably those files that start with "dbupdate_" will solve few issues similar to this one.

For me, i will give more attention to that folder from now on.

Before running the sql against each organization i advise you to perform a BACKUP on the database, it is better to prevent any possible damages when executing this kind of operations.

Hope it helps.