Giving Up My MVP!!

Yes, I am giving up my MVP award at the end of the year.  I am retiring it to go work or Microsoft as a Premier Field Engineer.  I am shocked at how much I have to learn and am so excited for where this adventure takes me in the future.  I will try to keep you all updated.   I am so thrilled to have helped so many people over the years.  I know that I have made web requests over JScript and .NET much easier for some people and I continue to get a quarter of a million page views a year.

Thanks!!

Today I Learned in Dynamics CRM: Field Service Bookings Do Not Go Straight to Outlook, but the App Syncs!

Today I Learned in CRM: Field Service Bookings Do Not Go Straight to Outlook.  I suppose if you are a field service tech you can live right in the mobile application.  The mobile app also syncs!  So if you are offline you can work with your data and when you come online it will synchronize.

Today I learned in Dynamics CRM: Cannot Create New Views for Connection Roles

So today I learned that you cannot create new system views for connection roles in Dynamics CRM 2016 on-premise update 1.  The system does, however, allow you to customize the existing connection roles in the system.  So I had to hijack the inactive roles view and make it into something different.  I hope they allow this in the future.  My customer just wanted a view that only shows roles from a particular category.  Again, I was able to work around this by repurposing the inactive roles view.

- Have a great Weekend

- Oh, and I am down 35 lbs since December to 225 from 260!!

How Do You Become a Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP? What is it Like? WHAT DO WE GET?!?!

This months feature blogpost for Summit Group Software will tell us just that.  I will give you an insiders overview of the MVP program and why I love it so much.  :)

http://www.summitgroupsoftware.com/blog/insiders-overview-microsofts-mvp-program

Today I Learned in Dynamics CRM - Email Router Tip

I am allowed to still admit I don't know things.   That being said.

Pressing Approve or Reject Email address on a mailbox or queue box in the Dynamics CRM web application will also enable or disable them in the email router.

#TheMoreYouKnow

-Happy Tuesday!

Get out of the habit of using new ColumnSet(true); in your Dynamics CRM .NET Code

Do you use new ColumnSet(true); to quickly pull all of the entity columns in one swoop.  Many times, unless a plugin gets run too often there is little impact on the system and it can seem innocent enough.  I have definitely been guilty in the past of this one myself and I want to share one situation where it can bite you in the rear.

So you are new to a specific CRM installation and you have been tasked to write a plugin to perform some task.  You need to update some fields in the account entity based on the data that's already on the entity.  You decide to use new ColumnSet(true); instead of pulling just the attributes you explicitly need to perform the intended function of the plugin, because heck, as developers we can be lazy sometimes and it takes longer to write out all the schema names you need for the specific attributes.

What you don't know is that the company's GP partner has an integration to GP that runs when a specific field on the account is updated.  Even if you don't change the value of that field, the system still sees it as an update because that attribute is now included in the entity you just updated... because you were lazy.

And you can replace the word "you" in that last paragraph with "I" because that's what I just did today. Whoops!

- Happy Thursday!

1 MILLION PAGE VIEWS: 8 FUN YEARS WITH DYNAMICS CRM

Evidently we are crossing the million pageview mark today as there are only 5 to go.  It's been a great 8 plus years I have had with Dynamics CRM!  Through CRM 3.0, 4.0, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016, it's been a fun ride so far.

Thanks to everyone who makes our community great!

Woops! Wrong photo, yes I am fat, but I have been losing weight, I was 260 at the beginning of December. 

Here's the right image.  :)

I will be Presenting on My Top 10 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 New Features at the CRMUG Dakotas Chapter Feb 10 in Fargo, ND, I Hope to See You There!

I will be Presenting on My Top 10 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 New Features at the CRMUG Dakotas Chapter Feb 10 in Fargo, ND!

Register today at : https://www.crmug.com/engage/chapter

The Good and the Bad of Using Calculated and Rollup Fields in Dynamics CRM

I have released a new blogpost on the pro's and con's of using calculated fields and rollup fields in Dynamics CRM.  Check it out here:

http://www.summitgroupsoftware.com/blog/good-and-bad-calculated-and-rollup-fields-dynamics-crm

New Analytics and BI Options in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

I just posted a new blog at my new blog page for my employer detailing Excel Templating and other new BI / Analytics options in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016.

Check it out below:

http://www.summitgroupsoftware.com/blog/new-reporting-and-analytics-options-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2016-online-ssr-wha 


-Happy Tuesday!

Dynamics CRM MVP Award Renewed for Fifth Time. Happy New year!!

I found out on January First I have been renewed for a fifth year as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP for 2016!!!

This year I plan on trying some new things, like Pluralsight authoring.  Should be an interesting year.

Happy New Year!

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