March 2008 - Posts

• Where to find Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 product keys?

  We recently sold two copies of CRM 4.0; one upgrade from CRM 3.0 SBE and one new license. The quickest way to kick-off your CRM project is to use a 90-day trial version that can be downloaded here. To upgrade from trial to full version you will just need to enter customer product key. We had some problems while trying to find product keys for our customers. Menno describes where to obtain CRM license keys… very simple procedure for volume licensing customers is: 1)    Login to eOpen or MVLS 2)    Download MS CRM product image You will find product key inside your image file. You will not find product keys enywhere else! 3)    Enter CRM product key via CRM deployment manager 4)    Register your CRM (you will need license information provided by Microsoft)   Posted Mar 25 2008, 10:53 PM by toni with 1 comment(s) Filed under: crm, licensing

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client installation odyssey - part 2

  As I wrote in Part 1 of this post, installing and configuring CRM client can be a real adventure I am getting ready for another CRM project. Our client will use Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for Outlook with Offline Access. While installing a client in a testing environment I encountered the following error: Action Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Client.InstallPstAction faild. LaunchOutlookInstallerProcess Failed Although there is a number of posts (Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Post 4) and a KB Article describing similar problems with CRM 3.0, the solutions mentioned did not help me to solve mine. It seems the problem was caused by Croatian version of Office 2007. Authors do mention that CRM has issues with all non-English Office versions (I am using English version of Office with spell-check support for Croatian). Solution in my case was simple : 1.    Uninstall Office 2007 English and Croatian spell-check support 2.    Install Office 2007 English 3.    Install CRM Client 4.    Configure CRM Client 5.    Install Croatian spell-check support   Posted Mar 10 2008, 02:31 AM by toni with no comments

• SharePoint CAPTCHA

  This blog has moved. Click here to open the new site. When working on a project that includes SharePoint in Internet facing scenario, your customer might request a CAPTCHA or some similar anti-spam algorithm to prevent automated postings to blogs and wikis. I found a nice .NET component developed by LanapSoft. It includes some cool features like 50 different CAPTCHA algorithms and sound support. You can find the details on how to create a SharePoint web part with it here: SharePoint Captcha.   This blog has moved. Click here to post a comment. Posted Mar 10 2008, 02:26 AM by toni with 1 comment(s) Filed under: web parts, captcha, sharepoint captcha

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client installation odyssey

  This blog has moved. Click here to open the new site. When you are presenting Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to customers bear in mind that one of the key selling points is the strong integration with Outlook 2007. Since Microsoft is manufacturer of both programs you are offering your customers a platform value/benefits. If you have a customer that sends a lot of email from Outlook you will be able to close a deal easily. * * * When you start a CRM project, your problems will begin. Although CRM and Outlook are both manufactured by Microsoft, integration is always a problem! In our last CRM project we encountered a number of problems with CRM client installation. Here is the list of problems and possible solutions: Symptoms: While configuring CRM client the following error is displayed: "The Configuration Manager cannot connect to the Microsoft CRM Server". Resolution: Run a following query against your database server. Replace <server>:<port> with your CRM URL and port. To learn more click here. USE MSCRM_CONFIG Update DeploymentProperties SET NVarCharColumn = '<server>:<port>' WHERE ColumnName = 'AsyncSdkRootDomain' Update DeploymentProperties SET NvarCharColumn = '<server>:<port>' WHERE ColumnName = 'ADSdkRootDomain' Update DeploymentProperties SET NvarCharColumn = '<server>:<port>' WHERE ColumnName = 'ADWebApplicationRootDomain' Symptoms: After installation CRM client the following error is displayed in the taskbar: "Unable to Connect. Lost Connection to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will restore the connection when possible. To stop retrying, right-click and select Sign Out" Resolution (am not sure which one worked but you can try both): - You might find solution Microsoft's KB article: KB913515 (available to customers and partners). For more detailed description check this site. - Configure your IIS properly: Go to IIS > Microsoft Dynamics CRM > _imgs. Right-click the _imgs folder and click Properties > Directory Security. Under Authenticate and access control click Edit and ensure Enable anonymous access is checked. For the second problem I hoped that CRM Client Diagnostics tool would provide me with some clues. However it only displayed the following message which was not very helpful: The Web address (URL) specified for the installation (http://crm) is not responding. Diagnostic tests that require connectivity will not be run. Verify the specified Web service address and check for connectivity. If necessary, rerun the CRM Configuration Wizard. A good source of solutions are Microsoft Dynamics CRM Forums.   This blog has moved. Click here to post a comment. Posted Mar 04 2008, 11:44 PM by toni with 4 comment(s) Filed under: crm, crm client