CRM 2015 Review

CRM 2015 Review

Microsoft have released CRM 2015 which rather than being a complete look and feel update that we saw with CRM 4, CRM 2011, and CRM 2013 is instead an update on the changes that were included in 2013.

The release is more focused on functionality updates rather than the design updates many CRM users are useful.  This is obviously some good news as there is nothing more annoying than training business users in one look and feel only to have it completely change every 12-24 months.

This article is my observations of the differences between two vanilla instances of CRM (One 2013, one 2015).  There is probably a fair bit of information I have missed which can be discovered via Microsoft’s documentation.  However onto the article!

CRM Ribbon

The first difference when logging into 2015 is there is a new search box and icon clearly visible on the ribbon.

CRM 2013 - Ribbon

CRM 2015 - Ribbon

Entering a keyword(s) into the search box returns the results found by the query.  Currently it appears to be limited to Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, User, Competitor, Activity, and Case entities.  This is a bit of an issue if you have a CRM implementation with a lot of custom entities however for now I’m presuming it might be a configuration I haven’t found yet.

The icon beside it is the Advanced Find icon which pops up the standard Advanced Find window.  Advanced Find could often get lost in CRM2013 and having it in such and easy to find place will definitely help regular business

Colours and Theming

The colours of some of the OOB entities have changed which seems like a slightly odd decision (I don’t recall anyone really complaining about it) however the standard ribbon functionality seems to be the same.

CRM 2013 - Entities Menu

CRM 2015 - Entities Menu

The forms also appear to have had minor changes to colours however if you have clients using CRM 2013 then they should be able to continue navigating around the system easy enough.

CRM 2013 - Account Form

CRM 2015 - Account Form

Navigation Changes

The areas are generally the same as CRM 2013 however some slight changes include the splitting of the old Administration area within Settings.

CRM 2013 - Administration

CRM 2015 - Administration

CRM 2015 - Security

The new setup is probably a more logical design as the Security items now have their own area including the new Positions and Hierarchy Security items.  Hierarchy Security seems like it needs its own post so I won’t go into any detail here.

The Administration area also has the Microsoft Social Listening Configuration which allows you to use Microsoft’s Social Listening solution to track Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. information which can then be linked back into Accounts and Contacts so you can see how clients and the public are relating to your company.

Business Rules

An interesting addition to CRM 2013 was Business Rules.  The concept was fantastic as it in theory reduced the JavaScript required, however in practise the reality was a two basic limitations made them almost unusable.

Consider these scenarios:-

Scenario One

So you have a client whose preferred method of contact is Email.  Then logically they need to provide an email address.  However what if there preferred method is Phone, Fax, or Mail?  Programmatically you want the following:-

·         If Preferred Method of Contact is Email Then

o    Make Email Mandatory

·         Else If Preferred Method of Contact is Phone Then

o    Make Phone Mandatory

·         Else If Preferred Method of Contact is Fax Then

o    Make Fax Mandatory

·         Else If Preferred Method of Contact is Main Then

o    Make Address 1: Street 1 Mandatory

In CRM 2013 you could not do If/Else so the above required four separate Business Rules which becomes difficult when you have to start doing this for multiple fields.

Scenario Two

If you want to ensure you capture either a Home or Mobile phone for a client then you would like something like:-

·         If Home Phone or Mobile Phone do not contain Data Then

o    Home Phone or Mobile Phone are mandatory

·         Else

o    Home Phone or Mobile Phone are not mandatory

In CRM 2013 all conditions were “and” so the above wouldn’t work.  We could reverse it and say where Home Phone and Mobile Phone don’t contain data however what if we want something more complex? CRM 2015 opens up this functionality by allowing and/or.

CRM 2015 - Business Rule

Combining the If/Else and And/Or allows for a lot more customizability for the Business Rules which should greatly reduce the need for a programmer to develop JavaScript solutions leaving them to worry about more critical functionality.

Calculated and Rollup fields

CRM 2015 allows for fields to be of three types:-

·         Simple

The standard type from previous versions of CRM for data entry.

·         Calculated

Allows for Conditions if required (similar setup to Business Rules) and then allows actions using either a current field or one of the following formulas:-

       ADDDAYS

       ADDHOURS

       ADDMONTHS

ADDWEEKS

       ADDYEARS

       CONCAT

       SUBTRACTDAYS

       SUBTRACTHOURS

       SUBTRACTMONTHS

       SUBTRACTWEEKS

       SUBTRACTYEARS

       TRIMLEFT

       TRIMRIGHT

This is useful if you want to create a description for a record for example by combining multiple existing fields.

CRM 2015 - Calculated Field

·         Rollup

Rollup uses a related entity to do one of the following functions:-

       SUM

       MAX

       MIN

       COUNT

This is good to see how many contacts an Account has, or the total of child currency fields.

CRM 2015 - Roll up Field

No response and catching errors cURL PHP

I covered this in another post however I thought it deserved its own "snippet". I use cURL when connecting to CRM's SOAP service as I found it easy to use almost right away.

Because I could use it right away I didn't really spend anytime thinking about it. That was until code that had been working for months suddenly stopped. I received no response from the service but I couldn't figure out why.

The investigation led me to the following function:

 public static function GetSOAPResponse($url, $request) {
    // Set up headers.
    $headers = array(
      "POST " . "/Organization.svc" . " HTTP/1.1",
      "Host: yourorganisation.api.crm5.dynamics.com",
      'Connection: Keep-Alive',
      "Content-type: application/soap+xml; charset=UTF-8",
      "Content-length: " . strlen($request),
    );
 
    $cURLHandle = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 60);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, 3);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
    curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $request);
    $response = curl_exec($cURLHandle);
    curl_close($cURLHandle);
 
    return $response;
  }

In such a small project such as this when something stops working the question is usually what dependencies have changed? I presumed something at the Microsoft end (I was using CRM Online) had changed but the question was what.

A quick Google search on curl_exec shows that it does not throw exceptions due to it being a C library all wrapped up. So in order to get an exception you need to instead use the following:

if( ! $response = curl_exec($cURLHandle)) 
   { 
       trigger_error(curl_error($cURLHandle)); 
   }

This will fire off a PHP exception for the cURL error. Which led me to my real issue!

Microsoft due to the 'poodle' vulnerability in SSL updated to SSL version 4. The code I had above (grabbed from some other persons post presumably!) has the SSL Version explicitly stated. By changing this to 4 the issue went away. However I thought it was easier to just remove that setting and this seemed to do the trick (and hopefully makes it a bit more robust for future use!). So the updated code is below.

public static function GetSOAPResponse($url, $request) {
   // Set up headers.
   $headers = array(
     "POST " . "/Organization.svc" . " HTTP/1.1",
     "Host: yourorganisation.api.crm5.dynamics.com",
     'Connection: Keep-Alive',
     "Content-type: application/soap+xml; charset=UTF-8",
     "Content-length: " . strlen($request),
   );
 
   $cURLHandle = curl_init();
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 60);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
   curl_setopt($cURLHandle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $request);
   if( ! $response = curl_exec($cURLHandle)) 
   { 
       trigger_error(curl_error($cURLHandle)); 
   }
   curl_close($cURLHandle);
 
   return $response;
 }

CRM 2011 Workflow execution

As newer versions of CRM are released I find myself wondering when we might reach a point where plugin code might not be required. Between Workflows, JavaScript, and Business Rules CRM it is getting easier to customize in more and more powerful ways.

Every time I think of this though I find a "gotcha" which makes me realise plugin code will still be required for a while yet.

We had an issue where the client told us that there was a bug with auditing in CRM 2011. The problem was two different sets of audit changes were listed.

The problem ended up being not with the auditing but with the workflows. Workflows do not capture data at the time of change rather they run against the data at time of workflow execution. This is a rather obvious but interesting difference.

In our case the record needed to be recommended and then approved. We had a workflow which was created and run on "Status" change that on Approval would push data to a new entity . In a real world scenario we would presume that no one would recommend and immediately approve however there would be many cases I’m sure where a fast change such as this is completely possible.

Where a fast change like this occurs chances are that 1) the workflow has not yet been created by CRM yet or 2) the workflow has been created and not run. The issue of course is the workflow will look at the Status and see "Approved" both times it runs!

So if you have a field that is updated multiple times in quick succession I suggest having a plugin (which snapshots that data) rather than relying on a workflow.

NOTE: I haven't confirmed this in 2013 or 2015 so they might actually handle snapshots in workflows? The above talks about CRM 2011 specifically.

CRM 2011 - JavaScript - Access Is Denied

While testing a CRM 2011 instance we ran into a issue where the JavaScript kept throwing an "Access is Denied" message. This only occurred on one system and no others. What we discovered was the user was looked in using the fully qualified URL ie:- http://crmtroubleshoot.blogspot.com.au While everone else was using the short URL something like the following http://crmtroubleshoot When calling the service through JavaScript we use the following getClientUrl() + "/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc/web"; This was returning the short URL which the server thought was a different server to the long name. The user re logged in with the Short URL and the problem went away. If you have DNS suffixes set then you need to log in to CRM using the short name. I suspect (unconfirmed) if you don't have the DNS suffixes set then using the long URL should be fine.

CRM 2011 - Changing the color of Text fields

We had a scenario where we wanted to clearly identify the differences between two addresses on a form.

To facilitate this we thought we would change the text color however we hit two issues
1) Most of the examples showed an unsupported example.
2) It didn't seem to work when the field was read only

The examples seem to use the standard JavaScript style

document.getElementById("fieldname").style.color = "red";

While my final solution might still not be Microsoft supported, it is a bit more "CRM'd" then the above.

var field = Xrm.Page.ui.controls.get("fieldname");
if (field != null) {
     field._control.get_element().firstChild.style.color= 'red';
}

HOWEVER as the display of read only fields is defined by the client browser/css modifying this would be tricky at best. So instead we changed the background color which will work on a disabled field.

var field = Xrm.Page.ui.controls.get("fieldname");
if (field != null) {
     field._control.get_element().firstChild.style.backgroundColor = 'red';
}

Let me know if you have a more elegant solution!

CRM 2013 - Dependent OptionSets (picklists) error onchange

If you like me have downloaded the "Create dependent OptionSets (picklists)" code only to find it does not work in Chrome then never fear!

While i'd like to take responsibility for this fix, i actually found it here. http://ashwaniashwin.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/this-get_editview-is-null-or-not-an-object-error-during-jscript-controls-clearoptions-in-crm-2013/

However if you're lazy then the short answer is for some reason the option set list gets dropped in the following:-

for (var ctrl in controls) {

This means that when we call the following it doesn't exist.

controls[ctrl].clearOptions();

So as mentioned on the post above to fix this you can do the following:-

//controls[ctrl].clearOptions();
var childoptionset = Xrm.Page.ui.controls.get(childField);
childoptionset.clearOptions();

The Dependent OptionSets should now work as required!

Get Opportunity Won or Lost via JavaScript

Most of you are probably aware of this however I thought i'd put a reminder for myself anyway.

The statecode controls the state of the Opportunity.

statecode	label
0	Open
1	Won
2	Lost

And the code I used

var statecode = TryParseInt(Xrm.Page.getAttribute('statecode').getValue(), null);
if (statecode != null)
{
 // Open
 if (statecode == 0)
 {
  // Do Something
 }
 // statecode 1 = Won
 else if (statecode == 1)
 {
  // Do Something
 }
 // statecode 2 = Lost
 else if (statecode == 2)
 {
  // Do Something
 }
 else
 {
  // Handle issue
 }
}

Update Opportunity on 'Close as Won' or 'Close as Lost'

I had a requirement that I thought would be quite basic, on Close Won/Lost then update a field on Opportunity.

My first thought was that this could be on using the following Plugin setup:

• Message - Update
• Primary Entity - opportunity
• Secondary Entity - none

However I found that the above did not fire. A bit of googling and I found that i instead needed to use the following:

• Message - Win
• Primary Entity - opportunity
• Secondary Entity - none

AND

• Message - Lose
• Primary Entity - opportunity
• Secondary Entity - none

This does not return the opportunity as "Target" as you might think it actually returns "Status" and "OpportunityClose". OpportunityClose contains the information listed on the form displayed when you try to Win/Lose an Opportunity,  CRM stores this as a separate entity.

Opportunity does provide you with the related opportunityid however so you can update the original opportunity if required (Just be aware that THIS will then fire any "Update opportunity" plugin steps!)

var context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof (IPluginExecutionContext));


if (context.InputParameters.Contains("OpportunityClose")
 &&
 context.InputParameters["OpportunityClose"] is Entity)
{
 // Obtain the target entity from the input parameters.
 var entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters["OpportunityClose"];

 try {

  if (entity.Attributes.Contains("opportunityid")) {
   var opportunityId = ((EntityReference)entity.Attributes["opportunityid"]).Id;

   var serviceFactory =
    (IOrganizationServiceFactory) serviceProvider.GetService(typeof (IOrganizationServiceFactory));

   // Getting the service from the Organisation Service.
   IOrganizationService service = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);

   Entity opportunity = service.Retrieve("opportunity", opportunityId, new ColumnSet(new string[] { "closeprobability" }));
   opportunity["closeprobability"] = 50;
   service.Update(opportunity);
  }
 }
 catch (Exception ex) {
  tracingService.Trace("Plugin: {0}", ex.ToString());
  throw;
 }
}

CRM 2013 Plugin Registration Tool - Cannot connect to Organisations after login

When attempting to connect to the Plugin Registration Tool I found a strange scenario.  If I entered the correct credentials the tool would look like it was doing something and then return to the login page. Clicking on the Login button again would flash to a message and come back.

CRM 2013 Plugin Registration Tool Login Page

We then added me as a System administrator and I could go one step further (Seeing a list of Organisations) yet if I clicked on one then the list disappeared and I was stuck!

CRM 2013 Plugin Registration Tool Organisation List

So I did the only other thing I could think of which was started Fiddler and see the messages between my system and CRM.

This is where I discovered that there was an issue with the SSL Certificate and rather than give me a nice message CRM just fell over.

So if you can't get past the Login or Organisation screen then check your certificate isn't throwing an error.

Finally the Plugin Registration Tool is new and improved!

If you're like me and find yourself often registering CRM plugins then you will probably be as excited as me that the Plugin Registration Tool has been reborn!

While the old Plugin Registration Tool did its job it always concerned me that such a key bit of Dynamics CRM functionality could be such and afterthought for Microsoft (No one had time to find an icon for it??)

When downloading the latest Dynamics CRM SDK 2013 I suddenly discovered the Plugin Registration Tool wasn't in its old spot. Its now found at {Base Dir}\SDK\Tools\PluginRegistration and it looks a fair bit different as shown below!

The Old

The New!

The functionality in general remains the same. Its just a fresher interface however there is a few changes both good and bad.

1. You can now view the plugins by Assembly, Entity, or Message. This makes it a lot easier when searching for a particular plugin step.
2. Currently it doesn't keep a list of servers/logins. Painful if you have a collection of servers!
3. The source code isn't available in the SDK.

Whether or not the source code is ever made available will be a big question marks however hopefully we can get further improvements in the near future!

Dynamics CRM 2013 - Extending the 10000 Record Limit when exporting to Excel

There is a restriction on exporting records to Excel in Dynamics CRM. You can only export up to 10,000 records.

If you are on premise you can modify the registry to fix this, if you are using CRM Online (or don't want to touch the registry) you can use the following code to modify the Organization attribute "maxrecordsforexporttoexcel".

public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            OrganizationServiceProxy _serviceProxy = null;
            IOrganizationService _service;

            Uri crmURI = new Uri("https://{ORGANIZATION}.api.{crmregion}.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc");

            ClientCredentials clientCredentials = new ClientCredentials();
            clientCredentials.UserName.UserName = "username";
            clientCredentials.UserName.Password = "password";

            using (_serviceProxy = new OrganizationServiceProxy(crmURI, null, clientCredentials, null))
            {
                QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression();
                query.EntityName = "organization";
                query.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet() { AllColumns = true };
             
                _service = (IOrganizationService)_serviceProxy;
           
                EntityCollection entities = _service.RetrieveMultiple(query);
                if (entities.Entities.Count == 1)
                {
                    if (entities.Entities[0].Attributes.Contains("maxrecordsforexporttoexcel"))
                    {
                        entities.Entities[0].Attributes["maxrecordsforexporttoexcel"] = 20000;
                        _service.Update(entities.Entities[0]);
                    }
                }
            }
        }



NOTE: This function can be used for all organization attributes that are editable (the original list can be found here - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg328408(v=crm.6).aspx)

Attribute Schema Name	Display Name	Type	Description
AcknowledgementTemplateId	Acknowledgement Template	Lookup	ID of the template to be used for acknowledgement when a user unsubscribes.
AllowAddressBookSyncs	Allow Address Book Synchronization	Boolean	Indicates whether background address book synchronization in Microsoft Office Outlook is allowed.
AllowAutoResponseCreation	Allow Automatic Response Creation	Boolean	Indicates whether automatic response creation is allowed.
AllowAutoUnsubscribe	Allow Automatic Unsubscribe	Boolean	Indicates whether automatic unsubscribe is allowed.
AllowAutoUnsubscribeAcknowledgement	Allow Automatic Unsubscribe Acknowledgement	Boolean	Indicates whether automatic unsubscribe acknowledgement email is allowed to send.
AllowClientMessageBarAd	Allow Outlook Client Message Bar Advertisement	Boolean	Indicates whether the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook message bar advertisement is allowed.
AllowEntityOnlyAudit	Allow Entity Level Auditing	Boolean	Indicates whether auditing of changes to entity is allowed when no attributes have changed.
AllowMarketingEmailExecution	Allow Marketing Email Execution	Boolean	Indicates whether marketing emails execution is allowed.
AllowOfflineScheduledSyncs	Allow Offline Scheduled Synchronization	Boolean	Indicates whether background offline synchronization in Microsoft Office Outlook is allowed.
AllowOutlookScheduledSyncs	Allow Scheduled Synchronization	Boolean	Indicates whether scheduled synchronizations to Outlook are allowed.
AllowUnresolvedPartiesOnEmailSend	Allow Unresolved Address Email Send	Boolean	Indicates whether users are allowed to send email to unresolved parties (parties must still have an email address).
AllowUserFormModePreference	Allow User Form Mode Preference	Boolean	Indicates whether individuals can select their form mode preference in their personal options.
AllowUsersSeeAppdownloadMessage	Allow the showing tablet application notification bars in a browser.	Boolean	Indicates whether showing tablet application notification bars in a browser is allowed.
AllowWebExcelExport	Allow Export to Excel	Boolean	Indicates whether web-based export of grids to Microsoft Office Excel is allowed.
AMDesignator	AM Designator	String	AM designator to use throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
BaseCurrencyId	Currency	Lookup	ID of the base currency of the organization.
BaseCurrencyPrecision	Base Currency Precision	Integer	Number of decimal places that can be used for the base currency.
BaseCurrencySymbol	Base Currency Symbol	String	Symbol used for the base currency.
BaseISOCurrencyCode	Base ISO Currency Code	String	Base ISO currency code.
BingMapsApiKey	Bing Maps API Key	String	API Key to be used in requests to Bing Maps services.
BlockedAttachments	Block Attachments	String	Prevent upload or download of certain attachment types that are considered dangerous.
BulkOperationPrefix	Bulk Operation Prefix	String	Prefix used for bulk operation numbering.
BusinessClosureCalendarId	Business Closure Calendar	Unique identifier	ID of the business closure calendar of organization.
CalendarType	Calendar Type	Integer	Calendar type for the system. Set to Gregorian US by default.
CampaignPrefix	Campaign Prefix	String	Prefix used for campaign numbering.
CasePrefix	Case Prefix	String	Prefix to use for all cases throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
ContractPrefix	Contract Prefix	String	Prefix to use for all contracts throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
CreatedBy	Created By	Lookup	ID of the user who created the organization.
CreatedOn	Created On	DateTime	Date and time when the organization was created.
CreatedOnBehalfBy	Created By (Delegate)	Lookup	ID of the delegate user who created the organization.
CurrencyDecimalPrecision	Currency Decimal Precision	Integer	Number of decimal places that can be used for currency.
CurrencyDisplayOption	Display Currencies Using	Picklist	Indicates whether to display money fields with currency code or currency symbol.
CurrencyFormatCode	Currency Format Code	Picklist	Information about how currency symbols are placed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
CurrencySymbol	Currency Symbol	String	Symbol used for currency throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
CurrentBulkOperationNumber	Current Bulk Operation Number	Integer	Current bulk operation number.
CurrentCampaignNumber	Current Campaign Number	Integer	Current campaign number.
CurrentCaseNumber	Current Case Number	Integer	First case number to use.
CurrentContractNumber	Current Contract Number	Integer	First contract number to use.
CurrentImportSequenceNumber	Current Import Sequence Number	Integer	Import sequence to use.
CurrentInvoiceNumber	Current Invoice Number	Integer	First invoice number to use.
CurrentKbNumber	Current Article Number	Integer	First article number to use.
CurrentOrderNumber	Current Order Number	Integer	First order number to use.
CurrentParsedTableNumber	Current Parsed Table Number	Integer	First parsed table number to use.
CurrentQuoteNumber	Current Quote Number	Integer	First quote number to use.
DateFormatCode	Date Format Code	Picklist	Information about how the date is displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
DateFormatString	Date Format String	String	String showing how the date is displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
DateSeparator	Date Separator	String	Character used to separate the month, the day, and the year in dates throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
DecimalSymbol	Decimal Symbol	String	Symbol used for decimal in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
DefaultCountryCode	Default Country Code	String	Text area to enter default country code.
DefaultEmailServerProfileId	Email Server Profile	Lookup	ID of the default email server profile.
DefaultEmailSettings	Default Email Settings	String	XML string containing the default email settings that are applied when a user or queue is created.
DefaultRecurrenceEndRangeType	Default Recurrence End Range Type	Picklist	Type of default recurrence end range date.
DisabledReason	Disabled Reason	String	Reason for disabling the organization.
EmailConnectionChannel	Email Connection Channel	Picklist	Select if you want to use the Email Router or server-side synchronization for email processing.
EmailCorrelationEnabled	Use Email Correlation	Boolean	Flag to turn email correlation on or off.
EmailSendPollingPeriod	Email Send Polling Frequency	Integer	Normal polling frequency used for sending email in Microsoft Office Outlook.
EnableBingMapsIntegration	Enable Integration with Bing Maps	Boolean	Enable Integration with Bing Maps.
EnablePricingOnCreate	Enable Pricing On Create	Boolean	Enable pricing calculations on a Create call.
EnableSmartMatching	Enable Smart Matching	Boolean	Use Smart Matching.
ExpireSubscriptionsInDays	Days to Expire Subscriptions	Integer	Maximum number of days before deleting inactive subscriptions.
FeatureSet	Feature Set	String	Features to be enabled as an XML BLOB.
FiscalCalendarStart	Fiscal Calendar Start	DateTime	Start date for the fiscal period that is to be used throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
FiscalPeriodFormat	Fiscal Period Format	String	Information that specifies how the name of the fiscal period is displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
FiscalPeriodFormatPeriod	Format for Fiscal Period	Picklist	Format in which the fiscal period will be displayed.
FiscalPeriodType	Fiscal Period Type	Integer	Type of fiscal period used throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
FiscalSettingsUpdated	Is Fiscal Settings Updated	Boolean	Information that specifies whether the fiscal settings have been updated.
FiscalYearDisplayCode	Fiscal Year Display	Integer	Information that specifies whether the fiscal year should be displayed based on the start date or the end date of the fiscal year.
FiscalYearFormat	Fiscal Year Format	String	Information that specifies how the name of the fiscal year is displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
FiscalYearFormatPrefix	Prefix for Fiscal Year	Picklist	Prefix for the display of the fiscal year.
FiscalYearFormatSuffix	Suffix for Fiscal Year	Picklist	Suffix for the display of the fiscal year.
FiscalYearFormatYear	Fiscal Year Format Year	Picklist	Format for the year.
FiscalYearPeriodConnect	Fiscal Year Period Connector	String	Information that specifies how the names of the fiscal year and the fiscal period should be connected when displayed together.
FullNameConventionCode	Full Name Display Order	Picklist	Order in which names are to be displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
FutureExpansionWindow	Future Expansion Window	Integer	Specifies the maximum number of months in future for which the recurring activities can be created.
GenerateAlertsForErrors	Generate Alerts For Errors	Boolean	Indicates whether alerts will be generated for errors.
GenerateAlertsForInformation	Generate Alerts For Information	Boolean	Indicates whether alerts will be generated for information.
GenerateAlertsForWarnings	Generate Alerts For Warnings	Boolean	Indicates whether alerts will be generated for warnings.
GetStartedPaneContentEnabled	Is Get Started Pane Content Enabled	Boolean	Indicates whether Get Started content is enabled for this organization.
GoalRollupExpiryTime	Rollup Expiration Time for Goal	Integer	Number of days after the goal's end date after which the rollup of the goal stops automatically.
GoalRollupFrequency	Automatic Rollup Frequency for Goal	Integer	Number of hours between automatic rollup jobs .
HashDeltaSubjectCount	Hash Delta Subject Count	Integer	Maximum difference allowed between subject keywords count of the email messaged to be correlated.
HashFilterKeywords	Hash Filter Keywords	String	Filter subject keywords.
HashMaxCount	Hash Max Count	Integer	Maximum number of subject keywords or recipients used for correlation.
HashMinAddressCount	Hash Min Address Count	Integer	Minimum number of recipients required to match for email messaged to be correlated
IgnoreInternalEmail	Ignore Internal Email	Boolean	Indicates whether incoming email sent by internal Microsoft Dynamics CRM users or queues should be tracked.
IncomingEmailExchangeEmailRetrievalBatchSize	Exchange Email Retrieval Batch Size	Integer	Setting for the Async Service Mailbox Queue. Defines the retrieval batch size of exchange server.
InitialVersion	Initial Version	String	Initial version of the organization.
IntegrationUserId	Integration User	Unique identifier	ID of the integration user for the organization.
InvoicePrefix	Invoice Prefix	String	Prefix to use for all invoice numbers throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
IsAppMode	Is Application Mode Enabled	Boolean	Indicates whether loading of Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a browser window that does not have address, tool, and menu bars is enabled.
IsAuditEnabled	Is Auditing Enabled	Boolean	Enable or disable auditing of changes.
IsAutoSaveEnabled	Auto Save Enabled	Boolean	Information on whether auto save is enabled.
IsDefaultCountryCodeCheckEnabled	Enable or disable country code selection	Boolean	Enable or disable country code selection.
IsDisabled	Is Organization Disabled	Boolean	Information that specifies whether the organization is disabled.
IsDuplicateDetectionEnabled	Is Duplicate Detection Enabled	Boolean	Indicates whether duplicate detection of records is enabled.
IsDuplicateDetectionEnabledForImport	Is Duplicate Detection Enabled For Import	Boolean	Indicates whether duplicate detection of records during import is enabled.
IsDuplicateDetectionEnabledForOfflineSync	Is Duplicate Detection Enabled For Offline Synchronization	Boolean	Indicates whether duplicate detection of records during offline synchronization is enabled.
IsDuplicateDetectionEnabledForOnlineCreateUpdate	Is Duplicate Detection Enabled for Online Create/Update	Boolean	Indicates whether duplicate detection during online create or update is enabled.
IsFiscalPeriodMonthBased	Is Fiscal Period Monthly	Boolean	Indicates whether the fiscal period is displayed as the month number.
IsPresenceEnabled	Presence Enabled	Boolean	Information on whether IM presence is enabled.
IsSOPIntegrationEnabled	Is Sales Order Integration Enabled	Boolean	Enable sales order processing integration.
IsUserAccessAuditEnabled	Is User Access Auditing Enabled	Boolean	Enable or disable auditing of user access.
ISVIntegrationCode	ISV Integration Mode	Picklist	Indicates whether loading of Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a browser window that does not have address, tool, and menu bars is enabled.
KbPrefix	Article Prefix	String	Prefix to use for all articles in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
LanguageCode	Language	Integer	Preferred language for the organization.
LocaleId	Locale	Integer	ID of the locale of the organization.
LongDateFormatCode	Long Date Format	Integer	Information that specifies how the Long Date format is displayed in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
MaxAppointmentDurationDays	Max Appointment Duration	Integer	Maximum number of days an appointment can last.
MaximumActiveBusinessProcessFlowsAllowedPerEntity	Maximum active business process flows per entity	Integer	Maximum number of active business process flows allowed per entity
MaximumTrackingNumber	Max Tracking Number	Integer	Maximum tracking number before recycling takes place.
MaxRecordsForExportToExcel	Max Records For Excel Export	Integer	Maximum number of records that will be exported to a static Microsoft Office Excel worksheet when exporting from the grid.
MaxRecordsForLookupFilters	Max Records Filter Selection	Integer	Maximum number of lookup and picklist records that can be selected by user for filtering.
MaxUploadFileSize	Max Upload File Size	Integer	Maximum allowed size of an attachment.
MetadataSyncLastTimeOfNeverExpiredDeletedObjects	The last date/time for never expired metadata tracking deleted objects	DateTime	What is the last date/time where there are metadata tracking deleted objects that have never been outside of the expiration period.
MetadataSyncTimestamp	Metadata sync version	BigInt	Contains the maximum version number for attributes used by metadata synchronization that have changed.
MinAddressBookSyncInterval	Min Address Synchronization Frequency	Integer	Normal polling frequency used for address book synchronization in Microsoft Office Outlook.
MinOfflineSyncInterval	Min Offline Synchronization Frequency	Integer	Normal polling frequency used for background offline synchronization in Microsoft Office Outlook.
MinOutlookSyncInterval	Min Synchronization Frequency	Integer	Minimum allowed time between scheduled Outlook synchronizations.
ModifiedBy	Modified By	Lookup	ID of the user who last modified the organization.
ModifiedOn	Modified On	DateTime	Date and time when the organization was last modified.
ModifiedOnBehalfBy	Modified By (Delegate)	Lookup	ID of the delegate user who last modified the organization.
Name	Organization Name	String	Name of the organization. The name is set when Microsoft Dynamics CRM is installed and should not be changed.
NegativeCurrencyFormatCode	Negative Currency Format	Integer	Information that specifies how negative currency numbers are displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
NegativeFormatCode	Negative Format	Picklist	Information that specifies how negative numbers are displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
NextCustomObjectTypeCode	Next Entity Type Code	Integer	Next entity type code to use for custom entities.
NextTrackingNumber	Next Tracking Number	Integer	Next token to be placed on the subject line of an email message.
NotifyMailboxOwnerOfEmailServerLevelAlerts	Notify Mailbox Owner Of Email Server Level Alerts	Boolean	Indicates whether mailbox owners will be notified of email server profile level alerts.
NumberFormat	Number Format	String	Specification of how numbers are displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
NumberGroupFormat	Number Grouping Format	String	Specifies how numbers are grouped in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
NumberSeparator	Number Separator	String	Symbol used for number separation in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
OrderPrefix	Order Prefix	String	Prefix to use for all orders throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
OrganizationId	Organization	Unique identifier	ID of the organization.
OrgDbOrgSettings	Organization Database Organization Settings	String	Organization settings stored in Organization Database.
ParsedTableColumnPrefix	Parsed Table Column Prefix	String	Prefix used for parsed table columns.
ParsedTablePrefix	Parsed Table Prefix	String	Prefix used for parsed tables.
PastExpansionWindow	Past Expansion Window	Integer	Specifies the maximum number of months in past for which the recurring activities can be created.
PinpointLanguageCode	Pinpoint Language Code	Integer	Language code to use for Pinpoint.
PMDesignator	PM Designator	String	PM designator to use throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
PricingDecimalPrecision	Pricing Decimal Precision	Integer	Number of decimal places that can be used for prices.
PrivilegeUserGroupId	Privilege User Group	Unique identifier	ID of the default privilege for users in the organization.
QuickFindRecordLimitEnabled	Quick Find Record Limit Enabled	Boolean	Indicates whether a quick find record limit should be enabled for this organization (allows for faster Quick Find queries but prevents overly broad searches).
QuotePrefix	Quote Prefix	String	Prefix to use for all quotes throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
RecurrenceDefaultNumberOfOccurrences	Recurrence Default Number of Occurrences	Integer	Specifies the default value for number of occurrences field in the recurrence dialog.
RecurrenceExpansionJobBatchInterval	Recurrence Expansion Job Batch Interval	Integer	Specifies the interval (in seconds) for pausing expansion job.
RecurrenceExpansionJobBatchSize	Recurrence Expansion On Demand Job Batch Size	Integer	Specifies the value for number of instances created in on demand job in one shot.
RecurrenceExpansionSynchCreateMax	Recurrence Expansion Synchronization Create Maximum	Integer	Specifies the maximum number of instances to be created synchronously after creating a recurring appointment.
ReferenceSiteMapXml	Reference SiteMap XML	String	XML string that defines the navigation structure for the application. This is the site map from the previously upgraded build and is used in a 3-way merge during upgrade.
RenderSecureIFrameForEmail	Render Secure Frame For Email	Boolean	Flag to render the body of email in the Web form in an IFRAME with the security='restricted' attribute set. This is additional security but can cause a credentials prompt.
ReportScriptErrors	Report Script Errors	Picklist	Picklist for selecting the organization preference for reporting scripting errors.
RequireApprovalForQueueEmail	Is Approval For Queue Email Required	Boolean	Indicates whether Send As Other User privilege is enabled.
RequireApprovalForUserEmail	Is Approval For User Email Required	Boolean	Indicates whether Send As Other User privilege is enabled.
SampleDataImportId	Sample Data Import	Unique identifier	ID of the sample data import job.
SchemaNamePrefix	Customization Name Prefix	String	Prefix used for custom entities and attributes.
ShareToPreviousOwnerOnAssign	Share To Previous Owner On Assign	Boolean	Information that specifies whether to share to previous owner on assign.
ShowWeekNumber	Show Week Number	Boolean	Information that specifies whether to display the week number in calendar displays throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
SignupOutlookDownloadFWLink	CRMForOutlookDownloadURL	String	Specifies the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook download URL.
SiteMapXml	SiteMap XML	Memo	XML string that defines the navigation structure for the application.
SQMEnabled	Is SQM Enabled	Boolean	Setting for SQM data collection, 0 no, 1 yes enabled
SupportUserId	Support User	Unique identifier	ID of the support user for the organization.
SystemUserId	System User	Unique identifier	ID of the system user for the organization.
TagMaxAggressiveCycles	Auto-Tag Max Cycles	Integer	Maximum number of aggressive polling cycles executed for email auto-tagging when a new email is received.
TagPollingPeriod	Auto-Tag Interval	Integer	Normal polling frequency used for email receive auto-tagging in Outlook.
TimeFormatCode	Time Format Code	Picklist	Information that specifies how the time is displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
TimeFormatString	Time Format String	String	Text for how time is displayed in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
TimeSeparator	Time Separator	String	Text for how the time separator is displayed throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
TokenExpiry	Token Expiration Duration	Integer	Duration used for token expiration.
TokenKey	Token Key	String	Token key.
TrackingPrefix	Tracking Prefix	String	History list of tracking token prefixes.
TrackingTokenIdBase	Tracking Token Base	Integer	Base number used to provide separate tracking token identifiers to users belonging to different deployments.
TrackingTokenIdDigits	Tracking Token Digits	Integer	Number of digits used to represent a tracking token identifier.
UniqueSpecifierLength	Unique String Length	Integer	Number of characters appended to invoice, quote, and order numbers.
UserAccessAuditingInterval	User Authentication Auditing Interval	Integer	The interval at which user access is checked for auditing.
UseReadForm	Use Read-Optimized Form	Boolean	Indicates whether the read-optimized form should be enabled for this organization.
UserGroupId	User Group	Unique identifier	ID of the default group of users in the organization.
UseSkypeProtocol	User Skype Protocol	Boolean	Indicates default protocol selected for organization.
UTCConversionTimeZoneCode	UTC Conversion Time Zone Code	Integer	Time zone code that was in use when the record was created.
V3CalloutConfigHash	V3 Callout Hash	String	Hash of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 callout configuration file.
VersionNumber	Version Number	BigInt	Version number of the organization.
WeekStartDayCode	Week Start Day Code	Picklist	Designated first day of the week throughout Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
YammerGroupId	Yammer Group Id	Integer	Denotes the Yammer group ID.
YammerNetworkPermalink	Yammer Network Permalink	String	Denotes the Yammer network permalink
YammerOAuthAccessTokenExpired	Yammer OAuth Access Token Expired	Boolean	Denotes whether the OAuth access token for Yammer network has expired
YammerPostMethod	Internal Use Only	Picklist	For internal use only.
YearStartWeekCode	Year Start Week Code	Integer	Information that specifies how the first week of the year is specified in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Business Process Error with ActivityFeeds.Plugins

I was migrating a plugin to a new environment and then during testing someone indicated they were getting a Business Process Error.

As I wasn't getting it in my test I stubbornly refused to believe it was me!

After spending some time investigating and coming across the following post:
http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/1b9284f7-4f94-447f-9177-616ecbe640ed/business-process-error-with-activityfeedsplugins

I discovered that I had created a plugin step in the Activity Feed plugin!

So if you get a Business Process Error in the ActivityFeeds.Plugins then I suggest you look for some plugin steps in the corresponding item (in my case ActivityClose).

Dynamics CRM 2013 - Can't view Lookup options on Bulk Edit

We had a CRM 2011 instance that updated to 2013 and at first glance everything went well. However two seeming unrelated issues appears.

1. When clicking on a particular lookup an error was thrown.
2. When trying to do a Bulk Edit the Lookup options would not appear.

The problem in the end was related and (sadly) caused by me.

On change of a particular Lookup we created a custom view for another. This custom view called a small function that formatted special characters correctly. This caused an error in global.ashx which I of course presumes was Microsoft's fault!

The small function was using jQuery and this jQuery version now conflicts in 2013.

To fix this we used

My$ = jQuery.noConflict(true);

Then using My$ instead of $ fixed the issue and both errors went away. So if you have an issue with Lookups not displaying in 2013 that did not occur in 2011 this is worth investigating.