Hosted Email Connector in MS CRM 2011: a valuable substitute for Email Router

Email Connector: An Email Integration Service support for On-Premise and Hosted (Online) offerings

Key Features:

Centralized Management of mailboxes and profiles within CRM
Bulk email with no performance bottleneck (100000 email per day is initial declaration)
Error Reporting and handling in CRM
Email related Alert in CRM

Supported Configuration:

CRM On Premise and CRM Online	Exchange 2007	Exchange Web Services
	Exchange 2010
	Exchange Online
	POP3	POP3
	SMTP	SMTP

No direct support to Exchange 2003, can be used after configuring POP3

Channel Configuration brief:

User(s)/Queue Mailbox Email Server Profile

User à User Mailbox Email Server information ie location, Connection type, Authentication type etc.

Queue à Queue Mailbox The above is valid for all the three mailboxes

Users à Forward Mailbox

How different it is from old email router:

• No direct Exchange 2003 support

– Can be configured using POP3

• CRM Online – Exchange On Premise customers: IFD Enabled Exchange needed

– Exchange emails will need to be processed by the email connector outside org intranet

• Possible configurations – Exchange Online only and POP3/SMTP only

– Incoming through Exchange & Outgoing through SMTP not supported

– Incoming through POP3 and Outgoing through Exchange not supported

• Extensibility

– No planned investments

======================================================================================

Hosted Email Connector can be worked in two different environments:

SSL
Non-SSL

Enabling SSL:

There are two steps included in enabling the SSL:

1. Setting the properties in Dynamics CRM Deployment Manager.
2. Adding site bindings in IIS.

Step1: Setting the properties in Dynamics CRM Deployment Manager

Navigate to Start à All Programs à Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 à Deployment Manager.
Right click “Microsoft Dynamics CRM” in the left navigation pane and select the “Properties” option.

In the “Properties” dialog, under “Web Address” tab we have two binding options (http & https).
By default, the “http” option is selected and the server names ends with the port number <80>.
Here we need to change the option to “https” and also need to change the port number to <443> at the end of the server names.

Step2:Adding site bindings in IIS

Start à Run.
Type “inetmgr” and click ok.
IIS will be opened, in that navigate to ServerName à Sites à Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Right click “Microsoft Dynamics CRM” and select “Edit Bindings” option.

Site Bindings dialog will be opened.
Click “Add” button.
Select
- Type – HTTPS
- Port – By default the “Port” will be set to 443. If we want to change to some other port number, then we can edit the port number (Note: Whatever the port number we are giving here in this Site Bindings should be mentioned same in the Deployment Manager at the end of the server name as mentioned in step1).
- SSL Certificate – select the corresponding SSL certificate in the drop down list.
- Then click OK button.
- Now the newly created site binding will be listed in the Site Bindings grid.
- Close the dialog by clicking “Close” button.

Non – SSL:

For Non-SSL we need to revert back the steps what we did in enabling SSL.

Pre-requisites:

Email Connector Configuration Settings (ConfigDB) – If you are using CRM On-Premises deployment, need to do various configuration settings stored in the configuration database (ConfigDB) as shown in the below table. These settings can be changed using the deployment PowerShell scripts as per your organization’s requirements.

Configuration Database (Config DB) Setting	Description
AllowCredentialsEntryViaInsecureChannels	Set this to True to specify credentials in the Mailbox and Email Server Profile records when Microsoft Dynamics CRM is non-SSL (http only). Default value: False
AllowNonSSLEmail	Set this to True to configure Email Connector with a non-SSL email server. Default value: False
IncomingEmailMinimumBackoffDuration	The minimum backoff time for which the processing of a mailbox is postponed if new incoming email are not found in mailbox. Backoff time exponentially increases from minimum to maximum on mailbox processing each time. Default value: 240 seconds
IncomingEmailMaximumBackoffDuration	The maximum backoff time for which the processing of mailbox is postponed if new incoming email are not found in a mailbox. Default value: 2400 seconds.

AllowCredentialsEntryViaInsecureChannels PowerShell Script:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Crm.PowerShell
$setting = New-Object “Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.ConfigurationEntity”
$setting.LogicalName = “Deployment”
$setting.Attributes = New-Object “Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.AttributeCollection”
$keypair = New-Object “System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair[String, Object]” (“AllowCredentialsEntryViaInsecureChannels”,0)
$setting.Attributes.Add($keypair)
Set-CrmAdvancedSetting -Entity $setting

AllowNonSSLEmail PowerShell Script:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Crm.PowerShell
$setting = New-Object “Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.ConfigurationEntity”
$setting.LogicalName = “Deployment”
$setting.Attributes = New-Object “Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.AttributeCollection”
$keypair = New-Object “System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair[String, Object]” (“AllowNonSSLEmail”,0)
$setting.Attributes.Add($keypair)
Set-CrmAdvancedSetting -Entity $setting

Admin must ensure that all the users and queues mailbox emails should be approved, by clicking “Approve Email” in the ribbon.
You must set the delivery methods for incoming and outgoing email as Email Router in the corresponding mailbox records.
You must configure at least one email server profile and each mailbox should be mapped to an email server profile to process email to and from your Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization.

Tasks to perform:

Create two Email Server Profiles.
Mapped the user mailboxes, queue mailboxes and forward mailboxes to the corresponding Email Server profiles.
Test Mail Configuration.

Create two different Email Server Profiles for email processing

Profile 1: One is for processing the emails with the Email Server profile credentials

Navigate to Settings à Communication Hub à Email Server Profiles.
Enter the required values to create a new Email Server Profile:
- Name – name of the profile (Email Server Profile – Testing).
- Email Server Type – Exchange.
- Auto Discover Server Location – No (If we enable this option, then it will automatically discover the server location).
- Outgoing Email Configuration
  - Email Server Location – Mention the email server location in this field.
  - Connect Using – Credentials Specified in Email Server Profile.
  - Username – credentials that has accessible to the test mailboxes in exchange server.
  - Password – credentials that has accessible to the test mailboxes in exchange server.
  - Use Impersonation – Yes.
  - Incoming Email Configuration
    - Email Server Location – Mention the email server location in this field.
    - Connect Using – Credentials Specified in Email Server Profile.
    - Username – credentials that has accessible to the test mailboxes in exchange server.
    - Password – credentials that has accessible to the test mailboxes in exchange server.
    - Use Impersonation – Yes.
    - Click “Save” button in the ribbon.

Profile 2: Another is for processing the emails with the individual user credentials

Navigate to Settings à Communication Hub à Email Server Profiles.
Enter the required values to create a new Email Server Profile:
- Name – name of the profile (TestUserQueueEmailServerProfile).
- Email Server Type – Exchange.
- Auto Discover Server Location – No (If we enable this option, then it will automatically discover the server location).
- Outgoing Email Configuration
  - Email Server Location – Mention the email server location in this field.
  - Connect Using – Credentials Specified by a User or Queue.
  - Incoming Email Configuration
    - Email Server Location – Mention the email server location in this field.
    - Connect Using – Credentials Specified by a User or Queue.
    - Click “Save” button in the ribbon.

Create a new Forward mailboxes and configured the existing user and queue mailboxes

Navigate to Settings à Communication Hub à Mailboxes.
Here you will find different kinds of mailboxes:
- User mailboxes.
- Queue mailboxes (includes both the user-queue mailboxes and other queue mailboxes).
- Forward mailboxes.

Configuring the existing User and Queue mailboxes:
- Before starting the User and Queue mailboxes configuration, we need to confirm that whether the user record and the queue records are associated with the corresponding email ID’s and also whether those email ID’s are approved.
- Then open an existing user or user-queue mailbox.
- Mailbox information section will be auto-filled.
- Synchronization Method section:
  - Server Profile – Map this mailbox with an Email Server Profile by selecting a value in the lookup.
  - Incoming Email – Email Router.
  - Outgoing Email – Email Router.
  - Credentials section:
    - Allow Email Connector to use Credentials – Yes.
    - User Name – credentials of the corresponding user of this user or user-queue mailbox.
    - Password – credentials of the corresponding user of this user or user-queue mailbox.
    - Click “Save” button in the ribbon.

Configuring other queue mailboxes which are associated to test mailbox ID’s.
- Open an existing queue mailbox other than the user-queue mailbox.
- Mailbox information section will be auto-filled.
- Synchronization Method section:
  - Server Profile – Map this mailbox with an Email Server Profile by selecting a value in the lookup.
  - Incoming Email – Email Router.
  - Outgoing Email – Email Router.
  - Credentials section:
    - Allow Email Connector to use Credentials – No.
    - Click “Save” button in the ribbon.

Creating new Forward mailbox:
- Click “New Forward Mailbox” button in the ribbon.
- Mailbox information section:
  - Name – name of the Forward mailbox.
  - Email Address – corresponding email id of this forward mailbox.
  - Synchronization Method section:
    - Server Profile – Map this mailbox with an Email Server Profile by selecting a value in the lookup.
    - Incoming Email – Email Router.
    - Outgoing Email – None.
    - Credentials section:
      - Allow Email Connector to use Credentials – No.
      - Click “Save” button in the ribbon.

Test Mail Configuration

Navigate to Settings à Communication Hub à Email Server Profiles.
Open an existing server profile.
Click “Mailboxes” option available in the left navigation pane.
List of mailboxes associated to this email server profile will be listed out.
Select the required mailboxes in the Email Server profile and click “Test Mail Configuration” from the ribbon.
As it is an asynchronous process, it will take few minutes to complete the process. So we need to refresh the Mailbox grid after sometime.
Initially the Incoming Email status and the Outgoing Email status will be “Not Run”, but after refreshing the grid the incoming and outgoing email status will be changed to either “Success” or “Failure”.

For the test mail process completion information, error messages or warnings we can navigate to “Alerts” option in the left navigation pane.
Based on the alert messages, take the appropriate action to resolve the issue and keep the incoming and outgoing email status as “Success”.

After completing the above mentioned steps, the normal email flow will start to flow in and out of CRM.

December 16, 2012

Update Rollup 8 & Read Optimized Forms and cross browser capability

CRM 2011 RTM – Update Rollup 8 & Read Optimized Forms

Installation Steps

Prerequisites:

We must have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 installed (build 5.0.9690.1992) to apply update rollup 8. The installation can be done in two ways:

Windows Update Installation: If the client packages are installed via the Windows Update (Microsoft Update) system, they will not require administrative privileges.
Manual installation: If the client packages are installed manually they will require administrative privileges.

Update rollup 8 includes packages for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Language Packs, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router.

Read-optimized forms:

This is a new feature which has been introduced in UR7. A read-optimized form displays a record very quickly by trimming the record to its bare essentials: just the data, with no ribbon, web resources, or form scripts.This provides a fast-loading, consumption-oriented user experience. This focus is particularly helpful for people who use Microsoft Dynamics CRM primarily to consume data, rather than to edit or update records.

Read-optimized forms are disabled by default. Enumerated below are the major pointers about the RO feature in UR8.

Ro Forms Supports Cross Browsers.
Enable Images Web resources.
Enable Activity Feed WR.
Basic Client API Support.
Enhanced Script Detection Logic: The Forms will always open in Edit mode if the form has embedded web resources including java scripts.

Note: If Form having On load JavaScript then RO Forms won’t work.

Open the Attachment form Notes.

Configuration Steps:

Read-optimized forms can be set at two levels:

1) Organization Level

2) User Level

1. Organization Level: The admin can be set the form mode at an Org level.

Step1:Goto Settings–> Administration–> System Settings–> Customization–> Form Mode–>

Step2: Open any entity Record (eg: Contacts)

Below screenshots show read-optimized forms for Contact Record.

Step 3:Switching to the full edit mode:User can quickly switch to the edit mode in two ways:

3.1: On an open read-optimized form, click the Edit button in the toolbar.

3.2: Before opening a record, on the record grid, select a record and then click the Edit button

If we click the Edit then it will displays the full mode of the record with the ribbon and navigation items. Refer the below screenshots

If we want to provide theRead-optimized forms at user level then Admin need to set the “Allow users to select for mode viewing forms” Option on system settings.

Steps: Goto Settings–> Administration–> System Settings–> Customization–> Form Mode–>set the Allow users to select for mode viewing forms Option.

2. User Level:

Step 1: GotoFile–> Options–> General–>set the default mode for viewing form–> select Read Optimized.

Note: Organization default: This option says that user confirms that he/she adheres to what option Administrator has set for the entire organization.

Step2: Open the any entity Record. Below screenshots show read-optimized forms for Contact Record.

Step 3:Switching to the full edit mode: User can quickly switch to the edit mode in two ways:

3.1: On an open read-optimized form, click the Edit button in the toolbar.

Set the Edit Mode:

If we set the Edit option on system setting then it shows the Forms, Ribbon and Navigation Items.

Steps:Goto Settings–> Administration–> System Settings–> Customization–> Form Mode–>select Edit option

Step2: Open the any entity Record.It displays the Form, Ribbon and navigation items.

Below screenshots show edit Mode forms for Contact Record.

Enable Activity Feed WR: In Ro Form we can post the Comments using Activity Feed Data.

CRM 2011 RTM – Update Rollup 8 & Cross Browser Support

T he Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 8 e provides the ability for end users to access the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Client across all modern Internet browsers on various platforms. This includes browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari running on PC, Apple Macintosh or iPad. The list of devices and specific browser versions that will be supported is as follows:

Platform	IE Browser	FireFox	Chrome	Safari
Windows 7/Vista/XP	Version 7+	Version 6+	Version 13+	Not Supported
Apple Macintosh OS-X	Not Supported	Version 6+	Not Supported	Version 5.1.1+
iPad 2 (iOS 5.x)	Not Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported	Version 5.1.1+

Detailed Support R8 Browser/Platform Matrix
OS	IE 7	IE 8	IE 9	IE 10	Fire Fox	Chrome	Safari
Windows 7	Supported	Supported	Supported	Limited Support	Limited Support	Limited Support	Un supported
Windows Vista	Supported	Supported	Supported	Un supported	Limited Support	Limited Support	Un supported
Windows XP	Supported	Supported	Supported	Un supported	Limited Support	Limited Support	Un supported
MAC	Un supported	Un supported	Un supported	Un supported	Limited Support	Un supported	Limited Support
Ipad	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Un supported	Un supported	Limited Support
Windows8	N/A	N/A	N/A	Limited Support	N/A	N/A	N/A

Supported:	All areas of the Microsoft CRM are supported like CURD Operation and admin Level Settings.
Limited Support:	Productivity features and Functionality work, but areas like admin settings and Customization are disabled in these browsers.
Un Supported:	These Browser are not supported and Running these Browsers will default to CRM Mobile Express Mode.

July 22, 2012

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com! This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.

Happy blogging!

aktcrm