Bradley M. Law

Received this note from MS on pre-pided CRM Volume License Keys! In my case I had already copied all instalaltion media over to the new hardware from an old product download. Then I went searcing for my license key to find out its pre-pidded in the Volume Licensing .iso file still on the MS site. To get to the license key you have to break/open the .iso file. I used WinCDemu loaded on another machine to mount the .iso then browsed the results.

Here is the txt frm Microsoft directly.

License Keys
New to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, for media obtained under Volume Licensing programs, license keys are embedded on the media (Media is ‘Pre-pidded*’) and will no longer need to be entered upon installation. If you have downloaded a Trial or time limited version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and later purchase Volume License media and do not wish to re-install, you may input the license key from your purchased media within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM License Manager.

The License Key may be located by searching the installation files contained on the media for the \server\i386\license.txt or \server\amd64\license.txt file, depending on whether you are installing in a 32 or 64 bit environment).

No License Keys posted to MVLS/VLSC
IMPORTANT! Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 license keys will not appear in the license key product listing that appears for some products in MVLS/VLSC. The product keys are embedded in the VLSC downloads and on the physical media, so there is no need to enter a product key, except in the event a TRIAL version has been installed first. If this is the case – see the TRIALs section.)
Product Registration: Register within 30 Days!
IMPORTANT! Upon installation of software, customers are required to register the product on-line (Internet Access is required) within 30 days. If the product is not registered within 30 days it will be disabled for any further use. However, product can be re-enabled for use upon registration any time if disabled due to the 30 day expiration. Additional CALs added to the installation after initial purchase do not require additional registration. Certain programs such as SPLA and the ISV Royalty Program, do not require registration.

Registration happens:
• Upon initial Installation of any edition
• When users Step Up/Upgrade from Trial or time limited to full license for all editions
• When users Step Up/Upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics Workgroup to Professional Server, or to Enterprise Server. (Will need to re-register)
• When users Step Up/Upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics Professional Server to Enterprise (will need to re-register)

Registration is required when a license key is obtained from these channels:
• Volume Licensing
• MSPP Gold and Gold Certified Partners
• Microsoft Action Pack (MAPS)
• System Builder Channel

Registration is NOT required when a license key is obtained from these channels:
• Trial
• ISV Royalty Program
• SPLA
• MSDN
• TechNet
• BRL/DPL

Great article on compatibility between II6 and II7 b y ActiveXperts.

http://www.activexperts.com/support/activmonitor/online/ii6metabase/

How to install the IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility components on IIS 7
The ActiveXperts Network Monitor Web Configurator requires that the Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista-based computer where you are configuring a Virtual Directory has the IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility components installed.

To install the IIS 6.0 Management Compatibility Components by using the Windows Server 2008 Server Manager

Click Start, click Administrative Tools and then Server Manager.
In the left navigation pane, expand Roles, and then right-click Web Server (IIS) and select Add Role Services.
On the Select Role Services pane, scroll down to IIS 6 Management Compatibility.
Select the check boxes for IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility and IIS 6 Management Console.
Click Next from the Select Role Services pane, and then click Install at the Confirm Installations Selections pane.
Click Close to leave the Add Role Services wizard.
To install the IIS 6.0 Management Compatibility Components by using the Windows Vista Control Panel

Click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs and Features, and then click Turn Windows features on or off.
Open Internet Information Services.
Open Web Management Tools.
Open IIS 6.0 Management Compatibility.
Select the check boxes for IIS 6 Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility and IIS 6 Management Console.
Click OK.

Just had a strange issue on a development server where I was not able to add a new custom entity? After a little research I found the following two articles on this topic. It seems that an old rollup was the cause, in my case a simple IISRESET did the trick however here are the two dated links.

Techreplies Blog
Sonoma Partners Blog

Hi,

I have a CRM client with the pockets to polish the applications to their needs. I, being the semi coder that I am and having little experience with plug-ins searched high and low for a tool to hide the annoying system views that cannot be removed from CRM 4.0. By pur chance I am certain the CRM team does not allow CRM 4.0 system views to be unshared as could be done in 3.0.

After locating a few other posts out there in the web I stumbled across the “lightly documented” Codeplex Plug-in by David Jennaway completed with source code and compiled code. After annoying the MS Forums (Even David himself jumped in) looking for help I finally got it working and decided to give back by giving some instructions as to the configuration of this Plug-in.

Let’s begin…

What makes David Jennaway’s plug-in simply amazing is that it can handle just about any system view you throw at it because a non coder doesn’t have to configure it with much more than the actual view name. From beginning to end here is how to to get this plug-in working on your CRM server.

1. Download the following files from Codeplex:
   1. David Jennaway’s Compiled “Hide System Views in CRM 4.0″ Plug-in here. Alternate here.

   

   1. Download the Plug-in Registration Tool from Codeplex found here. Alternate version as of this writing here. Installation should be easy, I installed it on my CRM server however a walkthrough is available in the ReadMe file in the zip download.
2. Install both parts items:
   1. Install the Plug-in registration tool
   2. Unzip the Plug-in (step 1a) into a folder, something like C:\(YOUR DESIRED PATH)\Plug-ins\HideSystemViews
3. Register the “Hide System Views in CRM 4.0″ Plug-in
   1. Open the Plug-in registration tool and connect to your CRM server
   2. Once connected select the “Register” button which opens another box, select “Register New Assembly“
   3. Within the registration tool select Step #1 and select the path to the “Hide System Views in CRM 4.0″ Plug-in you chose in my step 2b above.
   4. Within the registration tool Step #2 you should see the Plug-in with a check box to its left.
   5. Within the registration tool Step #3 I chose “Database” (not based on any reason other that I like databases)
   6. Within the registration tool click the button at the bottom “Register Selected Plug-ins”
   7. It should look like this

      

1. If you noticed when you downloaded the compiled plug-in there is a XML files called SampleConfig.xml, this is the excellent method David J. used to tell the plug-in what Views to hide!
   1. The key here is that your specifying the entity otc number as in <entity otc=”1″>, the “1″ representing the “Account” entity. If you need to hide the view for other items you can get the otc# from your servers SDK by connecting to http:/<crmserver>/sdk/list.aspx and clicking the button for the entity in question. Adjust your xml as necessary then proceed.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<entities>
<!- Sample configuration data. Entities are identified by the otc attribute, and views by name
  -->
<entity otc="1">
  <view>Inactive Accounts</view>
  <view>Accounts: No Orders in Last 6 Months</view>
  </entity>
<entity otc="4">
  <view>Leads Opened Last Week</view>
  <view>Leads Opened This Week</view>
  </entity>
  </entities>

1. Select/Highlight the (Assmbly) Plug-inHideSystemView node
2. Select the “Register” button you used above in my step 3b.
3. This time select “Register New Step”
4. Fill out the form as follows:
   1. Message: RetreiveMultiple
   2. Primary Entity: savedquery
   3. Event Pipeline Stage of Execution: Post Stage
   4. Execution Mode: Synchronous

   Note: the other options can be changes per your wishes…

5. Enter your adjusted XML into the top right pane “Unsecured Configuration (like the SampleConfig.xm file)
6. Click Update
7. It should look like this

   

1. Add a step with that looks just like this screen shot:
2. Now the magic, if you noticed when you downloaded the compiled plug-in there is a XML files called SampleConfig.xml, this is the excellent method David J. used to tell the plug-in what Views to hide!
   1. The key here is that your specifying the entity otc number as in <entity otc=”1″>, the “1″ representing the “Account” entity. If you need to hide the view for other items you can get the otc# from your servers SDK by connecting to http:/<crmserver>/sdk/list.aspx and clicking the button for the entity in question. You final Step should look something like this!

      

   2. Verify and your done, your client is happy and you are happier than I was when I needed to use this great plug-in!
3. Alternate method below! I have not done this one!

More »

My current engagement has a lot of red tape in terms of network teams and security teams, I must admit I have downloaded the Dynamics CRM Implementation Guide and Planning Guide several times over the last few years despite knowing it was available online. At any rate Tiaan van Niekerk 0f the CRM DE LA CREME Blog has summarized the items relating to CRM 4.0 System Requirements and Required Components.

For the most up-to-date information about system requirements and required components, see the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server Readme.
For more information, see:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server hardware requirements
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server software requirements
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services
Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router software requirements
Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook hardware requirements
Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook software requirements
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web client software requirements
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data Migration Manager hardware requirements
Data Migration Manager software requirements
64-bit supported configurations
Language support
Currency support

Great videos on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 development. found here.

Most appear to be large wmv downloads.

Microsoft Corporation

July 2008
Summary

This article contains links to presentations and labs to help developers use their existing .NET skills to build on top of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 platform.
Applies To

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Introduction

This kit is for .NET-based developers who want to ramp up and build on top of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 uses familiar components such as Web Service endpoints, Windows Workflow Foundation, SSRS reporting, and more; making it a general purpose platform for any line-of-business applications. Developers can use their existing .NET skills to take advantage of various features of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. This kit drills into the details of such development and explains how developers can connect, extend, and embed with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. It includes presentations, hands-on labs and a VPC environment for practicing. This content was delivered earlier as part of the Metro Early Adopter initiative and the video recordings of the ramp-up presentations are included as well. Familiarity with the .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual C#, Microsoft JScript, Microsoft SQL Server and general Web development is recommended.

The default image is as follows:

Referenced from Caesar De La Torre Blog here are some instructions for updating the logo in Dynamics CRM 4.0. This is of course a non supported change to the system.

1.-
The image file is located in the following place:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Server\CRMWeb\_imgs\masthead.jpg
You could copy another image with the same name within that folder.

2.-
Also, you could change the .CSS definition, which is a TD, within:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Server\CRMWeb\_common\styles\global-dynamic-styles.css.aspx

The TD name is:
TD.ms-crm-MastHead-Logo
Then, you could change the name of the image’s file within this TD definition. (in case you want to use a different image file).

Of course, I warn you that anything you change within CRM files could be re-applied when installing service-packs, etc., so be careful with this kind of changes…

Because of this, it is a clear unsupported stuff, even though it is a very simple customization.

I’m quite sure we’ll have it as a regular customization in future versions.

So!, It is a little hidden, but, quite easy, of course.

Great script for hiding buttons on forms, this can be used for both custom buttons or out of the box buttons. Code is from DMCRM and can be found here.

onload

//Get all of the List Elements
var lis = document.getElementsByTagName('LI');

var i = 0;
//Loop through the list items
while (i < lis.length) {
//Don't worry about any list item that doesn't have the title you are looking for.
if (lis[i].getAttribute('title') == 'Qualify or disqualify the lead')
{
//Replace the DHTML with blank tags to hide the button
lis[i].outerHTML='<SPAN></SPAN>'
}
i = i + 1;
}

Update: The “Messages” associated with an entity control the tags, be sure you make these updates after updating the messages.

I did this once a while back for a client and may need to do it soon again on my current client. I found this blog entry while looking at another entry on the MSCRMBLOG.net site.

A very interesting method of using a button to hide an entire section from MSCRMBLOG.net. I am thinking of a great way to use this method to hide several 1-many sections that are linked in an IFRAME.