Call Azure Function from Dynamics 365 CRM using Webhooks

March 19, 2020March 19, 2020 priyeshwagh777 Azure Functions, CRM with .NET Web Applications, Microsoft Azure Azure Functions, dynamics 365 azure functions, dynamics 365 webhooks, Microsoft Azure, webhooks

This is a vast topic to cover in a blog. But I wanted to write from a bird-eye’s view of how this will pan out in an implementation where you perform a certain operation in Dynamics 365 CRM and an Azure Function is called to perform further operations.

This post is written keeping in mind fair knowledge of Azure Functions, Storage accounts and subscriptions in mind.

I’ll try to keep the article short, so stay with me! 🙂

Create a Function App in Azure

Let’s say you have created a Function App in Azure already and want to connect to Dynamics 365 CRM. Click on the big + New Function button in the screenshot below
Now, since I want to keep Visual Studio as my driver for coding and deployment, I’ll create a new Project in Visual Studio of type Azure Functions and click Next
On the next page, I’ll give a relevant name and hit Create.
Since we will be using Webhooks to connect to the Azure Function, the trigger chosen here is Http Trigger.Make sure you select Framework because Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk assemblies don’t work on .NET Code, but on .NETFramework only.And then you should take care of what your Storage Account and Authorization should be – Finally click Create once done.
The Project will open with 1 .cs file, so make sure you name your plugin initially –
It’ll take a while to create the Project. Once created, go to the Portal on Azure and click on the Get Publish Profile

It will be downloaded on the computer. Keep it so that you can import it on the Project in Visual Studio to use for Direct Publish.
Now, right click and chose Publish to make your first push as is so that the Account Function gets pushed to Azure App.
Then, click on Import and import the Publish Profile settings downloaded in step #5 above –
Once imported, you’ll be taken here – simply Publish once.
Once Publish is successful, check in the Azure App in Portal, the Function should appear.

Modifying code to read Webhook Call from Dynamics 365

To keep it simple, I’m simply reading the context and then, you can flourish your App further to make it work as required.
So, I’m only reading the request into a String and logging it so that we can see it in the logs in the Azure Function app.
You can use RemoteExecutionContext class to actually get all the contextual information into the Function app and then use it further. See below –
Once ready with your code, Publish it.

Now, let’s Register the Webhook and call the app.

If you’re also looking for remote debugging, this is a great article-Remote Debugging Azure Functions V2 “The breakpoint will not currently be hit. No symbols have been loaded for this document”

Register a Webhook in Plugin Registration Tool

Coming to Dynamics 365 CRM side of things, you can register a Webhook that will trigger on Account Name update to fire off the AccountPlugin Function App created above –

In Plugin Registration Tool, register a new Webhook
Enter Webhook Details. Select Authentication type as WebhookKey –
Now, to get the key, go to the Function App in portal, and look </> Get function URL link.
Copy the same and paste in Notepad, separate the code part from the main URL
Paste the URL part in Endpoint URL and key in the Value field. Click Save.
Now, add a Step to the Webhook. For this example, I’ve chosen update of Account‘s Account Name field

And Register it.

Execution

The purpose was to simply ready Dynamics 365 Account record upon modification of the Account Name

And save the record.
In a minute or so, the Log will be generated (only the logs take a little longer to generate)

And thus, we are able to send data / or rather, call Azure Function and process Dynamics 365 CRM data using Webhooks.

Some other Azure related post you might like to look at – Use Azure App Passwords for MFA enabled D365 authentication from Console App

Hope this was helpful! Tried my best to keep it basic and short as possible. I’m sure you all will explore way beyond and develop awesome implementations!

Show Loading Screen in Dynamics 365 using Client API reference

March 16, 2020September 26, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, D365 WebAPI / JavaScript Dynamics 365, dynamics crm, dynamics crm javascript, loading screen in dynamics 365

Suppose, you want to show a loading/waiting screen to let people know there’s some heavy processing going on in the back-end and they shouldn’t navigate away to do anything else with the record, you can use loading screen by using showProgressIndicator() and closeProgressIndicatory() methods.

Xrm.Utility methods

There are 2 methods are documented in the Xrm.Utility of Microsoft Docs that you can use to achieve this. Microsoft reference here.

In this scenario, let’s say you want to show the Loading page while your Action is being performed by the JavaScript code.

You can place the Xrm.Utility.showProgressIndicator(message); before you begin your code to invoke an action and place Xrm.Utility.closeProgressIndicator(); in your success and failure messages.

Execution

Whenever your JS code will call the action, the progress message will be displayed on the screen as below –

In Classic UI

In Unified Interface –

And once the process is complete, the Xrm.Utility.closeProgressIndicator will remove the message as below and bring back the form you were working on –

Side Note: If you are using action calling from JS using invokeProcessAction, as of the day of this post – This doesn’t work well and results in action not supported error on the UCI – invokeProcessAction does not work in UCI

Hope this helps!

Global Notification in Dynamics 365 Unified Interface App [Preview]

March 11, 2020September 26, 2020 priyeshwagh777 D365 WebAPI / JavaScript, Dynamics 365 CE, Dynamics 365 Unified Interface addglobalnotification, Dynamics 365, dynamics crm, globalnotification, javascript, Xrm, Xrm.App

Here’s a great feature to add a warning/error notification which is scoped globally unlike setFormNotification() which is commonly used and remains within a form itself.

Xrm.App.addGlobalNotification(notificationObject).then(success, error); serves this purpose. Let’s see how –

Disclaimer: Please be aware this is a preview feature yet and I’ll update on this post once this is out of preview.

This is only available for the Unified Interface.

Scenario

Let’s say you have opened an Account form and you want to warn the user in case they are working remotely with someone and might have their screen shared. You want to show a message like this –

And even if they navigate away from the form, it will remain on the screen since it’s scope is global.

Or, user can chose to close it manually which appears at the end of the strip on top-right corner.

You can also optionally add a button and make it navigate to another URL in case you want to share more info with the users (In my example, I redirected to https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/) –

Example

Xrm.App has 2 methods to do the needful –

Xrm.App.addGlobalNotification(notificationObject).then(success, error) & Xrm.App.clearGlobalNotification(notificationObject).then(success, error)

In my scenario, I want to trigger the warning message as soon as the user wanders into one of the Account records. So, in my case, I’ve registered the method onLoad of the Account form itself.
Here’s the code in my JS file for the same –

Some notes before we proceed with the code –

type in the notification object is supported as 2 at the moment and no other types are supported.
The levels are as below
1. Success
2. Error
3. Warning
4. Information

account = {
globalNotification: function () {

var learnMoreAction =
{
actionLabel: “Learn more”,
eventHandler: function () {
Xrm.Navigation.openUrl(“https://microsoft.com”);
}
}
var notificationObj =
{
type: 2,
level: 3, //warning
message: “Please make sure you are not sharing your screen!”,
showCloseButton: true,
action: learnMoreAction
}

Xrm.App.addGlobalNotification(notificationObj).then(
function success(result) {
console.log(“Notification created with ID: ” + result);

// More code here
},
function (error) {
console.log(error.message);
// handle error here
}
);
}

};

I’ve registered the Function as account.globalNotification. You can directly use globalNotification is you are writing function directly as function globalNotification() {}

This notification remains App-wide unless closed by closed by a user of closed using clearGlobalNotification method as mentioned by Microsoft.

Source documentation by Microsoft is here – Xrm.App

Since we are transitioning into Unified Interface, here are some other related posts that you may like looking at –

Hope this helps!!

Create a To-Do List Item of Important Outlook Emails using Power Automate

March 9, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Microsoft Flows, Power Automate Microsoft Flows, Microsoft To Do, Outlook Email, Power Automate

Since Power Automate is so powerful that you can creatively use it to improve your productivity at work. Here’s an example of how you can utilize a scenario where you need a quick checklist to make sure you respond all important emails for the day.

Power Automate

You’ll need to create an Automated Power Automate and select the trigger as Office 365 Outlook. Select ‘When a new email arrived (V3)’ from the same and make sure you only select the High Importance marked emails
Next step, create a To-Do Item. Select the List you have created. In my case, I created a separate list called ‘Respond Important Emails’

And the step to configure the To-Do List item should be like this –

In the above picture, I’ve made sure I select the correct List I want to create a To-Do in.

And to give myself some time, I’ve added a reminder time of 2 hours from the time this Flow/Power Automate will run i.e. when the email will come in –

How it works

Now, when an Important email will arrive in my Inbox as below –

Power Automate will create a To-Do in my created List

And it will look like this –

Also, the reminder is set to remind me 2 hours post the time the To-Do item was created. Just in case I’m into something else, I’d set myself a reminder.

Hope this helps! And you can use your creativity to improve your productivity!

Show Ribbon button only on record selection in Dynamics CRM

March 6, 2020March 6, 2020 priyeshwagh777 Ribbon Workbench custom ribbon button, dynamics crm ribbon button, Ribbon Workbench

One of the most common asks is to show ribbon buttons to only be shown when at least 1 record in Dynamics 365 ribbon button are selected.

Here’s how you can do it –

Enable Rule in Ribbon Workbench

This can be achieved using Enable Rule for the button you wish to show on selection using Ribbon Workbench.

Let’s say your button ‘Promote’ (in this case) is on the Main View of the Account entity. You can add the following Enable Rule to the command –

And in the actual Enable Rule, you can select the SelectionCountRule to make this happen. You can set the minimum value to 1 so that it appears when at least 1 record is selected.

Result

Now, if you see – By default, the button is hidden –

Now, as you can see, only when at least 1 record from the view is selected, the button is visible.

In case you are looking to hide a custom button, check this post – Hide Custom Ribbon Button [Easy Way] – Ribbon Workbench

Hope this helps!!

RSS notifications to your phone using Power Automate

March 3, 2020September 26, 2020 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate Power Automate, Power Platform, rss

RSS is powerful and taming it wisely really helps! 🙂 Here’s an example where I used it to get a notification whenever a new blog was posted by Microsoft in their Dynamics 365 Blog page. It is my attempt to stay updated on the latest posts so that I don’t miss anything.

Scenario

Let’s say, for example, this is the website I want to read RSS feeds from. So click on the RSS icon – https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/
Copy the URL from the Feed page

Build your Power Automate

Start by building your Power Automate, you can select the Trigger as RSS.
Paste the URL copied from your RSS source above, and then add a step to send a Notification. You can have anything here, it’s up to your use case of what you want to do with the Power Automate further on.

Getting RSS Feeds on Phone using Power Automate

Now, once all this is set, here’s how I’ll get notifications on the phone once I have Power Automate setup and authenticated to the correct environment of Power Automate.

Whenever there’s a new blog posted on https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/, I get a Power Automate notification on the phone like this
And when you click on it, you’ll see what has been posted, it will open up in the Power Automate app
And when you click on the link, it will take you to the actual blog Post

Hope this helps you in your application or use case! Cheers!!

Custom View Filter JS code not working in Dynamics 365 CE. Why? [Quick Tip]

February 27, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Customizations, D365 WebAPI / JavaScript custom filter, Dynamics 365 CE, javascript

One of the major pet-peeve is not understanding why the code isn’t working. And you for sure know you’ve written the correct code. But, thing just don’t work.

One such tricky situation is that of applying custom filter to fields using JavaScript in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps.

Scenario

Let’s say you have a custom filter to be applied to a field and you’ve written your JS code on Load to apply the filter and everything (you know what you need to do!)

Example:

But the above is just not working. Why???

Reason

The reason is pretty simple! Because, the Lookup field is still using the one set on the field itself. Check that –

The above should be turned off to make your code work since the field’s default OOB filtering takes precedence.

And now, your code should work (Provided everything in it correct)

Hope this quick tip helps!

Selecting (Current) in Environment in Power Automate CDS connector and why it matters

February 25, 2020September 26, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Microsoft Flows, Power Automate Microsoft Flow, Power Automate, Power Platform

If you’re new to Power Automate, you must be wondering why am I given an option to select either (Current) or the actual name of the environment. Why can’t I just select the actual name?

Well, here’s why –

Importing into Other environments

So, when you import your Flow / Power Automate into other environment using a solution, be it from Sandbox to Production or to entirely different org in different tenant, here’s the behavior

(Current) selection

And if you Export this Flow and import into other Organizations, you can simply restore the connections to that organization by simply selecting the connection

And it will be loaded with the current environment(s) as it was on the source environment

Environment selection

Whereas now, if you have exported the Flow with Environments selected as the particular environment and not (Current) like below –

When you import this into other environment, and when you try to authenticate, it will not go through and you’ll see something like this –

And if you wonder what the Org name is displayed in the picture above, it’s the Org Unique Name of the source environment

And that’s why, it’s critical to select (Current) environment when you develop flows and you know you want to have these imported to other environments.
Here’s Microsoft’s Current Environment connector’s official Docs – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/commondataserviceforapps?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helps!

Easier template selection & Manage Activities with ease in Dynamics 365 | 2020 Wave 1 Feature

February 24, 2020 priyeshwagh777 Dynamics 365, Dynamics 365 CE, Dynamics 365 Unified Interface 2020 wave 1 early access, Dynamics 365, dynamics 365 sales

Easier template selection and a improved Activities management view are pretty important features that got added in this 2020 Wave 1 Early Access. Here’s what they are!

Disclaimer: Before we proceed, please note that this is a part of the Wave 1 2020 Early Access. We can’t be sure if this will make it to the final release. Also, you can enable Early Access into your Sandbox instance only and test since it’s not recommended for Production at this point.

Easier Template Selection

Now, you can preview how the Email will look like before you select the template in the Activities
First, you need to click on Insert Template once you select the recipient of the Email

And you can preview what each applicable template will look like before making the selection

And when you select Apply Template, it was applied to the actual email.

Please note that this is only in Dynamics 365 and doesn’t translate the same to Dynamics 365 App For Outlook’s Add Template feature. By the way, if you’re looking to set up D365 App For Outlook, please check these related posts –

Summarizing D365 App For Outlook Setup in 3 steps with Exchange Online mailbox

Using Templates from D365 CE in D365 App For Outlook

Old Template Selection

Old Template selection was just selecting the Template itself and you had to rely on your knowledge of what template to use from your system

Manage Activities with Ease

Now, with the 2020 Wave 1 Updates, you can now manage your Activities with ease. Simply by going into Activities, you can directly choose how you want to filter what Activities should be seen instead of going into several branches of Views and then making the selection.

Now, you can filter by the Due Date of the Activity, by default is set to All so that All Activities show

And you can also select what type of Activities you want to see by selecting from Activity Type

These very simple yet powerful features are sure to make your work around Activities area a lot better. Hope this helps!

Hide Custom Ribbon Button [Easy Way] – Ribbon Workbench

February 19, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Ribbon Workbench customization, D365 Ribbon Customization, Ribbon Workbench

Ribbon Workbench – At times, you have some custom ribbon buttons in place. And you don’t really want to delete it and lose the configuration, but just hide it temporarily. Here’s what I usually do!

So, this is your custom button called Promote on the Account form, for example.

And you want to temporary hide it. And you can’t simply right click and select Hide.

Just like you can simply right-click and select Hide on any other OOB button and your job is done

Enable Rule Command

Add a Display Rule to the Command attached with the button you have.
Now, select Value Rule in the Display Rule section.
And simple Invert Result = True
And your button is hidden!

Hope this quick tip helps!! Cheers!!

Create a Function App in Azure

Modifying code to read Webhook Call from Dynamics 365

Register a Webhook in Plugin Registration Tool

Execution

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Xrm.Utility methods

Execution

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Scenario

Example

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Power Automate

How it works

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Enable Rule in Ribbon Workbench

Result

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Scenario

Build your Power Automate

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Scenario

Reason

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Importing into Other environments

(Current) selection

Environment selection

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Easier Template Selection

Old Template Selection

Manage Activities with Ease

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Enable Rule Command

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