Azure DevOps and Outlook Integration - outlook

Looking for information on how to integrate VSTS to Office365: Outlook. Essentially looking for a method whereby a team member that does a great amount of fix-it tickets can drop them into the Azure DevOps Project from Outlook as many of those tickets get passed to her from users through email.
A right click >> add new task from Outlook to Azure DevOps would be ideal.

There is no built-in feature, but you can work miracles with Microsoft Flow, basically, the If This Then That from Microsoft. it comes with built-in tasks to trigger on Outlook/Office 365. Moving an email to a specific folder or tagging it with a specific tag would be enough for Flow to trigger a rule.
This template rule uses the "When an email is tagged" and this template rule creates a Bug work item based on a trigger. Combining these two should let you achieve what you're looking for.
If you want integration in the Outlook Windows client, then there are a couple of commercial options available: There are a couple of add-ins for Outlook. Team Companion, TeamLook and TFS Work Item from Outlook spring to mind.
An alternative option is to use an Azure Function which is triggered by Azure DevOps Service Hooks. Not sure if you can bind an Azure Function to an Office 365 mailbox. Flow could act as an intermediary here as well.

You might want to check this tool called TMO that will enable you to create and manage work items from Outlook. It also allows you to automatically create work items in Outlook using a rule based engine called Auto Pilot

I had the same issue and just downloaded the TMO tool, and it works great. It does what I expected, once I figured out how to find the URL to connect to my Azure Dev Ops (ADO) server. Note: ADO is the new name for TFS or VSTS.
There's also a PowerAutomate called Create an Azure DevOps work item when email arrives with 'Bug' in subject that does just what it says. If that doesn't work for you, try modifying this one or creating your own.
Linda

Related

How do I create a Microsoft Teams Meeting externally from a ServiceNow Instance?

I've been given the requirement of having a UI action in ServiceNow that can schedule and create meetings within the Microsoft Teams Platform.
Has anyone been able to achieve this or have a good understanding of how much dev work would be involved?
I'm assuming it would be an API call from ServiceNow to Microsoft Teams but I'm not sure where to start.
Thanks.
Teams uses outlook and exchange calendars/meetings. So you should create a meeting for outlook, documented here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/office-365-api/api/version-2.0/calendar-rest-operations

PowerApps Common Data Service (CDS) 2.0 connector doesn't work for a Dynamics 365 CE instance

Hopefully, someone can straight up my PowerApps connectors understanding. Apparently, I have 3 connection options.
Common data service - this connection type only allows me to connect to CDS 1.0 databases, but I want to connect to an existing D365 v9 instance.
Common data service (experimental) - this connection type asked me for a D365 v9 instance ID, but everything is grey out after the step, i.e. it didn't show me any entity after connecting successfully.
D365 data source - this one works but I was told MS has stopped working on this connector. Also, I will have to update the connection after deployment to a different environment manually.
What is the best practice if I want to use a CDS connector? Or I will be stuck with the old D365 connector for now?
Thanks.
==11/1/2018 update==
I have a better understanding of my situation now. Every Dynamics 365 CE instance should have a PowerApp environment automatically, but one of my D365CE instances doesn't. I am suspecting it is because the D365CE instance is still version 8.2.
My question above is because I created an empty PowerApp environment and tried to connect it to the D365CE instance (v8.2). I will give you guys another update after I upgrade the instance to v9.
==11/30/2018 update==
Confirmed. By upgrading a D365CE instance from v8.2 to v9.0, the Power Platform generates an environment automatically and linked it to the D365CE/CDS.
Here's a breakdown of the three connectors you're looking at :
Common Data Service - this connector actually supports both versions of CDS, but it will be dependent based on the environment that you're in. So if you're in an environment that has a CDS1.0 database, it will connect by default to that environment. If you have a CDS2.0 database, it will connect by default to that environment.
Experimental Connector - this is similar to the previous connector, but it includes experimental features in development by our team, and isn't recommended for production use. Generally you should only be using this connector if there is a specific feature we announce in the experimental connector you wish you use.
Dynamics 365 Connector - this is similar to the base CDS connector, however it can only connect to CDS2.0 environments. It also has the ability to connect across environments. So you can be in Env1, but connect to a database in Env2. The normal CDS connector will only connect to the database within the environment you are building your app in.
Which one should you use? The Common Data Service connector is going to be your best option, it's where the most improvements are being released at the moment, and is designed to work best with PowerApps and Flow.
To connect to your Dynamics 365 environment, you'll want to make sure you start from web.powerapps.com and select that environment from the drop down in the top right, if you can't find your Dynamics 365 V9 environment - make sure you have system customizer permissions - if you do and you still can't see it, it may be an issue on our end. You can send me a message with your Dynamics org URL and we can check it for you.
Once you can select it from the environment drop down, you can then create a new app and use the Common Data Service connector, and it will connect directly to your Dynamics 365 data.
Hope this helps,
Clay.
I don't have much experience with CDS 1.0 in the Power Platform. I can share some insights on my experience with Microsoft Flow / Logic Apps, CDS 2.0, and Data Integration. So I hopes this helps add another perspective to this question too.
What is your goal in using Common Data Service? Just to pull Dynamics 365 CE data into it?
This recent Product Team Blog could be useful here if so.
Some initial feedback, if the main goal is to connect to a Dynamics 365 CE instance, consider using the Dynamics 365 Connector through Microsoft Flow. You can create a small Flow at https://flow.microsoft.com/ with a 2 step process like mine below. An event takes place in Dynamics, like creating an account. The event and it's data is captured and in used in a response process, like sending an email alert. In this case the alert is sent to the signed in users email.
From a developer standpoint you can also use the Xrm SDK and Web API to collect data and do some data processing as well in C# or JavaScript respectively too. This is more involved, but provides a greater amount of control around the data you're working with. There's a great intro to
Lastly you can spin up a PowerApp to surface your data as well with some pre build templates https://create.powerapps.com/.
Start with your Data and create a Dynamics 365 app in a phone layout.
Choose your organization and table.
After the app creates, hit play to run it.
Search for an account
It turned out the problem is not with the connectors but with PowerApp environments. By upgrading a D365CE instance from v8.2 to v9.0, the Power Platform generates an environment automatically and linked it to the D365CE/CDS. So, it should just work for all v9+ instances.

Utilizing Workflow to Automatically Resolve a Case in Microsoft CRM (No User Input)

I have a logic question regarding the capabilities of automatically resolving Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM (or similar platforms) cases. I utilize an Access database to create emails to send to customers with specific data, while copying my team email to keep track of communications in Microsoft CRM. This action creates a new case in my CRM, which I then need to "Work On" case, add my specific operational catalogs and affected contacts, then finish case as Resolved just to ensure tracking in the CRM system.
My team is currently testing out the capabilities of XML coding in the email which allows the CRM to automatically capture the case specifics described above, however they still need to go in and resolve each case at the end of the day.
After some research, I see that a workflow may be able to do this job of automatically Resolving cases. Is this a possible function for a workflow or plugin to do? Alternatively I have been told by my IT department that we need to have a robot built to complete this task, but I would like to keep this as efficient (and cost savvy) as possible. Any input or suggestions are greatly valued and appreciated.
Thank you!
There are two ways you can solve your problem.
If you want to close all the "CASES" by the day end you can schedule
a "System Workflow" that will execute daily at a specific time and
"Close/Resolve" all the open CASES in your system. Please find below
link on how to setup a "Schedule Workflow" in Dynamics CRM Create
Recursive or Scheduled Workflows in CRM
You can resolve specific cases on Dynamics CRM using C#. Please find below link on how to resolve case using C#.How to close cases in crm 2011 programmatically
Yes. Workflows can be used to close Case records in CRM
If you have the resources (staff) available to write CRM code, you can do it via Code (C#) as well

Move VSTS subscription to new work account

I'm struggling with moving our VSTS subscription (and all projects within it) to a new MS work Azure account.
The original VSTS subscription was created on a personal account (call it a#a.com) and I want to move it to a#a.onmicrosoft.com.
When I am in the azure portal I can see the Team Service as a resource. I've unlinked it from any active directory.
Now, while it has a subscription key, I cannot seem to access the subscription. There is no link and there are zero subscriptions listed on the subscriptions list in Azure portal. it seems to be orphaned or something.
I have tried adding a#a.onmicrosoft.com as a user to the VSTS account within VSTS but it seems to add it as a personal account, so I cannot log in to it using my work account.
I have managed to change the owner in VSTS to a Gmail account, but it's still showing as a resource in my a#a.com personal Azure account.
I have tried to find up to date information on this but several pages mention adding a co administrator, but either this is no longer possible or I cannot do it because there appears to be no subscription association with the VSTS resource.
I'm desperate, please help!
In the end I had to raise a support ticket with VSTS support who performed some kind of migration that I would have been unable to do myself.

Data exchange between two Organization in MS CRM

Is there any way through which I can exchange data between two organization.
I want to do my coding in Plugin only. Can we write a code in plugin by which it accesses/manipulates the data of a different org through web services only and not directly hitting its database.
In know the orgs are different worker groups. Just wanted to know if its possible or if there is any other technique.
Thanks in advance.
The data for each CRM organisation is exposed via web services which differ slightly for CRM 2011 and CRM 4. The best thing to do is download the latest version of the SDK for the target platform as there are several examples in there for plugins and service based operations.
From your plugin you will be able to access the other organisation via this service and a connection to the service for the "local organisation in which the plugin is running will be available from the IExecutionContext parameter passed to your plugin. Any operations you carry out across both orgs will not be transactional though.
Also be sure to take a look at the sync and async options available for the plugins. If their use is appropriate for your scenario consider using an async plugin for the updates to the target org to minimise their effect on the source org.
Plug-ins will work. Hitting the database directly is actually not a supported model anyways. You can also think of using BizTalk as the middleware.

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