My company uses MS dynamics CRM 4.0 and I can only access the client side of it (using the URL in IE to open the CRM system).
I can see that the system could do with some enhancements and plug-ins.I want to work on them because when I suggested these enhancements I was told that the system will be upgraded, after maybe 2 years. So no one is working on making it better even though the extension could really help the users.
Details: Currently, users enter details for each sale into the system. This takes a lot of time because the server and centralised database is in another continent. What I want to do is to have the users enter their data into an excel sheet and a system scheduler will upload the data overnight.
My question is can I develop, plug-ins or extensions etc, on the CRM with VS Express Edition? I have no access to the CRM Server or database since I'm using only the browser to use the system to enter data, just the client side CRM window.
Edit This is not lack of research. I have not found an answer to this anywhere.
I appreciate your expertise and experience.
If you are talking about .NET, server-side plugins, you'll need the following things as described on the "Creating a Simple Plug-in" page of the 4.0 SDK:
To complete this walkthrough, you will need the following:
Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008.
A pre-built version of the Plug-in Registration tool.
A Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK installation.
Network access to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 server.
A Microsoft Dynamics CRM system account with either the System
Administrator or System Customizer security role, which is also a
member of the Deployment Administrators group in Deployment Manager.
The line about network access to the server I'm not so sure about. If you register the plugin to the database as you typically would, I don't think you'd need network access; if you deploy to disk, that's when I think you need it.
If by "extensions" you mean things like adding scripts to forms, the only thing you'd need is the System Customizer or System Administrator roles.
Update based on your addition to question:
If you want to schedule a daily import, you should be able to do that with the limited, web-only access you have (assuming you have enough privileges to kick off imports [which, if you can do it through the UI, you can do it programmatically]). Your program could run and kick off import jobs (see "Configuring Data Import" page of SDK). I know for sure you could kick off imports of csv's, not sure about programmatically importing excel files, but you could programmatically transform the excel files to csv and then kick off the jobs.
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I have a web application implemented in ASP.NET MVC3 and SQL Server 2008 Express. It's relatively small so I can deploy it in local computer of my clients (Windows 7 or higher).
Currently, I deploy it manually by create new web site in IIS, copy published files to the folder of website, install SQL Server 2008R2 and use Management Studio to restore database with some initial data.
It's OK with me but not with my clients. They can't do the same things. What I want is an automatic installer, my clients just need to click a few buttons to get all done.
Specifically, this automatic installer must do the following things:
Install SQL Server 2008R2 Express and restore the initial database.
Install IIS7 (if it's not enabled in Windows 7).
Create a new app pool (V4) and a new Web Site use this pool. Then copy published files to the folder of the Web Site.
The installler can run aspnet_regiis command and grant permission for NETWORK SERVICE account to TEMP folder. This is required for web site to run.
The installer can copy some fonts to Font folder of Windows.
I see many app can do this automatic installer, but after googling I can't find a thorough solution to try.
Please give me some advice on this. Thanks in advance!
If you want a free solution, WiX is what you need, but it will take you some time to learn using it if you never created a package with it.
A more easy to use, and also powerful, but payed tool, is Advanced Installer, you need Professional edition, but you can try it for free with the 30 days trial mode. It has predefined prerequisite for SQL Server Express, built-in support to install IIS entities, and set file/folder permissions. Bassically all the requirements you need.
To enable any IIS feature you can simply add a PowerShell script.
I am new to Visual Studio 2010, so please bear with me. Back in the days of using VB6 combined with an Access database, all I had to do was to use the Package & Deployment wizard and include the database file in the setup. Then all the client had to do was run one setup file and the application would magically run right away (the database would be placed in the App Path).
Is there some way to create a setup file in VS 2010 which will also install SQL Server Express automatically, attach the database along with the application itself?
This is meant for people who do not have SQL server installed and they should be able to start using the app by running one single setup.
Thanks!
Yes, your setup based on Windows Installer and built with Visual Studio itself can deploy everything you need. Read this article on MSDN for more details (maybe you won't need ClickOnce but it contains a lot of links).
I guess you need some clarification about your options (I assume you want to use a Microsoft solution because you talked about SQLExpress).
Microsoft SQL Server: fully featured database engine. It costs (a lot) and deployment isn't easy as we would.
Microsoft SQL Server Express: free edition (with some limits) of the big brother. Same installation issues. Perfect for medium desktop or web applications.
Microsoft LocalDB: single or multiple file, single user, support for stored procedures and advanced data types as in higher versions, easy to deploy and (optionally) per-user execution. Perfect for small/medium desktop applications and developing (with some preconditions with web applications too).
Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0: single file, single user, small, in-process, very easy to deploy. Perfect for small single user applications or used as local data storage (VS2k10 C++ Intellisense, for example, uses a SQLCE DB).
Microsoft JET Engine: the old beloved Access. If you come from VB6 I guess you know this.
If (and this is a big IF) your application is intended for a single user and you don't need data-sharing, now Microsoft provides a new version of SQLServer Express called LocalDB.
This version runs as standalone executable (isn't a service).
Its major advantage is the easy installation.
Search for LocalDB or look at my question LocalDB deployment
Reading about TFS' MSF for Agile Software Development v5.0 template (for example here) I can see nice Documents and Reports installed by default:
but after I installed this template myself I can see no such nodes:
What should I do to see (or install) them?
The administrator either did a basic wizard install or they did advanced and opted out share point and reporting integration. The basic wizard is actually just a wizard and the result is equivalent to advanced with opted-out. So in that sense, there really is no such thing as a basic installation - just a basics wizard. After the wizard there's no way of telling how you got where you got.
If TFS is installed on a client OS, you will not be able to add Sharepoint and Reporting integration. If you are on a server OS you can go into the admin console on the server, go to the share point and reporting nodes and configure them.
At that point, you will have to install SharePoint and Reporting services. But, if you download TFS Dev11 CTP (just came out at build conference), the SharePoint integration wizard will take it E2E even after the fact. It will detect what's missing and just do it. However, Dev11 CTP is not go live - at Beta, you can upgrade to it.
Here's a document on adding share point to an existing TFS deployment:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee462861
After you configure SharePoint and Reporting services, you will need to enable them for existing projects:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/greggboer/archive/2010/02/24/creating-sharepoint-portals-reports-and-upgrading-reports-for-an-existing-team-project.aspx
For reporting, go to the reporting node in the admin console. There's a link in there to configure. Point to your sql and analysis services and it should be fairly straight forward.
You have not made a full Team Foundation Server installation. Follow this guide: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=24337
This installation guide gives lots of important information regarding installation of a Team Foundation Server. Including important information on the SQL Server setup. Reporting Server is used for reports. And documents are stored in a Sharepoint product.
I think you have made a Basic Installation.
The missing documents and reports, has nothing to do with the process template you are using (MSF for Agile Software Development v5.0).
My company is interested in better integrating our investment in VMWare with our TFS deployment. Currently the company is running TFS2005 SP1, VS2010, and we have a sizeable SAN that we would like to use in environment reproduction similar to what is offered in TFS2010 Lab Management.
Of the features offered by TFS2005, we are currently leveraging only TF Version Control--work items and build automation are handled by separate systems. However, we would like to use the TFS-integrated Symbol/Source server in order to accurately debug the different versions of our product, and that's where we're running into difficulty.
The VMs deployed in VMWare are not joined to the corporate domain, and this means that we run into difficulty when attemping to grab source code information via Source Server and the "tf.exe view" command.
If devenv is run on the VM, it can't authenticate a domain account, and tf.exe view fails when grabbing source info.
If devenv is run on the developer desktop and debugging is done with remote debugger, the vm's local user account fails to access the share exposed by Symbol Server and can't load symbols to begin with, much less retrieve source.
Has anyone done this before?
Yes - You can still do this. If you are using Windows 7 (and I believe Windows Vista) you can always add the domain credentials to the "Credentials Manager" in the Control Panel. This will help it authenticate for the TFS URL whenever it needs to talk to TFS.
BTW, I have a blog post discussing the Symbol Server and Source Server features of TFS 2010 available here: http://bit.ly/SymbolServerTFS
I try to upgrade a plug-in that was on webaccess 2008. Whe were using WebAccessSession to get the user name of the current user logged (WebAccessSession.Current.Connection.UserName ). I Imagine now that it is in tfsConnection but I'm not sure.
Is there any documentation that tells what really changes between Team Foundation Server 2008 and Team Foundation Server 2010?
No documentaion that details things at the level that you are looking for I'm afraid. As far as I know, plugging in to Web Access is not supported via any specified API so any integration you have done yourself would be classed as unsupported so you'd be on your own when it comes to figuring those sorts of changes out. Sorry.
As far as your question about Web Access, this blog post from Hajan Eskci details what's happening with Web Access:
Team System Web Access in TFS 2010 Beta1
Until now, Team System Web Access was published as an out of band power tool. In this release and beyond, Web Access is now an integrated part of TFS, and it is installed by default when you install TFS.