I have a VS 2010 Setup project.
In the setup project I have a custom dialog, and a custom action.
Both work, I can even debug my custom action and it receives correctly the input the user provides in the custom dialog.
I would like to validate user input and only allow user go to next step if the input is valid.
I can show a messagebox with MessageBox.Show, but how can I prevent to go to the next step until the user corrects the input?
public override void Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
{
base.Install(stateSaver);
string myInput = Context.Parameters["MY_INPUT"]; // Value from custom dialog
if (myInput ..... )
{
// Not a valid input, we do not want to proceed to the next step
MessageBox.Show("Not a valid input, please correct it");
// What to do here?
// How can I tell the Installer do not accept this input?
}
else
{
// Valid input...
}
}
Thx for answers
The simplest method of achieving this is set a property from your custom action and use that property to condition the NewDialog event that is called when the user press the "Next" button, so the event does not get executed if the condition is not true.
A .NET Installer class custom action cannot set the property directly from its code, but you could use your C# code to write another type of custom action that can get/set properties, as in this example: http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-guide/qa-c-sharp-ca.html
EDIT: You can do that by editing the MSI generated from VS with Orca, however, this is quite painful I would say as you need to edit multiple tables manually, like Binary, CustomActions, ControlEvent. Here is something to get you started with that:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255905
Another method would be to switch creating the setup package with a more advanced setup authoring tool. If you want to go with a free and powerful one I recommend WiX (http://wix.sourceforge.net/), it will take you some time to get started with it but its way faster than editing in Orca. The commercial alternative, which will allow you to edit your project even faster and much easier is Advanced Installer (http://www.advancedinstaller.com), but you will need an Enterprise license for what you require to accomplish.
Related
I am working on designing a lengthy approval system in CRM using a combination of OOB workflows (designed using CRM UI Workflow Designer) and custom actions (actions written using .NET code). Idea is to keep the entire branching/simpler logic in OOB workflow and call custom Actions wherever necessary. However I have few questions with this approach:
How can I handle run-time errors generated in the action code?
For example, one of my Actions contain the code to push data to an external system via web service. In case this web service call fails, I need to perform some steps in the parent workflow.
How can I handle 'if conditions' which can't be handled by 'Check Condition' step? For example, suppose that before performing a certain workflow step I need to check some data which can't be queried within CRM. I can create an Action which will return true/false based on the custom logic which can then be checked in parent workflow.
An alternate approach would be to use plugins but I am inclined towards using OOB functionalities as much as possible. Any inputs would be helpful.
First of all let's clear the semantics, because I'm not sure if you understand what are you talking about - there are Actions (you can refer to them as custom actions, but then you should refer to every workflow you create as custom and I figured out of your post that you are describing them as OOB, which also is semantically wrong - every workflow you create is a custom workflow, maybe it's using OOB steps, but that's a different story) and Custom Workflow Activities. I'm assuming that you want to use Custom Workflow Activities, because the are more suited for what you are trying to achieve here. Also you tagged your question as CRM 2011 and CRM 2013 - not sure what you meant, because Actions were not available for CRM 2011.
So basically Custom Workflow Activities can have Input and Output parameters. Output parameters are answer to both your questions, because you can use them to get the error message after your custom processing or use then in conditional statements later in your workflow. Output parameters can be defined like that:
[Output("Error message")]
public OutArgument<string> ErrorMessage { get; set; }
You can find more examples here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg327842.aspx
You can of course set this properties simply by calling
ErrorMessage.Set(executionContext, messageText)
So now when you define your workflow, wherever you need something not configurable in OOB blocks, you can put your Custom block, after it's done simply check it's output for the error (this is just an example, you can pimp it up by adding additional output parameters, to make it more generic), if it's empty then do something, if not then do something else for example send email with the error message. It all depends on what are you trying to achieve.
Actions are serving different purposes, they are useful to create a logic that can be easily called through plugin or javascript (webAPI) and allows you to also put a plugin on it alongside doing everything within one transaction. Maybe it will be useful somewhere in your workflow, but as far as I remember in CRM 2013 actions could not be called from a workflow...
UPDATE:
Ok so if we are dealing with CRM 2016, we can call Action from a workflow. What is best in this situation really depends on the scenario and what we are trying to achieve, but to make it easier to decide let me highlight main differences:
1) Activities are simply a blocks of code that can be put inside your workflow. Actions by themself are not code, they are custom Messages that you can call. Of course you can register a plugin on this custom Message and do there any custom logic you want, but this is another step to take
2) Actions can be run in transaction, Activities not (but you can run Activities inside Actions, so in this case they can run in transaction)
3) Actions can be called directly from Javascript, plugins and workflows. It's a great thing, but if you will make let's say 10 custom Actions which you will be using ONLY inside you one workflow, they will be visible when you will be registering plugins (and also any js developer will be able to call them with JS)
So basically Actions are a big, fat feature that can serve many purposes (including running Activities on their own!), Activities are much simpler but in your case they will also do their job. So you should ask yourself questions:
Do I need my logic to run inside transaction?
And
Do I need to call this logic somewhere else than my workflow?
If you have any "Yes" then go for Actions, of no, then go for Activities, because you will be overcomplicating things without any good reason.
Advance warning: Im an absolute newbie to Dynamics CRM!
Intention
I want to have a feature like Lync/Skype integration but use my own URL. (Click on any telephone number inside CRM and call it).
For eg. assuming I have a web service which can initiate a call per URL: http://telephony.com/call?nr=012345678. Now, whenever a CRM user clicks onto a telephone number field (in forms and views) inside the CRM my web service should be called instead of Skype/Lync.
In fact I'm trying to reproduce sth. like the InGenius Connecter.
Attempts
I already tried to inject a JS web resource to a specific formular (in my case it was the default contact form) and override the Mscrm.ReadFormUtilities.openPhoneClient callback (which seems to handle the Lync/Skype integration).
function load() {
// override integrated CTC (Lync/Skype)
Mscrm.ReadFormUtilities.openPhoneClient = function (telephoneNr) {
// redirect user to my web service
window.location.replace("http://telephony.com/call?nr="+telephoneNr);
return;
}
}
Found this method at: Disable Lync completely
This does work well in forms of Dynamics 2015 (my custom link pops up instead of Skype/Lync). However, this does only work on entity forms since I can't inject web resources into an entity view.
My other ideas how to implement such a feature are:
Inject global JS resource which disables Lync/Skype and encapsulate every telephone number with link to my custom URL.
Extend/Manipulate Lync/Skype integration to use my custom URL instead of Lync/Skype.
Write plugin which encapsulate telephone numbers server side.
Question
Since I have a grasp understanding of Dynamics and no experience in plugin/resource development, I'm left a bit confused with these questions.
Is it possible to achieve any of the three ideas above ?
If not, any idea how InGenius solved this problem ?
Do you have any other idea/resources about this topic ?
Currently I found two options available to achieve a custom CTC feature. (Both has the downside of not being officialy supported by the dynamics crm.)
Global Ribbon
Pretty simple: Add a Click-To-Call button to global ribbon which is only enabled on specific grids when one row is selected.
This button refers to an JS-Action which retrieves the telephone number via ODATA and then launches the dial process.
Global Ribbon CustomRule injection
Add a global button to ribbon which refers to a JS resource per <CustomRule>. The JScript then unbinds all actions from links with .ms-crm-Phone classes and replaces its href-attribute.
This would be useful if one want to override the integrated "Skype / Lync - Click to Dial" feature with his own logic.
I didn't test this method until now, so I can't guarentee it's working !
Note: I will include example scripts as soon I got the time.
I used Microsoft Test Manager to create a test for a log on page (not locally hosted) and recorded this. All steps were executed without errors.
Then I've created a Coded UI test project in Visual Studio 2013.
I added a Coded UI Test with the existing recording.
I ran the test and I got the message below:
"FailedToPerformActionOnHiddenControlException: Cannot perform 'SetProperty of Text with value " on the username field.
I received this message when using the existing recording, but also if I record using the recording function in Visual Studio.
Has someone got experience with Coded UI Tests and maybe give me an example as to how to set it up.
If I understand correctly, you're basically trying to have Coded UI input a value into an HtmlInput control that's a text box on a web page. The error message "FailedToPerformActionOnHiddenControlException: Cannot perform 'SetProperty of Text with value" normally means that the value you're trying to submit isn't able to be taken by the control, either because a value isn't accepted (example, numeric values in a name field) or because it's more characters than can be accepted by the field. It could also be that the recording isn't defining the object properly, and that the property Text isn't an option on the control that was found.
So, confirm these three things:
1. The control you're tying to send value to is actually an HtmlInput. You can't send the Text property to, for example, an `HtmlDiv`.
2. The value you're submitting is a valid value for your control (you're not trying to submit numbers, for example, into a field that won't accept them).
3. The value you're submitting is within the length limit for the field.
If I were a betting man, I would say that you probably don't have the object defined properly. Take a look at the SearchProperties of the control in question first and make sure that it matches the HTML on the page itself.
Do I need to set a standard environment for testing on an other server.
I develop the Coded UI test project in a workspace on a development environment, but I need the tests to be run on a acceptation environment (the recorded tests are executed on the acceptation environment).
I read it's easy to setup this environment though, but what is best practise?
Is it better to execute it on the same environment?
Here's a code snippet:
[TestMethod]
public void TestLogonToAccount()
{
// To generate code for this test, select "Generate Code for Coded UI Test" from the shortcut menu and select one of the menu items.
this.UIMap.Enterusername();
this.UIMap.Enterpassword();
this.UIMap.Clickonlogin();
this.UIMap.ClickonCentral();
this.UIMap.Searchforemailaddress();
this.UIMap.Clickonlogin1();
}
I forgot an important part regarding the login recording test in MTM.
I just tried to play the steps again and got this error:
Playback of the selected sections of the action recording could not be completed The playback failed to find the control with the
given search properties. Additional Details: TechnologyName: 'MSAA'
Name: '' ClassName: 'MozillaWindowClass' ControlType: 'Window'
I have implemented a UITestPropertyProvider for my custom control following the steps here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh552522.aspx
When I use the Coded UI Test Builder I can see my custom properties on my custom controls and I can record steps that interact with the control and the code generates and playback works fine. But when I try to add an assert on any property--not just the custom properties added through PropertyProvider--when try to generate code for that I get an error that says "Cannot add the same member twice to a SerializationInfo object."
When I remove my custom property provider I can still record and playback clicks and stuff and I can assert on any property, but I cannot access my custom properties.
There's got to be something wrong with my PropertyProvider but I don't know what. Which methods of the PropertyProvider are being used during code generation?
I'm building a Web Test using Microsoft VS2010.
I used the explanation on MSDN: How to: Create a Custom Validation Rule for a Web Performance Test.
In the example there using string and int as private members with public "get" and "set" those parameters valid for edit in the UI when I add this validation rule to my test.
I want to have an Enum with 3 option that when I add the validation rule to the UI I can choose from.
Is there a way to add an Enum variable which will also be valid in the UI ?
Are there any other types which can be used which will be valid in the UI ?
Unfortunately the UI only shows String and primitive-type properties in user-created rules/plugins. Yet some built-in rules/plugins use enums... how can this be? Thanks to the magic of the disassember and some detective work, we discover that it only accepts enums whose assembly name contains the string "Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.WebTestFramework".
So if you go to the trouble of compiling your enums (or indeed, your entire project) into an assembly called, for example, "MyEnums.Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.WebTestFramework", BOOM your enum-typed properties will happily appear in the editor UI.