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May 2009

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Google Maps link in CRM

So I've been looking at a good way to get maps of locations direct from Dynamics CRM.  There are lots of neat solutions out there that embed a Google or Live map directly into a tab, but I didn't want the extra tab.  I wanted something simpler.  So I made this.  It's the simplest solution I could think of that effectively solve the issue.  It literally took more time to think of than to implement.

First,  go to customize the Entity that you want to have the link on.  I chose Account and Address for my implementation, but any entity with an address will do.  So first create an Attribute called Google Maps and put it on the form.  Make sure you give the Attribute a format of URL and increase the maximum length to 500 characters.  This will make it clickable form the UI and ensure you don't cut off the end of the address.

Now go to the Form and go to Form Properties. Open the OnLoad event and paste this JavaScript in:

crmForm.all.new_googlemaps.DataValue = "http://maps.google.com/maps?q=" + crmForm.all.line1.DataValue + "+" + crmForm.all.city.DataValue + "+" + crmForm.all.stateorprovince.DataValue + "+" + crmForm.all.postalcode.DataValue;

A few important things here:   "http://maps.google.com/maps?q=" is the beginning of the Google Maps query string. You need it.  The attributes after that, such as line1, city, etc. are specific to the Address entity.  If you want to do this in a different Entity, you'll have to find out what the specific name of the address, city, state and zip code fields are. also, these instructions are US-oriented.  For international addresses, you'll have to add whatever fields are relevant to get Google Maps to give you correct addresses.

In the end, you'll have a clickable field that will open up a map to the address in CRM in a new browser window. Very convenient, and also compatible with mobile CRM solutions!


Categories: CRM
Posted by Wayne Walton on Friday, May 29, 2009 2:30 PM
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FedEx Integration into CRM 4.0

The FedEx Shipping manager software has a suite of integration features.  This allows one to import and export fields from external data sources including files, and ODBC connections.  After creating an ODBC connection to the CRM Database, imports were simple to setup.  But, the export was not working.  All the fields registered as read-only not matter how I set up the permissions.  I set about trying a number of work arounds.  First I started with trying to create an Access database to link to the CRM tables, but to no avail.  The FedEx integration assistant would not see the linked tables at all.  After trying a few more things with ODBC, I finally created a new database.  Within this database, I set up a single table with two columns (I was only wanting to export the tracking number for now).  An ID column and the tracking number.

 

OrderNumber TrackingNumber
   
   
   
   

 

I set up the integration in FedEx to insert a new row into this table everytime a shipment completed.  Then, to update the CRM SalesOrder.  I set an ‘on insert’ trigger on this table.  The trigger updated the appropriate record in CRM.

It’s a hack, but it worked.


Posted by Trenton Adams on Monday, May 18, 2009 10:11 AM
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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 4 released

Why is seems like just yestarday we were posting about Update Rollup 3, and here comes Rollup 4!

 

You can find the KB article here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968176 

The actual files are here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0ddf8e83-5d9c-4fe7-9ae6-f2713a024071#filelist  

Don't forget the updated help files!

One quick addendum, make sure you clear your Internet Explorer cache after installing on both the server and the client side.


Posted by Wayne Walton on Monday, May 11, 2009 2:16 PM
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