First Look at Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 codenamed Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5

At the Microsoft WPC conference there was a session called “Taking the Covers Off of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5”. will be publicly available as a beta release in September 2010 for both online and on-premises deployments. Key Things from the session are :

1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5 is now branded as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
2. The key message for CRM 2011 will be the "Power of Productivity"
3. Microsoft is expanding the global availability of CRM Online now it Will include 8 additional markets 40 markets, 41 languages at the end of 2010.
4. CRM 2011 will help you manage both customer AND custom relationships.
5. You can convert an email to Opportunity directly.
6. CRM 2011 now provides native Outlook access to CRM data (it isn't just an Iframe to the web client like CRM 4.0), benefits include:
   • You can drag columns to reorder, add/remove, use groups, etc.
   • You can toggle the reading pane settings
   • Drag/drop form sections on a personal basis
7. CRM 2011 allows you to package your customizations into solutions (instead of one giant munged pile of customizations like CRM 4.0):
   • Solutions consist of more than entities, also includes security roles, reports, dashboards, plug-in assemblies, etc.
   • Developers can work with .NET 4.0 framework
   • Can be managed/unmanaged
8. "processes" (sometimes referred to as scripts or dialogs). This is a huge new feature that a lot of customers ask for in 4.0.
9. You can now create custom activity types in CRM 2011. Big-time benefit!
10. CRM 2011 includes field level security! (yeppie… My Favorite)
11. CRM 2011 will have multiple forms per entity. Yes!!!!!!!!!!

Have a first look in this hour-long exploration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5 and see for yourself what all the excitement is about! We dive deep into the new product, discuss strategies for managing upgrades and explore all the opportunities to make the most of this exciting new release. If you’re a long-time Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner, or a BPOS or SharePoint partner looking to engage in the CRM space, this is a session you won’t want to miss.

Speakers: Andy Bybee, Bryan Nielson, Jason Hunt at digitalwpc

MSCRM 4 - Remove 'Add Existing xxxxx to this record' button

In our CRM implementation where we created several custom entities. It displayed an 'Add Existing xxxxx to this record' button when it was not required and created a lot of confusion among the users. I tried to remove them and like always instead of reinventing the wheel I binged it and then this come to my rescue and within minutes the needful was done. Thanks Dave and 'Dynamic Methods' for this beautiful post. the code that was posted there is :

HideAssociatedViewButtons('new_business_new_surveys', ['Add existing Survey to this record', 'Add a new Survey to this record']);
HideAssociatedViewButtons('new_account_new_eventinvite', ['Add existing Event Invite to this record']);  
 
function HideAssociatedViewButtons(loadAreaId, buttonTitles){
    var navElement = document.getElementById('nav_' + loadAreaId); 
   if (navElement != null)    {
        navElement.onclick = function LoadAreaOverride()        {
            // Call the original CRM method to launch the navigation link and create area iFrame
            loadArea(loadAreaId);
            HideViewButtons(document.getElementById(loadAreaId + 'Frame'), buttonTitles);
        }
    }
}
 
function HideViewButtons(Iframe, buttonTitles) { 
    if (Iframe != null ) {
        Iframe.onreadystatechange = function HideTitledButtons() { 
            if (Iframe.readyState == 'complete') { 
                var iFrame = frames[window.event.srcElement.id]; 
                var liElements = iFrame.document.getElementsByTagName('li'); 
 
                for (var j = 0; j < buttonTitles.length; j++) { 
                    for (var i = 0; i < liElements.length; i++) { 
                        if (liElements[i].getAttribute('title') == buttonTitles[j]) { 
                            liElements[i].style.display = 'none'; 
                            break; 
                        }
                    } 
                } 
            } 
        } 
    }
}