Monday, March 12, 2012

Dynamics CRM 2011 Developer Training and Development Resources

Note that the older Dynamics CRM 4.0 Developer Resources are over here.

In my role as both a Technical Sales Specialist and Solutions Architect, I am very often the first point of contact for companies and teams that are just being introduced to Dynamics CRM and the xRM platform for the very first time. As their relationship with Dynamics CRM matures they inevitably want to start experimenting with Dynamics and have their own people "get their heads around it." And obviously, once they make the investment in the technology, they will want to start ramping up their own staff.

Thus, as the person who introduced them to Dynamics CRM, they often come to me first for information on how to get started.

Following is a list of training and education resources along with what I consider the mandatory toolbox for most all developers.

Training and Education

Books

These are the books I personally currently have on my shelf. A quick Amazon search will likely review a few more.

Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
http://www.amazon.com/Working-Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-2011/dp/0735648123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331610204&sr=8-1

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Unleashed
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-2011-Unleashed/dp/0672335387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331610400&sr=8-1

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Step by Step
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-2011-Step/dp/0735648905/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331610253&sr=8-1

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Administration Bible
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Dynamics-2011-Administration-Bible/dp/0470568143/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331610283&sr=8-1

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Dynamics-Sure-Step-2010/dp/1849681104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331610318&sr=8-1

CRM as a Rapid Development Platform
http://www.amazon.com/CRM-as-Rapid-Development-Platform/dp/0981511813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331610440&sr=8-1
This book was written for 4.0, but it was an excellent introduction to the xRM platform and how to use Dynamics CRM as a true business LOB development platform.

Microsoft Official Training

http://dynamics.microsoftelearning.com/catalog/default.aspx
Note that your company must have purchased the training as part of their partnership with Microsoft and must give you appropriate access to Partner Source to be able to get to this training.

Developers Toolbox

The Full SDK
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24004
Note that the full SDK download is SOOOO MUCH MORE than just the API documentation that is also available from msdn.com. The SDK is chock full of sample code, tools, examples and more.

Especially important is that the SDK includes the Plugin Registration tool, WebResource publisher tool, and more.

Developer Training Kit
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23416
This training kit is for .NET developers to learn the development features of Dynamics CRM and help them build applications using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online.

Report Authoring Extensions
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27823
For writing custom SRS reports against CRM

Microsoft Sure Step
Downloadable local-install version
Sure Step Online
TONS AND TONS of project templates and tools!
Note that your company must be a Dynamics CRM partner and must give you appropriate access to Partner Source.

Fiddler
http://www.fiddler2.com/Fiddler2/version.asp
This is mandatory for troubleshooting and peeking into the http traffic.

Microsoft's All-in-one-do-everything VM is located here:
https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/methodology/vpc/msd_crm2011virtualmachine.htm
Requires Hyper-V server

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Entity Relationship Diagrams
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=2640
These Microsoft Office Visio diagrams show the logical database structure for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

CRM Tracing Enablement
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907490
Enabling tracing on your Development CRM environment will save you HOURS of frustration trying to figure out "what's wrong." The tracing is excellent will will usually tell you immediately where the problem is.

CRM Trace Log Viewer
http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=TraceLogViewer
Nice convenience tool until you turn into your own human log viewer and can scan the trace files like a robot yourself.

Dynamics CRM Version Matrix
http://rgsiiiya.blogspot.com/2010/09/dynamics-crm-version-matrix.html
The best way to know what version number maps to what Update Rollup.

Do you have an item of your own you would like to share? Please leave feedback and I'd be happy to add it to the list for us all to benefit from.

- Robert
It is an honor to be of service

Technorati Tags: CRM,Dynamics CRM 2011,Tools,Virtual Machine,xRM,Developers,SDK,SQL Reporting Services,SRS

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The report parameter ‘xxx’ is read-only and cannot be modified.

One of our teams deployed some SRS reports to their Dynamics CRM production environment today. The reports worked fine in both their development and test environments, but definitely did not work in production.

When attempting to run the reports in production, they would get the following [ever so un-helpful] error:

Thankfully, they did already have tracing turned on, so I was able to take a look into the trace files where I found the following exception:

>Crm Exception: Message: The report parameter 'CRM_FilteredAccount' is read-only and cannot be modified. (rsReadOnlyReportParameter), ErrorCode: -2147220332, InnerException: Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.ReportServerException: The report parameter 'CRM_FilteredAccount' is read-only and cannot be modified. (rsReadOnlyReportParameter)

Searching through the blog-o-sphere, I found 2 discussions that suggested re-installing the SRS Connector. Which I did. Which did NOT fix the problem. So, save yourself the time.

Eventually, I found a reference to this article that provides the solution to the problem.

The issue is, that when you import a custom .rdl report into CRM, the Parameters’ visibility setting gets over-ridden and put in a state that causes this problem.

In this team’s case, they had marked all of their Parameters as “internal.” To fix this, they must all be marked as ‘hidden’, but this MUST be done within the SRS report management console and not Visual Studio.

Again, this article will give you the details on how to do this.

Moral of the story: If you have a report with one or more “internal” Parameters, And you get the exception above, you may have to mark them as “hidden” in the SRS Report Management console for them to work correctly.

Robert
- One is pleased to be of service

Technorati Tags: Dynamics CRM,SRS,SQL Reporting Services,Reports