Enable trace in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

You know that indispensable tool for Dynamics CRM 4.0 that allows us to enable tracing: CrmDiagTool 4.0

I was wondering if a tool will be available for CRM 2011… Just for fun, I tried to activate the trace using CrmDiagTool 4.0 and… it worked!

At least, for the server trace. I didn’t test the other trace options.

Example of trace files in CRM 2011:

CRM 2011 and Security Exception enhancement

Do you remember the difficulty it was to identify a missing privilege when reading security exception logs in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0? We had to query the database which was quite annoying… The messages were the same kind as one of the below messages:

• When you try to perform an action that is affected by another user security limitation

SecLib::AccessCheckEx failed. Returned hr = -2147187962, ObjectID: 1ef9f412-6601-dd11-8655-0019b9dfe618, OwningUser: 98bbc999-96a2-de11-aeaf-0019b9dfe227 and CallingUser: 037c1c90-96a2-de11-aeaf-0019b9dfe227

• When you try to perform an action when you don’t have the privilege to actually do it

CrmSecurityException: SecLib::CrmCheckPrivilege failed. Returned hr = -2147220960 on UserId: 60826d61-2be1-db11-821c-000423b79351 and PrivilegeId: 588725dd-c878-41c5-a4c3-5efc93cd3ffd

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 improve drastically the error message to avoid a fastidious search in database:

• When you try to perform an action that is affected by another user security limitation

SecLib::CrmCheckPrivilege failed. Returned hr = -2147220943 on UserId: 9d67828d-a13e-e011-af72-0800273a66a6 and PrivilegeType: Read

We can see that the only userId displayed is the one who actually causes the exception and the privilege is named instead of being displayed through its unique identifier.

• When you try to perform an action when you don’t have the privilege to actually do it

Principal user (Id=9d67828d-a13e-e011-af72-0800273a66a6, type=8) is missing prvDeleteAccount privilege (Id=ca6c7690-c935-46b3-bfd2-abb306c2acc0)

Again, the privilege is named

Conclusion

It seems that headaches caused by security exceptions are behind us with this new version of Dynamics CRM. Another good point!

New tool: Searchable Property Updater for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Today, I finished the upgrade of Searchable Property Updater for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

I posted the tool, the source code and the documentation on codeplex. Use the link below to access to these files:

http://searchpropupdater.codeplex.com 

As english is not my native language, if someone would like to help me improving the documentation, I will be happy to receive some help.

New tool: View Layout Replicator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Today, I finished the upgrade of View Layout Replicator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

I posted the tool, the source code and the documentation on codeplex. Use the link below to access to these files:

http://viewlayoutreplicator.codeplex.com

As english is not my native language, if someone would like to help me improving the documentation, I will be happy to receive some help.

Tool Update: View Layout Replicator

Hi guys,

I updated this utility to support related entity attributes.

Indeed, some rollup (don’t know which one) changed the way the related entity attributes are configured in the layoutXml of a savedquery.

This change caused the utility to crash unexpectedly if you selected a view containing related entity attributes.

This is now corrected!

Use habitual download location

Screenshot tool: Greenshot

Breaking the habit, this post is not related to Dynamics CRM. I just wanted to share with you a little tool I use to get screenshot: Greenshot


Greenshot is a light-weight screenshot software tool for Windows with the following key features:  

• Create complete or partial screenshots quickly.  
• Easily annotate, highlight or obfuscate parts of the screenshot.
• Send the screenshot to a file, the clipboard, a printer or as e-mail attachment.

Being easy to understand and configurable, Greenshot is an efficient tool for project managers, software developers, technical writers, testers and anyone else creating screenshots.