New tool: SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

With the last version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can organize your customizations through solutions and this is really a nice feature. But some specific actions are taking really more time than with previous versions…

This is exactly the problem when you want to edit the SiteMap. You have to add the SiteMap to a solution (maybe create one before), export the solution, extract the solution, update the Xml, zip the files, import the solution (should I need to continue with import wizard steps…? Sourire)

So, today, I release my new tool, the SiteMap Editor. It works like the IsvConfigManager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to edit the SiteMap.

Features

  • Connections to OnPremise, Online and Claim based deployments
  • TreeView display of SiteMap
  • Add SiteMap component with mouse usage
  • Add default SiteMap component if you removed one
  • Cut/Copy/Paste of SiteMap component
  • Display Xml of SiteMap component
  • Add SiteMap component from Xml
  • Reset SiteMap to default system one
  • Import back the SiteMap to CRM server

Screenshot

SiteMapEditor

Download

As usual the application is available on codeplex.

Comments

40's the new 30 said…
Thank you! I used the ResetSiteMap to default option as I had broken headings following a test upgrade from 4.0 to 2011.

Kurt
July 4, 2011 at 6:30 AM
Russell said…
very helpful tool for the most part. The sitemap loads & upgrades without a problem: I can make new tabs, give it an icon. But the title on any new area I make always shows up as "unknownXX" (XX being a number). Any idea why? thanks :)
July 20, 2011 at 3:52 AM
Tanguy said…
Hi russel,
Did you add Title element to your Area elements?

If yes, I suggest you to log an issue on codeplex
July 20, 2011 at 7:37 AM
Unknown said…
Hy guys,
I just downloaded sitemap editro for CRM2011. When I try to add Area, there is problem coming up, because even if I fill ID with name (no space) after SAVE msgbox is showing "Id is required!".
Is there a way to fix this?
July 29, 2011 at 10:50 AM
Anonymous said…
Awesome, Awesome tool! Excellent work -- thank you so much for sharing.

I too have the problem above trying to add a new Area -- I get the message that say "Id is required". It think the problem may be the Resource Id that it is looking for, but that field is disabled. Anyway to fix?
July 31, 2011 at 5:40 PM
Carsten Groth said…
Great Tool, but I still have some problems regarding add view url. In webclient the link is visible and working in outlook client the link is not visible.
August 8, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Tanguy said…
As far as I know, you can't use the same url for Outlook and web client (if not absolute url).

Try to create two subarea with specific url for each client type
August 29, 2011 at 1:04 PM
Adam Luckhaupt said…
This is a great tool. I had the same problems with adding a new area. I added the area in SiteMap Editor and saved the file. Then I reopened the file in XML Notepad, added the Title element saved it, reopened the file in SiteMap Editor and updated CRM from there.

It sounds like a pain but it wasn't too bad.
September 17, 2011 at 9:05 PM
Anonymous said…
excellent tool, keep the great work sir
September 21, 2011 at 3:26 PM
AshS said…
Thank you for this fantastic tool. Took me about 30 mins to get it figured out and do things I had not been able to before.
November 15, 2011 at 6:38 PM
Tanguy said…
Thanks for this great feedback

Could you rate this tool on codeplex to make it more visible?
November 16, 2011 at 9:58 AM
AshS said…
Done. Thanks again.
November 18, 2011 at 5:41 PM
Anonymous said…
would you happen to know why i would get this?

Error while retrieving organizations: Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved:
'https://dev.https//company.crm.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc?wsdl'. The remote name could not be resolved: 'dev.https'
November 21, 2011 at 8:40 PM
Tanguy said…
Hi anonymous,

when connection to CRM Online, just type crm.dynamics.com as the server name and click on "Retrieve Orgs." button
November 22, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Arnel Gracela said…
Hi Guys, can anyone help me, i have a windows 7 x64 machine, i have crm 2011 installed on one of my servers, I then downloaded the sitemap editor and it keeps getting error debugger message when connecting to my crm, does it have any other requirements i've already installed windows identity framework though.
December 19, 2011 at 4:10 PM
Tanguy said…
Hi Arnel,

Could you indicates which parameters you defined in the connection form?

Did you read the documentation on CodePlex?
December 19, 2011 at 4:12 PM
Anonymous said…
Hi. This is a real "must have" tool which does the job perfectly ! It saved me many hours of export / modify / import / test sequences !

Regards.

Syb
February 20, 2012 at 2:39 PM
Charmaine said…
Hi I am trying to set up a connection however the use ssl checkbox is always ticked and disabled hence giving me an error all the time as i dont have an SSL on test environment. How can i connect not using SSL?

thanks

CHar
February 23, 2012 at 4:07 PM
Tanguy said…
Hi Charmaine,
If the checkbox is ticked and disabled, that means you are trying to connect to IFD or CRM Online. In both case, IFD and CRM Online requires SSL for transport.
If you try to connect to OnPremise server, then don't tick any checkbox and just put your server name and port.
If you have still difficulties agter that, please use CodePlex for more assistance.
February 24, 2012 at 9:13 AM
Daniel Hursan said…
Hi, can the SitemapEditor be used to add a link for a certain entity (let's say Campaign), link which will point to a custom view of the campaign responses ?

To be more specific, a Campaign can have multiple Campaign Responses.
I want to add a link on the Campaign form navigation to point to a custom filtered view of Campaign Responses.

Thanks, Dany.
April 10, 2012 at 11:54 AM
Tanguy said…
Hi Daniel,

SiteMapEditor is just... a SiteMap editor.

It can't edit left navigation panel on forms
April 10, 2012 at 1:44 PM
Emime said…
hey check this new website www.countcode.com. It's a social network made for programmers, where you can download,share or upload source codes, where you can count your own code lines for free. You have access to the web forum and the web chatroom. we are happy to have you joined to our community!
May 18, 2012 at 11:19 AM
Alex said…
Hi Tanguy,

I just started using your tool and it is fantastic. The site map for the browser client is built as user liked it. My only concern is that I cannot find a way to publish the same site map in the Outlook client. You said that the outlook urls are different that web client's urls. Could you give me an example of Outlook "friendly" url?

Thanks,

Alex
June 25, 2012 at 1:00 PM
Tanguy said…
Hi Alex, that's not exactly what I said or I wasn't clear enough.

I said that there is specific url for Outlook as Areas and groups can be selected in Outlook (in web client, there is no specific pages for these items) and a page can be displayed.

I guess these pages should be HTML web resources referenced in the Outlook url...

What is different in Outlook for the SiteMap?
June 25, 2012 at 1:06 PM
Alex said…
Thank you for the prompt response.

I just created a customized sitemap that is working perfectly in browser but when I use the outlook client I am getting the defualt site map.
Could you suggest any solution/workaround?

Regards,

Alex
June 25, 2012 at 1:16 PM
Tanguy said…
Do you close Outlook, wait for Outlook.exe process to be closed before reopening Outlook and looking for SiteMap changes?
June 25, 2012 at 1:18 PM
Alex said…
Yes, I did. Also, I rebooted many times and also I created a VM to test it.

Any ideas?

Alex
June 25, 2012 at 1:20 PM
Tanguy said…
I just made a test myself and my Outlook SiteMap was updated...

My test was performed on a CRM Online instance. I updated the SiteMap but had to sync data between Outlook and CRM before seeing the update.

Just another point, Outlook folders seem to be updated partial. My test was a group addition with a subarea in it. The group was not visible as a folder but was visible as a link in the page when I select the Area.

Maybe some CRM client problems...

Anyway, the SiteMap was clearly updated.

So I don't have any more help. Just be sure you didn't set SiteMap items to be displayed only in web client
June 25, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Alex said…
Actually, I created a new Area that it is not visible in Outlook sitemap but it is visible in pane.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Alex
June 25, 2012 at 1:36 PM
Anonymous said…
Hi Tanguy,

Great tool, thanks - I believe this is going to achieve exactly what I am after!

I have created a new area, and it is working well, however I can't get the sitemap to display the 'title' I want the area to have - it displays 'unknown5' instead.

I suspect this is due to the lack of a 'resourceID' and a DescriptionResourceID', but I can't see where to find and / or set these ID's correctly.

Can you help?

Thanks!

Matt
October 3, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Tanguy said…
You should rigth click on the Area node and click on "Add Titles", then click on the Title node, specify a language ID (1033 for english) and specify a label. Then update the SiteMap
October 3, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Anonymous said…
Thanks so much - my mistake seems to be I used the number for 'Australian English (3081) not 1033

Rockin tool! :)

Cheers,

Matt
October 4, 2012 at 3:15 AM
Anonymous said…
Hi,

Am using CRM online. I just try to connect my details with the tool. It says 'Error loading Organization:....'.

Servername :- Orgname.crm4.dynamics.com

User Id: my login id (<name@orgname.onmicrosoft.com)
Password: my password
November 19, 2012 at 4:55 PM
Tanguy said…
Hi,
If you used these settings, then you didn't read the documentation on codeplex :)

use only crm4.dynamics.com when connecting to CRM Online.
November 19, 2012 at 5:12 PM
Anonymous said…
If you read his post you would see that he is actually doing correct along the documentation on Codeplex and therefore using crm4.dynamics.com
I am facing the same problem.

Anyone up for telling the correct settings, when connectiong to CRM online using LiveID and not OSDP or any other, and comming from EMEA.?
November 21, 2012 at 2:09 AM
Tanguy said…
Can you post a new discussion on codeplex and provide a screenshot? I will help you
November 21, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Srini RN said…
Hi,

With reference to your comment that you can't use the same url for Outlook and web client. How do we do it. I actually tried using two different URL's, but it is not working as expected. It is also persisting the state within outlook if the URL is specified for the same entity with different sitemap navigation points to different views of the entity.
Ex: Contact Entity has one view called called contacts. 2nd View created is called vendors. 3rd View created called distributors.
June 5, 2013 at 5:01 PM
Microsoft CRM Trainings said…
The article contained depth and was quite unique.
May 31, 2014 at 9:06 AM
Unknown said…
Keep up the fantastic piece of work, I read few blog posts on this web site and I believe that your site is real interesting and has lots of great information. ERP Software in Mumbai || System Software || CRM Software in Mumbai || MLM Software
January 8, 2015 at 8:28 AM
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
January 8, 2015 at 8:28 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Searchable Propery Attribute Updater

Image
Hi, The previous post was not the last one... :) You can find in this post the first tool that will make your life easier: Just remember when you customer asked you to remove all these unused attributes form the attribute list of the advanced find form... You navigated through all attrbutes form to modify the Searchable property of each attributes for hours... (maybe am I exaggerating a bit...) The program I give you allows you to update all attributes in a single winform application! Yes it can be! Do not hesitate to give me your comments about this program if you think improvements can be done... Download:
Read more

New XrmToolBox plugin : Import/Export NN relationships

Image
Two plugins in one day! wow! This one was, in fact, developed a couple of months ago. One of my colleague was using a solution from my fellow MVP Andrii Butenko which allows to import/export NN relationships in a silverlight web resource. This was nice but my colleague was using other attributes than primary key to do the mapping and Andrii’s solution does not support this. So he asked me to develop a XrmToolBox’s plugin that could do this. And, here it is! You can select entities and relationships and moreover, choose mapping attributes on both enitities. I only let text and number attributes selectable as other does not really make sense for mapping purposes. Then you can import or export NN relationships! Here is a preview As usual, this plugin, among other, is available with XrmToolBox on CodePlex
Read more

Full featured CRM grid in HTML/JS

Image
In last December, I was asked to write a web resource to display a grid with CRM records. I was quite frustrated because I didn’t succeed to manage some grid features easily like fixed header with horizontal scrolling among others. I delivered a fixed table which was not so bad but absolutely not something that look like the application grid views. So I decided to work harder to find a way to do this CRM style grid view. After some works (almost two full days), I have succeeded to create a full featured CRM grid view by using only JavaScript. Here is a screenshot: And this is how I can create a grid view from only a div in a HTML page < html > < head > < title > Page de test </ title > < script src ="json2.js"></ script > < script src ="jquery.js"></ script > < script src ="XrmServiceToolKit.js"></ script > < script src ="sdk.metadata.js"></ script >
Read more