What is coming in July’18 release of XrmToolBox

Hi XrmToolBox community!

As there is some interesting new features coming in next release, I wanted to write a blog post rather than just a release note on XrmToolBox portal. I would like to focus on three new features today.

Connecting to D365 Online using Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)

It has been a much requested feature since months, so I’m really happy to give you the capability to connect with an account protected with MFA. It was  already possible by using Connection String but you can now connect using UI only.


When ticking the MFA checkbox, you will be presented with a new connection wizard step that requires you to provide information about an Azure AD Application (AppId and Reply Url). You get it, MFA requires this kind of application. You may need to asked your Office 365 admin to create the application.



This step provides a link to explain how to create an Azure AD application for Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Highlighting environment in XrmToolBox

This is a pretty new feature request but I thought it is really an helpful one, so I implemented it immediatly.

How many times did you alter production organization from XrmToolBox, whereas you thought you were altering dev organization, just because it is not so easy to differentiate which plugin is connected to what organization?

So, the point of this feature is to allow you to define some settings to highlight a plugin when connected to a specific organization. During the last step of the connection wizard, you will now see a new button to define highlight settings.



By clicking this button, you will be prompted to choose one of both predefined template (Production or UAT) or to choose your own settings.



This dialog shows you a preview of how the plugin will be highlighted. If you click on Custom radio button, then an additional dialog appears to let you choose colors you want, and even retrieve color from the organization theme (CRM 8.1 and above only).



Each time you change a setting, the custom template is refreshed to show you the result in real time.
These highlighting settings are stored in you connection information. So each time you open a plugin with this connection, or when you update a plugn connection, the highlighting is displayed.



As you can see, there is now way you don’t figure out you are acting on a plugin connected to the production organization!

Opening the same plugin with multiple connections

It may happens you need to open the same plugin on different organizations, to compare configuration or metadata, for example. XrmToolBox now allows to select multiple connections when opening a plugin.

This will open the same plugin as many time you selected connections.

Conclusion

I hope you will find these new feature helpful! Some other minor improvements are planned. You will have the whole list when release notes are out.

Enjoy!

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