In order to model the real world while we test our applications for performance most chances we will need to test using the cache located on client’s computers.

Both in “Web Performance Test” and “Load Test” we have the ability to do that, but how does it really works?

In both cases the cache will be saved in memory!

• Web Performance Test: The only requests in the test scenario that will “benefit” from using the Cache are the requests that repeats in the test scenario, for example: getting to home page twice in one scenario.
• Load Test: The first run of the “Virtual User” will save the cache in memory and all the runs that comes after that for the same virtual user will benefit from the cache.

So how do we set the cache in each case?

Web Performance Test

Step 1: Open the recorded “Web Performance Test”

Step 2: The cache is configured per request so choose the required request

Step 3: Open the Properties window of the request

Step 4: Change the “Cache Control” to True

Start running the scenario and benefit from the cache.

Load Test

Step 1: Open the “Load Test”

Step 2: Right Click on the Scenario, in this example “Scenario1” and choose Properties

Step 3: In the Properties window type the required percentage of new users in the “Percentage of New Users” field.

This will define how many Virtual Users will get a memory storage and how many will not get a memory storage.

You can now run the test and start benefit from cache.

Have Fun!!!

Until today when you searched in MSDN for a topic you could easily confuse between the different versions of a product for example reading a feature for TFS 2008 when you searched for the feature for TFS 2010.

Microsoft now added a Topic Version Selector that lets you choose the version of the product you need.

I think this is a small feature that makes life much easier and the MSDN more usable.

Have Fun!!!

Classify It with the Subject Tree

The Subjects Tree in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 helps classifying records to subjects. Classifying records allows users to easily find data and can be used to produce quality reports. Out of the box, the Subjects Tree is used to classify Cases, Products, Sales Literature and Knowledge Articles.

Many legacy applications use a combination of 3 related combo fields to fully classify records. This force the user to go through a long series of clicks which usually ends with meaningful value in the first field and random data in the other (which means low quality reports). Many users don’t see the purpose of this time consuming process which cramp their performance statistics.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Subjects Tree a great improvement: it allows the user to navigate down a tree to select one subject or to just write it (if they know the subject name) using auto-complete feature of the Lookup field.

I have only recently discovered the the Subject entity (representing the Subjects tree)  can be related to other entities via N:1 relationship (1 Subject tree to many other entity records) The opposite relation is not available. I am not sure if this type of relation was always available or was added in one of the rollup packages.

This means almost any business entity (custom entities included) can be related to the Subject Tree. Once you have related the Subject Tree to another entity, added the Subject Lookup to the related entity form and published, clicking the Subject lookup will open the subject tree.
Actually, you can related entities to the Subject Tree in more than one relation, allowing the subjects tree to be used more than once on the same record.

Microsoft has released the final lab management version, with this version Microsoft has released some fixes and new functionality.

The Fixes and New Functionality refers to the following:

Install/Upgrade

• Labels created in TFS2008 do not contain items after migration to TFS 2010 under certain rename/delete conditions.
• TFS Cannot be re-installed (ATOnly) targeting a database that was patched before.
• Tfs2010Beta2ToRTM operation is not executed when RC database is upgraded by post RTM server (RTM + Patch1 or SP1).

TFS Build

• VS2008 “smart device” projects pick up the 2010 MSTEST rather than the 2008 one.
• Unavailable build agents are pinged indefinitely rather than giving up after an hour.
• Duplicate changeset listings in build report.
• Test results for VS2008 solution not published in case of a failed test.
• Cannot delete build drops if a controller goes down
• Open Process File Location” grayed out on menu- right click on a build definition when connected to a TFS 2008 server

Version Control

• Branch from label has been removed in TFS 2010 – now it’s back.
• Convert folder to branch on a hierarchy root folder with children and cycle renames crashes VS.
• Unshelve reports bogus errors about a null DownloadUrl when dependent renames are shelved and child item names overlap.
• Incorrect query plan on QueryPendingChanges when querying all users pending changes can lead to bad performance.
• merge /discard in both directions causes unnecessary “empty” merges in future merge attempts.
• Issue in merge causes a conflict not to be generated when there is a rename in the target and source.
• Overly aggressive automatic detection of file encoding can result in inappropriate encoding mismatches during merges.

Work Item Tracking

• Work item queries containing references to deleted fields can cause a red X on the work items node.

Team Web Access

• Firefox Browser: "Link Selected Items to a New Work Item" and other dialogs don't launch pages successfully
• Chrome Browser: Adding an attachment doesn't work
• Chrome Browser: Select Query Dropdown doesn't work in Choose Work Items window
• Chrome Browser: Retain/Delete a build in Build Report page will get an exception “Unexpected callback response”
• Query Picker Web Part Incorrectly Renders List Items (Rows) in List View (Overflow DIVs) within WebKit-based Browsers (including Safari, Chrome, etc)

Note: Taken from Brian Harries Post “TFS 2010 updates coming to a download site near you”

The update should be installed on any machine that has: Visual Studio 2010 (All versions), TFS 2010, Test Controller, Build Machine, Test Agent or Lab Agent.

The Patch You Need To Install On Your Clients And Server

Have Fun!!!

Reporting with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Harnessing the Dynamic Pivot Table

Excel Pivot Table is an incredibly powerful reporting tool, as it allows any user to quickly design a report that reveals valuable insights by combining different dimensions of an otherwise flat data table. Combined with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 dynamic Pivot Table feature, it supplies a powerful reporting option.

Once a user has built a dynamic report using Excel, he can attach the file as a CRM report and share it with other users or the entire organization. This report can than be consumed via the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. Of course, any CRM user that will open the report will receive only the data he is authorized to. 

Any Excel Report sheet can be also saved to the desktop or sent by email and whenever opened will show the opening user the data he is authorized to view. Take, for example, the higher management layer, which usually is interested in the business bottom line. Such managers can be given a Dynamic Excel report which will always display them with the summarized data without ever opening the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. Of course they still need a user in the application in order to view the report data.

In my last workshop ‘Reporting with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Workshop’, I demonstrated building a live Service oriented dashboard report using Excel Pivot Table in just about 20 minutes. Here is how the final result looks like:

These charts present live data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 application. Behind each chart there is a matching Pivot Table which extracts data from the CRM data exported to Excel.

Now show me a developing tool that can do that in 20 minutes!

There is a repeating question that I am being asked a lot, “Can TFS be integrated with other tools?”

The answer to that question is “Yes” TFS has a wide API to connect to so I can write a tool that connects to the API of the TFS from one side and to the API of the other tool from the other side, the result is a connector that integrates between the tools.

Today the answer is even simpler, Microsoft has seen the need in the market to connect TFS to other tools and released an Integration Platform with a few connectors out of the box and the ability to create custom connectors.

Out of the box adapter to Team Foundation Server 2010

Out of the box adapter to Team Foundation Server 2008

Out of the box adapter to Rational ClearCase

Out of the box adapter to Rational ClearQuest

Out of the box adapter for File system based version control migrations

you can download the TFS Integration Platform from: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/5a8d1703-7987-4081-ba2f-9d0b68b0ed3e

Have Fun!!!

There is a change in the TFS 2010 Release version working with the MSProject.

This change has confused me too when I first so it although I have worked a lot with the MSProject and TFS and have trained many users using it.

What is the symptom?

When creating tasks in MSProject and assigning duration for these tasks the Remaining Work and Completed Work fields in TFS Work Items stay “0” instead of getting the values of the duration.

What is the reason for that and how it really works?

The mapped fields from the MSProject are:

Remaining Work –> Remaining Work (MSProject)

Completed Work –> Actual Work (MSProject)

The formula is: Work = Remaining Work + Actual Work

When creating a new task and assigning Duration the Duration is being copied to the Work field and the Work field is filling the Remaining Work field.

What appends in TFS 2010 release version is that “Work” field is only updated when the task has a resource only than the “Duration” field value will be copied to the “Work” field.

So in order to get the values for these two fields we will need to stop use the nice shortcut of: “I will assign the task later” and start working with assigned resource for each task being updated to the TFS.

Lets take an example:

Action: I am creating a new task name Demo in MSProject with duration of 2 days and Publish the task to TFS.

Result: Remaining work is 0 and Completed work is 0

Action: I am assigning the task to: Eran Ruso and publish the task to TFS

Result: Remaining work is now 16 hours and Completed Work is 0

By the way what about “Estimation (Original)” field, this field will have a value when I set the Baseline in MSProject, it gets its value from “Work Baseline” MSProject field

Have Fun!!!

I am not a DBA or a Database expert but this task is quite common (At least as I see it)

To change a Database owner all you need to do is use the stored procedure “sp_changedbowner” with the new User Name.

The SQL Query is: “EXEC sp_changedbowner ‘[Domain]\[UserName]’

You will need to execute it on the required database and that is all.

Have Fun!!!

The MTLM has a very nice feature, it alouse you to copy the shortcut of a test plan.

There are a lot of things you can do with this very simple feature, for example:

• You can send the shortcut by mail
• You can paste it to a document or a work item
• You can send it with an Instant messaging tool
• and more…

I like to show you another usage of this feature, you can create Desktop Icons for your Test Plans.

Just follow these steps:

Step 1: Launch the MTLM

Step 2: Get to the Test Plans page

Step 3: Choose the required plan

Step 4: Click the “Copy URL for plan” button

Step 5: Go to your Desktop

Step 6: Right click your desktop, choose “New –> Shortcut”

 

Step 7: Paste the URL to the like text box

Step 8: Click Next and type the Test Plan name (Or any different text)

Step 9: Click Finish

The result is an icon for a shortcut for your Test Plan

 

Create your other Test Plans shortcuts by repeating the steps so you will finally have a nice dashboard of your Test Plan Shortcuts.

Have Fun!!!

Advanced Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 advanced workshops @ Expert Days 2010 event

During the Expert Days 2010 event which opens on 1/08/2010 I will instruct two advanced Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 workshops.
Expert Days 2010 event features a variety of workshops, each spans one day and deals with one main topic. The workshops are instructed by technology experts which lead Microsoft's current and future development platforms and technology.

I will instruct the following workshops:

1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Workflow Essentials - Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 enables the implementation of custom business logic without writing a single line of code. In this workshop we will explore the Workflow engine capabilities, events and actions which can be performed by it. Also, we will extend the Workflow engine capabilities with custom .NET code and Implement a full SLA supporting scenario. Target audience: Developers, System Analysts and Implementers
   
2. Reporting with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 comes with a variety of reporting tools, most of which do not require coding. In this workshop we will explore these capabilities: Advanced find and Views, Exporting data to Excel using Dynamic reports, Report wizard and more. During the workshop, we will use these capabilities to build an Excel based dashboard for the Service/Sales module. Target audience: System Analysts, Implementers, Consultants, Application owners

For more information on Expert Days 2010 event and registration, go to http://www.expertdays.co.il

Hope to see you in one of my workshops.

בעוד כשבועיים (29 ליוני) יציגו אייל ורדי ונועם ארבל את היסודות של פיתוח פתרונות סילברלייט כפי שהם עולים מהנסיון שצברנו בשנתיים האחרונות

 

האירוע מתקיים במשרדים שלנו בפתח תקווה, בשעות הבוקר

אין צורך בתשלום עבור ההשתתפות אבל כן חשוב לשריין מקום מראש

לפרטים המלאים ולהרשמה

 

מידע נוסף לגבי האירוע

באירוע נציג את סביבות העבודה של ה- SilverLight וה- RIA Services ונראה כיצד הן משמשות אותנו לפיתוח של מוצרים טכנולוגיים עבור הארגונים שלנו. באירוע נשים דגש על תהליכים של תכנון נכון של אפליקציה עסקית ומסחרית ובנייה מודולרית ויעילה של רכיבי הקוד של האפליקציה והאתר

לוח זמנים:

8:30 – 9:00 התכנסות

9:00 – 10:30 RIA Services Architecture, and the use of SilverLight

• היחודיות שבעבודה עם RIA Services באפליקציות SilverLight
• בנייה נכונה של ארכיטקטורת הפתרון שלכם ב- SilverLight
• Understanding MVVM and how to use it
• , Tips & Tricks ו- Drill down לדוגמאות קוד

10:30 – 11:00 הפסקה

11:00 – 12:30 Case studies – סיפורי לקוחות, אתגרים ופתרונות, ישירות מהשטח

12:30 סיום משוער

אודות המרצים:

אייל ורדי מנכ"ל משותף בחברת E4D Solutions, אשר מתמחה ביעוץ והדרכה בתחום הדוט נט. אייל בעל תואר Microsoft Most Valuable Professional – MVP כבר שנה שלישית ברציפות. אייל מרצה בקביעות בכנסים של מיקרוסופט ישראל על הטכנולוגיות החדישות ביותר בתחום הדוט נט.

נועם ארבל הוא ארכיטקט בכיר בצוות ה- Experts של E4D. לנועם למעלה מ17 שנות ניסיון בעולם הפיתוח, הייעוץ והארכיטקטורה והוא מלווה ומוביל צוותי פיתוח בישראל וברחבי העולם. לנועם היכרות עם עולם ה- SilverLight משלבי הבטא הראשוניים שלו.

Backup your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 CRM customizations automatically!

It is always a good practice to backup Microsoft Dynamics CRM customizations regularly or before you modify it, whether you are in development, testing or production phase of your project. If your dev team is working on stand alone VPCs, you need to sync customizations between several CRM deployments.

I have written a simple utility that allows you to define multiple CRM organizations and automatically export CRM organization’s full customizations file to a specified folder or to import it into a different CRM deployment.

This tool can be freely downloaded here.

How can you use it?

• Put this tool on your desktop and double-click the E4DCustomizationsManager.exe file to instantly export customizations before you start modifying it
• Set up a Windows Schedule job to automatically activate E4DCustomizationsManager.exe on a regular basis, every day or week
• Embed E4DCustomizationsManager.exe into TFS process to backup customization as part of your code backup routine

The backup tasks are defined be the CustomizationsMap.xml file. For example, the following definition will handle 2 tasks:

1. Export full customization file from a CRM organization named krustykrab (this is the organization name, not the display name) into folder c:\.
2. Export full customization file from a CRM organization named contoso and import it into a CRM organization named krustykrab

<Customizations>
  <Customization>
    <Source>
      <OrganizationName>krustykrab</OrganizationName>
      <CrmService>http://<CRM SERVER:PORT>/MSCRMServices/2007/CrmService.asmx</CrmService>
    </Source>
    <Destination Type="File">
      <Path>c:\</Path>
    </Destination>
  </Customization>
  <Customization>
    <Source>
      <OrganizationName>contoso</OrganizationName>
      <CrmService>http://<CRM SERVER:PORT>/MSCRMServices/2007/CrmService.asmx</CrmService>
    </Source>
    <Destination Type="Crm">
      <OrganizationName>krustykrab</OrganizationName>
      <CrmService>http://<CRM SERVER:PORT>/MSCRMServices/2007/CrmService.asmx</CrmService>
    </Destination>
  </Customization>
</Customizations>

Notes:

1. It is assumed that the tool is operating under the credentials of a CRM user who has the appropriate privileges to export and import customizations
2. The Type attribute value in the <Destination Type="File"> determines the export target: ‘File’ for file system folder or ‘Crm’ for CRM deployment. 
3. For each CRM organization it is required to define the CRMService web service URL
4. If the process failed, check the E4D.CRM.Service.Metadata.log file for errors.
5. The exported file includes the source CRM organization name and operation time ticks to prevent a new file from running over  an existing file
6. This tool was not tested thoroughly, use it at your own risk. 

To Redmond and back – a short journey to Microsoft Central

After a week of jetlag and flew, I can finally share my visit to Microsoft central @ Seattle.  

I have been invited by one of my customers to escort his 3 days visit to Microsoft EBC (Executive Briefing Center) facility in Seattle. My customer was invited by Microsoft and managed to arrange a priceless meeting with MS CRM E2 (Microsoft Dynamics CRM Engineering for Enterprise) team members to review a current MS CRM project, to which I am consulting.

Before our visit to Redmond, I took the opportunity to visit New York for the first time. New York has been a cultural icon for me through my adult life, and although I have been the US before, I found this city to be most amazing in all aspects: architecture, cultures diversity and atmosphere.
We had 3 days of Sunshine which, I have been told, is considered a miracle in January.

     

After roaming the streets of Manhattan for 3 days, shopping like crazy and visiting some of the tourist attractions (really, what can you manage in 3 days?) we pressed on. I got the view of Manhattan streets at 5 am while riding a taxi to the JFK airport to catch my flight to Seattle. We landed in Seattle on Sunday noon, and did some site seeing.

Now, fast forward to business: The Microsoft EBC facility is located in Redmond in the heart of what seems like Microsoft city. The interior is very fancy and well suited to accommodate decision makers. We got a private lecture room, in which we spent the following two days.

           

During the next two days we took a variety of lectures from Microsoft Product Managers regarding Microsoft products roadmap and as these were private sessions, we got a great opportunity to ask questions that usually don’t get a straight forward answer. We also had a funny tour at the virtual house, in which Microsoft displays its vision for the future living space. At this point I should say I am under NDA and therefore can’t really share any product related information here.

At day 3 we visited Microsoft development center at Redmond in which the Microsoft Dynamics products development team is located and met with MS CRM E2 team members, Amir Jafri, Jim Toland, and Morat Ozturan.

This is what I came for. The project is very challenging and the product abilities are stretched to great extent. During the project design, some major implementation issues were raised and although some of these issues arise in many projects, it was important for to confirm that the solutions I selected are correct and relevant in light of the upcoming version 5.0.
This session was worth the long trip. I gave my presentation, raised the issues and got straight forward answers that I probably couldn’t get anywhere else. Also got some hints regarding version 5.0, just enough to know my customer isn’t throwing money on features that will come of the shelf in the near future. Again, NDA.

I want to thank my customer, Microsoft Account Manager Oren Ben Yosef and MCS Georgy Sazonov for arranging this visit and giving me the rare opportunity to personally converse with Microsoft Dynamics CRM development team members.

Also, credit for all the photos in this post goes to Oren Ben Yosef.

“I would like to buy a Damburger”

Expert Days 2009

The Expert Days event occurs once a year and is organized by E4D. It features a variety of workshops, lead by top industry experts. Each workshop spans a day and contains several lectures on the main subject.

In this year’s event I am leading 3 Microsoft Dynamics CRM workshops:

034. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Workflow Essentials

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 enables the implementation of custom business logic without writing a single line of code. In this workshop we will explore the Workflow engine capabilities, events and actions which can be performed by it. Also, we will extend the Workflow engine capabilities with custom .NET code and Implement a full SLA supporting scenario. Target audience: Developers, System Analysts and Implementers

 

035. Reporting with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 comes with a variety of reporting tools, most of which do not require coding. In this workshop we will explore these capabilities: Advanced find and Views, Exporting data to Excel using Dynamic reports, Report wizard and more. During the workshop, we will use these capabilities to build an Excel based dashboard for the Service/Sales module. Target audience: System Analysts, Implementers, Consultants, Application owners

 

039. Accelerate Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Accelerators are free, open source third party solutions which add Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 with an assortment of new capabilities in the Marketing, Sales and Service modules. In this workshop we will explore selected Accelerator solutions such as Notifications, Event management, eService and Extended Sales Forecasting. Target audience: System Analysts, Implementers, Consultants, Application owners

 

If any of these subjects interests you, go on and register here.