Philip Richardson

The new MSDN Code Gallery is live! This site is intended to host Microsoft and Community code samples. It fits somewhere between Codeplex (for projects with active community development) and download.microsoft.com (for full scale products and SDKs). You’d use the Code Gallery if you want somewhere to host your download and you don’t want a source control mechanism (like TFS in Codeplex).

I’ll be using the Code Gallery to host all my sample apps from now on. There are a few projects which I’ll be posting up there:

• Microsoft CRM Application Deployment: This project will focus on the architectural patterns used by ISVs and SIs to deploy .NET applications integrated with CRM.
• Microsoft CRM User Logging: This sample for CRM 3.0 was very popular on my blog ( I still get requests for the code). I intend to redesign the solution for CRM 4.0.

There are also some other cool projects being pursued by members of our team. Stay tuned for more information about those.

If you do post a sample (remember anyone can post one) remember to tag your projects with CRM, MSCRM and Dynamics to help the search engines!

Refer: Part 1, Part 2, Part 2b, Part 3, Part 4

CRM 4.0 allows you write an ASP.NET application and place it on the Offline Client's web server. This application can call our offline web service platform to perform operations against CRM. These files are deployed in the [Program Files]\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Client\res\web\ISV\[Company Name]\[Application Name]. Typically you'll use an MSI to distribute these files to your clients.

When executing your code offline there are few things you need to know:

• The Org Name. You get this from the Registry.
• The Port Number used by the local web server. Typically this is 2525 – however you should always check the registry in case there is a abnormal installation.
• The Service URLs. You'll construct these by concatenating http://localhost + Port Number + the service path.

You always use Integrated Windows Authentication to access the offline web services. Regardless of the authentication type on the server (including CRM Live). You also aren't required to wrap your code with a CrmImpersonator block (however if you do so – there is no harm). If you write symmetrical code for online/offline – ensure that you don't create the token using ExtractCrmAuthenticationToken method as this is not available offline. You may want to check to see if the code is executing offline (one way to do this is to look at the Request.Url.Host and see if it is 127.0.0.1).

The follow sample shows how this can easily be achieved.

In the next part of this series I'll show you how you can easily create a simple MSI for deploying your code.

Our Microsoft CRM LinkedIn Group has grown to 784 members! I’m interested in hearing from members about their experiences with the group:

• Have you had any negative experiences as a result of group membership? (only four people have ‘withdrawn’ so I’m guessing there are few incidents of ‘issues’).
• Have you used the group to expand your network?
• Has membership in the group been beneficial to your business?

Feel free to email me with your feedback or write a comment to this post.

Information regarding the CRM 4.0 Launch in the United States can be found here.

Today we tried the Kopi Luwak which I received as Christmas Gift. We did track down the source of this strange generous gift: one our favourite ISVs sent it in (the coffee people seemed to have mislaid the card). Six brave souls (Michael, Ramesh, Clay, Manisha, Terry and I) crowed into Terry’s office and fired up his Mazzer Mini grinder and Exobar Brewtus machine. We had 1/4 pound of ‘bold’ and a 1/4 pound of ‘medium’. Terry carefully measured out the beans for each shot using an electric scale and then we begun the ritual.

Wow! The first shot was the ‘bold’ blend. It was amazingly fresh and sweet without a hint of bitterness. There was a complex mix of tastes including a smoky citrus fruitiness which is hard to describe. The second shot was the ‘medium’. Initially I thought the medium would be ‘too light’ – but it was surprisingly more flavourful than the first. The medium blend was one of the best shots I’ve ever had. Wow.

Overall – it was a great experience and everyone there seemed to enjoy themselves. It’s hard to say if it’s worth the $$ (considering it is 25 times more expensive that fresh super high end beans like those from Vivace). Regular drinking of Kopi Luwak is something best left to the ultra rich. I’m glad to say that I’ve tried it.