Phil Edry’s Dynamics CRM Blog

Here’s a quick gotcha. If you’re going through the walkthroughs for using the CRM 4.0 Online Web Services, you might run into a runtime error when you reference the sample dll if you’re deving on an x64 workstation. The error will look like: “An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×8007000B)”

That’s because the helper dll’s that Microsoft provides to help with Passport authentication are x86 dlls. To fix this issue, stop using these helper dll’s, or target x86 in your build settings. The steps to do this are:

1. In Visual Studio, right-click your project and click “Properties”.

2. In the “Build” tab, set your “Platform Target” to “x86″.

-Phil

Here’s another link to a post I wrote for Altriva Solutions’ blog. Intro: 

Did you know that you can send a hyperlink shortcut to an entity in CRM 4.0 over email? This functionality is especially useful when team members are collaborating on a customer or case together and want an easy way to link to what they’re working on so that the collaborating team member won’t have to search for the record to find it. But what happens if one team member connects to CRM 4.0 over the company intranet, while the other team member connects using IFD (Internet Facing Deployment)? Depending on network infrastructure, chances are that the sent shortcut will not work for both users. This blog entry will describe a workaround for this scenario.

Read more…

To follow up on my last post, MB2-634 Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Has Released, I’ve finally gotten around to taking the exam — and I passed! I’d be happy to answer any questions about the exam within the limits of the exam non-disclosure agreement.

To prepare for the exam, I read through the Microsoft eLearning Course 8969 materials a couple of times the day before the exam and then just took it. I believe that you can access the course materials for free if you have a support contract with Microsoft, or you can pay $35 (until June 30, 2009) and buy the materials. The course material on the whole was pretty good. I think the topics covered were mostly applicable to real life. I’m not sure if I was working with an early release of the documentation or what, but my biggest complaint was that the grammar and typos were pretty horrendous in some sections. But whatever, that stuff isn’t important if the material is good.

My day-to-day work involves the material covered in this exam, so that’s probably why I got by on so little preparation. Microsoft’s MB2-634 Exam summary lists the topics covered in the exam. Of the topics covered, I found “Deployment Considerations” to be a pretty big part of the exam when considering how your extensions will work in the offline client. “Licensing Requirements” was a topic I forgot to study for, so be sure to read up on those.

All in all, I’d say this was my favorite exam since it was the most “real world” of the four MS CRM certs. I didn’t take the 3.0 version of this exam, so I can’t compare the two.

Don’t forget your Second Shot! I wouldn’t have taken such a chance with my limited studying if I didn’t have that safety net.

Phil

To follow up on a previous post regarding the release date for the Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 exam, Mb2-634 has finally released! Microsoft Learning has a study guide out: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exams/MB2-634.aspx and you can register for the test at the Prometric site.

Be sure to register for the Second Shot voucher before you register for the exam. They now offer 25% off of your next exam in addition to a free retake.

Apologies for the long break in posts, but wedding planning can be rather time consuming! I’m now back from my honeymoon and ready to get back to work. I hope to take the new exam soon and ramp up on the new Accelerators for CRM. Meno has a good post with links to how to get started.

Lastly, I’d like to point out a quality CRM blog from my friend Tim Dutcher: Takin’ care of business… with Dynamics CRM 4.0. His CRM 4.0 Quick Reference is nice to have near your phone when discussing CRM with clients.

-Phil