Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 vs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015

Features	CRM 2013	CRM 2015/2016
User Interface	Ribbon Bar is replaced by top Command Bar CRM functional groups are now at the top of the CRM home screen. No popup windows	Top Command Bar CRM functional groups are now at the top of the CRM home screen. No popup windows More space for customer data
Duplicate Detection Rule	Removed	Removed
Business Logic/Rules	Introduced.	Enhanced. Complex condition branching added.
Adv Find	Under, Not-under filter not present.	Under, Not-under filter criteria is introduced.
Social Enterprise Collaboration	Introduced. Users can participate in social conversations directly within Microsoft Dynamics, through the Yammer web and desktop applications as well as apps running on Microsoft (Windows Phone), Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) mobile devices.	Enhanced
Calculations and formulas via Business Rules	Available. Setting a field value in a business rule allows the use of formulas to do calculations for applicable fields such as fields of type “Money”. Addition, subtraction, multiplication & division are the calculation operations available and can be done between fields or values. So for example: set “Total Box Value” field value to “Price per item” field multiplied by “24”. (assuming every box has 24 identical items for instance).	Available. Rollup fields. calculated fields
Product Bundling	Not Available	Introduced. Products can be bundled and offered as packages, for discounts and offers
Pause & Resume SLA’s	Not Available	Pause and Resume SLAs to track time efficiently through system settings
Themes	Not Available	Introduced. You can now brand your CRM! Themes offer the option of changing the default colors and adding your logo to the top navigation as pictured below. This is just one more way to customize CRM to match the uniqueness of your organization.
OneNote Integration	Not Available	Introduced. Users can now easily capture meeting details using OneNote from within CRM Online. This functionality allows the information to be available to other CRM Online users in the Social Pane.
Advance Find Older Than Filter	Not Available	Introduced.
Export to Excel Redesign	Only allows to save as excel in local computer. Limiting record 10000.	Record Limit increased to 100000 or 32 MB. Import excel opens online facility.

Post XML over HTTP and capture the response – C#

Recently we got a requirement to post the data from ‘CRM Plug-in’ to an external API and capture response.External API was built as XML over HTTP (i.e., Its not a SOAP based and no WSDL). In this approach we post the Request XML to a URL and in return we will get the Response.

public static string PostXMLData(IOrganizationService orgService, ITracingService tracingService, string obmXMLString, string url, string userName, string password)

        {

            tracingService.Trace("Creating WebRequest Object." + url);

            WebRequest myWebRequest = WebRequest.Create(url);

            tracingService.Trace("Completed creating WebRequest Object." + url);

            tracingService.Trace("Setting WebRequest Object -> Method property.");

            // Set 'Preauthenticate'  property to true.  Credentials will be sent with the request.

            tracingService.Trace("Setting Preauthenticate to true");

            myWebRequest.PreAuthenticate = true;

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Setting Preauthenticate to true");

            // Create a New 'NetworkCredential' object.

            tracingService.Trace("Creating the Network credentials");

            NetworkCredential networkCredential = new NetworkCredential(userName, password);

            tracingService.Trace("Creating credential object to hold the id and password");

            string credentials = userName + ":" + password;

            tracingService.Trace("Completed creating credential object to hold the id and password");

            tracingService.Trace("Creating authorization object to hold the credentials");

            string authorization = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(credentials));

            tracingService.Trace("Completed creating authorization object to hold the credentials");

            tracingService.Trace("Setting the servicepointmanager security to SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12");

            ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12 | SecurityProtocolType.Ssl3 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls;

            tracingService.Trace("Completed setting the servicepointmanager security to SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12");

            tracingService.Trace("Completed creating authorization object to hold the credentials");

            tracingService.Trace("Setting WebRequest object Header");

            myWebRequest.Headers["Authorization"] = "Basic " + authorization;

            tracingService.Trace("Complted setting WebRequest object Header");

            tracingService.Trace("Setting WebRequest object Credentials property");

            myWebRequest.Credentials = networkCredential;

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Creating the Network credentials");

            myWebRequest.Method = "POST";

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Setting WebRequest Object -> Method property.");

            tracingService.Trace("Creating byte Array Object to hold xmlString.");

            byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(obmXMLString);

            tracingService.Trace("Completed creating byte Array Object to hold xmlString.");

            tracingService.Trace("Setting WebRequest Object ContentType Property.");

            //myWebRequest.ContentType = "application/xml";

            myWebRequest.ContentType = "text/xml";

            //hmyWebRequest.ContentType = "application/xml";

            tracingService.Trace("Completed setting WebRequest Object ContentType Property.");

            tracingService.Trace("Setting WebRequest Object ContentLength Property.");

            myWebRequest.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Setting WebRequest Object ContentLength Property.");

            tracingService.Trace("Creating dataStream Object.");

            var dataStream = myWebRequest.GetRequestStream();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Creating dataStream Object." + dataStream.ToString());

            tracingService.Trace("Write byteArray to dataStrean Object.");

            dataStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Write byteArray to dataStrean Object.");

            tracingService.Trace("Closing dataStream object.");

            dataStream.Close();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Closing dataStream object.");

            tracingService.Trace("Creating response object.");

            var response = myWebRequest.GetResponse();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Creating response object." + response.ToString());

            tracingService.Trace("Creating status description object.");

            var statusDesc = ((HttpWebResponse)response).StatusDescription;

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Creating status description object." + statusDesc.ToString());

            tracingService.Trace("Creating status code object.");

            var statusCode = ((HttpWebResponse)response).StatusCode;

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Creating status code object." + statusCode.ToString());

            tracingService.Trace("Set dataStream object with response.");

            dataStream = response.GetResponseStream();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Set dataStream object with response." + dataStream.ToString());

            tracingService.Trace("Creating stream reader object.");

            var reader = new StreamReader(dataStream);

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Creating stream reader object." + reader.ToString());

            tracingService.Trace("Creating response string object.");

            var responseString = reader.ReadToEnd();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Creating response string object:" + responseString);

            tracingService.Trace("Closing reader object.");

            reader.Close();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Closing reader object.");

            tracingService.Trace("Closing dataStream object.");

            dataStream.Close();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Closing dataStream object.");

            tracingService.Trace("Closing response object.");

            response.Close();

            tracingService.Trace("Completed Closing response object.");

            return responseString;

        }

JavaScript Intellisense in Visual Studio for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016

Intellisense in Microsoft Visual Studio is great feature to speedup development as it can suggests the method name, parameters, data type and hint about the method functionality and parameters use. With Intellisense we don't have to lookup in the documentation and is great time saver for the developers.

MSXRMTOOLS.Xrm.Page.2016.js provides similar capability in JavaScript for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016.

MSXRMTOOLS.Xrm.Page.2016.js provides following benefits for the Dynamics CRM developers:

1. Complete methods coverage available in Dynamics CRM 2016.
2. Suggestions for methods available in Xrm.Page namespace so that developers don't have to look up in SDK for available methods in Dynamics CRM 2016.
3. Hint about the methods functionality available  while typing.
4. Hint about each of the input parameters i.e. the intended purpose of each  of the parameter while typing.
5. Shows the data type of input parameters and output value.
6. Hint about the possible input values wherever possible while typing.
7. Hints are same as documented in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 SDK. So that developers can easily identify and correlate.

Steps for using MSXRMTOOLS.Xrm.Page.2016.js JavaScript library for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 development.

1. Drag MSXRMTOOLS.Xrm.Page.2016.js file to your .js file in your Visual Studio project. It will add a reference to MSXRMTOOLS.Xrm.Page.2016.js  in your .js file. 
2. Now start typing Xrm. and you will see the Visual Studio intellisense suggesting the methods for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 JavaScript development.