CRM in Firefox

To use Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you are forced to use IE6, IE7 or IE8.  Or are you?

If you are running Firefox 3, you can download an add-on called IE Tabs.  This tool allows you to run IE tabs in Firefox.  In addition to opening IE tabs, you can specify sites that should by default, use an IE tab.  Example add the URL "http://www.microsoft.com/*" to open all pages under the microsoft domain in an IE tab.

Under the skin, the add-on is using the IE engine but if you were having problems with the speed of the IE browser (like me) this can be a big relief!

CRM 4 - Import Organization User Mapping Error

When importing an organization into CRM, you may encounter the following error message:

At least the setup user needs to be mapped before this organization can be imported

There are a few steps you may need to take to resolve this issue:

Determine the Status of Your User

The following query will tell you about the user you are attempting to import the organization with:

select systemuser.domainname, rolebase.name, roles.systemuserid, systemuser.accessmode, systemuser.setupuser

from systemuserroles roles 

inner join systemuser on roles.systemuserid = systemuser.systemuserid

inner join rolebase on rolebase.roleid = roles.roleid

where domainname = '{domain}\{username}'

Example results:

domainname   {domain}\{username}

name   System Customizer

systemuserid    {GUID}

accessmode   1

setupuser 0

'Name' should be System Administrator

Your user should have the role of System Administrator to import the organization.  Determine the correct GUID from the rolebase table for the System Administrator role, and update the systemuserroles for your systemuserid.

Accessmode and Setupuser values

Accessmode is used to specify whether the user is allowed to run the CRM setup program.  For some reason setting this to false i.e. '0' has proven to help resolve the issue.  In addition the setupuser value has to be set to true i.e. '1'.

When these values have been set, restart the Deployment Manager and import your organization!

SharePoint 2007 Site Templates or Site Definitions?

Site templates and site definitions are two separate customizations you can undertake. You need to make a decision based on your requirements as to which is best.

Site templates

Pro's:

• Easy to create and reuse through the SharePoint interface
• Ideal for end users
• A site template is a customization of the underlying default site definition

Con's:

• Dependency on underlying site definition means SharePoint updates could break your site templates
• Poor performance since the modifications are held in the database and are read from the DB and compiled on each request
• Limited customization options

Site definitions

Pro's:

• Made by developers and site administrators
• Independent of SharePoint default site definitions so not affected by SharePoint updates
• Limitless customization options
• Can be cached on the file system so is fast to load

Con's:

• Harder to create: involves coding XML
• Difficult to modify when deployed

Note: The site template does not store the complete definition of a site - only the differences from the underlying site definition. Move the site template from one site collection to another and you lose the underlying site definition and run into problems such as missing content types (since these are part of the site definition).

Check out Google for info on creating custom site definitions.