Category: Dataverse

How are tasks, letters, fax, phone call synchronized between Dynamics 365 and Outlook


In the previous post, we saw how Appointment Synchronization works, for other activity entities the  is more or less similar.

How to – Synchronize Appointments between Dynamics 365 and Outlook using Server-Side Synchronization

Below is the list of activity entities that are synced by default (we cannot configure custom entities for sync)

Let us start by creating a sample record for fax, letter, phone call, and task in Dynamics 365.

After some time we can see all of these activities synced to Outlook as Tasks.

Let us mark the task record as complete in Dynamics 365.

Similarly, let us mark the phone call as completed in Outlook.

After a few mins, we can see the task marked as completed in Dynamics 365 marked completed in outlook after the sync.

And phone call marked as completed in outlook, marked completed in Dynamics 365 and moved to closed activities view in Dynamics 365.

Now let us delete the Letter record from Dynamics 365.

And delete the Fax record from outlook.

After successful sync, we can see the corresponding records deleted from both Outlook and Dynamics 365.

Also if we create a task with due date more than a day, a reminder is also set in Outlook, when synced.

tasks

In Outlook after sync- 

reminder

Get all the details here –

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/sync-logic#syncing-tasks

Hope it helps..

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How to – Synchronize Appointments between Dynamics 365 and Outlook using Server-Side Synchronization


Appointments, Contacts, Fax, letters, Tasks, etc. entities can be synced both ways between Dynamics 365 and Outlook.

This setting is configurable.

Navigate to System Settings >> Synchronization tab

Click on Synchronized Fields. It lists down all the entities there.

We can define the synchronization direction by clicking on the arrow of the attribute for a particular entity type.

Email synchronization is handled separately as we can see below.

We cannot have a custom activity entity enabled for Synchronization.

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/f/microsoft-dynamics-crm-forum/269218/sync-custom-activity-to-outlook/862671

Now to get it working the next step is to approve, test, and enable the user’s mailbox.

And set Appointment, Contacts, and Tasks to Server-Side Synchronization. (default = none).

Now let us create an Appointment record in Dynamics 365.

We have specified values for the Required and Subject field.

We get a notification before saving the record. Here the contact record specified had the Hotmail id associated.
Some of the recipients are outside of your organization. These recipients will also receive this appointment when you save it.

After saving the record we can see the Appointment reflected in Outlook along with the reminder after few mins.

We can see it categorized as “Tracked to Dynamics 365“

Now let us update the same appointment inside Outlook and send it.

After a couple of minutes, we could see the record updated back in CRM.

Now for new appointments created in Outlook to reflect in CRM, we need to have either of the following conditions in place –

It has to be created or tracked in Dynamics 365 from Dynamics 365 for Outlook App.

Or from within the Outlook app, we need to apply Tracked to Dynamics 365 Category to it.

The same record in CRM –

Now let us delete one of the appointments in Dynamics 365

It is already synced to Outlook.

We will see the appointment deleted in Outlook because it fulfills the below criteria i.e.

The appointment is in the future and the user is also the appointment organizer.

This will also send the cancellation to the users/attendees.

And similarly, if we cancel an appointment in Outlook, it will send the cancellation to the attendees and will also delete the record in Dynamics 365.

The appointment record canceled in Dynamics 365 doesn’t sync to Outlook as canceled by default.

We need to enable SSSPropagateAppointmentCancellationsToExchange settings in OrgDbOrgSettings for it.

https://github.com/seanmcne/OrgDbOrgSettings/releases

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/orgdborgsettings-tool-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-20a10f46-2a24-a156-7144-365d49b842ba

After this is enabled, the appointment is canceled in Outlook also, and cancellation is sent to the attendees.

Get all the details here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/sync-logic#syncing-canceled-and-deleted-appointments-from-dynamics-365-to-exchange

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/outlook-addin/user-guide/delete-records-that-have-been-tracked#appointments

https://community.dynamics.com/365/sales/f/dynamics-365-for-sales-forum/426757/externally-cancelled-tracked-appointment-not-marked-as-cancelled-in-dynamics

Hope it helps..

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How to – Upload files to File Column / Attribute using SSIS – KingswaySoft (Dynamics 365/ CRM)


Let us take a simple example to understand how we can upload files to the file column through SSIS Package + KingswaySoft’s Integration Toolkit.

Here we have a File Column defined for the Contact Entity.

This is what our final package looks like –

Our SSIS package will pick up the contact’s email, file path, and file name from the CSV file as the source using the Premium Flat File Source component.

The premium derived component adds a new column that reads / stores the binary content of the file specified in excel.

Finally, in CDS Destination we are doing Upsert on contact entity based on the email id field specified in the source excel file.

The mapping –

On running the package, we can see the file uploaded to the corresponding contact records.

To extract attachment from notes-https://nishantrana.me/2021/02/10/extracting-attachments-from-notes-in-dynamics-365-dataverse/

To download files using Download Block Request –https://nishantrana.me/2022/03/14/how-to-download-file-from-file-column-using-initializefileblocksdownload-and-downloadblock-request-dynamics-365-crm-dataverse/

To upload files using Upload Block Request –https://nishantrana.me/2022/03/15/how-to-upload-file-to-file-column-using-initializefileblocksupload-and-uploadblock-request-dynamics-365-crm/

Understand File and Image Data Type –https://nishantrana.me/2021/10/01/using-file-and-image-data-type-in-dataverse-dynamics-365/

Try out the wonderful, feature-rich, and powerful SSIS Integration Toolkit for Dynamics 365 by KingswaySoft –https://www.kingswaysoft.com/products/ssis-integration-toolkit-for-microsoft-dynamics-365/download

Check other articles on SSIS plus CRM – https://nishantrana.me/2018/11/26/ssis-and-microsoft-dynamics-365/

Hope it helps..

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How to – Download files from File Column / Attribute using SSIS – KingswaySoft (Dynamics 365/ CRM)


Let us take a simple example to understand how we can download files from the file column using SSIS Package + KingswaySoft’s Integration Toolkit.

Here we have a File Column defined for Contact Entity.

Our SSIS package will run on all the contact records and will extract the file from the records to one of the folders in the local machine.

This is what our package’s data flow looks like.

It has just 2 components CDS Source and Premium Derived Column.

CDS Source is connected to the Contact entity.

For Columns, we have selected our file column fields.

Next, we have next added a Primary Derived Column component.

We have used the WriteBinaryComponent function to write the binary content (new_myfile_binarycontent field) to a file.

WriteBinaryContent(“D:\\MyDownloadedFile\\”+[new_myfile_name], new_myfile_binarycontent])

On running the package successfully, we can see the files downloaded at the folder specified.

The result – as we just had 2 contact records out of 106 having file uploaded to it we can see those 2 filed downloaded.

Hope it helps..

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How to – Upload File to File Column using InitializeFileBlocksUpload and UploadBlock Request (Dynamics 365/ CRM)


Sharing a sample code, we can use to upload a file to the File Column

Also read –

https://nishantrana.me/2021/10/01/using-file-and-image-data-type-in-dataverse-dynamics-365/

File Attribute

https://nishantrana.me/2022/03/14/how-to-download-file-from-file-column-using-initializefileblocksdownload-and-downloadblock-request-dynamics-365-crm-dataverse/

Here we would upload the below file to one of the contact records.

For file size more than 4 MB we need to implement chunking and combine the data before committing.

uploadimg

On calling the method –

We can see the file uploaded to the contact record.

The restriction of using chunked upload for files greater than 16 MB has been removed, see the below code for full file upload. The chunking APIs are still kept for backward compatibility.

Example – .NET C# code for full file upload. (recommended way of uploading)

Hope it helps..

  private static void UploadFile(CrmServiceClient svc, string entityName, Guid recordGuid,
           string fileAttributeName, string filePath, string fileName)
        {
            // get the file content in byte array
            var fileContentByteArray = File.ReadAllBytes(filePath);

            var initializeFileBlocksUploadRequest = new InitializeFileBlocksUploadRequest()
            {
                Target = new EntityReference(entityName, recordGuid),
                FileAttributeName = fileAttributeName,
                FileName = fileName
            };

            var initializeFileBlocksUploadResponse = (InitializeFileBlocksUploadResponse)
                svc.Execute(initializeFileBlocksUploadRequest);

            // to store different block id in case of chunking           
            var lstBlock = new List<string>();         

            // 4194304 = 4 MB
            for (int i = 0; i < fileContentByteArray.Length / 4194304  ; i++)
            {
                var blockId = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Guid.NewGuid().ToString()));
                lstBlock.Add(blockId);
                
                var uploadBlockRequest = new UploadBlockRequest()
                {
                    BlockId = blockId,
                    BlockData = fileContentByteArray.Skip(i * 4194304).Take(4194304).ToArray(),
                    FileContinuationToken = initializeFileBlocksUploadResponse.FileContinuationToken
                };

                var uploadBlockResponse = (UploadBlockResponse)svc.Execute(uploadBlockRequest);
            }

            var commitFileBlocksUploadRequest = new CommitFileBlocksUploadRequest
            {
                FileContinuationToken = initializeFileBlocksUploadResponse.FileContinuationToken,
                FileName = fileName,
                MimeType = System.Web.MimeMapping.GetMimeMapping(fileName),
                BlockList = lstBlock.ToArray()

            };

            var commitFileBlocksUploadResponse = (CommitFileBlocksUploadResponse)svc.Execute(commitFileBlocksUploadRequest);
        }
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How to – Download File from File Column using InitializeFileBlocksDownload and DownloadBlock Request (Dynamics 365/ CRM / Dataverse)


Sharing a sample code which we can use to download the file from the File Column

Also read –

https://nishantrana.me/2021/10/01/using-file-and-image-data-type-in-dataverse-dynamics-365/

File Attribute

Here we would download the below file uploaded to one of the contact records.

The sample code –

On calling the method –

We can see the file downloaded at the location specified

Here the file transfers are limited to a maximum of 16 MB in a single call. In case of more than 16 MB, we need to divide the data into 4 MB or smaller chunks, combine or join the downloaded data to form the complete file.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/data-platform/file-attributes#example-net-c-code-for-download-with-chunking

Get more details – Retrieve File Data

*interestingly enough we didn't get any error while trying to download files with size more than 16 GB by using the DownloadBlockRequest

Hope it helps..

private static void DownloadFile(CrmServiceClient svc, string *interestingly enough we didn't get any error while trying to download files with size entityName, Guid recordGuid, 
            string fileAttributeName, string filePath)
        {
            var initializeFileBlocksDownloadRequest = new InitializeFileBlocksDownloadRequest
            {
                Target = new EntityReference(entityName, recordGuid),
                FileAttributeName = fileAttributeName
            };

            var initializeFileBlocksDownloadResponse = (InitializeFileBlocksDownloadResponse)
                svc.Execute(initializeFileBlocksDownloadRequest);

            DownloadBlockRequest downloadBlockRequest = new DownloadBlockRequest
            {
                FileContinuationToken = initializeFileBlocksDownloadResponse.FileContinuationToken
            };

            var downloadBlockResponse = (DownloadBlockResponse)svc.Execute(downloadBlockRequest);

            // Creates a new file, writes the specified byte array to the file,
            // and then closes the file. If the target file already exists, it is overwritten.

            File.WriteAllBytes(filePath + 
                initializeFileBlocksDownloadResponse.FileName, 
                downloadBlockResponse.Data);

        }
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