System Administrator – Microsoft Power Platform & Dynamics 365: It's Fascinating

Working with Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics 365

If you do not already have the Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics 365, go and download it: Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics 365. The Ribbon Workbench comes as a Microsoft Dynamics 365 managed solution. Therefore, after downloading it, you have to import it in your Dynamics 365 instance by going to: Settings >> Solutions >> Import. After successfully following the import dialogue to the end and successfully importing the solution, refresh the page and you will able to see the Ribbon Workbench button in the Solutions area of Dynamics 365:
Ribbon Workbench Button in Dynamics 365

Application Example: Hide Buttons

Below we will provide an example of practical client requirements and show step by step how the Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics can help us address these requirements.

Requirements

A national, provincial /state or city level education board that has a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement implementation that keeps track of all the schools and students in its jurisdiction. Each student in the system must be linked to a school and under no circumstance can a user of the system be able to create a student record that is not associated to a school record. This prevents the problem of creating of orphan student records in the system i.e. student records without an associated school record.

Implication of the Requirements

To implement these requirements, we will have to restrict the places where users can access the Student (logical name: contact ) entity’s New button and be able to create new student records. Student records should only be created in relation to a School (logical name: account) record i.e. from the School records’ Students sub-grids as shown in the image below.

The Student’s sub-grid on Schools’ form
Create Student record via Form Sub-grid

The Student’s sub-grid on Schools’ related entities menu

Create Student record via Form related entities

Therefore, after implementing the instructions provided under the sub-section “Implementation of the requirements” and section “Other Settings”, users will only be able to create student records from the from the Student entity’s sub-grids on the School records. Hence as a corollary, users will no longer be able to create Student records from:

Quick Create menu
Create Student record via Quick Create

Advanced Find
Create Student record via Advanced Find

Student entity’s Home Command Bar
Create Student record via Home Command Bar

Student entity’s Form Command Bar
Create Student record via Form Command Bar

Implementation of the requirements

To Go to Settings >> Solutions, and create a new solution. Add the entities whose ribbons you wish to edit. In our example, we will be adding the Student (logical name: contact ) entity only to the new solution. Exclude all entity assets but include the entity’s metadata. Save and Publish All Customizations. Create Solution With Student Entity

Under Settings >> Solutions, click on the Ribbon Workbench button to launch the Dynamics 365 Ribbon Workbench. Select the solution created in part 1 and click OK.
Launch Ribbon Workbench

After opening the solution in Ribbon Workbench, it will look like the image below. Ensure you are editing the intended entity (A in the image below). In our case, we intend to edit the ribbons for the Student (logical name: contact ) entity. On the Student (logical name: contact ) entity, we intend to hide all the New buttons except on the Student’s sub-grids (B in the image below).
Ribbon Workbench - verify entity and identify except buttons

Ribbon Workbench - verify entity and identify except buttons

To hide a button, right click on it and select “Hide”. After hiding all the Student (logical name: contact) entity New buttons, except on the Student’s sub-grid (highlighted in green in the image above), the solution in Ribbon Workbench will look like the image below:
Hide New Button Except Sub-grid

Click Publish. After the publishing process is done, the only place you will be able to see the New button, in your Dynamics instance, for the Student (logical name: contact) entity is on the sub-grids, as per the requirements above.

Application Example: Show Hidden Buttons

Months or years later, the requirements may change and the client may want to us to reverse the work done in the previous section and show the the hidden New buttons. To accomplish that:

To Go to Settings >> Solutions, and create a new solution. Add the entities whose ribbons you wish to edit. In our example, we will be adding the Student (logical name: contact ) only to the new solution. Exclude all entity assets but include the entity’s metadata. Save and Publish All Customizations. Create Solution With Student Entity

Under Settings >> Solutions, click on the Ribbon Workbench button to launch the Dynamics 365 Ribbon Workbench. Select the solution created in part 1 and click OK.
Launch Ribbon Workbench

After opening the solution in Workbench, it will look like the image below. Ensure you are editing the intended entity (A in the image below). In our case, we intend to edit the ribbons for the Student (logical name: contact ) entity. On the Student (logical name: contact ) entity, we intend to make visible the hidden buttons. In contrast to the “Application Example: Hide Button” section, the next time we load an entity in Ribbon Workbench, the hidden buttons are no longer shown command bars section (B in the image below) but are shown under the Hidden Actions section (C in the image below). To make visible these hidden buttons, right click on each button (C in the image below) and select “Un-hide”.
Make hidden buttons visible

Click Publish. After the publishing process is done, the “New” buttons that were previously hidden will become visible in your Dynamics 365 instance.

Other Settings

To fully ensure that there no orphan Student records are created, make sure the Student entity’s School field is set to Required and the field is added to all Student entity’s forms.

Quick Create: To stop users from creating the Student records from the Quick Create menu, remove the Quick Create option from the entity:

Go to Settings >> Solutions
Open the solution containing the entity
In the solution, click on the entity. Remove the “Allow quick create” option.
Save and publish the solution

In this post, we cover how to integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online with SharePoint and OneNote. We start off with why you should consider integrating Dynamics 365 with SharePoint and OneNote. Secondly, a full step-by-step guide is provided on how to create a SharePoint Site for Dynamics 365 document management. Thirdly, a detailed guide on how to integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online with SharePoint Online is provided. We conclude with an elaborate guide of how to integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online with OneNote.

Why Consider Integrating Dynamics 365 with SharePoint and OneNote?

Cost: It is cheaper to store documents in Microsoft SharePoint than in Microsoft Dynamics 365 online.
Enhanced document Management functionality: SharePoint online is a Microsoft platform that specializes in document management and hence has more enhanced features focused on document management e.g. creating sub-sites, information rights management, SharePoint business intelligence, etc.
Enhance collaboration: teams can retain the great Dynamics 365 collaboration tools while also utilizing the advance document management features of SharePoint.
Enhanced productivity: by allowing users to access documents in multiple places. If someone is working in SharePoint, they do not need to go back to Dynamics 365 to access documents uploaded in Dynamics 365.
Seamless user experience: Despite the documents are stored in SharePoint after the integration, to a Dynamics 365 Online user, it feels like the documents still reside in Dynamics 365. The user experience is not compromised by this integration.

How To Create a SharePoint Site for Dynamics 365 Document Management

Step 1: Login in to https://admin.microsoft.com as a global or SharePoint administrator. If you see a notification that you have no permission to access the page, you do not have SharePoint administrator rights or Office 365 global administrator permissions in your organization.

Step 2: In the left pane, under Admin centers, select SharePoint. You might need to select Show all to see the full list of admin centers. This will take take you to the SharePoint home page.

Step 3: On the SharePoint home page, click Create site to start the process of creating a SharePoint site.

Step 4: You will get pop up window, asking you to choose the type of SharePoint site you would like to create. Choose Team site:
Choosing type of SharePoint site to create

Step 5: Enter details about your team site. Take note of Site Address, we will need it later when integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 with this SharePoint team site. Afterwards click Next.
3.2. Enter details about the SharePoint Site

Step 6: You can add members and/or additional owners of the site. This is not a required step, you can come and add site owners and additional members later after you have created the site. Click Finish to complete the process of creating your SharePoint site.
Add site members and additional owners

Step 7: After Step 6, your new site will be created and it will look similar to:
New SharePoint team site

Integrating Dynamics 365 Online With SharePoint

For this demonstration, we are using version 9.1.0000.9825 of Dynamics 365 (2019 release wave 2 enabled) online. However, the integration process is the same or very similar in other versions of Dynamics 365/CRM online.

Step 1: In your Dynamics 365/CRM instance, login with the System Administrator and/or System Customizer security role. Then navigate to Settings >> Document Management. On this page, click on Configure Server-Based SharePoint Integration.
D365 Document Management Page

Step 2: You will get the following pop up, asking you where your SharePoint sites are located. In this demonstration, we are working with Dynamics 365 online and SharePoint online, so the Online option is selected. Afterwards, click Next.
Choose location of SharePoint site

Step 3: Enter the URL of the SharePoint Site (see Step 5 of section How To Create a SharePoint Site for Dynamics 365 Document Management above). A check will be conducted on whether the URL you have provided is a valid SharePoint online site and if it exists in the same Office 365 tenant as your Dynamics 365 organization. After enabling server-based SharePoint integration, you cannot go back to the client-side integration, the default setting prior to this integration. If you would like to proceed, click Next.
Enter SharePoint Site URL

Step 4: After your SharePoint site has been validated by Dynamics 365, click Finish.
Validation of SharePoint site by Dynamics 365

Step 5: In Dynamics 365, go to Settings >> Document Management. You will notice that the Configure Server-Based SharePoint Integration option, mentioned in Step 1, is no longer available. This is because we have correctly configured Dynamics 365 with SharePoint. On this page, now click on Document Management Settings to complete the process of integrating Dynamics 365 with SharePoint.

Step 6: After executing the previous step, the window below will pop up, where you can select the Dynamics 365 entities you would like to enable for document management in SharePoint. Afterwards click Next to continue the integration process.
Configure Dynamics 365 entities for document management

Step 7: Select the SharePoint folder structure for the entities selected in the previous step. In the example below, I have selected a folder structure based on entities. Afterwards, click Next.
Choose SharePoint folder structure

Step 8: The following window will pop up. Click OK, if you would like to proceed with the creation of document libraries in the provided SharePoint site.
SharePoint Document Libraries Creation

Step 9: Wait until the document libraries have been created. After the document libraries have been created you will get a window similar to the one below, notifying you that the process has been completed. Click Finish.
Document Library Creation Process Complete

You have successfully enabled Dynamics 365 for document management in SharePoint. For the entities enabled, files uploaded for their records will be stored in SharePoint and you can make utilize the full range of document management capabilities offered by SharePoint. Your documents will be accessible in both Dynamics 365 and SharePoint.

To view the SharePoint sites enabled for document management in your Dynamics 365 organization, go to Settings >> Document Management. Click on SharePoint Sites. You will get a window similar to the one below:
Active SharePoint Sites for Dynamics 365 Organization

To view the Dynamics 365 entities’ folders created in SharePoint, navigate to the SharePoint team site you provided above. In the left navigation panel, click on Site Contents. You will get a window similar to:
Dynamics 365 entities' folders in SharePoint

Integrating Dynamics 365 Online With OneNote

Step 1: In Dynamics 365, go to Settings >> Document Management. On this page, click on OneNote Integration.

Step 2: After executing the previous step, the window below will pop up, where you can select Dynamics 365 entities you would like to enable for OneNote Integration. Click Finish to complete the process.
Choose the entities to enable for OneNote Integration

You have successfully integrated Dynamics 365 with OneNote. For records of the enabled entities, notes made in Dynamics 365 will be synced with OneNote in SharePoint Online. Also, you can access these notes on your desktop (i.e. OneNote Desktop) and mobile devices (i.e. OneNote Mobile).

Tag Archives: System Administrator

Microsoft Dynamics 365: Hide and Show Buttons