Author Archives: Alex Shlega

Dynamics 365: 4 hours into trying the Project Service..

I wanted to share some of my experience with the Project Service – it has not been quite ideal (the experience, not the product), and I am wondering why. To start with, there is a great introductory article here – that’s what I used to understand some of the concepts behind the Project Service implementation: https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/crmcat/archive/2016/05/30/introduction-to-project-service-in-crm-2016-update-1 Many thanks to… Read More »

What do I need to know to become a Dynamics developer?

How would you answer if a .NET/JavaScript developer asked you: “what do I need to know to become a Dynamics developer?” There are, of course, books/bootcamps/courses covering this subject.. However, to put this in the context, imagine a project that’s been delivered by a consultant and that has to be supported by the internal full-time employees.… Read More »

SSIS Connectors Test Setup instructions

You can use the scripts and solution/project files below to set up the same data migration test that I used to compare KingswaySoft to CozyRoc in the Part 4 of the Data Migration with SSIS series of posts: Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Overview Part 3: SSIS Data Connectors Part 4: Let’s put it all to… Read More »

Dynamics CRM: Data Migration with SSIS (Let’s put it all to test)

You can test SSIS components in many different ways – you can test performance, usability, user interface, advanced functionality, and so on. Some of those tests will depend on what exactly you are trying to achieve. Before we continue, let me clarify the goal of this particular testing exercise. As you may recall, I mentioned that I used to… Read More »

Dynamics CRM: Data Migration with SSIS (Connectors)

There are at least a few companies offering Dynamics connectors for SSIS, and it would be a little challenging to compare all of them. Personally, I used KingswaySoft connector on a few Dynamics data migration projects, and it never failed me. However, it is not the only one available, so you may ask why did I choose that… Read More »

Dynamics CRM: Data Migration with SSIS (overview)

There is something about SSIS that may not be quite clear when you first look at it from the Dynamics data migration perspective. You cannot really use out-of-the-box version to create data migration packages which will work with Dynamics. Actually, that might be a bit too much to say, but, if you are not a developer who… Read More »

Dynamics CRM: Data Migration with SSIS (Introduction)

Dynamics has an absolutely amazing set of SDK libraries which we can use to turn it into pretty much anything. It’s a bit of a curse, actually, since, every now and then, there is a Dynamics CRM project that involves so much development that you can’t help but think “well, would not it be easier… Read More »

I’m doing the best I can – is it so bad to say?

I ran into this blog post today: http://socialtriggers.com/never-say-this-again Which is discussing the implications of saying “I’m doing the best I can”. And, suddenly, I don’t agree with the seemingly obvious. Why? Well, apparently one can use that kind of language to justify their lack of actions. On the other hand, we have natural limits, yet those… Read More »

DB Scripts – for my own reference

List of running processes use master Select * from master.dbo.sysprocesses where dbid = db_id(‘DBNAME’) Killing all processes Use master Go Declare @dbname sysname Set @dbname = ‘DBNAME’ Declare @spid int Select @spid = min(spid) from master.dbo.sysprocesses where dbid = db_id(@dbname) While @spid Is Not Null Begin Execute (‘Kill ‘ + @spid) Select @spid = min(spid)… Read More »

Dynamics CRM: Creating navigation tabs

Once upon a time, there was a project where an attempt was made to use Dynamics CRM business process stages as navigation tabs. I think it happened, at first, because of some misunderstanding of what business processes are and how they are supposed to be utilized. Still, as I joined the team a few months ago,… Read More »