Convert Customer Relationships to Connection in CRM 2013 - dynamics-crm-2011

Can you please point me to a good guide on how to migrate Customer Relationship roles to Connections? I am using CRM 2013 on-premise.
I am going to try exporting the Roles and Importing them as Connections but this is giving me look up errors. In my opinion this is a simplistic approach and I might be wrong in the first place using this approach.
So has anyone tried this approach before and does it work? And is there an another way of doing this?

Here is a blog about doing it using Scribe:
http://blog.customereffective.com/blog/2011/10/crm-2011-converting-relationships-to-connections.html
Here is a blog about doing it using the built in import/export functionality:
http://www.powerobjects.com/blog/2013/04/25/replace-relationship-roles-with-connections-in-dynamics-crm/
If I needed to migrate a large volume of relationships I would build the connection table based off the old relationship roles table using direct SQL injection. Of course this is unsupported.

Related

Xamarin forms app no longer connected to easy tables

I have recently develop an Xamarin forms app which was linked to Microsoft Azure easy tables. This is a B2B app and will only be used by half a dozen users. It has been approved by the App Store. The syncing with the easy tables worked great.
My client is very familiar with Microsoft Access, and wished to be able to view the tables and add/edit data via this software. I successfully set up the express server and using ODBC linked the database to Access. With no problems on that end. I can see the data, delete rows and add/edit data.
But when I checked the app, the sync to the easy tables was hanging. And when I went into Azure. The easy tables are listed but they have no columns or data.
Are the easy tables now defunct because I have used ODBC to access them? Are they now different somehow?
How do I fix this? Is there a different connection I need to use? Do I need to set up a web api now? Do I need to use a different Nuget package/code? I am just not sure which direction I need to head.
The data is still there as I can see it in Microsoft Access.
Or do I just cut my losses and recreate the database and a new set of easy tables? There is not a lot of data to recreate and I have them in CSV files.
If this is the case, what is the best way of my client accessing and adding or editing the data from Azure? I realise the obvious one is developing a mobile app for him. I just wanted to check if there is any other way?
Thanks
Thank you very much for assisting me. Your advice, although did not directly solve the problem. It sent me down a rabbit hole of looking at the data in the actual SQL Database, and when I was there it asked me to login. I remembered I had changed the password to the server, when I was setting up the database in Microsoft Access as I could not not remember the original one (rookie mistake and I should know better). I changed the password back (as I found it in the connection string). Both now work. Thanks again.

SharePoint and DataBase Design

I don't know about SharePoint that much, so hope that someone can give me some good explanations for me.
For SharePoint application, we don't need to consider SharePoint DB design? Everything is done through List and SharePoint will take care of the Database? Don't need to consider it at all unless we are connecting to the external Database?
For Parent Child relationship, I have to use lookup field?
If we are developing using Web parts, we need to deploy it using Features. So eventually, there can be so many features in the production? Is it recommended in this way?
1)
For SharePoint application, we don't need to consider SharePoint DB
design ? Everything is done through List and SharePoint will take care
of the Database ? Don't need to consider it at all unless we are
connecting to the external Database ?
You do need to consider the database... In term of administration. back ups, restore, size and so on.
however you never directly read or write to it. You don't need to pay attention to the schema because you won't ever be directly using it. If you want to update something in SharePoint you do it pragmatically with c# / vb.net using the SharePoint API's. You have 2 API's one that works on the server called the SharePoint object model and one that works on a remote machine called the client side object model.
From a users perspective, you are correct lists contain data in SharePoint and are somewhat smiler to DB tables in some ways.
2)
For Parent Child relationship, I have to use lookup field ?
Yip
3)
If we are developing using Web parts, we need to deploy it using
Features. So eventually, there can be so many features in the
production ? Is it recommended in this way?
This can happen if you create a new solution for every web part but you can bundle multiple web parts in the same solution in the same project in the same feature
Right click on your project --> add new item. select a web part. By default the web parts will all be part of the same feature but you can separate them out and have multiple features in the same solution if you want to

How do I use SimpleRepository without the migration approach?

I am evaluating SubSonic for use in Phase 2 of a large project. This is an ASP.NET project, with 700 tables in a SQL Server database.
We are planning for our domain model to consist of POCO classes to assist with an offline access requirements we have. I believe that the SimpleRepository pattern would be among my best options.
Since I have a database already, however, the migration assistance doesn't help me. Are there T4 templates for SimpleRepository that I just overlooked? How do I 'turn off' migration? If I missed something in the Wiki, point me there, otherwise get me started and I'll write up a Wiki entry for y'all when we get there.
I'd suggest you look at the linq templates. They're generated from your database just like the ActiveRecord templates but give you POCOs instead.
Alternatively you can just use the simple templates and never run migrations, migrations only happen when you explicitly tell them to (by specifying SimpleRepositoryOptions.RunMigrations while creating your repository) so it's not so much that you need to turn them off, just don't turn them on.

Reporting Services Connection to SharePoint

I need to create reports on SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 (SSRS) on data coming from SharePoint Lists,
i was searching for ways to do that and i found,
connecting to SharePoint web service
out put XML, the problem here is it
sometimes work and sometimes don't,
and also i couldn't do inner join
between different lists may be it is
there but it will be trouble to do
it i think (if there is easy way
tell me please)
Creating a link table in MS Access
2007 that links to sharepoint lists,
and then connect to the MS ACCESS
link tables from SSRS 2005 : this
will work but i am kind of scared of
having ACCESS in the middle i always
want to avoid using access
connecting to the views provided in
the sharepoints backend database
(there is a view for all lists and
another view for all list items) :
here column names will be troublsome
to create the query the clounm names
are like
(float1,float2,...,date1,date2,date3,....)
, also i am not sure if it is good
thing to make SSRS talk directly to
sharepoints backend database views
can you tell me which of these ways is best (or if there is a better way plz tell me)
i kind of like the third way but not sure if i should use it
I have summarized this problem on our wiki, but it is not complete.
http://wiki.threewill.com/display/enterprise/Reporting+on+List+Data+in+SharePoint.
Note that we have since tried out the CorasWorks DIT and it looks like a promising approach.
We are exporting all the data to a SQL database everynight ( we have also started to move items away from Sharepoint because of performance). Then we use standard Reporting Services to create the reports....
(+) reporting doesn't hit the performance of day to day activities in Sharepoint
(-) the data is "one day" old
Check out SharePoint List Assocation Manager, SLAM.
Allows you to do exactly what you're looking to do in real time and it's free and very well supported.
http://slam.codeplex.com

Easiest way to extract SharePoint list data to a separate SQL Server table?

Edited:
What is the easiest way to scrape extract SharePoint list data to a separate SQL Server table? One condition: you're in a work environment where you don't control the SQL Server behind the SharePoint Server, so you can't just pull from the UserData table.
Is there there any utilities that you can use to schedule a nightly extract?
Is Microsoft planning any improvement here for "SharePoint 4"?
Update Jan 06, 2009:
http://connectionstrings.com/sharepoint
For servers where office is not installed you will need:
this download
There is a SSIS SharePoint task you can use to grab the data info a regular dataflow:
http://www.codeplex.com/SQLSrvIntegrationSrv
Scraping? As in screen scraping? Are you serious? ;)
2 Options
SharePoint Object Model - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms441339.aspx
SharePoint Web Services - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms479390.aspx
specifically the Lists web service
The web services is how Excel/Access communicate with SharePoint to integrate with its lists.
In fact a bit of Google foo gives these two results :-
Connecting SQL Reporting Services to a SharePoint List
Accessing SharePoint List Items with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
The 2 minute answer is to use Data Synchronisation Studio from Simego ( http://www.simego.com ) just point it at your List and database and it will sync all the changes.
There is an ADO.NET adapter for MOSS 2007/2010 and WSS 3.0/4.0 available which goes under the name Camelot .NET Connector for Microsoft SharePoint. It enables you to query lists in SharePoint through standard SQL language, using SharePoint as a data layer.
Besides from the connector, there will be a large number of open source tools and utilities available, such as webparts for exporting data to various formats (XML, MySQL, ..), Joomla plugins, synchronization services, etc.
See http://www.bendsoft.com for more details and to watch webcasts. BendSoft is currently looking for beta-testers and encourage all feedback from the community.
Example:
SELECT * FROM My Custom SharePoint List
INSERT INTO Calendar (EventDate,EndDate,Title,Location) VALUES ('2010-11-04 08:00:00','2010-11-04 10:00:00','Morning meeting with Leia','Starbucks')
DELETE FROM Corp Images WHERE Image Name = 'marketing.jpg'
I had written a full article about this with step by step screenshot procedures. It does not use any third party components only SQL BI Tools and Sharepoint. Have a look here
http://macaalay.com/2013/11/01/how-to-archive-sharepoint-list-items-to-sql-server/
As Ryan said I would also suggest using object model / web services to store data to separate SQL database. I think that the best approach is to write an event handler that will trigger on your least and copy the data user inserted/updated.
Regarding your query about "SharePoint 4", Bill Gates made some remarks at SharePoint Conference 2008. He suggests enriching SQL tables with SharePoint data, and goes on to mention several other potentially cool things. What exactly he means and whether it will help solve your problem in the future is hard to say until we start seeing betas of WSS4 / MOSS 14.
I would go with the simego software, but i dont have the money, maybe a 15 days trial is enough!
If you have MOSS installed, the Business Data Catalog can be setup from the Sharepoint Central Administration to automagically synchronize data for you. This is a very powerful product and is included with MOSS. I love it when a client has it enabled so I can take advantage of it.
But some don't and for myself, I've found that if they don't have BDC running and available, inevitably they don't give developers many rights to SQL Server so SSIS is generally out of the question (but maybe that's just me). No problem; for those I'll pull together a lightweight EXE that runs on a scheduled task that queries Lists.asmx and pushes changes to a SQL Server table. Fairly trivial stuff for a simple list where nothing is deleted. Get yourself Visual Studio 2008, CAML Builder, and prepare for a good time. The Lists.asmx results is a little funny in that a list's row's fields are each a single node with a lot of attributes, with no child nodes ... something like this off the top of my head ... just remember that when coding ...
<z:row ows_Id="1" ows_Field1="A1" ows_Field2="B1"/>
<z:row ows_Id="1" ows_Field1="A2" ows_Field2="B2"/>
Complications in code occur with copying lists where items are deleted, or where there is a parent/child relationship between SP lists. You'd think I'd have some code to send you, but I haven't bothered putting together something I could reuse.
I'm sure there's other ways of handling it, but the scheduled task EXE so far has been reliable for me for multiple apps for multiple years.
i wrote some code to achieve it, you can find it over here
extract data from moss 2007
Depending on the exact nature of the data you need to insert, it may be possible to just use the auto generated RSS feed to get the information you want, a process will need to read the rss and formulate a query.
Otherwise a consoleapp/service could use the object model to do the same thing, but with more control over field information.
I wish something like this was much easier to do. Something that didn't need SSIS and was boiled down to a console tool that reads a xml config file for source/target/map info.
http://blogs.officezealot.com/mtblog/archive/2008/06/03/importing-list-data-into-sql.aspx

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