If you want to track a user who has opened records of any specific entity then you are on the right blog because today we are going to see how we can do simple customization to track the user activity of who has open which record for how many times. Step 1: Create an Entity to track the log of retrieve activity of the registered entity. Following are fields in the entity to track user activity tracking activity 1. Name — Logical name of Retrieved Entity. 2. Record Id — Record Id of that Retrieved Entity. 3. No of Time Retrieved — Stored number of times a user has retrieved that specific record. Step 2: Create a Plugin to create a Retrieved Log record The record will be created or updated whenever the user opens the entity form to check details and the following is code for the same. Explanation: 1. When the plugin will trigger it will check if the retrieved log of that record is already present or not. 2. If retrieve records is not present it will simply create a log record with the following details a. Name — Type of records which user has opened [Entity] b. Record Id — Record Id of record which user has opened c. User — which the user has opened the record. d. Count = 1 3. If the retrieved record is already existing in the system then it will increment the count of the number of times a user has retrieved that record by 1 so that we can track how many times the same user has open that specific record. Step 3: Register the Plugin on Retrieve of Entity on entities for which you want to add tracking. Retrieve: It will trigger whenever an entity form is open by any user. While registering the new step for the plugin please make sure that Run in User’s Context must be “Calling User” so that we can have a track that which user has opened which record. Note: All security roles which are given to the user should have read, create and update right to “Entity Tracker” Entity. Also, the stage of execution of Plugin and execution mode must be “PostValidation” and “Asynchronous” so that it will not affect any system jobs and it can run in the background process. If you want to track a retrieve activity of opportunity then you just need to register the new step and select Primary Entity as an opportunity as I have already done for Account and Contact. Now, your system is ready to track the user’s entity retrieve activities, and you will see the following records: Using the above record you can create any type of custom charts and put them in your admin dashboard or you can create a Power BI report to track activity. I hope this helps you, if yes please like the blog. And, the next blog will be on the dashboard & charts based on our Entity Tracker records so stay tuned for that!

Email Router is a service that runs continuously to synchronize only emails between CRM and specified Email system. Tasks, Appointments and Contacts are not synchronized using Email Router. Email Router is a separate component available for download and needs to be installed. Note: Only one instance of Email Router should be setup for an Organization. Settings in Dynamics CRM Online In Dynamics CRM Online, make sure the following settings are in place: The Process Email using in the Email Configuration Settings under Settings > Email Configuration should be: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 Email Router. Also make sure, Incoming and Outgoing Email are set to Email Router as shown below.   Additionally, set the user’s mailbox and the Incoming and Outgoing Emails should be Server-Side Synchronization or Email Router marked as Success when a mailbox is approved for Email and is Test & Enabled as well. Download & Install Email Router You’ll need to download the Email Router so that you can install it on your server. Here’s where you can get to download the Email Router: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45017 Run the setup and let the wizard install Microsoft Dynamics CRM Email Router Service. Configuration Profiles Configuration Profiles hold information about the server and authentication methods to the same to which the Email Router will connect to. You’ll need to create one or more Incoming configuration profiles and one or more Outgoing configuration profiles. First, I’ll create a configuration profile for Outgoing email. Enter a suitable Profile Name for the configuration profile you are creating. Chose the direction between Incoming and Outgoing. For this configuration, I’ll choose Outgoing. Since I’m configuring for Exchange Online server, I’ll choose Email Server Type as ExchangeOnline. The Authentication Type will remain Clear Text since this is the only Authentication Type for ExchangeOnline. Check mark the Use Autodiscover as it is a way to obtain the Exchange Web Services URL. This option is available when you select ExchangeOnline. In Access Credentials, I’ll select Other Specified since I want Email Router to authenticate by using the credentials of a specified user. Note: The specified user must have full access to mailboxes. Ideally, an Administrator should be selected. For User Type – When ExchangeOnline server type is selected and Other Specified as the Access Credentials is chosen, options available are Administrator or User. I’ll chose Administrator since I want to enter only 1 credential to authenticate mailboxes. Enter Username and Password in username@fulldomain For Access Type – Use either Delegate Access or Send As access. I chose Delegate Access in this case where I want email to be sent as ‘Send on behalf of’. Similarly, I’d configure the following for Incoming configuration for CRM Admin user, which is as follows: Deployments At least 1 deployment needs to be configured. Deployments hold the information to connect to your Dynamics CRM environment. Create a New deployment in the Deployments I’ll chose the Deployment as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online since I’m connecting to an Online deployment of my Dynamics CRM. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server: You’ll need to use ; where, Organization Name can be found in Settings > Customizations > Developer Resources. Note: I’ll be using disco.crm5.dynamics.com/ since my organization is in Microsoft Office 365. Provide Access Credentials of the Administrator mailbox which you want the Email Router to connect to Dynamics CRM Online deployment. Select the default Configuration Profiles that the current deployment will use. Chose from the Incoming and Outgoing profiles created in the Configuration Profiles in the Email Router. Users, Queues and Forward Mailboxes Users, Queues and Forward Mailboxes of a CRM deployment can be managed under this tab in the Email Router application. Select the Deployment created in the Email Router and click Load Data. This will show a list of all the mailboxes for that organization. You can chose any once / all mailboxes and click on Test Access to verify the connection was successful or not. Once you get a success as shown below, your mailbox is now functional. Forward Mailbox A Forward Mailbox is a centralized mailbox which reduced administrative efforts for a mailbox and diverts messages to respective users. Here, your Email Router is set to send and receive Email from and to CRM using the Email Router.  

Key Technologies: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Exchange Online, Outlook 2013 Introduction 1. Server Side Synchronization(SSS) is setup for Email processing between Microsoft CRM Online and Exchange Online within Office 365. 2. Appointments, Contacts and Tasks in CRM can also be synchronized using SSS. Pre-Requisites An Office 365 user must have the following licenses to setup SSS in CRM: 1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. 2. Office 365 Enterprise E1 / E3 / E4 license. 3. Setup OWA once an Office 365 Enterprise license is assigned. Enable Server Side Sync for a Mailbox 1. Before we enable SSS for a Mailbox. We need to turn SSS on at Organization level as shown below: 2. Then, select the Mailbox you want to enable Server Side Sync for under Mailbox option in Email Configuration area. 2.1. To do so, you need to select the Mailbox and “Approve Email” (shown below) for the same if Process emails only for approved users was check marked as in the System Settings as shown above. 2.2. Then choose, Approve Email. 2.3. Once the mailbox is Approved, choose to Test & Enable Mailbox for the approved Mailbox. 2.4. Once, all the tests are successful, you should see the same as shown below: You should also receive an Email in your Outlook that your Mailbox was successfully able to send out an Email. Setting Personal Options for Tracking Email in CRM for Outlook 1. We can set Personal Options for tracking email in our CRM. Click the gear icon on the top right corner of your CRM interface. 2. Navigate to the Email tab. Where there will be an option Select the email messages to track in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Under the dropdown menu labelled Track, there are 4 options to select the tracking method used in CRM. They are:   1. All email messages – Tracks all email messages. 2. Email messages in response to CRM mail – Track email messages only if the person has a record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. 3. Email messages from CRM Leads, Contacts and Accounts – Track email messages only if they originate from someone with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Lead, contact or Account record. 4. Email messages from Microsoft Dynamics CRM records that are email enabled – Tracks email messages from all record types (including custom record types) that contain an email address field. Now, you are configured for using Server Side Sync for Dynamics CRM with Outlook. Hope this post was helpful !