CRM 4.0 List Web Part Installation and Configuration

On December 12, 2008, the Microsoft CRM Team announced the release of the CRM List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Included here are the instructions for installing and configuring the CRM 4.0 List Web Part for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. This is not intended to replace the supplied documentation that comes with the web part installation package below.

About the CRM List Web Part
From the README file included with the installation package, a bit about the CRM 4.0 List Web Part

The List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 enables Microsoft CRM users to view the data in a SharePoint Web application. In Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, Web Parts are building blocks used by SharePoint Web part pages. Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can connect List Web Part pages that integrate the functionality of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to build a central portal or dashboard for sales and marketing, or other business units with all relevant information and reports.

Additional Documentation
Also from the documentation are several links which may be helpful in using and configuring the CRM List Web Part

• Use the List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
• Tips for using the List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Configuring the List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Internet-facing deployments

Within the download package is a readme as well (ListWebPart_CRM%204_readme.htm) that lists some known bugs and issues as of this posting)

What’s New?
And last but not least before we get into the installation and configuration – what’s new in the CRM 4.0 List Web Part, as per the provided documentation:

• Provides improved support for connecting List Web Parts.
• Supports multiple languages
• Supports multiple organizations (multi-tenancy) using a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Web service to find the URL for the organizations.
• You can display List Web Parts from multiple organizations on the same Web page.
• You can display List Web Parts from different Microsoft Dynamics CRM servers on the same Web page.
• Supports Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Internet-facing deployment (IFD).
• Writes to error logs.
  • You can find the List Web Part error logs at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS\. To use error logs, configure them using the SharePoint Central Administration
• Accesses data by using Web services.
• Deploys the List Web Part and language packs using SharePoint Solution Deployment, which enables deployment to server farms.
• Supports a multiple server setup.
• Supports secure socket layer (SSL); strongly recommended for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Internet-facing deployments.
• In addition, the List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 does not need to use impersonation or trust for delegation between the SharePoint server and Microsoft Dynamics CRM database as it did in the List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

System Requirements

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 w/ SP1 or greater or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 w/ SP1 or greater

The CRM 4.0 List Web Part is available for both 32-bit (ListWebPart-CRM4-1033-i386.exe) and 64-bit (ListWebPart-CRM4-1033-amd64.exe) operating systems.

Downloading…
Download from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3B6EB884-EC15-4288-A2A3-D0B47E057458&DisplayLang=en

Installation
Installation Instructions from the above link:

You must have local administrator privileges on the server where you plan to install the List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. You must also have administrator privileges for the SharePoint Services server. The List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 must run by using full trust mode.

Click the ListWebPart.msi file to run the List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Setup wizard.

If you are using Windows Server 2008, install the List Web Part by using the command prompt instructions found in the documentation.

For more information, see the documentation: List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Administration and Deployment Guide.

Run the executable you had downloaded, and you will be asked where to extract the files, this is just a temporary directory needed for the archive executable you are running. 

Once completed, you will get a notification that it was done:

Now, head to your temporary directory where these were extracted to, and, run the ListWebPart.msi file as directed by the download page on Microsoft’s site.

Once the installer starts, click Next >

And after you have (of course) fully read the License Agreement, and agree to it, click I Accept

The next screen allows you to deploy the list web part to either All Web Applications, or Specific Web Applications. If you choose a specific web application (only one can be chosen here), you can always run this installer again to install to different web applications in the future if needed.
 

Then click Next >, and the CRM List Web Part will begin installation

And once installed successfully, you should see the following message:

Also, as you can see from this setup completion screen, that the CRM 4.0 List Web Part is installed into the Solution Store in Central Administration (Central Administration > Operations > Solution Management), since this is the case, you do not need to run the installer for each specific web application you would like to deploy this to, you can deploy to additional web applications as needed from Central Administration.

Now, click Close, and you are ready to begin using the CRM List Web Part. However, let’s go take a look at the Solution Store in Central Administration, just to have a peek, you do not need to complete these steps when installing, this is just out of curiosity on my part.

So, let’s fire up Central Administration, and click on the Operations tab, and then on Solution Management under Global Configuration (note: my colors are only 8-bit, as I am going through two RDP sessions for these screenshots, so they may look a bit wonky)
 

You should see microsoftdynamicscrmlistwebpart.wsp listed under solution management, with the status field set to Deployed, and the specific site, or Globally deployed, if you installed to all web applications.

If you installed to all web applications, and you received a success message from the installer, there still may have been issues deploying out to one or more of your web applications. The installer does not take this into account, and if at least one web application deployment is successful, you will get a success message from the installer.

How to know if one failed? You will see Error in the Status field, such as this:

And, by clicking on the solution package name, you can get the details on where it failed to deploy, and if there were any specific reasons for why it may have failed, but, you can also see the details on what was successful in deployment, as well as some additional details regarding the solution and its deployment

Ok, now let’s add one of these to a page and get it configured!

Configuration
Go to a SharePoint site on a web application that you have deployed this to, and put the page into Edit Mode, and click on Add a Web Part. The CRM List Web Part will show up under the Miscellaneous web part group on the Add a Web Part window
 

Once added to the page, you will see this informational message to start you off with configuring the web part, however there is an error for the first step. It tells you to go to Site Actions, however when it should be telling you to use the context menu for the web part itself (see second screenshot below)

This will give you the web part properties window to allow you to start configuring the web part.

So, now that we can configure this, let’s set the URL to our CRM installation (i.e. http://crm:5555), and then click Go.

Once it is connected, it will say so (and give you an option for connecting to a different server (a MAJOR improvement over the CRM 3.0 List Web Part), and allow you to enter in your username and password to connect.

So, enter in your user credentials, and select Sign In.

Once you are signed in, you can select the Record Type to display, the associated View for that Record Type, showing all or a single specific column from that view, and whether or not to show the search options and toolbar to interact with the data.

So, that’s it for this segment, you should now be able to view and interact with data residing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM directly from WSS or MOSS.