Microsoft CRM Accelerator: Event Management

I have a client who had some questions about the Microsoft CRM Accelerator: Event Management. You can download the code/demo from here

See Main Page For Solution Accelerator

I am going to test this out using the Microsoft CRM Virtual Image. This can be found at: CRM 4 Virtual Machine (actually I am using an older 4.0 download image, oh well it is just for testing)

1) Download the code and extract it to your virtual pc image (OK)
2) The will make you accept a EULA and then launch a HTML help page (OK)
3) Go to the installation link.
4) The first thing it mentions is to install the customizations. OK, this opens a directory that has about 6 files in it. I guess I should import and publish the xml files that has the customizations? Let me check the install video for some clarity..... Yes, take the xml file, import the customizations into CRM and then publish all of them. My import has 17 objects, 2 modifications of existing entities, 11 new entities, and 4 workflows. (OK)
5) Next we need to register the plug-in. In the same directory that I found the customizations, there is a register.xml file. Modify this to the settings of your CRM and save it. The run the file msa_eventmanagement.install.exe. This should pop up a console window where you will need to enter the password of the user who is registering the plugin. If this is successful you should see a "success" message. (I filled out my register.xml file wrong a few times - I had the wrong domain. The registration tool did not give me an obvious error, it just crashed.) I am not sure but I think the user you are using must also be a deployment manager for CRM. (OK)
6) Next we need to install the custom reports. If you have deployed reports before this is pretty standard. However the documentation and the video differ slightly. The video goes the extra steps of putting reports in categories: "Marketing". It also add the related record types of Campaign Responses (in addition to campaign). The video also chooses all options for the Display in (OK)
7) Next we can test out the sample customer portal (OK)
8) Create A New directory under program files called "Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer Portal" (the name does not really matter) and copy the entire contents of the folder "Sample Portal" into it (OK)
9) Edit the web.config file (in the newly created directory) to your organization settings. The demo does the proper thing and registers a new CRM web user where the password never expires. I am too lazy for that so I just use my admin account. (OK)
10) Create a new web site with location of the folder you just created. Be sure to give script execute permission and after creating it set to .net 2.0

11) Next we need to set the event management configuration settings. For this to show in CRM under setting you will have to edit the entity "Event Management Configuration" display in to "settings". I just followed the instructions in the video, but the configuration is matching event codes with picklist values in Campaign and Campaign Responses (OK)

12) Next we need to modify the workflow that was imported into CRM. The video shows the details on how to do this, but for the most part you need to change the places where you sending emails to a valid CRM user. It also modified the second workflow, Event Management Process, to not work with a marketing list (creates a task instead). WE then publish the workflows. (OK)

13) Let's create our campaign. This is where we give the details of the event. I entered what was in the video.

14) You can then launch the web site and register for the event. It tracks the registered user as a lead and it tracks a campaign response against the lead.

15) The rest of the written documentation goes on to tell you how to add this control to your existing web site/pages. It is not very clear but most of the files you need can be found under the web site we created above.

Creating Microsoft Virtual PC Image from Bootable CD

OK, when I first set out to do this I thought it would be strait forward. Why not? Create a new virtual PC image,put a Windows 2003 CD in the CD drive, start the image, and have it read the 2003 CD. Well, it didn't quite work out that way at first.

At first I thought it was the boot order of the Virtual PC. After a bitt of digging around I found how to access the BIOS of the virtual PC on startup by press "DEL" key. I verified the CD rom was high on the list and just to be sure I moved it to first in the boot order. This did not make a difference. Virtual PC was still trying to boot off the network.

It finally struck me that I don't have a bootable CD. I had simply downloaded Windows 2003 and burned the ISO image to CD. But this doesn't make it bootable. So let's try to fix that problem and see if it fixes my install issue.

I found this post on creating a bootable CD

Creating A Bootable CD/display.cfm?ttid=297

Well, I have Nero Version 9 and there is a boot image that comes with this. So I added my Windows 2003 setup files, and used the boot option tab to create a bootable cd. I did change the emulation type (under boot options) to hard drive.

When I put this CD in and started MS Virtual PC, it would boot from this CD. So the next problem is when I run setup.exe from the CD it tells me I cannot run this in DOS mode. I guess I have a bootable CD that boots a DOS image. One problem solved (why Virtual PC seemed to not boot) and onto the next.