Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list July 2020

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)

• SLA's in the Unified Interface
• Use SQL to query data (Common Data Service)
• Tabular Data Stream (TDS) Protocol endpoint for Common Data Service
• DirectQuery CDS from Power BI by @crmchartguy
• XrmToolBox school (Youtube playlist)
• How to convert an unmanaged solution into a managed solution in Dynamics 365
• Power Platform DevOps: Part 5 - Deconstructing the framework: solutions project
• Create engaging messages with Adaptive Cards (Youtube 001:12:05)
• Power Automate Saturday Playlist (Youtube)
• Power Apps Checker now analyses modern web syntax (up to ES9)
• Monitor now supports model driven apps
• Setting sub-grid filterxml in the unified interface and other naughty things by @ddlabar
• Overcoming 5 top challenges with embedded canvas apps
• Collaborate and debug an app together in real time with monitor
• Get a users last logon time in Dynamics 365  by @nishantranaCRM
• How to restrict users from executing on demand workflows
• Enhanced integrated calendar experience in Dynamics 365 Sales
• How to use enhanced reference panels in UCI for rendering multiple subgrids
• How to merge solutions in Power Apps and Dynamics 365 with XrmToolBox Solution Mover
• Power Platform - Talking about the underdog
• Send a Power App push notification using flow to open a record in a canvas app
• How to power up Teams using Power Virtual Agents with Luise Freese (#LessCodeMorePower youtube video) with @LuisFreese and the associated blog post https://m365princess.com/how-to-use-power-virtual-agents-to-simplify-it-and-unfck-user-experience/ 

Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Application Platform consultants, project managers and power users

• Announcing Power Platform and Teams updates to help customers adapt to remote work
• Go with what you know: the value of long term customers
• Omnichannel Engagement Hub: configuring outbound messaging by @tassya
• Forms Pro is now Customer Voice by @juliandynamics
• Are you an app person or a flow person? 
• Gartner positions Dynamics 365 Field Service Magic Quadrant Leader
• Telstra citizen developers automate processes with Power Apps in Microsoft Teams, giving million of minutes back to the business

Quick tip: find duplicate records in Dynamics 365 with Deduplicator plugin for XrmToolBox

 If you want to quickly scan your Dynamics 365 or CDS instance for duplicate records, take a look at the Deduplicator plugin for XrmToolbox. It provides you with the option to specify one or more fields for a specific entity as matching criteria (with option to ignore blank values, leading and trailing white space and taking into account casing) and choose which additional fields to display for the duplicate results. 

Dynamics 365 or Power Platform New Year's resolutions

We are already 3 weeks in 2020 but there is still time for New Year's solution so choose one of the 12  potential Dynamics 365/Power Platform New Year's resolution as proposed in Episode 69 of the CRM MVP Podcast hosted by @gusgonzalez2.

I will try to take at least 10 out of 12 in 2020 so what is yours?

1. Write a valuable blog article every week - I probably want to go for 52 blog posts this year.
2. Deliver at least 4 webinars or  community presentations in a year
3. Register for the Dynamics Insider program and commit to test every new release and provide feedback to Microsoft
4. Answer 60 questions on the forums (Microsoft Dynamics Forums, CRMUG Forums, etc...) 
5. Attend a training from a Dynamics 365/Power Platform expert that you admire or who you consider to be a top expert in the domain
6. Create a XrmToolBox plugin 
7. Speak at a major conference
8. Contribute 24 tips to @crmtipoftheday by sending an e-mail to jar@crmtipoftheday.com
9. Learn something new about Power Platform/Dynamics 365 every month - you can learn a lot by dedicating 8 hours a month on a single topic
10. Teach something new about Power Platform/Dynamics 365 every month e.g by delivering a lunch&learn session in your company
11. Use "new" functionality in Power Platform/Dynamics 365 at least once every month e.g. use Flow/Power Automate instead of using workflows or use the new Admin portal and solution designer
12. Release a free solution to the community  e.g. a PCF control 

Quick tip: Using XrmToolBox with a MFA enabled login

More and more customers are introducing Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Dynamics 365 CRM and while this is a good idea, there are some gotchas. If you are using XrmToolbox – the Swiss army knife in the Dynamics CRM consultant tool belt – you will need to revise the way you setup connections to your CRM/CDS environments.

Use the SDK Login Control when choosing a connection method

Next click on Open Sdk Login Control – this will open the standard browser login page and will allow you to fill in the details required in MFA.

References:

• MFA, PowerApps, XrmTooling and XrmToolBox