Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Accelerators : Notifications Accelerator

The Notifications accelerator uses RSS to drive information via any RSS reader client. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and enables content publishers to syndicate or post information automatically. RSS provides readers a way to aggregate their favorite feeds with timely updates within Outlook or many other types of RSS readers, including readers that can live within cell phones or PDAs.

In other words, rather than create a CRM workflow that pushes email to CRM users when a new CRM lead is assigned to them, add an RSS feed to CRM users’ Outlook, Windows Vista gadgets, or RSS applications on their cell phones so that they may consume this data on demand.

The Notifications accelerator is composed of the following components:

• Salespeople see when a new lead has been assigned to them.

• Customer service can see when new cases have been assigned to them.

• Keeps up-to-date on events happening across the organization.

• Custom RSS pages can be managed via a custom dynamic link library (DLL) within the ISV folder (fully automated installation, including source code).

• Eliminates email; now users choose what they receive.

• Embedded within toolbar is an RSS menu. Subscribe or choose subscription.

• Select almost any entity within CRM and then any subset of the entity: My Active Accounts, My Active Contacts, My Open Leads, My Campaigns, My Active Cases, and so forth.

• Use any RSS reader, including mobile phones, or Outlook 2007 or Vista gadgets.

• Within Outlook 2007, you can configure New Item Alerts that pop up and show that you have a new RSS feed item.

Figure 1 shows the Notifications accelerator.

Figure 1. The Notifications accelerator.

For a detailed breakdown of modifications, review the documents within the \Documentation folder included with the download files. All files can be downloaded from the Codeplex website at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com.

Once the notifications accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

• Documentation for installation, data flow, and licensing

• Source code (Visual Studio 2008 is required to work with the solution files.)

Installing the Notifications Accelerator

The following steps walk you through the installation of this accelerator:

1.	Download and run the executable, CRMNotifications_V1.0_RTW.exe. This contains detailed instructions and an overview of the accelerator, and all files required to install the accelerator.
2.	Within the Installation Wizard, click Fully Automated Installation. Note The Fully Automated Installation option provides the same functionality as navigating to the \Installation\Full Install folder and then running Setup.exe.
3.	Run the Setup.exe.
4.	When prompted for the organization, place a check mark next to your organization, and then click Install, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Notifications installation, organization selection.
5.	You must enable ISV.Config customizations for the RSS drop-down to appear within CRM. Within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, select Settings, Administration, System Settings, Customization and set the Custom Menus and Toolbars section to reflect which clients you want the RSS menu to appear within (Web/Outlook/Outlook Offline), as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Enable ISV customizations.

Using the Notifications Accelerator

The Notifications accelerator can be applied to many scenarios. For example, you could enable Windows Vista gadgets on your desktop and then display all your active cases, or you could use the Outlook RSS reader and view them in Outlook.

Figure 4 shows how to configure the Notifications accelerator to subscribe to My Active CRM Cases, and Figure 5 shows how they will appear in Outlook if Customer Issue is selected.

Figure 5. View active cases within Outlook.

You can easily see the power of this accelerator as it quickly and effortlessly pushes information out with little configuration necessary from the end user. Organizations have used this accelerator to publish information to their internal intranet sites and to external websites.