The other day I had a request from a client to create a customer ASPX webpage that sends emails through CRM along with the attached Excel file. Here is an example of how this can be completed. Start with the Send Email sample code from Microsoft website located here and added the functionality of attaching files to the email.

Adding an attached file to the Email

Step 1) First you need to attach a file to the ActivityMimeAttachment as base64

Code:

public ActivityMimeAttachment AttachFileToEmail(String fileName)

{

// Open a file and read its contents into a byte array.

var fileLocation    = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ExcelPath"] + fileName;

var stream          = File.OpenRead(fileLocation);

var byteData        = new byte[stream.Length];

stream.Read(byteData, 0, byteData.Length);

// Encode the data using base64.

var encodedData = Convert.ToBase64String(byteData);

var extension = Path.GetExtension(fileLocation).ToLower();

String mimeType = null;

switch (extension)

{

case ".xls":

mimeType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";

break;

case ".xlsx":

mimeType = "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet";

break;

}

var sampleAttachment = new ActivityMimeAttachment

{

ObjectId        = new EntityReference(Email.EntityLogicalName, _emailId),

ObjectTypeCode  = Email.EntityLogicalName,

FileName        = fileName,

MimeType        = mimeType,

Body            = encodedData,

};

return sampleAttachment;

}

Step 2) Add the EncodedDate to the Create an e-mail message in the Sample Code

Code:

// Create an e-mail message.

Email email = new Email

{

To = new ActivityParty[] { toParty },

From = new ActivityParty[] { fromParty },

Subject = "SDK Sample e-mail",

Description = "CRM SDK Sample Body

DirectionCode = true,

email_activity_mime_attachment = new[] { AttachFileToEmail("FileName") }

};

The Sample of the Closed Activity Record in CRM

You can download my SendEmail sample code here.

If you have any questions or need help please contact me @ steven.jennings[at]aresgrp.com

One of new features added in Microsoft CRM 2011 was the record count and line selected. This was a feature requested by the users and partners of CRM version 4.0. This new feature will allow the users to see how many total records each Entity’s contacts.

Old Way in CRM version 4.0

New way in CRM 2011

There is a limitation to this new feature. You can only see a MAX count of 5000 records.

You might be asking yourself WHY??? This is because Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is using FetchXML to return the total count and by default FetchXML returns a maximum of 5000 records.

There is an easy work around on getting the total record count for an Entity and that is to create a personal Chart to see the total count of the records.

· In the Active Accounts view, create a new chart from the Chart tab. In the Chart Designer, select appropriate Series (Example: Status) and Category values (Example: Status). Then save the chart.