Microsoft CRM 2011, import CSV file with entity references (lookups)

While most of the time you probably could use a LookupMaps to set up an entity references in you import maps, you may come to situation there you want put actual ID's (references) in your CSV file. So, the tricky part here is the format. To create EntityReference you need entity type name and it's GUID. How would you put that into CSV string? The answer is like this:

"entity_type_name,{SOMEGUID-3FBA-47E5-ADD0-F6078ACDABB8}"

Note that surrounding quotes are required, because of the comma.

Kickstarter, more analysis

I've already mentioned UnSubject blog on the Kickstarter topic, yet again I found more and more good articles on the subject in this blog.

Well, while I don't think that Kickstarter idea is not good, actually I think it's good, but pragmatic analysis is that is missing. Every baker should read that blog, to have clear view of that Kickstarter really is. More projects on Kickstarter will fail though, and they deserve that. I guess any honest developer will benefit from reading it too.

Microsoft CRM 2011, hide system Save menu

Recently we were asked if it is possible to disable a standard 'Save' menu of Microsoft CRM 2011, since all data on forms is read-only anyway. So, after some searching I've found sample code how to do this. The key was to use "top" property which is containing parent frame which is necessary, since our code (called in "OnLoad" form event) is executing in inner frame. With some modifications this is what finally worked out for me:

var disableSaveMenu = function() {
    // your entities names
    var entities = ["account", "contact" /* add as necessary */];

    var i;
    for(i = 0; i < entities.length; i++) {
        var ent = entities[i];
        var save = top.document.getElementById(ent + "|NoRelationship|Form|Mscrm.Form." + ent + ".MainTab.Save");
        if(save != null) {
            save.style.display = 'none';
            break;
        }
    }
    
    // hide 'File' menu, additional 'Save' is also located there
    var jewel = top.document.getElementById("jewelcontainer");
    if(jewel != null) {
        jewel.style.display = 'none';
    }
};

Microsoft CRM 2011, automatically load all subgrids

Microsoft CRM 2011 doesn't load by default data in all of the subgrids if they count exceed 4, displaying 'To load ... records, click here' message. It's actually extremely annoying.

It's not possible to change this behaviour with standard tools (i.e. via control preferences). So I've found how to do it using JavaScript function call on form OnLoad event. Unfortunatelly it did't worked in my case. For some reason the moment then OnLoad event was fired, the from subgrids were, apparently, not initialized on the form. I've decided then to call the function with a little delay:

var autoLoadSubgrids = function() {
    var maxAuto = 4;
    var loadDelay = 1000;

    var subgrids = Xrm.Page.ui.controls.get(function (control, index) {
        return control.getControlType() == "subgrid";
    });
    
    if (subgrids.length > maxAuto) {
        var subCall = function() {
            var i;
            for (i = maxAuto; i < subgrids.length; i++) {
                var grid = subgrids[i];
                if(grid != null) {
                    grid.refresh();
                }
            }
        };

        window.setTimeout(subCall, loadDelay);
    }
};

And it worked! Not the solution I would like, but I guess that's all I can do now and it also would'n do any harm if something goes wrong.

OUYA IS F-F-Fun(dead)?

OUYA project raised some $15M from their new investors. They are excited of course. This is probably good for a company financial success. However is it good for a mission that OUYA originally started? I don't know, but I surely know that original founders are now not own 100% of the share. They could probably own 90%, or maybe 50% depending on how much company price was estimated at the moment of the deal. And that new shareholders can, in some future, have some other vision about what OUYA console should be. That's the facts part.

The ethics part is probably even more interesting. See, backers are, naturally, the real shareholders of the company. They have taken the real risk of funding the project on early stages. Yet thay will have just a console box as a revard for that. Now some big guys, which brobably wasn't happy to fund project at early stages, come in and skim the cream. I know, backers take what they have been told, but still they funded OUYA and their founders, not OUYA and NVIDIA et al.

I actually think that can be called some sort of abuse of crowd funding idea. The crowd takes highest risk at the start of the project and takes some product for that, then real investors are safe to take share of the company. That's really nice trick. Nobody probably like to fund a project that will use that to find some more funding.. or I'm wrong?

Using Google Analytics for desktop apps?

While searching for an answer to that question I found this SO topic which, at the moment doesn't supposed that Google Analytics can be used for desctop at all, searching, in fact, for an alternative.

But as it turned out in my continued search, it's now possible to use Google Analytics on desktop applications (and actually anywhere) with it's new Measurement Protocol which is, however, currently in beta.

Format a drive larger than 32Gb into FAT32 on modern Windows OS

IIRC Windows was restricting usage of FAT32 since Windows 2000, in favor of NTFS. And it is actually a good thing. NTFS is far superior than FAT32 in almost any aspect.

However, this activity come beyond reasonable amounts in my opinion. Simply put, you just can't format a drive larger than 32Gb into FAT32 using any modern Windows OS (Windows Vista/7/8, maybe even Windows XP). This is very, very annoying. I'm fine then you can't do something using standard approach, but I want be able to do that I want somehow, even if this is sounds unreasonable.

Now, users must fix that Microsoft must do itself. This utility (click on image to download) by fine fellas from Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd. do the thing. Since it's very valuable tool and "teh internets" fail us sometimes, here's a copy in the SkyDrive cloud.