Microsoft Dynamics CRM -- Do people build websites with it? - templates

Forgive my ignorance, but do people build websites with Microsoft Dynamics CRM?
I have a potential client who says that is the technology they will use for a new web project, for which I would be doing the HTML templating. I want to learn all I can as I am new to this particular system, but I can't seem to find anything related to web building and CRM. Is it more likely the client is using another piece of technology that they are neglecting to tell us about?
Any experience or insight about this process is greatly appreciated!

You can't build website using MSCRM, but you can build ASP.Net website using CRM content easily. The API provided by MSCRM is a set of web services, that can be queried in a website to populate pages content.
Also, you can directly query the Database if you want ReadOnly content, and only for read-only content, because it is not supported to update/create data using SQL connections.
Note that it's required to have the external connector license to use any data in the CRM, thru the API and even thru direct SQL queries.

I have built a website using .NET, utilising the CRM4 API and database. All the website did was to submit queries to CRM using the CRM web services and metadata web services, and get data back. This company was already using CRM for their back end, so it's much easier for the front end to use the same database as well since it's a simple one.
The alternative would be to create an intermediate connector between the 2 systems -- backend and front end, which is not as efficient (for our case anyway).

Related

How to embed power bi report in java web application?

I have a log analysis tool as a Java based web application with html/jsp front end. Java backend receives real-time log data from few different agents/datasources and does ML/analysis and then stores insights on a file system, accessible only to Java backend. Now my users login to the system using a browser and access Java backend and insights using rest endpoints in the form of HTML/jsp reports/dashboards.
All sounds good but my users are complaining that UI is not production grade. So I am searching for different solutions to build a nicer UI experience for my users and I am looking into Power BI embedded solution.
How to integrate power bi embedded to serve insights that continuously change behind the scenes? how does it work in this use case knowing that my insights are only accessible to my Java backend and can only be served using Rest End points?
Also are there any better alternative solutions?

Discover SharePoint 2013 webservices

I'm struggling to access to some data hosted on a website.
I know this website was developed using Sharepoint 2013 (by someone else, and I don't have any contact with them).
I have the right credentials to the site, and via browser I can navigate and obtain the data I need (some electric measurements).
I need a way to obtain the data using a webservice.
Is there a way to discover all the webservices implemented on the site? And to gain access to those data?
I browsed the lists on _api/Web/Lists but due to my lack of knowledge I didn't find anything useful.
Thank you all!
Best way to start you discovery of default SharePoint web services is from here
There are at least 3 default services that you could use to get more information from different lists and webs:
/_api/site
/_api/web
/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('listname')/items
Unfortunately I don't think there is a way to discover all web services there are on your particular site

Is it possible to make a call out to a remote server from within a SharePoint 2013 app?

I am very new to SharePoint development as well as SharePoint overall, so I apologize if this question seems like a no-brainer. I'm currently working on a SharePoint 2013 app and I'm wondering if it's possible to make a call out to some URL from within the SharePoint environment. Basically, I want to do this within an event receiver after some action is done to a list, and from there I want to make a call to some web service on my server to update my system. Using the REST API to poll the SharePoint server isn't a good option for this scenario since it won't scale very well.
When dealing with SharePoint 2013 apps you can access any resource using standardized APIs. In addition to REST SharePoint is offering the JS Client Object Model (CSOM).
In order to access data from another web than the current one, your app needs the permission to interact with the entire tenant.
If you're trying to query data from another host, you have to use JSONP because of the same origin policy.
if you are building an app using the "new App Model" for wiring up Remote Event Receivers it is possible to do anything, in which your app hosting framework/environment allows you to. If you are building a Classic App (Farm Solutions) you'll have access to perform operations which are allowable from the SharePoint servers directly...typically this is a lot as GAC deployed assemblies are granted full trust.
depending on what you are trying to do and what kind of resources you app will consume. I'd consider moving the dependancies away from SharePoint and building using the new App Model versus the older farm solutions. As you sound like you are starting in SharePoint, this gives you an opportunity to learn the new ways of doing development for SharePoint.
Lastly, you might consider building a workflow. Not sure what kind of app you are building but the new workflow capabilities include actions which can make RESTful calls. Potentially making your application a "no code" solution. Again it all really depends.

Connect to CRM with only webservies

Can someone please point me to the direction where there is a example on how to connect and retrieve data from Microsoft Dynamic online 2011 with only the web services, such as Discovery and Organization, and not using any of the SDK that Microsoft provided. It would also be nice if I dont need to add System.ServiceModel.
I looked at the Soap example it still used Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Samples.
The reason i am avoiding any SDK or namespace is I am trying to build a SQL CLR that can connect to CRM online and retrieve the data i needed for the reports. The reports are based on my local database and CRM data.
Thank you for all the help
Most data can be fetched (and relationships are well represented) via the oData/REST web services. You don't need any particular SDKs or custom code, just anything that can read data in XML or JSON format from a URI.
[Your Organization Root URL]/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc is where you'll find the fun stuff. Documentation is on MSDN at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg334767.aspx

Will SharePoint 2010 support Web Service Access?

It's my understanding SharePoint 2010 has introduced a new JavaScript API, a brand new assembly for Silverlight clients, but does anybody know if there will be still support for good old Web Service Access?
By old services, I am referring to the old interface
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd878586.aspx
Yes SharePoint 2010 still has web services. Review this MSDN section for more information.
Essentially the new API's are there to help client side code run interesting code without having to use the Web Services. If you have ever tried utilising a webservice from Javascript you can understand the pain the new API's are trying to prevent.
The Web services are still supported. However, the data-retrieval oriented Web services should be considered semi-deprecated. Going forward, you shoul use either the client object model or ADO.NET Data Services to get data from a client.
I've been trying to figure out how to administrate the whole thing with whatever APIs are available. The MSDN documentation seems like what I need, except I feel stupid and can't find where those APIs are on my server. There are no URLs to be seen in the documentation. Am I blind?