Alerts4Dynamics - User Manual

Alerts4Dynamics – User Manual

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Content

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Security Roles ................................................................................................................................................ 3

Entity Configuration ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Alerts ............................................................................................................................................................. 6

Record Based Alerts ...................................................................................................................................... 6

Rule Based Alerts .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Announcement ........................................................................................................................................... 13

Message ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

Notifications ................................................................................................................................................ 17

Alerts4Dynamics Logs ................................................................................................................................. 20

Contact Us ................................................................................................................................................... 21

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Introduction

Alerts4Dynamics is an ISV add-on for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM which enables managers to schedule

and manage alerts in Dynamics 365 CRM to notify users about the updates in CRM, due invoices, reminder

to send quotes, etc. Managers can define target audience and send them priority based alerts and also

see which user has read the alert.

Salient Features:

 Supports OOB as well as Custom Entities.

 Create Announcement and Rule Based/Record Based alerts.

 Alerts can be viewed as pop-ups, form notifications or sent as email.

 Alerts levels can be categorized as Information, Warning or Critical.

 View the log of alerts read/dismissed by users.

 Add start/expiration dates for all alerts.

 Alerts can be configured to be shown to particular set of audience.

 View alerts from anywhere in CRM.

Available for: Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM 9.x

Deployment: On-Premises, Online and Partner-Hosted

Security Roles

Three security roles, particularly for Alerts4Dynamics, come along with the solution.

1. Alerts4Dynamics Administrator – The Administrator is given the privilege for License

Registration, Enable Entity Configurations, Read Entity Configuration, Create Alerts, View Alerts

of other users and has organization level access of all entities of Alerts4Dynamics.

2. Alerts4Dynamics Manager – Alerts4Dynamics Manager can Create Alerts and see status of

Read/Dismissed Alerts by users. Also, Alerts4Dynamics Manager can see only those Alerts that

are created by him.

3. Alerts4Dynamics User – Alerts4Dynamics user can view notifications and create Record-Based

Alerts for the records they own.

Note: System Administrator has all the rights that Alerts4Dynamics administrator has.

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Entity Configuration

In order to create Alerts for a particular entity, Entity Configuration for that entity needs to be enabled.

1. To enable Entity Configuration navigate to Alerts4Dynamics App  License Registration  Enable

Entity Configuration

2. Users can select the entities from the list of Available Entities and move them to the list Selected

Entities.

3. Click on Save button to enable Entity Configurations for these selected entities.

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4. At any time users can disable the Entity Configuration for a particular Entity by removing the entity

from Selected Entities list.

5. You can see the Product has been removed from Selected Entities grid and is now again available in

Available Entities grid. Click on Save in order to retain these settings.

Note: Users cannot create Entity Configurations. They can only enable and disable Entity Configurations

for selected entities.

6. To view the Entity Configurations go to Alerts4Dynamics App  Entity Configurations where all the

enabled Entity Configurations can be viewed.

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Alerts

Alerts are created in order to notify the users of a Dynamics 365 organization with relevant information.

Three types of Alerts can be created in Alerts4Dynamics viz.

1. Record Based: Create alerts for individual records.

2. Rule Based: Create records for Entity Views or based on filter conditions (Fetch XML).

3. Announcement: These are global alerts that are created on organization level.

Record Based Alerts

Record Based alerts are created for individual records. For instance, if a Quote is about to expire then an

alert for that Quote can be created or if an Invoice is due then an alert for that specific Invoice can be

created.

1. To create Record Based Alerts, navigate to the Entity  Record  Related  Alerts. For instance,

if you want to create Alert for a Quote Interested in 4G Enabled Tablets go to Quote entity 

record, Interested in 4G Enabled Tablets  Related tab  Select Alerts from the list of entities

shown.

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2. Once you are in Alerts tab you can view all the alerts associated with that individual record in the

Systems Views. You can create a new alert from Add New Alert button.

3. On clicking Add New Alert button you are redirected to creating a new alerts page.

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4. Add the Name of the alert and Save (Alert Type is auto-set to Record Based following this

procedure). Once the Alert is created, next step would be to create Message against it. To know

how to Add New Message skip to Message section.

Rule Based Alerts

Rule Based alerts are designed for specific conditions. There are two types of Rule Based Alerts:

1. Simple: Create Alerts based on the View of an entity.

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2. Advanced: Create alerts based on filter criteria or conditions (conditions defined in Fetch XML).

To create Rule Based alerts go to Alerts4Dynamics App  Alerts  New and set the Alert Type as Rule

Based. Select the Rule Mode as Simple or Advanced.

Fill the fields:

a) Name: Enter a suitable name for this Alert.

b) Alert Type: Select the type of alert you are creating. Here you have the option to choose Rule

Based or Announcement. Select Rule Based from the dropdown.

c) Entity Configuration: Select one of the entities for which you have enabled Entity Configuration.

d) Rule Mode: This option only appears for Rule Based alerts.

Simple Alerts

a) Simple alerts are rule-based alerts created based on System Views related to the entity whose

Entity Configuration has been selected. Select the View for which Alert has to be created.

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b) Select the Interval:

 Poll Interval: This is the duration after which the system checks if any new record has been created

in selected view of the entity in order to create a new notification for it.

The workflow can run:

i. Only Once: The alerts for all the records in selected view are created Only Once.

ii. X Hour(s): New records in the defined condition are checked for in every X Hour(s). If new

records are found based on the defined condition, new notifications are created for them.

iii. X Day(s): New records in the defined condition are checked for in every X Day(s). If new

records are found based on the defined condition, new notifications are created for them.

iv. X Week(s): New records in the defined condition are checked for in every X Week(s). If new

records are found based on the defined condition, new notifications are created for them.

v. X Month(s): New records in the defined condition are checked for in every X Month(s). If

new records are found based on the defined condition, new notifications are created for

them.

 Interval: This is a numeric value of X in the Poll Interval. The minimum value X can correspond to 2

hours.

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c) After entering values in the Alerts field click on Save and the alert will be created. Create new

message from the Messages subgrid. To know how to Add New Message skip to Message section.

Advanced Alerts

Alerts can be created based on conditions.

You have to enter your query in Fetch XML. For eg. If you want to send alerts to all the Invoices whose

Total Amount is greater than or equal to 1000, you have to enter the Fetch XML for it. Below is the

Fetch XML for Total Amount in Invoices greater than or equal to 1000.

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</filter>

</entity>

</fetch>

a) To create an Advanced Alerts, select Rule Mode as Advanced and enter the Fetch XML as per your

conditions.

b) After creating the Alert, you can add a message to it. To know how to Add New Message skip to

Message section.

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Announcement

Announcement is created at organization level. These alerts are not dependant on any condition, view

or record. They are independent alerts that can be viewed from anywhere in the CRM.

To create Announcement go to Alerts4Dynamics App  Alerts  New

i. Name: Enter suitable name for Alert.

ii. Alert Type: Select Announcement.

After the Alert is created you can add a message associated with it in Add New Message tab. To know

how to Add New Message skip to Message section.

Message

As you have seen every Alert can have multiple messages attached to it. As soon you are done creating

an Alert, you can add messages to it. For instance, if you create an alert Holiday, now you can add

multiple messages under it. For eg. Holiday on 30

June, Holiday on 20

July, etc.

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Note: Message cannot exist independently without an Alert.

1. Click on add new message and a New Message page will open.

Enter the value in fields:

i. Name: This is the name of the message you are trying to create.

ii. Alert: This is the Alert for which you are creating the message.

iii. Message Text: Enter the message you would like to display in the notification or send to the

users as email.

iv. Alert Level: This can be categorized as Information, Warning and Critical. This determines the

severity level of the Alert you are trying to create.

v. Alert As: This is the mode of notifying your users. It can be done as:

a. Pop-Up: The notification with message will pop-up as soon you open a record.

b. Form Notification: The notification with message will be displayed under the ribbon in

Form.

c. Email Notification: The message will be sent to the users through email.

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vi. Process Start Date: Process Start Date is a mandatory field. It is the date from when the

notifications start getting created. This date cannot be prior to the date when the message is

created. If you enter a previous date you will get the error message Process Start Date should

be greater than or equal to current date.

vii. Process End Date: This is the date when notifications stop getting created. If you leave this field

blank the notifications will continue getting created indefinitely. Process end date cannot be

before Process Start Date, in case such a value is entered following error comes - Process End

Date should be greater than or equal to Process Start Date.

viii. Display End Date: This is the day when notifications stop getting displayed. This date should be

greater than or equal to Process Start Date and Process End Date. If it is less than Process Start

Date and Process End Date then following error message will be shown Display End Date should

be greater than or equal to Process Start Date and Process End Date.

ix. Language: Alert messages can be created in multiple languages.

Note: Languages need to be enabled for creating messages in multiple languages.

x. Include Users: If you specify the set of users here, alerts will be shown to only these users.

xi. Exclude Users: If you specify the set of users here, alerts will be shown to every user in

organization except for these users.

xii. Security Roles: If you select security roles here, alerts will be shown to these security roles.

xiii. From: If Email Notification is also selected, then you need to define the user from whom the

emails will be sent out.

Note:

 If Include Users/Exclude Users/Security Roles are left blank, then the notifications will be shown to

everyone.

 Include Users/Exclude Users have priority over Security Roles.

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2. After creating a message, Save it and click on Activate to make it live.

3. To edit a message click on Draft.

Note: You can set state as Draft or edit a message only before Process Start Date. You cannot set the

state to Draft or edit that message after the process of creating notifications has started because it

becomes Read Only.

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Notifications

Every alert message is shown to the users as Notifications. The Notifications button is on the ribbon and

can be accessed from anywhere in the CRM.

Note: Notification button appears only when you have active notifications in the system.

Whenever there is a new notification a red dot comes on the Notification button. Once the notification

is read this red dot disappears.

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Notifications can be seen by clicking on Notification button.

Dismiss Notifications Notifications can be dismissed at any time. Notifications can be dismissed in two

ways:

1. Dismiss alerts individually: Every alert can be dismissed individually by clicking on cross icon next to

it.

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2. Dismiss all alerts at once: All the alerts can be dismissed at once by clicking on Dismiss All button.

Log of Notifications Log of Read/Dismissed Notifications can be seen by users in the Notification tab.

To see Log of Read/Dismissed notifications go to Alerts4Dynamics App  Alerts  Select Alert 

Select Message  Notification Tab  Select Notification and you can view the status.

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Note: Only Alerts4Dynamics Administrator, Alerts4Dynamics Manager and System Administrator can see

Log of Notifications.

Alerts4Dynamics Logs

This contains the log of errors that occur while enabling Entity Configuration as well as while creating

Notifications. To view the logs go to Alerts4Dynamics App  Alerts4Dynamics Logs

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