CRM
Interview Questions and Answers
1.
Five Groups created
in Active directory while installing CRM 2011?
PrivReportingGroup, PrivUserGroup,
SQLAccessGroup, ReportingGroup, UserGroup
2.
Plug-In deployment
Options and why?The 3 storage options are: Database, Disk and GAC. The main differences between these are:
· Database: The assembly dll is stored in the database, rather than the file system. The major advantages are that the assembly need only be deployed once if you have multiple CRM servers, and that no additional action is required to restore / redeploy the assembly either during disaster recovery, or if redeploying to an alternate server. This is the preferred option in a production environment
· Disk: The assembly dll is placed in the \server\bin\assembly directory on each server. You have to ensure the dll is placed in the correct place on all CRM servers, so the deployment overhead is a little greater. I normally use this option in development environments as you can redeploy newer versions solely by file transfer, rather than reregistering. Also, if debugging, the assembly .pdb file needs to be placed in the same location; with this option it's easy to ensure the dll and pdb are from the same build
· GAC: The assembly is placed in the Global Assembly Cache on each CRM server, and again you will have to do this. The GAC does allow multiple versions of an assembly, but CRM doesn't, so you don't really gain anything by using the GAC.
There is one further consideration. If your
plugin assembly has other dependent assemblies, then you can place this
dependent assembly in the GAC whichever of the above options you take. However,
if you use the Disk option, then the dependent assemblies can also be deployed
into the \server\bin\assembly directory
3.
Secure / UnSecure
in Plug-In
As you all know the plugin registration tool in
CRM 2011 contains Secure and Unsecure configuration sections as shown below.
Following are the two key differences found
between these two configuration settings.
Unsecure Configuration
|
Secure Configuration
|
Unsecure configuration information could be
read by any user in CRM. Remember its public information (Ex:
Parameter strings to be used in plugin could be supplied here)
|
The Secure Configuration
information could be read only by CRM Administrators.(Eg:
Restricted data from normal user could be supplied here)
|
Imagine that you include a plugin, plugin steps
and activate them in a solution. Later solution was exported as Managed
Solution to another environment. In this scenario, the supplied unsecure
configuration values would be available in the new environment.
|
The plugin with secure configuration in a
solution was exported as Managed Solution to another environment. In this
scenario, the supplied secure configuration information would NOT
be available in the new environment. The simple reason behind
this is to provide more security to the contents of Secure
Configuration
|
Below are key differentiations between Secured
and Unsecured data configuration
· Access o Data passed through “Unsecure” section is PUBLIC (i.e., It can be read by any user in CRM).
o Only users with “System Administrator” role have access to the data passed through “Secure” configuration section
· Storage
o
“Unsecure”
config data will be stored along with the Plugin ‘Step’ registration
information (i.e., In SdkMessageProcessingStep entity)
o
“Secure”
config data will be stored in a separate entity named
“SdkMessageProcessingStepSecureConfig”
§ Only “System
Administrator” has Read access on this entity, hence only users with ‘Sys
Admin’ role can access this datao Both “Secured & Unsecured” configuration data stored as “Plain text” in DB
· Outlook Sync
o
“Unsecured”
configuration data is downloaded to the user’s computer when they go offline
making it Unsecureo “Secured” configuration data is NOT downloaded to User’s Computer when they go Offline
4.
Max Number of
controls got allowed in CRM 2011 Dashboard?
6, Can be extended more by using PowerShell
scriptRefer the below link for more information
http://inventcrm.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/changing-maximum-number-of-controls-on-dashboards/
5. Role Based Vs Object Based Security in CRM 2011?
Code based security
is entirely coded in the application itself. Role based security uses one of
the authentication/authorization mechanisms of the application server.
The fundamental concept in role-based security is that of privilege,
defined at design time, on a system-wide basis. Each user has a set of
privileges (there are well over a hundred privileges) that are enabled for that
user. However, Policies and Roles grant privileges and simplify the process.
The other form of security applies to individual instances of objects. There is
a fundamental difference between an access right and a privilege: an access
right is a right granted to a user on an object), but a privilege is a right
granted to a user on a class of objects. Access rights apply only after
privileges have taken effect. In other words, if a user does not have the
privilege to read accounts, the user will not be able to read any account,
whether or not it has been shared.
6. Difference between Find and Advanced Find? Which
one is faster and why?
Find perform a
search on an attribute for which it is defined. Advanced Find perform search on
the conditions and the attributes for which user customizes or runs it. Normal
Find in faster as it looks for one attributes and matches with that and returns
the result whereas Advanced Find searches for all the attributes and conditions
while parsing through the records. Find is applicable on only active records
and it finds only on 2 or 3 column which we have defined in the find view and
even it returns any those column which is there in the view but advanced find
is applicable to all the records and it finds all the columns and even it
returns all the column and filter criteria can be on any column and most
important - find filters on just one condition but advanced find filters on
multiple condition at one time.. Find is faster than Advanced Find.
7.
Types of Services
in CRM 2011?
Deployment Web Service, Discovery Web service,
IOrganization Service.
8.
Asynchronous
Plug-in Vs Workflow
Asynchronous Plugina) Plugin has maximum time limit of 2 minutes. Plugin running synchronously will get timed out after 2 minutes.
b) We can configure plugin to run as (another) user's context.
c) Cannot accept any input parameters, by default it takes only details from the entity using IPluginExecutionContext.
Custom
Workflow
a)
Assembly does not have maximum time
limit. It is preferred when consuming external webservices in
the plugin. b) Cannot configure with Run as (another) user's context.
c) Can accept input parameters and return output parameter to workflow. Can be configured to run as a child workflow while plugin does not have this feature.
9.
Whenever you
install MSCRM what all databases get created?
MSCRM_CONFIG, ORGNAME_MSCRM
10.
Difference Between
Append Vs Append To
'Append' and 'Append To' privileges works
together. 'Append To' privilege will allow other entities to get attached with
the entity. 'Append' privilege will allow the entity to attach the records to
the entity with 'Append To' privilege.
Let us understand this with simple example:
Let us say that you want to attach a note to a
case then note entity should have 'Append' access right and case entity should
have 'Append To' access right. Let us take one more example to understand this.
Suppose you have two custom entities called 'TestCustomEntity1' and
'TestCustomEntity2'. You want to attach the 'TestCustomeEntity2' records to
'TestCustomEntity1'records. For this you need to have 'Append' access right on
'TestCustomEntity1' entity and 'Append To' access right on
'TestCustomEntity2'.Now guess will I be able to attach the records? Answer is
“NO" because we need to create a 1:N relationship between
'TestCustomEntity1' and 'TestCustomEntity2'. Now the user who has above
mentioned access right in his security role will only be able to add 'TestCustomEntity2'
records to 'TestCustomEntity1'.
11.
How to create a
Custom Entity record using SDK?
Using Dynamic Entity in CRM 4.0 and Entity in 2011.
12.
How to join two
table using Query Expression?
Using Linked entity.
13.
Can we modify the name
of Root Business Unit?
No, we will have to re-install MSCRM
14.
Does CRM fall more
to sales or marketing in most organizations?
In my experience, marketing is somewhat of a new
concept in CRM. Sales are definitely involved, but most often it is operations
leading the charge.
15.
How many numbers of
tabs available in MS CRM Entity Form?
Officially max 8 tabs, unofficially we can do
plenty (It’s not recommended by Microsoft CRM)
16.
Difference between
Managed and Unmanaged solutions.
Unmanaged
SolutionsAll solutions start out as Unmanaged. When it is in the unmanaged state, you can add, remove, update, and test any of the components of the solution. You can delete components of your unmanaged solutions, while leaving it available for use in the rest of the system. Some on the MS CRM Dev team have likened this to your 'source' code of your system. The great thing about an Unmanaged Solution is that during development, you can create restrictions (like 'not customizable') on the components as they evolve.
Managed
Solutions
When your unmanaged solution is ready for the show, you simply export it to 'Managed'. You could think of this as 'compiling' you code. You set the restrictions (i.e. prevent customizations on certain components) and the end user lives by those rules. But remember, they can still customize the components of the solution that are unrestricted. You cannot add or remove components of a solution, even if the component is unmanaged.
Once you have packaged the Managed Solution, it can be installed into another organization. They can also be deployed across multiple deployment types (Online, Partner Hosted, On-Premise) and all CRM Clients (web, Outlook, Mobile Express, and Offline via Outlook Client).
Refer the below links for more informationWhen your unmanaged solution is ready for the show, you simply export it to 'Managed'. You could think of this as 'compiling' you code. You set the restrictions (i.e. prevent customizations on certain components) and the end user lives by those rules. But remember, they can still customize the components of the solution that are unrestricted. You cannot add or remove components of a solution, even if the component is unmanaged.
Once you have packaged the Managed Solution, it can be installed into another organization. They can also be deployed across multiple deployment types (Online, Partner Hosted, On-Premise) and all CRM Clients (web, Outlook, Mobile Express, and Offline via Outlook Client).
http://www.felinesoft.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/what-are-the-differences-between-managed-and-unmanaged-solutions-in-crm-2011/
17.
What is a filtered
view?
SQL database views, called "filtered
views," are provided with the Microsoft CRM database to enable access to
business data according to the user's Microsoft CRM security role. When a user
runs a report that obtains data from filtered views, the user's Microsoft CRM
security role determines the data to be included in the report. Data in
filtered views is restricted at three levels: the organization, the business
unit, and the owner. Filtered views exist for all Microsoft CRM business
objects (entities).
Your reports should not read data directly from
the Microsoft CRM database tables. Instead, use the filtered views. The
following sample SQL code returns all columns from the filtered view for an
Account entity:
SELECT * FROM dbo.FilteredAccount
18.
What are different
stages used in Plug-In registration?
Event
|
Stage Name
|
Stage Number
|
Description
|
Pre-Event
|
Pre-validation
|
10
|
Stage in the pipeline for plug-ins that are to execute before
the main system operation. Plug-ins registered in this stage may execute
outside the database transaction.
|
Pre-Event
|
Pre-operation
|
20
|
Stage in the pipeline for plug-ins that are to execute before
the main system operation. Plug-ins registered in this stage are executed
within the database transaction.
|
Post-Event
|
Post-operation
|
40
|
Stage in the pipeline for plug-ins which are to execute after
the main operation. Plug-ins registered in this stage are executed within the
database transaction.
|
Post-Event
|
Post-operation
|
50
|
Stage in the pipeline for plug-ins which are to execute after
the main operation. Plug-ins registered in this stage may execute outside the
database transaction. This stage only supports Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
based plug-ins.
|
19.
What are the
different kind of Images you will use while registering Plug-In and how they
will be used?
PreEntityImagesIt is basically used to capture the data when the form loads. That is the data which is present by default when the form loads
PostEntityImages:
The Post Image contains the attributes value which are finally changed. We can capture the changed data before the database operation takes place. And can do any kind of validation based on the changed data. Remember it can only be registered for update message and cannot be registered on create message.
20.
How you get the
data from third party application to your CRM organization?
21.
How you will make
sure your CRM application is fast and not having performance issue?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968520
22.
What is POA table
and why it is used?
The POA table is used to provide access to
specific records for CRM users, and each record in the POA table represents one
CRM object that is related to one CRM user. Records created in the
POA table come from one of four ways:
Share
reassigned records with original owner: CRM System Settings
If this is set to Yes, then records would
be added to the POA table whenever an assign takes place. These records
will have a value in the AccessRightsMask column of the POA table.
Direct
sharing: Actions – Sharing
When users explicitly share a record to another
user, a record would be created in the POA table. These records will have
a value in the AccessRightsMask column of the POA Table.
Reparent
Setting: Relationship Behavior Each entity has relationships with other entities (ex. Account to Case). By default, the Reparent option is set to Cascade All. With this setting, sub records would be shared to the owner of the parent record. For example: Let’s say that User1 owns Account1. User2 has access to Account1 and creates a case underneath Account1. With the out of the box Reparent options, a record would be created in the POA table that would give User1 access to the newly created case. These records will have a value in the InheritedAccessRightsMask column of the POA table.
Indirect
Sharing:
When sharing occurs through a direct share,
assignment, or parenting, if the relationship is set up to cascade the share to
child records, additional records will be created in the POA table in order to
give proper permissions to the new user for the relevant
child records. These records will have a value in the
InheritedAccessRightsMask column of the POA table.
23. Explain the Sales
Flow
24. What are different
activities available in CRM?
a.
Task
b.
PhoneCall
c.
Appointmentd. Meeting
e. Email
f. Letter
g. Fax
h.
Recurring
Appointment
i.
Service
Activity
j.
Campaign
Response
25.
How can you provide
access level as only “None” or “Organization Level”? And what kind of entities
are those?
By creating entity Ownership as Organization.
Product is one of the CRM out of the box entity with ownership as Organization.
26.
Can we change the
color (own required color) to the Bars in the User Charts in the Dashboard?
Yes, We can. Export the chart, modify the XML and
then import it.27. Workflow Ownership…. And workflow types.
28. What role do we
need to create the solutions and deploy?
29. Early binding VS
Late Binding?Early Binding
Compiler bind the objects to methods at the compile time. This is called early binding or static binding. Function overloading is example for early binding.
A class should be generated using CrmSvcUtil.exe
for generating Entity Classes of CRM.
Late Binding
Compiler bind the objects to methods at the runtime. This is called late binding or dynamic binding. Function overriding is example for late binding.
//Early bindingLate Binding
Compiler bind the objects to methods at the runtime. This is called late binding or dynamic binding. Function overriding is example for late binding.
Account account = new Account();
account.Name = "Via Context";
service.Create(account);
//Late binding
Entity objEntity = new Entity("account");
objEntity ["name"] = "Via Service";
service.Create(objEntity);
30. What is publisher? Prefix and Option value prefix.
Publishers in Dynamics CRM are organizations that develop custom solutions. A publisher can include an organization that makes their own solutions for internal usage or third-party developers who re-sell their solutions. Prior to making changes to Dynamics CRM for the first time, you should edit the default publisher. For most organizations, this one-time edit of the default publisher is all that should be required. If, however, you plan to republish your customizations and provide them to other organizations, then you may want to create a publisher specifically for that purpose. Some larger organizations may wish to create publishers based on different business units or even different individual developers.
Display
Name: Change this to a name that describes your
organization
Name:
This value cannot be changed. For most organizations this will not present a
problem. However, if you plan to make your solutions available to others and you want to create a unique name that aligns better with your company branding, then you will want to create a new publisher for this purpose.
Description:
Entering good, descriptive information for the description is always a best
practice particularly if you plan to create multiple publishers. A good
description might be, “We use this publisher to make internal-facing solutions
and customizations to Dynamics CRM; do not use this publisher for solutions
that you plan to share with others inside or outside of our organization."
Prefix:
This small field is the most important one on the form. It permanently impacts
every customization you make to Dynamics CRM using this publisher. Every
component (entity, field, and so on) that you create in Dynamics CRM will be
prefixed with this value. The value will only show up in views available to
administrators and developers. Although this value can be changed later,
components created with this value permanently retain it — so select a value
that you don’t plan to change. This is usually a three- to five-letter acronym
that your organization may be known for. The prefix makes it fairly easy to
identify customizations that your team made to Dynamics CRM versus changes that
may have been made by others.
Option
Value Prefix: These are the first numbers that will be
assigned to any new option set values that you create with this publisher.
These numbers reduce the chance that duplicate values are created when
importing solutions from this publisher that contain option sets. In general,
you can leave this number unchanged.
Contact
Details: Fill in the contact information for your
organization in this section.
31.
How do you debug a
plug-in?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2778280
32.
How do you debug
the Java script?
http://msdynamicscrmblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/dynamics-crm-2011-javascript-debugging-in-internet-explorer-11/
33.
Ribbon
Customization and Adding Button in Ribbon Control?
http://garethtuckercrm.com/2011/01/18/how-to-view-ribbon-definitions-in-crm-2011-3/
34.
How many types of
Relations can we create between Entities?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb955303.aspx\
35.
What is N:N
Relationship?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb955303.aspx\
When we create N to N relationship between the
entities, CRM internally creates a table with the Primary Keys of two entities
and uses the same for the reference.
37.
How you Create N:N
Relationship?
38. A & B are two
entities, we created N:N relationship between them? Is system is going to create
1:N and N:1 between both of them automatically?
39.
How you create a
security role?
40.
Can I create
security Role at Business Unit Level? Not at the Root Business unit.
Yes, we can create it.
2013
41. What all new
feature you know about 2013.
42. What is the BPF?
43. What is the
Difference between Stage and Step?
44. How many steps
& stages you can create a BPF? Is there any limitations?
45. What kind of
entities you can use while creating BPF?
46. I have 3 Entities
(A, B, C) having relation 1: N, 1: N, 1:N. There is no relation between A &
C. Can I create the BPF by using all these?
47. Is the BPF works
and useful in Real time scenarios? If yes How?
48. Workflows?
Synchronous. How it works?
