In this session, Mike discusses some of the integration capabilities of Dynamics CRM and talk about some sample integration patterns involving tools from the Microsoft integration technology stack. Mike has been working with a number of customers over the last few years who have been involved in delivering some high profile Dynamics CRM implementations. This has involved a strong element of integration.

1. Sponsored & Brought to you by
Integrating with Dynamics CRM
Michael Stephenson
Azure Integration MVP
https://twitter.com/michael_stephen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstephensonuk1

2. Michael Stephenson
• Coaching & Consultancy
• Azure Trainer
• Cloud Architect
• Integration Architect
• Loads of real world Azure projects
• #IntegrationMonday
• Blog - http://microsoftintegration.guru/blog/
• Twitter - @michael_stephen
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3. Agenda
• CRM Integration Basics
• BizTalk
• WCF/REST/API Facade
• Bulk Downloads
• Service Bus
• Azure Functions
• Logic Apps
• Flow

4. CRM Integration Basics

5. CRM Extensibility
5

6. What about?
• On Premise vs Cloud
• Azure Active Directory vs Active Directory Federation Services
6
Connecting to CRM
CRM SDK
- Connection string
- Url
Web API
- ADAL + Auth Header
- Url

7. • SOAP - Organization Service
• Early Bound
• Late Bound
• Its Easy!
7
CRM SDK

8. • Bearer Token required
• Odata endpoint
• Great if you like to write lots of javascript code ;-)
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CRM Web API

9. • Query Language for CRM
• Lets you do cross entity joins
• SQL (ish) syntax
9
Fetch XML & Query Expression

10. BizTalk  WCF or WebAPI

11. Compare?
WCF
•  Generate WCF Schemas
• Security
•  Windows – OOB
•  Azure AD – Custom Behavior
• Message Types
•  Not strongly typed
•  Excellent Articles
• http://tinyurl.com/h4axh74
• http://tinyurl.com/jq2k74d
Web API
•  Expected to be future proof
•  Complex url manipulation
•  Documentation not mature
•  Samples overly complex
•  Difficult to get up and running
•  JSON support
•  No swagger
•  Azure AD custom behavior required -
http://tinyurl.com/zf7spge
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12. The key challenge
12
These are mapping
simple data!!!
Reference – Janardhan Bikka
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32258.biztalk-server-2013-r2-integration-with-ms-dynamics-crm-2015.aspx

13. BizTalk + API Facade
With WCF or REST

14. Overview
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What is it Benefits
- Light weight service between BizTalk and CRM
- Can host in IIS or Azure
- Encapsulates the complexity around CRM
- Supports
- RPC
- Push data
- Simplify implementation
- Lower maintenance
- No nasty messages
- No nasty maps

15. Download Data for Legacy
Systems
With BizTalk Server

16. Overview
How do I extract data to
produce batch files for legacy
systems with Data from CRM
Technical Challenges
• CRM Paging – > 5000 records
• Transforming data
• Work around untyped data
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17. Real-world Example
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- Streamed download of 20,000+ records
- Transform to complex fixed length file
- Complex mappings
- Daily downloads of data for legacy systems

18. Demo
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19. Event Publishing
With Azure Service Bus

20. Overview
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Triggers:
- Entity Update
- Entity Create
- Entity Delete
- + more
Channels:
- SB Messaging
- Event Hub
- REST
- Relay (one way/2 way)
Message:
- Execution Context (.net
binary)
- XML
- JSON
Security
- ACS
- SAS

21. Demo
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22. Real-world Problem
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- Digital Portal – 50,000 users
- CRM – 2,000 back office users
CRM will be scaled to support 2000
users, what happens when 50,000
portal users start requesting
Knowledgebase Articles?

23. Real-world Solution
23
- Digital Portal – 50,000 users
- CRM – 2,000 back office users
Portal performance increased by
querying data from Azure rather than
direct on CRM
Portal can also used advanced search
features in Azure Search

24. Background Tasks
With Azure Functions

25. Overview
25
Azure Functions are great for background tasks
- Reference CRM SDK from NuGet via
project.json
- Use normal .net coding
- Scheduled/Triggered/Ondemand
- SaaS Tables (coming soon)
Use Case:
Refresh the share price for each company every hour

26. Demo
26

27. Upload Reference Data
With Logic Apps

28. Architecture
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Can we upload reference
data to CRM?
Schedule refresh nightly?

29. Demo
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30. • Easy to get up and running for basic scenario
• More complex (real world) has functionality gaps still
• Limit of 5000 rows can block you
•  No upsert operation  Logic app gets complicated
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Thoughts

31. Data Change Processing
With Logic Apps

32. Example
32
- Can I sent changes to other
applications easily?

33. Demo
33

34. Example
34
- Can I sent changes to other
applications easily?

35. Citizen Integrator
With Microsoft Flow

36. Example
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Empower Business user to
automate their day
The business user wants alerts
based on Share Price

37. Demo
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38. • Citizen Integrator will probably need IT help with CRM API’s
• OData queries etc
• Lots of opportunities
• Would like to restrict their access in Flow
• How do I stop business user loading rows to entity?
38
Thoughts

39. Other Options

40. • CRM Workflow Web Hooks
• Host listener on Azure App Service
• Can I use Logic Apps?
• SSIS
• Kingsway 3rd Party Provider
• Data Factory
• OData connectivity – might be possible
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Other CRM Integration Options

41. Other Stuff
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42. • Option Sets
• Lookups & Related Entities
• Eg: Turning a system event into a business document
• Paging Queries
• Paging token + Page size + Page key
• Status Code & State Code
• Cross System Correlation
42
What else do I need to think about?

43. Thank You
Twitter: #integrationmonday
Website: http://www.integrationusergroup.com/