Key points of Dynamics 365

• Number of custom Entities per org
  • "With Microsoft Dynamics 365 (online) there is a limit to the number of entities you can create. You can find information about the maximum number in the Resources In Use page for your deployment. If you need more custom entities, contact Microsoft Dynamics 365 technical support."
  • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/88b18946-474c-4c94-8e4c-27532f930757#BKMK_LimitationsOnMetadata 
• Number of custom Attributes per entity
  • "Within each entity there is an upper limit on the number of fields you can create. This limit is based on the technical limitations on the amount of data that can be stored in a row of a database table. It is difficult to provide a specific number because each type of field can use a different amount of space. The upper limit depends on the total space used by all the fields for the entity."
  • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/88b18946-474c-4c94-8e4c-27532f930757#BKMK_LimitationsOnMetadata 
• Plug-in timeout
  • 2 minutes
• Running workflow jobs
  • Fair use - no specific hard limits, but the resource is balanced across organizations
  • http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533946 
• Direct database access
  • Not allowed
• Native reports
  • Fetch XML only
• Database indexes
  • Need to be created by a Microsoft service engineer, create a support request
  • http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533946 
• Number of charts per dashboard
  • Current limit is 6 but overrideable with org settings (PowerShell script)
• Fetch XML Limitations (http://www.kingswaysoft.com/blog/2013/06/18/Limitations-with-CRM-FetchXML  )
  • 10 linked entities
  • No Right Outer Join
  • No SQL Functions
  • No Sub Queries
  • No support for Union
  • No Case/When type functionality
  • Can't compare 2 fields directly
  • 50,000 records per query aggregate
  • 5,000 records per query (paging for more)
• Business Rules
  • Can't run when the record is saved
  • Can't interact with tabs or sections
  • OnChange events are not triggered when business rules set a field value
  • Rules with invalid references are not ran, there will be no error message
  • Whole number fields with TimeZone, Duration, or Language format are not supported
  • Up to 10 if-else conditions per rule
  • Rule definitions are cached in the mobile app, must close and re-open the app for changes
  • Must create a separate rule to clear actions of a previous rule, if necessary
  • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn531086%28v=crm.6%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#BKMK_Limitations 
• Calculated fields
  • Saved queries, charts, and visualizations can have a mx of 10 unique calculated fields
  • The calculated field values are not displayed in Outlook Offline mode
  • A max number of chained calculated fields is 5
  • Can't refer to itself or have cyclic chains
  • Can't access parental fields with a multi-entity Lookup
  • Sorting is disabled on:
    • A calculated field that contains a field of a parent record
    • A calculated field that contains a logical field (for example, address field)
    • A calculated field that contains another calculated field
  • Can only span 2 entities
  • Can't trigger workflows or plug-ins
  • Can't change an existing simple field to a calculated field
  • Duplicate detection rules are not triggered on calculated fields
  • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn832103.aspx#Considerations 
• Rollup fields
  • Max of 100 per organization
  • Max of 10 per entity
  • Can't trigger workflows
  • Can't be used in a workflow wait condition
  • A rollup over the rollup field is not supported
  • Can't reference a calculated field that uses another calculated field
  • Can only apply filters to the source entity or related entities, simple fields or non-complex calculated fields
  • A rollup can't be done over N:N relationships
  • Can't be done over 1:N relationship for the Activity entity or the Activity Party entity
  • Aggregated under the system user context, all users see the same rollup field value
  • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn832162.aspx#BKMK_considerations 
• ExecuteMultipleRequest
  • Recursion is not supported
  • Max batch size of 1,000 requests
  • Max concurrent calls of 2
  • https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj863631.aspx#limitations 
• Dialogs
  • "A link child dialog can’t be an intermediate step. You might try to split a complex dialog into child dialogs and invoke all of those child dialogs from a parent dialog. However, that is not supported in this release.
    There’s a limit to the number of nested steps you can use in a dialog. The limit depends on the browser you’re using and isn’t a limit in Microsoft Dynamics 365. The nested steps are rendered in the browser as nested tables. Some browsers support more levels of nested tables than others. If the workflow designer becomes grayed out where you can’t add additional nested steps to your dialog, try the following workarounds:
    • Redesign the dialog to use fewer nested steps.
    • Add a child dialog to reduce the number of steps in the parent dialog.
    • Use a different browser."
  • https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg509010.aspx#limitations 

Key Points for Dynamics 365 Phones and tablets

1. Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets does not provide the capability to switch between forms. If you have more than one main form for an entity, the one displayed depends on the form order set and which security roles are assigned to the form
2. While customizing a form, you can hide the following from the Dynamics 365 for phones experience:

1.       Fields

2.       Sections

3.       Entire tabs

Microsoft Dynamics CRM for phones express is the previous version of the phone app for Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Hide details from the Dynamics 365 for phones display

Sometimes we got requirement to hide/show some data on Dynamics 365 for Phones. This we can achieve easily by customizing the required forms. And steps are - 

1.       While customizing a form in the form editor, select the field, section, or tab you want to hide. For tips on using the form editor, see Use the form editor.

2.       Click Change Properties.

3.       Clear Available on phone and click OK.

Useful MS CRM SDK plugin and workflows code

Optionset

For getting the option set value:
int value = ((OptionSetValue)entity["attributename"]).Value;

For getting the option set text:
string text = entity.FormattedValues["attributename"].ToString();

LookUp

For assigning the lookup value:
entity["attributename"] = new EntityRefrence(entity.LogicalName,entity.Id);
eg: to set Account lookup in Opportunity
oppty["accounted"] = new  EntityRefrence("account".account.Id);

For getting the lookup value:

Guid value = ((EntityRefrence)entity.Attributes["attributename"]).Id;

For getting the lookup text:

string text = ((EntityRefrence)entity.Attributes["attributename"]).Name;