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CRM 2011 and Sharepoint 2010: Configuration and Folder Structure

Post Author: Joe D365 |

CRM 2011 and Sharepoint 2010 Overview

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM List component provides a way to obtain the document management capabilities of SharePoint in Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the appearance and behavior of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This component also enables  CRM to automatically create document libraries and folders on SharePoint in the context of entities and fields. These folders are used to store documents for  CRM records on SharePoint.

System Requirements:

Supported Operating System

  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 R2

Other Requirements

  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 or Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010

Folder Structure:

The integration will create folders following the Account or Contact hierarchy nesting child entities and record names below:

CRM 2011 and Sharepoint 2012 Configuration

The folder-driven nature of this integration may not be optimal for all implementations, however using flat (folder-less) views and / or manual linking the user experience may be streamlined.

Benefits:

  • CRM 2011 out-of-the-box integration with SharePoint requires no coding.
  • Configuration is straightforward using the CRM Administration interface.

Considerations:

  • The automatic folder creation only works with the default library of the selected SharePoint site
  • Existing SharePoint folder structure will require manually location editing or a migration strategy
  • CRM users must be SharePoint users with access to the Document Library

Configuration:

Navigate to system settings – Document Management – Document Management Settings

This will launch a wizard to select entities that will offer Document folders. This wizard may be re-run at any time to add new entities.

CRM 2011 sharepoint

Structure may be based on entity or simply a folder for every record. Additonally the heirarchy can be driven by either Accounts or Contacts:

Some organization may consider 'Contacts' the Customer so it may be appropriate to use Contact as the heirarchy:

Complete the wizard and creation details will be displayed:

Navigate to the SharePoint site and you will now see the folders for the entities:

Select an Account and click on the 'Documents' link in the left nav bar.

If this is the first time accessing the user will be notified:

The folder is now displayed in a custom CRM iFrame with SharePoint functions:

The pointer for the CRM record to SharePoint folder is a CRM record in the 'Document Locations' entity:

Each folder will have a corresponding record. These can be edited and used in workflow.

The field: 'Relative URL' contains the name of the SharePoint folder:

Back on the Account record, documents may be added using the same steps as if working directly in SharePoint:

Browse and attach

The destination folder will display the designated folder for this record

If the Document library has additional metadata the user will be prompted:

The document is now displayed:

If the library has associated templates they may be accessed from the menu as well:

Launching a new template document also prompts for metadata:

Saving the document will display the familiar save dialog:

Configuring the view to diplay the metadata (in this example a column called: Document Type) will be helpful for the user to locate documents.

The folder location may be edited from the CRM ribbon:

This displays the Document location.

Note: If manually edited the folder must exist in SharePoint.

Child records that were selected to use SharePoint such as Opportunities may also contain documents.

Open the record and navigate to Documents.

Once again a new folder will be created:

Add a document using the same steps used for the Account:

Navigate back to the Account and the Opportunity entity folder is now visible:

Navigate to SharePoint and the folder heirarchy is as displayed:

The complete list of folders can be viewed here.

It may be beneficial to create additional views without the folder structure:

Using the Group By function and the flat view option documents may be grouped by any column:

By editing the Site map these views may be delivered directly from SharePoint:

There you go. Everything you need to know about Sharepoint 2010 configuration and folder structure. If you need help with your CRM Implementation, feel free to contact our CRm Experts.

Happy CRM'ing!010

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

11 comments on “CRM 2011 and Sharepoint 2010: Configuration and Folder Structure”

  1. We've run across an interesting issue... we have a client who, like most clients will be utilizing the SharePoint functionality and in testing have noticed that if they have Account names that are duplicates (i.e. Papa Gino's) but the actual Account isn't duplicated (i.e. each Account name is simply a different store or location.) What we'd like to do is choose the CRM field that is used by CRM to establish the directory name but this appears to be un-configurable. Any thoughts? Our workaround at this point is to create a new Account Name field and simply hide the out-of-the-box Account name field and populate it with the value that we'd like to use to create the SharePoint directory. This obviously has it's issues with the subsequent Lookup fields on related entities so we need to be creatie about how we're setting the standard Account Name field's text.

    1. Hi Craig - Great point. With the out of the box sharepoint integration this is always the case. The account name is used for the folder name. Unfortunately this is not configurable. The workaround is to not use the out of the box sharepoint integration and use a plugin. In CRM 4 all of our sharepoint integrations were done via a plugin so then the folder structure is completely chosen by us and with flexibility to design anything when it comes to duplicates.

  2. This is an exciting feature. It is almost a game changer in CRM document management when the same document can be accessed via a desktop folder on your PC (mounted as a network drive) and as an document attached to an Opportunity within the CRM.

    Too bad the CRM Online to SharePoint Online integration works sporadically at best. One day you get it to work, the next day it stops working...

    1. Hi Pekka - what issues are you seeing when using this integration? We have a few clients using crm online to sharepoint online and have not seen any issues.

      1. Alex, Just yesterday I had the CRM document management working as it's supposed to both form IE9 and using Outlook 2010. Today I get an error within the Opportunity Documents subgrid saying (translated by me from Finnish): "This content is not allowed to be shown in a frame".

        When trying to validate the Sharepoint site under Document Management Settings the validation fails (today).

        I was also able to use the Sharepoint site as a folder in my Win7 file system yesterday. Today, not any more.

  3. Hello,
    I have a client who was using custom build document management application in crm 4.0. This application used to automatically create a folder structure for all newly created accounts using a template every time user click on the document folder in 4.0. I have upgraded them to 2011 now with the default 2011 document manager but I can't seem to figure out how to setup the new system where it can use a template to create folder structure automatically. The reason my client used the template was to create a uniform folder structure across the entire CRM document library.

  4. Hi Joe

    I have done out of box SharePoint integration with CRM 2011. I got a requirement from client that they require secure document management system. When a user open an Account record and click on Documents tab and click on 'Open SharePoint' button will pop up entire Share Point site where user can move to other folders(like contact,lead,etc.) or he can see other unshared Account record's documents. Because I had given user permission on SharePoint site collection. So he is able to move any folder in that site collection. Please help me to restrict the access to other entity folder and even other unshared record document in SharePoint. Can you please give some idea how you are restricting access to other folders and security in SharePoint integration. I know it may require some custom coding. Please share your thoughts and if you have any code as well.

    Thanks in Advance.

    Sam

    1. HI Sam,
      did you get answers for this?. please let me know.i'm looking for the best way that I could prevent crm users access to sharepoint entire site.
      Thanks
      Rooba

  5. Hi Joe,

    Is possible include document location url querystring parameter, for
    example http://mySpsite/myDocumentsLibrary?AccountNo=S-00451 and in CRM
    List Component for Sharepoint make a filter documents per account. I
    made this solutions and in Sharepoint work fine (I have SP list in this
    list field AccountNo and I create view with querystring as parametar),
    problem is in CRM List filter in url exists but in CRM List filter not
    appear.

    Thanks in advance

  6. Hi Joe,
    I was hoping you might have some insight...
    Not sure if it was simply the old version of this CRM component list or if it was the implementation...At one time in CRM it would show SharePoint as if you were almost on the sharepoint site.. We had the ability to edit documents and even utilize the column filtering, however started getting an error when CRM was to create a new Account folder in SharePoint, so needless to say we have since updated to the latest available version, but now it's seems to just be a listing shell Sure I see the primary items like edit properties under actions but appears that they removed the ability to column filter which I would suspect is a big thing for those using content types as you need column filtering to narrow things down and the search function doesn't stay within the account it actually searches the entire sharepoint library...Is there a way to further customize this solution in regards to the way it interacts with SharePoint?
    Thank you!

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