Quick Start Guide for BPA xrm Administrators MAKES PEOPLE HAPPY

Transcription

1 Quick Start Guide for BPA xrm Administrators MAKES PEOPLE HAPPY

2 Contents Scope... 4 Installation / System Requirements... 5 Prerequisites... 5 Installing Your BPA xrm Application... 5 First Steps with Your Application... 8 Create Your First BPA xrm Application... 8 Overview of Your BPA xrm Application... 9 Site Settings All Site Content Lists User Management Invite New Users On Premise scenario Invite New User Cloud scenario (De-)Activate Users and Remove Licenses Data Migration Importing Data by Means of Datasheet View BPA External Data Connector Basic Configuration Settings Permissions Quick Links Site Theme Regional Setting, Language Settings and Currency Settings Data Editor Templates Options Mail Merge Query Customize the Content of Your BPA xrm Application Contact / Support

3 Explanation of symbols Hint/Note Warning Not following these notes may have an unwanted impact on the performance of your BPA xrm application. Important Dos and Don ts Not following these notes may cause serious malfunctions in your BPA xrm application. 3

4 Scope This Quick Start Guide is targeted to BPA xrm administrators or SharePoint administrators, respectively. It covers all necessary information to set up your BPA xrm application. For a comprehensive documentation on how to configure, customize and use your BPA xrm application please refer to our online documentation. BPA highly recommends its customers to participate in at least one basic or advanced administration training before doing any customization work. Keep in mind that the GUI and the features of your BPA application may differ from what is described in this quick start guide. The GUI and the features of a BPA application depend on the installed product, edition and configuration of your BPA application. (See for a comparison of BPA xrm editions.) However, the basic structure of the contents and the location of the main BPA features and configuration pages will be the same for every BPA xrm application. 4

5 Installation / System Requirements Prerequisites BPA xrm runs as an add-on to any edition of Microsoft SharePoint. You must have a Microsoft SharePoint installation in place prior to installing your BPA xrm application. For the mandatory system requirements and installation guides for Microsoft SharePoint please refer to the Microsoft SharePoint documentation. For documentation concerning system requirements for Microsoft SharePoint and how to install and configure Microsoft SharePoint refer to the SharePoint sites on Microsoft TechNet. Installing Your BPA xrm Application Step 1: Software Package Installation 1. Download your BPA software packages from If you do not see your purchased product download, please post a request. 2. Go to the folder with the downloaded file(s) and double click the installation MSI. A popup opens. 3. In the popup click the Run button. The BPA Setup Wizard opens. 4. Click the Next button on the first screen of the BPA Setup Wizard. 5. Accept the End-User License Agreement. Click the Next button. 6. Fill your user name and your organization name in the appropriate fields. Click the Next button. 7. Define the credentials for the BPA service account. This account will be used to run the BPA license service. The defined user must have the permission to modify the SharePoint farm properties. Click the Next button. 8. Choose between two installation types: Custom: Lets you choose where you want to install your BPA xrm application. Complete: Installs all needed files. Click the Next button 9. Click the Install button to start the installation. 10. After the installation is finished, click the Finish button to exit the setup wizard. 11. Proceed with Step 2 Application Deployment. 5

6 Step 2: Application Deployment When the installation is complete, the BPA Application Manager opens automatically. With the BPA Application Manager you can edit your Web.Config file and select and deploy the components of your BPA xrm application. 1. Click on the Install/Update button. If you have already installed a BPA xrm application and therefore previously edited the Web.Config file, you may continue with 6. If you have not yet edited your Web.Config file, continue with 2. If you do not edit the Web.Config file, you may receive the following error message: 2. Click the Edit Web.Config button. 3. Select for which web application(s) you want to edit the Web.Config file. 4. Click the Run (Auto Edit) button in the ribbon. The configuration of the Web.Config file will be done by the program. 5. When the modification of the Web.Config file is complete, a window will pop up with a confirmation that the modification of the Web.Config was successful. In this window click the OK button. The Edit Web.Config window will be closed. 6. If you want to install only specific components of your BPA xrm application (not recommended), continue with 7. If you want install all components of your BPA xrm application (recommended), continue with 10. By default all available components are selected. It is possible, but not recommended, to unselect any of the components. Missing components may cause errors when running your BPA xrm application. 7. Click the Select WSP button in the ribbon. 8. Deselect the components you do not want to install. 9. Click the Close button to close the BPA Select WSP window. 6

7 10. Click the Install/Deploy button in the ribbon. 11. Choose on which web application you want to deploy your BPA xrm application and for which site collection you want to activate the BPA xrm features. Figure 1: Deploy and activate BPA xrm features If you are installing your BPA xrm application, you have to choose all web applications on which you want to install your BPA xrm applications. If you are updating your BPA xrm application, please choose only one URL to be updated. You have to check only one check box! 12. Click on the Run button in the ribbon. The installation process starts. A PowerShell window opens where you can follow the installation progress. 13. Wait until the message Please press any key to quit is displayed in the PowerShell window (this may take a few minutes). Then press any key to quit the PowerShell window. 14. A popup window opens where you are asked whether you want to close the program. Click Yes. The BPA Install Applications window closes. 15. The deployment of your BPA xrm application is now complete. 16. Click the Close button in the ribbon of the BPA Manage Applications window to exit the BPA Application Manager. 7

8 First Steps with Your Application Create Your First BPA xrm Application Depending on your SharePoint setup, you might want to create a site collection or a subsite based on a BPA xrm template. Steps to create a BPA xrm site collection 1. Start a SharePoint application on which you have installed your BPA xrm application. 2. In the Central Administration, section Application Management, click on the link Create site collection. The page Create Site Collection opens. 3. Configuring a BPA site collection is like configuring any other site collection, except for one difference: In the section Template Selection you have to select a template from the BPA tab. 4. Click OK, after you have filled in the form. Step to create a BPA xrm subsite 5. Start a SharePoint application on which you have installed your BPA xrm application. 6. Open the Site Actions dropdown in the ribbon and select New Site. The Create window opens. 7. In the left column of the Create window select the category BPA. The available BPA xrm templates will be displayed in the content of the Create window. 8. Select a template. 9. Select the site language from the Select Language dropdown (located above the available templates). 10. Enter a title and a URL name in the appropriate fields in the right column of the Create window. In the field URL name you only have to type the name for the directory that should be created to contain your BPA xrm site. The first part of the URL ( will be added automatically. 11. Click the Create button. 12. A new BPA xrm Application based on the selected BPA xrm template will be created and automatically opened in your browser. 8

9 Overview of Your BPA xrm Application The following print screens are taken from a BPA CRM application. The contents of your application may vary depending on the installed BPA xrm application and edition. However, the basic structure of the contents and the location of the main BPA features and configuration pages will be the same for every BPA xrm application. Homepage Overview Figure 2: BPA CRM homepage 9

10 BPA Settings The BPA Settings page is accessible via the Settings link in the Quick Links navigation. From the BPA Settings ribbon you can access the configuration pages for most of the BPA features. Figure 3: BPA Settings page. Accessible via the Settings link in the Quick Links navigation. 10

11 Site Settings In the Site Settings you can configure BPA features and SharePoint features. The Site Settings are accessible via Site Actions\Site Settings. Figure 4: Site settings. Accessible via Site Actions\Site Settings. 11

12 If some of the BPA Settings shown in Figure 4 are not visible in your BPA application, the missing features may need to be activated. Go to Site Actions\Manage site features to activate additional features. Figure 5: Activate features in the "Manage site features" section. 12

13 All Site Content The All Site Content section of your BPA xrm application shows a list of all existing site content (lists, libraries, etc.). The All Site Content is accessible via Site Actions\All Site Content. Figure 6: All Site Content 13

14 Lists Lists are the main containers for all information available in your BPA xrm application. The lists in your BPA xrm application are administered just like any other SharePoint lists. Go to Site Actions\ All Site Content and add a list or select the list you want to modify. In the List section of the ribbon you will find all options to administer your list. Beware not to delete any necessary fields (e.g. contact full name or any lookup field ), lists or views, since your BPA xrm application may not work correctly when doing so. For detailed information on lists and list configuration please refer to the SharePoint documentation. 14

15 User Management To be able to invite or add users to your BPA xrm application you first have to set up an authentication provider (e.g. LDAP or a database) for your SharePoint installation. For more information on how to set up an authentication provider, please refer to the SharePoint documentation. Invite New Users On Premise scenario Inviting users to access your BPA xrm application in an on premise scenario is the same like on any other SharePoint site. 1. Go to Site Actions\Site Settings. 2. In the Users and Permissions section click on People and groups. 3. Add users or invite new users by means of the New dropdown. We recommend creating groups prior to inviting users. Note that you can define your own permissions settings for the different groups. For more information on user and group permission settings, please refer to your SharePoint documentation. Invite New User Cloud scenario In a cloud scenario follow these steps to invite a new user: 1. Go to Site Actions\Site Settings. 2. In the BPA User Settings section click on Invite new user. The New User form is displayed. 3. Fill out the form and click Add User. The new user will be invited to your BPA xrm site. If you have selected Automatic in the Set Password section of the New User form, the new user will automatically receive an with his login credentials. If you have selected Manual, you have to define the password and inform the user about the login credentials. (De-)Activate Users and Remove Licenses 1. Go to the BPA Settings page. 2. In the ribbon click on User Settings. 3. Activate or deactivate a user by clicking on the text Activate or Deactivate in the respective column. If you want to remove a license from a user, click on the X in the Remove License column. Removing a license from a user is only applicable to user based licensing scenarios. 15

16 Data Migration Importing Data by Means of Datasheet View With the Datasheet View you can copy-and-paste data from a spreadsheet to a SharePoint list. 1. Prepare a spreadsheet with the data to be import. Follow the these rules, when preparing your spreadsheet: Make sure for all columns in your SharePoint destination list to have a corresponding column in your spreadsheet. Clean the data and remove duplicates prior to importing the data to your BPA xrm application. (Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs have features to help you with these tasks. See the documentation of your spreadsheet program for more information.) Make sure that you do not use the same title or name for different items in a spreadsheet. For example do not use the same name for an account and its subsidiaries, since this may cause related items to be linked to the wrong parent item. You may follow these sample rules when naming items: Name subsidiaries according to: <account name>_<subsidiary name>. Name contacts with the same name according to: <last name>@<account name>. To avoid opportunities with the same title name them according to: <product name>+<account name> Keep in mind to add the lookup columns (representing the parent lists) to the spreadsheet. For example add an account -lookup column to the spreadsheet containing the contact items. Use formatted phone numbers like (including country codes). Use ISO country codes like US, CA, DE, FR, CH To learn how to export data to a spreadsheet, refer to the documentation of the system containing the data to be exported. 2. Prepare your destination list in SharePoint. Pay attention to the data structure: Make sure for all columns in your spreadsheet to have a corresponding column in your SharePoint destination list. Make sure that all mandatory columns in your destination list also exist in your spreadsheet. 16

17 3. Define the right succession to import the data: First you have to import parent lists and then related child lists. A typical import succession is 1. Accounts 2. Contacts When importing contacts make sure that there is a column Full Name in your spreadsheet that contains <Last Name> <First Name> (in this order!) of a contact. The column Full Name is a standard column in the BPA contacts list and has to be filled during import. 3. Other related lists 4. In the All Site Content click on your destination list. The list view opens. In the ribbon from the List Tools menu select List and then click on Datasheet View. A table is displayed in the content area. Figure 7: Activated Data Sheet view. The columns of this table depend on the selected view. Please make sure that the correct view to import your data is selected. The columns and the column order of the import view have to be identical with the columns of your spreadsheet. In case there is no suitable import view available you have to create a new view first. 5. Copy-and-paste the data from your spreadsheet to the Datasheet View of the destination list. Your data is now imported to the destination list. See here for an example for a Datasheet View import, illustrated with screenshots. 17

18 BPA External Data Connector The BPA External Data Connector (EDC) is a tool to import data from a SQL database into SharePoint (one-way import). The data of each synchronized table is copied into SharePoint lists. The imported data has a primary key in order to be able to perform recurrent imports and thus to update existing data or to add new data to your SharePoint lists. BPA EDC is running in a batch mode. You can access its parameters via a MS-DOS window: Data Import Option [-m -mode] (mandatory) [-u -url ] (mandatory) [-s -site] (mandatory) [-a -alias] (mandatory) [-t -table] (mandatory) [-o -ordre ] Description Software mode (import data or files, connection) (-m massupload or m dataimport or m configconnec) Site URL (i.e. url Relative site URL (i.e. site / or site /crm) Alias of the database connection including the SharePoint connection parameters. (i.e. c myalias) Name of the correspondence table which includes the corresponding fields between SharePoint lists and external tables, and the primary keys. (i.e. t mytable) Import order. (i.e. -o Accounts;Contacts;Solutions;All News ) [-e - ] address where the report will be sent. (i.e. e cedric.petter@bpa-solutions.ch) -from address of the report sender. 18

19 Database Connection Parameters Option [-c -connec] (mandatory) [-a -alias] (mandatory) [-i -edit] [-d -delete] Description Connection string (i.e. Data Source=srv-2k8-cpr01;Initial Catalog=BTK2_Services;Integrated Security=False;User ID=sa;Password=xxxxxx) Alias used for the database connection. Specify if you want to edit the existing connection string. Specify if you want to delete the existing connection string. Correspondence Table A correspondence table provides for correct field mapping and thus for correct data import. The correspondence table consists of the following elements: Table (Name SQL Table (nvarchar)) List (Name of the SharePoint List (nvarchar)) Table_Field (Name of the field in the SQL Table (nvarchar)) List_Field (Name of the field in the SharePoint List (nvarchar)) Identification (True if this field will be used for synchronization between SQL and SharePoint. Like a Primary Key (bit)) Here is an example for a correspondence table: Clients ID Title Address Zip Code City Phone Correspondence Table List Table_Field List_Field ID Clients Accounts ID ID-ERP True Clients Accounts Phone Phone Clients Accounts Address Address If a field is not defined in the correspondence table, the BPA EDC will use the source field name used in the SQL table. Examples for behavior of the BPA EDC if field mappings are missing: In the sample correspondence table above, there is no field Title mentioned. BPA EDC will try to import the value of the field Title from the SQL database to the Title -field in the SharePoint list and will succeed, because Title is the internal name of a mandatory SharePoint field. Also the field Zip Code is not mentioned in the correspondence table. This will be an issue, because no SharePoint field is named like this. 19

20 Basic Configuration Settings Permissions With the BPA Settings Permissions you may grant access rights to the BPA Settings tabs of your BPA xrm application. By default, only site collection administrators or site administrators can access all BPA Setting tabs. In the BPA Settings Permissions you may add users or user groups to grant them access rights to BPA Settings tabs. Follow these steps to configure the BPA Settings Permissions: 1. Go to the BPA Settings page. 2. In the ribbon click on Settings Permission. 3. For every configuration tab add the designated users and/or groups. 4. Click Save to save your settings. Quick Links With BPA Quick Links you can create menu items for the Quick Links navigation on the left side of your BPA xrm application. You may create new menu items, delete or edit existing menu items, modify the sorting of menu items or create new headings to structure the Quick Links navigation. 1. Go to the BPA Settings page and in the BPA Settings ribbon click on Quick Links. All existing Quick Links and Quick Link Headings are listed in the content area. 2. Click on the edit icon to edit existing Quick Links or Headings. 3. Click on New Quick Link or New Heading to add a new Quick Link or Heading, respectively. For detailed instructions on how to set up Quick Links please refer to the corresponding article in the BPA online documentation. Site Theme You can select different site themes to change the color of your BPA xrm application in the Site Settings. 1. Go to Site Actions\Site Settings. 2. In the Look and Feel section select Site theme. 3. Select your desired site theme. 4. Click Apply to save your settings. We recommend only using BPA styles, since with other styles some components of your BPA xrm application may not be displayed properly. You will identify a BPA style by the prefix BPA. 20

21 Regional Setting, Language Settings and Currency Settings You can define the regional settings and language setting for your BPA xrm application in the Site Settings. Regional settings: 1. Go to Site Actions\Site Settings. 2. In the Site Administration section select Regional Settings. 3. Modify the default regional settings according to your regional conditions. 4. Click OK to save your settings. Language settings: 1. Go to Site Actions\Site Settings. 2. In the Site Administration section select Language Settings. 3. Modify the default language settings according to your language. 4. Click OK to save your settings. Currency Settings: By default the currency in BPA xrm applications is set to. The currency settings apply to all listfields of type Currency and to list-fields of type Calculated where the options The data type returned from this formula is: is set to Currency. To change the currency settings, go to the list settings of those lists which comprise a currency field or a calculated field that returns currency data and change the filed settings. Data Editor The BPA Data Editor is a powerful web-part to replace the basic SharePoint edit form with advanced form capabilities. Customizing options include, amongst others: Advanced Form Design: Build custom forms to be used to edit items or to create new items. You may organize your form fields by building tabs and/or expandable/collapsible sections. Cascading Lookups: With BPA Cascading Lookups you can filter available values for a lookup field, depending on a value already selected in another lookup field. E.g.: You create a new Activity -item, which comprises the lookup fields Account and Contact. After you have selected a value for the field Account, only contacts which belong to the selected account will be proposed for the Contact -field. Column Permissions: BPA Columns Permissions allow for granting or withdrawing read and write permissions on list-columns. Column Permissions are defined per list and/or content type. Permissions are granted/withdrawn for single users and/or user-groups. 21

22 You have to activate the Data Editor on every list you want to use this feature. If the Data Editor is not activated for a list, the advanced form configurations will not be available. Follow these steps to activate the Data Editor for the lists in your BPA xrm application: 1. Go to the BPA Settings page and in the BPA Settings ribbon click on Data Editor Settings. All lists are displayed in the content area. 2. In the column Activate, click on the text-link Activate to activate the Data Editor for the corresponding list. Templates With BPA Templates you can create templates used by BPA Send for sending out s. templates consist of Recipients lists Subject field Body field In the subject and the body field, you can either type in text or automatically add text from corresponding lists by means of variables. Furthermore you can add metadata (language and category) to describe the template. For instructions on how to create BPA Templates please refer to the corresponding article in the BPA online documentation. 22

23 Options The BPA Options comprise four features: Define user s signatures (user specific) Define BCC recipients (site specific) BCC recipients will receive a copy of any sent from this site by any user. Define recipients lists (site specific) Recipients lists are used to determine on which SharePoint list the recipient lists of an sent via BPA Send will be based. All lists defined in the recipient lists will be selectable via dropdown in the fields To, CC, and BCC, when creating a new by means of BPA Send . Define fields (site specific) Fields are used to define per recipient list in which list column BPA Send has to look for the address. We recommend configuring the site specific features prior to launching the site companywide. Follow these steps to configure recipient lists and fields: 1. Go to the BPA Settings page. 2. In the ribbon click on the Options dropdown and select the option Recipients List. 3. Click on Add new to add a new row. 4. Select a list and a corresponding view. List items and available recipients, respectively will be filtered by the selected view. 5. Click Save to save your settings. 6. After you have added all required lists and views, select Fields from the Option dropdown and define for every recipients list the field that contains the address. 7. Click Add New to add a new row. 8. After entering all necessary fields click Save to save your settings. Follow these steps to define BCC recipients: 1. Go to the BPA Settings page. 2. In the ribbon click on the Options dropdown and select the option BCC recipients. 3. Enter the addresses of the BCC recipients in the text field. Add only one address per line! 4. Click Save to save your settings. 23

24 Mail Merge With BPA Mail Merge you can generate word documents that are automatically filled with data from lists of your BPA xrm application. Main elements used to build a mail merge are a MS Word template (.docx-file) including field parameters for automatically generated text based on list values, and a selected main list which contains the main data for the mail merge. Various mail merge options allow you to apply filters to your main list, to select an output scenario, to generate activities based on the mail merge result, to select a destination library for the generated document and to set default values for the fields of the destination library. In order to use BPA Mail Merge you first have to add the BPA Mail Merge web-part to your BPA xrm site: 1. Create a new web-part page named mailmerge.aspx. 2. Add the BPA Mail Merge web-part on that page. 3. Create a Quick Link (named Mail Merge or similar) and link it to mailmerge.aspx. For instructions on how to build a mail merge please refer to the corresponding article in the BPA online documentation. Query BPA Query is a powerful query builder to extract relevant information from your lists depending on various parameters. Starting from a main list you can select query fields from the main list or from (by means of lookups) related parent or child lists. You may add filters based on selected fields and conditions and determine the visibility of resulting fields. The query result is stored in a new list or added to an existing list. Created queries are saved as reports. You may re-run or edit your saved queries at any time. In order to use BPA Query you first have to add the BPA Query web-part to your BPA xrm site: 1. Create a new web-part page named query.aspx. 2. Add the BPA Query web-part on that page. 3. Create a Quick Link (named Query or similar) and link it to query.aspx. For instructions on how to build a mail merge please refer to the corresponding article in the BPA online documentation. 24

25 Customize the Content of Your BPA xrm Application The main feature to customize the content of your BPA xrm application is the BPA Data Viewer web-part and the BPA Multi Data Viewer web-part. All lists displayed in your BPA xrm application are based on these two web-parts. With the BPA Data Viewer you can display single SharePoint lists or detail views of a list item. Figure 8: BPA Data Viewer web-part (list view) With the Multi Data Viewer you can display related lists underneath a detail view of a list item. Figure 9: BPA Data Viewer (detail view) and BPA Multi Data Viewer The appearance and functionality of the Data Viewer is set in the configuration form of the BPA Data Viewer. Two of the main things to be defined in this form are the list to be displayed and 25

26 the view to be applied, since these settings define which information will be displayed in your list. Administrators may add a view picker to a Data Viewer. With this view picker the users of the BPA xrm application can select different views of a list by means of a dropdown and by this can customize the list view to their needs. Figure 10: Detail of the BPA Data Viewer configuration form You may add a BPA Data Viewer web-part and/or a BPA Multi Data Viewer web-part on any web-part page of your BPA xrm application. For instructions on how to add and configure a BPA Data Viewer web-part and a BPA Multi Data Viewer web-part please refer to the corresponding article in the BPA online documentation. 26

27 Contact / Support For general questions concerning the usage of your BPA xrm application please refer to the BPA online documentation. For all other questions and inquiries please add a request on our support portal. 27