Attachment Management Using Azure Blob Storage · Web viewAttachment Management solution is an add-on feature to dynamics 365 CRM(Online) to manage notes and email attachments using

Attachment Management Using Azure Blob Storage

Feature that enables Organizations to optimize CRM online storage and Attachment Management using Azure Blob Storage

Microsoft Labs

Table of Contents1 Overview.............................................................................................................................................2

2 How does Attachment Management work?........................................................................................2

3 End User Experience............................................................................................................................3

4 Attachment Management Administrator Guide..................................................................................4

4.1.1 UI Configuration...................................................................................................................4

4.1.2 Plugin Configuration............................................................................................................5

4.1.3 Optional Configuration......................................................................................................11

5 Troubleshooting Steps.......................................................................................................................13

Attachment Management Using Azure Blob StoragePage 1 of 14

1 OverviewAttachment Management solution is an add-on feature to dynamics 365 CRM(Online) to manage notes and email attachments using Azure blob storage. Enables business users to create and maintain files stored on azure blob through CRM application. This feature is aimed for the organizations with extensive use of documents in their business process, by using this solution organization can lower the cost arising from increased CRM database size by saving the files in azure storage container which is cheaper than Dynamics CRM online storage. Attachment Management offers

All attachments stored in Azure Blob1. Optimized Use of CRM Online Storage.2. Retrieve on demand.

Multi attachment upload/Download Control (Optional)1. Drag/Drop.2. One click download of multiple selected attachments. 3. Preview of attachments.

This solution is built on Dynamics 365 and seamlessly works on Dynamics CRM 2016 and above.

2 How does Attachment Management work?Attachment management solution can be used for the any system and custom business entity enabled with notes or attachment. Once downloaded from the Appsource to your Dynamics 365 application, there are couple of steps that needs to be followed to make solution working, first administrator would need to configure azure blob settings in custom azure blob storage settings entity for that user need must have azure storage container account details. Enlisted below are the different roles in Dynamics 365 who are involved in this process.

1. System Administrator –Perform the configuration activities. 2. Dynamics 365 end User – Leverages the advantage of the

uploading/deleting multiple documents in one go and maintain files to azure blob storage offered through attachment management solution.

The below diagram summarizes the configuration and usage of Attachment Management solution and the processes that run in the backend.


3 End User Experience Once the solution is imported and configured in CRM organization, End user can upload and store notes and attachment in Azure Blob Storage. To demonstrate end user, here we have considered service management framework as an example in which user is creating notes and email attachments as part of processing service request. The below navigation illustrates the user experience while working with notes and attachments.

1. Navigate to Business Entity (Ex. Case)

2. Open the Case record


3. Now create note against the case with attachment. Here in this example user is trying to create notes with agreement document attached.

4. Verify notes attachment stored in azure Blob storage with file name formed by parent entity record ID (here Case GUID) and actual file name concatenated by ‘_’ Ex. 5a5b40dd-34c6-e611-80ee-c4346bac894c_Agreement_Details.docx

5. If end user updates or delete the notes respective notes attachment

would be deleted from the Azure Blob Storage.

4 Attachment Management Administrator Guide This section outlines the steps to be performed by a System Administrator to make Solution available to the end users. Pre-requisites:

1. Valid Azure storage account subscription details. 2. Attachment Management solution is installed in your Dynamics 365

application


4.1.1 UI Configuration1. Open Microsoft Dynamics 3652. Navigate to Settings -> Extensions -> Azure Blob Storage Settings

3. Create Record for the Azure Storage account subscription details and blob details for the Notes and attachmentments.

4.1.2 Plugin Configuration

This section covers the list of registered plugin steps included in the Attachment Management solution. Plug-in Assembly Name: AzureAttachmentsSDK Processing Steps:

i. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.Annotations.PreCompressedAnnotation – Triggers when end user downloads the notes attachments. The selected notes attachments will be downloaded from Azure BLOB storage in compressed format.


ii. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.PostCreateActivityMimeAttachment – The email attachments will be stored in the Azure BLOB storage on creation of attachment.

iii. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.PostCreateAnnotation – The notes attachments will be stored in the corresponding BLOB storage on event of post notes creation.


iv. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.PostDeleteActivityMimeAttachment – Delete email attachments from Azure BLOB storage on the event of post activity attachment deletion.

v. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.PostDeleteAnnotation – Delete annotation attachments from BLOB storage on the event of post deletion of notes.


vi. MicrosoftLabs.zureAttachments.PostRetrieveActivityMimeAttachment – Retrieve the attached email attachments from BLOB storage on the event of activity attachment retrieval.


vii. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.PostRetrieveAnnotation – will retrieve the attached notes attachments from BLOB storage.

viii. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.PostRetrieveMultipleActivityMimeAttachment – Retrieve all email attachments during Email form “Reply/Reply All” action.

ix. MicrosoftLabs.AzureAttachments.PreUpdateAnnotation – Updates the note activity. This step will delete the existing attachment and upload the new attachments.



4.1.3 Optional Configuration

This section is providing information on optional functionality of uploading multiple notes and attachments at one go offered by Attachment Management solution by using web resources into the Entity form. Here we have provided example of tab created on business entity case main form.

Below are the required web resources for attachment functionality.

msdyn_filesandattachments.html - This web resource will list all the notes and email attachments in grid format. User can delete and download single /multiple files from the grid.

msdyn_multiple_uploads.html – This web resource contains the code to upload multiple files. Also, contains the code to show only the email attachments when it is used in Email form.

Steps to configure web resources for multiple file upload functionality

i. Edit Entity form to create new tab and insert web resource msdyn_multiple_uploads.html for the multiple upload functionality for notes and attachment.

ii. Publish all changes made and navigate to case entity and open case form. User should be able to see the tab created for the notes and attachment uploading.


iii. Create another Tab named “Attachments” to download and delete uploaded files in one go. Insert html web resource msdyn_filesandattachments.html in newly created tab.

iv. Publish all changes made and navigate to Case main form. User should be able to see below tab in the form.


5 Troubleshooting Steps

System Administrators can use the below quick tips for troubleshooting in case of any issues or concerns reported by end users. 1. Ensure Azure Storage account details entered are correct.2. Ensure the plugin steps has been registered for the particular event ex.

Post Create of Entity.3. Navigate to ‘Customize the System’ and ensure you click ‘Publish all

Customizations’


Documents

Attachment Management Using Azure Blob Storage · Web viewAttachment Management solution is an add-on feature to dynamics 365 CRM(Online) to manage notes and email attachments using