Visual Studio 2010 and .net 4 is now available on MSDN

Just wanted to update you on this super cool stuff...

Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to address the latest needs of developers. The CTP version of Visual Studio 2010 and .net 4 is now available on MSDN. Get it now...


Download center page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=922B4655-93D0-4476-BDA4-94CF5F8D4814&displaylang=en

Visual Studio delivers key innovations in the following pillars:

Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) crosses many roles within an organization and traditionally not every one of the roles has been an equal player in the process. Visual Studio Team System 2010 continues to build the platform for functional equality and shared commitment across an organization’s ALM process.

Enabling emerging trends
Every year the industry develops new technologies and new trends. With Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, Microsoft delivers tooling and framework support for the latest innovations in application architecture, development and deployment.

Inspiring developer delight
Ever since the first release of Visual Studio, Microsoft has set the bar for developer productivity and flexibility. Visual Studio 2010 continues to deliver on the core developer experience by significantly improving upon it for roles involved with the software development process. .NET Framework 4.0 contains numerous improvements that make it easier to develop powerful and compelling applications.

Riding the next generation platform wave
Microsoft continues to invest in the market leading operating system, productivity application and server platforms to deliver increased customer value in these offerings. With Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 customers will have the tooling support and the platform support needed to create amazing solutions around these technologies.

For more information on Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2008/products/cc948977.aspx

Microsoft, Adobe sweep developer awards

Adobe and Microsoft won several of the awards at Saltmarch Media’s annual Great Indian Developer Awards. These awards recognize the product and innovation excellence of the hundreds of software products and tools that aid developer productivity, across 11 different categories. The selection criteria applied by an international stature panel places emphasis on functionality, usability, innovation excellence, bleeding-edge quotient, and feedback from the developer ecosystem.

CATEGORY	AWARD WINNERS
Development environments	Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Collaboration solution	Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional
Content management	Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS)
Design and modeling	IBM Rational Rose
Change and configuration management	CollabNet SourceForge Enterprise Edition
Testing	JBoss Profiler
Security	Quest InTrust
Web development	Adobe ColdFusion 8
Mobile development	Nokia Symbian
Frameworks	Adobe Flex
Database	SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reports & Oracle Database 11g

Get CRM usage information using the IIS Logs

One of the frequent requests I come across is the usage log to monitor adoption. Here is a ready-made solution for you. The article describes how to make use of the IIS logs to get useful information about who is accessing CRM and when.

This technique uses some SQL objects (tables, view and functions), and a reporting services report. The source code for these is available on the MSDN Code Gallery.

Now I will wait for your invitation to the Happy Adoption Day..!!!

Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

A Quick Update:
The CRM team has just released Update Rollup 4 for CRM 4.0 which you can download from here.

· KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/968176
· Download center page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0ddf8e83-5d9c-4fe7-9ae6-f2713a024071

Communications Panel for Microsoft CRM 4.0

While reading Dynamics related blogs today, I found the announcement of Communication Panel for Dynamics CRM 4.0, an interesting add-in for CRM 4.0. I am delighted to see this as it seems to make perfect match - Office Communications Server [OCS] and Dynamics CRM.

The Agent Communications Panel for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 works with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and enables agents to manage their communications (make calls, receive calls, conference, and chat) from their Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

The Agent Communications Panel embeds with CRM itself:

Agent Communications Panel is an XBAP, published to a Web server and opened from a Web browser.

A few interesting facts:

• Make and Receive Phone Calls

• Make and Receive Instant Messages

• Add Audio to an Instant Messaging Session

• Conferencing

• Manage Your Activity Records

And many more……

Download Center: Click here

CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 3 is now available via the download center.

CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 3 is now available via the download center.

· KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=961768

· Download center page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05453fa4-9551-4a88-9852-634a9ad0e140&displaylang=en

Update Rollup 3 is the first UR post-transition to the new rollup servicing model. A very significant advantage of this model is the release predictability as Microsoft ships an update rollup every 8 weeks. The next rollup will release on May 7th. All the major product groups have moved to this rollup servicing model and many more are transitioning now as it’s been a win for Microsoft and our customers.

A few interesting facts about this Update Rollup:

· There are 91 new fixes in this rollup, of which 67 came from the SE Help project. Since UR3 contains the previous two Update Rollups, there are 384 fixes included in UR3 (of which 218 fixes came from the SE Help project).

In terms of priority, the breakdown is as follows:

	Update Rollup 1	Update Rollup 2	Update Rollup 3	Total
P1 (severe bug)	51	22	14	87
P2 (loss of functionality with no workaround)	48	50	39	137
P3 (loss of functionality with workaround)	47	68	34	149
P4 (Customer Design Change Request)	0	7	4	11
Total	146	147	91	384

New version of the CRM SDK 4.0.8 is available for download.

This release of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK includes new documentation and sample code to support server-to-server authentication with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. SDK is available for download @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82E632A7-FAF9-41E0-8EC1-A2662AAE9DFB&displaylang=en