Twitter.Crm Beta Implementation Guide

Applications A/S

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Contents

Installation: Steps to complete .................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Feedback .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Step 1: Run the setup ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5

Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5

Run the setup ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Finishing the step ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Step 2: Register the custom Twitter.Crm Workflow Activities .................................................................................................................................. 6

Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Modify the register.xml file to match your CRM system ...................................................................................................................................... 6

Run the plugindeveloper Tool .............................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Step 3: Restart Services ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 8

Restart the Microsoft CRM Async Service ............................................................................................................................................................ 8

Restart the Internet Information Services ............................................................................................................................................................ 8

Step 4: Import and publish customizations and workflows ...................................................................................................................................... 9

Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9

Importing the customizations............................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Configure the entities and workflows ................................................................................................................................................................ 10

Follow these instructions for both the Twitter account and Tweet entitiy .................................................................................................... 10

Make sure the three custom workflows are published ................................................................................................................................. 10

Publish the solution ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 10

Step 5: Setup Security ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Setup the security model.................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Repeat the following steps for each role ....................................................................................................................................................... 11

Assign the roles ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Step 6: Create your first Twitter.Crm account ......................................................................................................................................................... 12

Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Start the Twitter.Crm Account Manager ............................................................................................................................................................ 13

Creating/Updating Twitter.Crm Accounts ..................................................................................................................................................... 13

Using Twitter.Crm ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Creating Tweets .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Detailed information of the Tweet entity ........................................................................................................................................................... 14

Basic information about the tweet ................................................................................................................................................................ 15

Publishing information .................................................................................................................................................................................. 15

Status and stats information ......................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Customizing Twitter.Crm further............................................................................................................................................................................. 17

Uninstalling Twitter.Crm Beta ................................................................................................................................................................................. 18

Uninstall and delete data ................................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Uninstalling the custom workflow activities .................................................................................................................................................. 18

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Installation: Steps to complete

The following tasks are nessasary to complete the setup of Twitter.Crm Beta:

1. Run the Setup (SetupTwitterCrmBeta.msi) on the CRM Server This will install and register all files needed to manually complete the setup

2. Modify the register.xml file and run the Plugindeveloper Tool This will register the custom workflow activities on the Microsoft CRM Server

3. Restart the Async Service and the IIS Service This will enable the new custom workflow activities

4. Import and publish the customization.xml file on the CRM Server This will add 3 new workflows and the Twitter.Crm Custom entities

5. Setup the security you want/need on Twitter.Crm Use standard security features to configure and secure Twitter.Crm on your server

6. Run the Twitter.Crm Account Administrator to create your First Twitter account This will Create a new Twitter account in Microsoft CRM and store the password on the server

That’s it! You are now ready to start twitting from Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Feedback If you have any issues with the use of Twitter.Crm application, the setup of the Beta or this documentation, please don’t hesitate to contact us:

Contact us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/appldev

Contact us on our Website: http://www.applications.dk

Contact our Development department directly on: mra@applications.dk (Please put “Twitter.Crm” in the subject line).

NOTE: The Release version of Twitter.Crm will include fully automated install/uninstall based on our Codeplex Project Crm Solution Installer Framework. For more information on this Open Source project, please refer to: http://crmsolutioninstaller.codeplex.com/

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Step 1: Run the setup

Prerequisites

Update Rollup 3 must be installed on the Server

The installation requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 on the machine (run setup.exe in stead of the .MSI file to automatically download and install this update. Reboot may be required)

The user you use to install twitter.Crm should also be a CRM User with “System Customizer” privileges, and privileges to read/write in the registry on the installation server.

Run the setup

Login locally on your CRM Server with a privileged user, and copy the two installation files in to a folder on the server.

You can either run the setup.exe or the SetupTwitterCrmBeta.msi fil to start the setup

Read and follow the instructions in the installation guide and complete the setup

Finishing the step All files needed are now placed in the Application folder you selected in the installation guide, so please take a note of the location of the folder. In the next steps we will refer to this folder as the Application Folder.

Note: Our TwitterAPI is installed in the Global Assembly Cache on the machine, located under C:\Windows\assembly.

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Step 2: Register the custom Twitter.Crm Workflow Activities

Prerequisites

You must complete step 1 in order to proceed

You must be able to restart the Microsoft CRM Async Server and perform an IISRESET of the CRM Web Server

Modify the register.xml file to match your CRM system Open the register.xml file, located in the Application Folder, in a regular text editor such as Notepad.

The top of the file will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Register

LogFile = "Plugin Registration Log.txt"

Server = "[PUT YOUR ADDRESS HERE. EXAMPLE: HTTP://CRMSERVER]"

Org = "[PUT YOUR CRM ORGANIZATIONAL NAME HERE. EXAMPLE: COM-ITApplications]"

Domain="[PUT YOUR DOMAIN NAME HERE. EXAMPLE: Applications.local]"

UserName="[PUT THE USERNAME HERE. EXAMPLE: Administrator]"

>

You now need to replace the contents inside the Quotation marks (“…”) of the Server, Org, Domain and UserName attribute, to match your CRM installation:

Attribute Replace with

Server Replace with the web address of your CRM Server. If you are running the installation on the CRM Web server you can put in http://localhost, otherwise put in the address you would normally use to access the CRM system (example: http://crm)

Org Replace with the Organizational Name of your CRM installation. If you don’t know the name, you can start the Deployment Manager application on the CRM Server (Located in Programs -> Microsoft CRM) and locate the organizational name there:

Domain Replace with the Domain Name of your logon account (example: Applications.local)

UserName Replace with a UserName on this domain, that is a valid CRM user and have administrative/Customization privileges in the CRM System.

Note: You also have to have the password for this user ready, because it is needed to complete the step.

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The top of the file should now look something like this, after you have replaced the contents of the attributes:

The top of the file will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Register

LogFile = "Plugin Registration Log.txt"

Server = "http://appl-crm"

Org = "COM-ITApplications"

Domain="Applicatins.local"

UserName="Administrator"

>

Finally Save and close the register.xml file.

Run the plugindeveloper Tool Run the plugindeveloper Tool (plugindeveloper.exe) located in the Application Folder.

The Tool will open in a Command line window and ask for the password for the user you specified in the register.xml file.

Type the password and press ENTER.

The Tool will now register the new custom workflow activities for Twitter.Crm.

TIP

If you want to ensure that the workflow activities has been installed correctly before continuing, you can Create a new empty workflow in Microsoft CRM. There should be a new group of activities you can insert to the workflow called “Twitter.Crm”

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Step 3: Restart Services

Prerequisites The Twitter.Crm workflow activities must be installed and you must be able to restart the services (so coordinate with the users and CRM Administrators of your CRM System).

Restart the Microsoft CRM Async Service Open the Services Console on the CRM Server:

1. Choose START – RUN 2. Type “services.msc” and press ENTER

You can also start the console from Administrative Tools

Select the Microsoft Asynchronous Processing Service and press Restart:

Restart the Internet Information Services

1. Choose START – RUN 2. Type “iisrestart” or “iisrestart /noforce” and press ENTER

The services are now restarted and you are ready to proceed.

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Step 4: Import and publish customizations and workflows

Prerequisites This step requires that you have administrative/Customization privileges in the CRM System

You also need to be able to restart the IIS and Microsoft Async service

Importing the customizations Open your CRM system in Internet Explorer.

1. Go to Settings 2. Choose Customization 3. Select Import Customizations

You are now ready to import the customizations:

4. Click Browse and select the file customizations.xml that was installed in the Application Folder 5. Click Upload

Microsoft CRM now starts to upload the XML file. When it’s done, your window will look like this:

6. Select the 5 customizations (Click on the checkbox marked by the red circle) 7. Click Import Selected Customizations

The Twitter.Crm customizations has now been installed on your CRM system and you’re ready to publish the solution.

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Configure the entities and workflows 1. Go to Settings 2. Choose Customization 3. Select Customize entities

Follow these instructions for both the Twitter account and Tweet entitiy 1. Locate the entity on the list (under “T”) and Double-Click on the entity 2. Make sure the “Marketing” option is Checked under the section Areas that display this entity

(You can of course choose another area to display the entities in, if you like!)

3. Press Save and Close

Make sure the three custom workflows are published

1. Go to Settings 2. Choose Workflows 3. Locate the three Twitter.Crm custom workflows on the list. Check if the are in status Published

Note: You may have to change view to “All Workflows” and assign them to yourself

If they are not in published status Select all three workflows and press the “Publish” button

Publish the solution 1. Go to Settings 2. Choose Customization 3. Select Customize entities 4. Select More Actions and press Publish all customizations

Twitter.Crm is now ready to use!

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Step 5: Setup Security

Prerequisites The solution must be published and configured

You must have administrative privileges to setup security

Setup the security model This is just guidelines, you can select any security model that fits the needs of your organization. You can freely choose to create new security roles for Twitter.Crm or reuse existing ones. In this Example we create three new security roles:

Twitter reader

Twitter Author

Twitter Manager Open the security panel in your CRM System:

1. Go to Settings 2. Choose Administration 3. Select Security Roles

Repeat the following steps for each role

1. Press New Role, on the top of the list of roles 2. Type the Name for the role 3. Set the security as the table below for each role and press Save and Close

Twitter reader Create Read Write Delete Append Append to

Twitter Account Global

Tweet Global

Twitter author Create Read Write Delete Append Append to

Twitter Account Global User

Tweet User Global User User

Twitter Manager Create Read Write Delete Append Append to

Twitter Account Global Global Global Global Global Global

Tweet Global Global Global Global Global Global

Assign the roles This is only needed if you have created new roles. Go to the Users panel under Administration, select the users you want to assign the different roles and choose More actions Manage Roles to check the roles for the selected users.

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Step 6: Create your first Twitter.Crm account

Prerequisites It is strongly recommended that you create a bit.ly account.

Bit.ly is a free URL service, that can shorten long url’s and afterwards track the click traffic they generate. Twitter.Crm has a built-in integration with bit.ly, so your hyperlinks automatically gets shortened and tracked. This will also enable you to put more text into your 140 character-limit Tweets.

You will need the following information from bit.ly to use it with Twitter.Crm:

Your bit.ly account name

Your bit.ly API Key To sign up at bit.ly go to the following address http://bit.ly and press signup:

Complete the signup and signin to your new account. Once you are signed in, press the account link on the top-right of the page:

Under My Account on the left side of the page, take a note/Copy the account login and API Key:

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Start the Twitter.Crm Account Manager This application is located on the Windows Desktop (If you cannot find it, its also located in the Application Folder under the name Twitter.Crm.Admin.Exe)

Double-Click on the application to start the login process:

1. Type the url for the CRM System as you would in internet explorer in the CRM Server Url 2. Choose your CRM Organization and Press Login.

Creating/Updating Twitter.Crm Accounts

3. Fill in the Twitter account name, Twitter account password and the statistics update interval you want on the account.

4. Optinonally you can also specify a bit.ly account name and API Key. 5. Press Create or update account

The password of the account is stored on the registry on the server under: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\TwitterCrm\<Account Name>

Deleting accounts

DO NOT create or delete accounts on the CRM System. Use this application to manage the account basics. If you need to delete an account, follow step 1-3 (you just need to type the twitter account name) and press Delete Account

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Using Twitter.Crm

Congratulations, you have now installed and configured Twitter.Crm. You are now ready to start twittering.

Creating Tweets 1. Go to Marketing 2. Choose Twitter Accounts 3. Double-Click on the Twitter Account you wish to Tweet on to open it 4. Select the Tweets

The Tweet list contains all the tweets created on the account inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

5. To create a new Tweet, press the New button on top of the list, to bring up the new Tweet window.

6. Write and configure your Tweet and press Save and Close

Detailed information of the Tweet entity

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Basic information about the tweet

Field How to use it

Tweet Write your tweet in this textbox. Remember you are allowed a maximum of 140 characters

Hyperlink Specify a hyperlink you want to include with your tweet. This hyperlink can automatically be shortened and tracked by bit.ly

Twitter Account You don’t need to select anything in this field when you create your tweet from within a twitter account

Owner Is always set to the current user and should not be changed

Status length This readonly field indicates how many characters you have used. Including the shortened hyperlink and re-publishing prefix. Should not exceed 140 characters.

Publishing information

Field How to use it

No. Times to publish If you just want to update the status once, you can leave it empty or type 1 in the field. If you want Twitter.Crm to re-publish your tweet a number of times in a certain interval, you can type the number of times you want to re-publish here and select a Publish interval

Publish interval If you have specified to re-publish the tweet a number of times, you must select the interval between each publish. If you for example want to compensate for different timezones across the Global Timeline of Twitter, you could specify 4 as the number of times to publish and select 6 hours as the publish interval

Publish On If you leave it empty, the tweet will be published immediately, or you can select a date/time in the future and the Tweet will be

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Field How to use it

published at that specific date and time.

Shortened Url When you are using bit.ly on the Twitter account, this field will automatically be updated with the short url, if you have specified an url in the Hyperlink field. If you use another url shortener, you can also manually type in a short url here.

Status and stats information

Field How to use it

Click Count This is automatically updated by Twitter.Crm if the shortened url is a bit.ly url and you use bit.ly on the Twitter account. The update interval for the Click count field is the same interval as the Account Update interval on the twitter account

Status All tweets start out as active.

You can use the normal CRM Functionality to Deactive the Tweet. If you deactive the tweet, the publishing and Click count workflows will also automatically stop monitoring the tweet

Twitter Status Id A Readonly field that contains the unique id of the status on Twitter (Reserved for future features)

Publish Count A Readonly field that is automatically updated each time the Tweet is published on Twitter.

Status Reason Is not used (Reserved for future features)

Last Published A Readonly field that is automatically updated each time the Tweet is published on Twitter.

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Customizing Twitter.Crm further

There are a number of ways you can further customize Twitter.Crm.

You can customize the built-in workflows to perform business specific functionality

You can addnew workflows on the Twitter entities and use the new custom Twitter.Crm workflow activities.

You can create workflows on existing entities in Microsoft CRM, that creates tweets

If you have any suggestions for “Must-have” features in Twitter.Crm, do not hesitate to contact us, to have them included in future releases.

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Uninstalling Twitter.Crm Beta

This should be done by a person with knowledge on Customization and Administration of Microsoft CRM.

Uninstall and delete data In the Microsoft CRM Web Client:

1. Go to Settings 2. Choose Customization 3. Select Customize entities 4. Select the two custom entities and press Delete 5. Go to Settings 6. Choose Workflows 7. Select the three Twitter.Crm workflows 8. Press Unpublish 9. Press Delete

On the CRM Server:

10. Start Control Panel 11. Double-Click on Add/Remove Programs 12. Press Remove and follow the instructions 13. Press START RUN 14. Type “regedit” and press ENTER 15. Locate the Registry Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\TwitterCrm 16. Select the key and press DELETE

Uninstalling the custom workflow activities It is not possible to uninstalled the custom workflow activities in the Beta version, but the workflows will be unfunctional after the completion of the manual uninstall steps 1-16.