Extensibility Features Live vs. On-Premise in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Microsoft Corporation
February 2008
Applies To
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live
Summary
This article provides a concise description regarding availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM extensibility features across the three types of deployments.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Extensibility Features
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK documentation describes many features that enable developers to build distributed, customer relationship management (CRM) applications. This article provides a concise description regarding availability of these features across the three types of deployments:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (on-premise)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live (live)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Internet Facing Deployment (hosted)
You can extend Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the areas shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Extensibility Architecture
The following topics describe each extension area (yellow and orange) indicated in the previous diagram.
Customization and Configuration Tools
Customization tools allow you to add and rename entities. You can also add and modify attributes, forms, views, relationships and mappings. Configuration tools allow you to create your own business units, teams, security roles, and relationship roles. For more information, see Entity Customization.
| | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Customization
Entities Attributes Forms and views Relationships Mappings Workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration
Business units, Teams, Roles Administration Business Management Product Catalog Relationship Roles | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Scripting
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application and Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook include support for scripting using JScript. For more information, see Client Extensions and Scripting.
| | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Form and Field event scripts (Jscript) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Client Extensions
Microsoft Dynamics CRM clients are designed to be extensible without requiring changes to the code of the ASP .NET pages of the application. You can add custom buttons, menu items, navigation areas, or IFRAMEs to include custom applications within Microsoft Dynamics CRM clients. Note that for Live, your Web pages must be hosted on a server other than the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web server. For more information, see Client Extensions and Scripting.
| | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Navigation (SiteMap) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UI Control and customization (ISV.Config) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IFRAMEs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Custom Reports
Use filtered views to create custom reports within Microsoft Dynamics CRM and in applications such as Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office Access. The SDK Report Writers Guide is coming in an SDK update soon.
| | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Run existingreports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Create new reports using the report wizard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Upload and run file reports (Excel worksheets, text files, and so on.) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Upload custom RS reports using SDK methods | Yes | Yes | No |
| SDK filtered views | Yes | Yes | No |
Import/Export/Publish Customizations
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK contains APIs to programmatically support import, export, and publish features that are available in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application.
| | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Customizations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Workflow | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Data Migration and Import
The data migration and import features let you upload data from various customer relationship management systems and data sources into Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The SDK provides additional functionality for data migration that is not available in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application. For more information, see Data Management.
| | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Data Import | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data Migration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Plug-ins
Plug-ins allow you to augment the Microsoft Dynamics CRM business logic with your own code, for both online and offline applications. These extensions can also be used for integration to external systems. In the previous version, this feature was known as callouts. For more information, see Plug-ins.
| Extensions | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Plug-ins | Yes | Partner specific | No |
Workflow
Call out to external systems from your workflow rules. Create custom workflow activities that can be used by your workflow rules. In the previous version, this feature was known as workflow .NET assemblies. For more information, see Workflow.
| Extensions | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Declarative workflows using workflow tools in Web application | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom workflow activities (.NET Assemblies) | Yes | Partner specific | No |
Web Services
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 provides a dynamic Web service interface for applications to use to access and manipulate platform data as well as interact with platform services. These services enable ISVs to write applications using Microsoft Visual Studio or other developer tools by simply referencing the platform Web service. For more information, see the topics for each Web service shown in the following table.
Authentication
Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports pluggable authentication. The type of authentication interface that is used depends on if you are authenticated through Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, on-premise, or Internet-facing deployment (IFD). For more information, see Web Service Authentication and Impersonation.
| Supported Authentication Mechanisms | On-Premise | Hosted | Live |
| Integrated Active Directory authentication | Yes | No | No |
| Forms based authentication | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows Live ID authentication | No | No | Yes |
Additional Information
Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) from the MSDN Developer Center.