Configuration of c360 "My workplace" add-in

Anyone that implements professional MSCRM solutions will at some point need one or more c360 add-ins. We have used their SearchPak, Email to Case (just love it), and this week the "My Workplace" add-in. The workplace add-in allows users to personalize the view of queues; selecting activity and case columns, specifying sorting, etc. The standard MSCRM queue view sorts alpabetically on subject, while sorting on received/due date is normally requested.

The installation went quite OK. As usual we had to replace our customized isv.config file with our backup copy of the original, otherwise the setup kit will not be able to modify the file. This is a bit annoying, as a diff-merge is then needed to merge the news changes into the working copy of our customized isv.config file. Make sure that every added <NavBarItem>element is on one line only, as linebreaks will prevent MSCRM from running, and lock the config file. Use iisreset.exe to release the file lock if you get syntax problems.

The added "My Workplace" module (QueueManager) would not load, responding with this error message: The request failed with HTTP status 400: Bad Request. The offending code was easily located after adding a new web.config file in the \custom\c360\ folder, then setting <customerrors mode="off" /> and <compilation debug="true" /> to see the actual error. It was the c360 license provider that was not able to call the MSCRM web-service to get details about the authenticated user. The call to .WhoAmI() method of the MSCRM platform proxy object resulted in a SOAP error.

In addition, c360 code is well behaved and writes info to the Windows application event log on the MSCRM server. The event source is "c360.Toolkit" and provides you with data such as the page URL and the URL of the web-service. The web-service URL shown in the event was wrong, using the server name instead of the IIS site name.

This is the "undocumented" way to configure the exact URL of the web-service:

1. Open the \custom\c360\config\c360.config file
2. Add this <appSettings> element:
   <add key="WebServicesUrl" value="http://server/MSCRMServices" />

Note that for some reason it is not the c360.QueueManager.config that must be changed.

You might need to use the IP-address of your MSCRM site instead of the host name to get things working. Authentication between IIS sites on the same server can sometimes be hard to diagnose when using e.g. host headers, but using the specific IP-address of a web-service has always worked for me. This MSDN article on IIS authentication and credentials is recommended reading.

The need for some of the c360 add-ins will decrease with MSCRM 3.0, but c360 will no doubt continue to provide products that will complement and enhance the standard MSCRM functionality. They have announced support for v3.0 for all their add-ins within two weeks of MSCRM v3.0 RTM.

Objectware is the Norwegian c360 partner.