Posts in Category: unified service desk

Unified Service Desk Customization Files

I’ve been doing some custom hosted control work for the Unified Service Desk lately and wanted to implement the ability to have my controls download automatically on any new deployment without having to copy them over.

The benefits of this approach is that you are not putting your files into your main install directory (and potentially corrupting your USD install) but rather deploying them to your App/Local Data folder where they will be automatically downloaded.

Neil Parkhurst does a great job on the walkthrough there – https://neilparkhurst.com/2017/08/01/usd-customization-files/ – so I’m not going to take away from that.

What I do want to highlight are some other issues I ran into when trying to get things to deploy;

  1. If your zip file is more than 5MB you are going to need to increase your file upload

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Retrieving Configuration Values from the USD

In the USD you can create Options that you can use within your Actions/Events/etc in the Unified Service Desk Configuration.

You can also access these values from within your own control via C# relatively easily.

Capture

To access the value within my USD Custom Hosted Control via C# all that is needed is the following code.

GetConfigurationValue("FoodforThought");

And now I can use this value within the USD without having to create my own configuration files et al in C#.

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Unified Service Desk and the Dynamics Web API

A follow-up to my post on Getting Started with the Dynamics Web API – on a recent project, I was building a custom hosted control in the USD that leveraged the Dynamics Web API.

However, when I went to deploy my control, my USD instance would implode and not load whatsoever.

Turns out the issue was a result of me using a higher version of the Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory dll (the latest 3.19) than what is supported in the USD (using 2.22).

The resolution was to downgrade my implementation of this dll to use 2.22 et voila, my solution deployed perfectly and my USD was no longer imploding.

I should note that for the above this is all done using v2 of the USD on a Dynamics 8.2 instance.

 

 

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Why do I need the Unified Service Desk?

I’ve been (and will continue to do) some blogging on the Dynamics Unified Service Desk (USD) but I’ve failed to answer the first, probably most important question you might be asking yourself right now.

Why do I need the Unified Service Desk?

Before I proceed, answer these questions (no rush, I’ll wait).

  • Do I run a Contact Centre? Y/N
  • Do I have a phone system? Y/N
  • Do I already have Dynamics installed?  Y/N
  • Have I invested some serious $$$ in our company’s own proprietary Line of Business Applications? Y/N
  • Do I have agents that work remotely? Y/N

Do I run a Contact Centre?

Great, the USD is designed, from the ground up, to be your agent’s only app they will ever need to do their job.  No more wasted context switching between applications, no more trying to find the

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Creating a USD Configuration

When getting started with development in the USD (Unified Service Desk), the first thing you have to do is create a configuration profile (otherwise you get an error when you launch the USD).

A configuration profile is what allows you to create many types of USD implementations and associate them to users.  A user can only ever be associated to one profile.

USD_Config

Establishing a base configuration profile is comprised of three parts as indicated below.

usd

The Global Manager is a hosted control which

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