November – 2016 – Apex Blog

Upgrading Windows Phone 8.1 devices to Windows 10 Mobile

By: Luca Sgaravato / 30 Nov 2016 in Uncategorized

Here’s the procedure to follow if you want to upgrade your mobile device OS from Windows Phone 8.1 to Windows 10 Mobile.

Upgrade is not performed through system updates. Instead Upgrade Advisor App is required.

Not all Windows Phone 8.1 devices can be upgraded to W10. For an up-to-date listing check here.

Official documentation from Microsoft on how to upgrade is available at here.

Suggestion: perform all upgrade steps when device is connected to Wi-Fi network (lot of data downloaded during upgrade)

Step 1: install Upgrade Advisor App

On your device download and install the Upgrade Advisor App via Windows Store.

Step 2: check and perform upgrade

Once the app is installed execute it. When you open the app, it checks your phone and lets you know if it’s eligible to install the upgrade, if an update is required before you can install the upgrade, or if your phone can’t be upgraded.

If your device can be upgraded to W10 Mobile then run the upgrade. It will take up to more then 1 hour for the upgrade to complete (depending on connection speed, device performance, …). App will download W10 and then setup it.

Reboot required.

Step 3: reconfigure apps (if required)

You’ll probably need to reconfigure some apps (i.e. Outlook)

Step 4: download Windows 10 updates

Once upgrade is complete you’ll probably need to download W10 updates (500+ MB).

Reboot required.

w10_ua_2 w10_ua_1

Schedule workflows on Dynamics CRM

By: Luca Sgaravato / 29 Nov 2016 in Dynamics CRM

Playing with Dynamics CRM you probably faced many times the necessity to schedule workflows. (No) Big surprise…there is nothing OOB available! In this post I collect all the approaches and solutions I spotted or used through time.

vintage-switchboard-operator When talking about scheduling workflows we have two main scenarios:

Recurring workflows: WF to run periodically (hourly, monthly, …) or based on conditions (birthday greetings, warranty end reminders,…)
One shot delayed workflows: you simply have to schedule WF one time in the future

This post will focus on scenario no.1. Scenario no.2 can be targeted as a specific case of scenario no.1 or creating a workflow with the scheduled delay and running it by hand (on-demand process).

Methodologies

Using the Bulk Deletion Process to Schedule Recurring Workflows http://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/2012/08/using-the-bulk-deletion-process-to-schedule-recurring-workflows/
Trigger custom entity + Bulk Deletion Process http://blog.clickdimensions.com/2013/01/how-to-schedule-workflows-in-microsoft-crm-online.html
Wait step and child workflow http://www.powerobjects.com/2016/07/11/setting-up-recurring-workflows-in-dynamics-crm-2016/
How to create a repeating schedule workflow rule https://crmbusiness.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/how-to-create-a-repeating-schedule-workflow-rule/

Packaged solutions

Alexander Development Workflow Scheduler(http://alexanderdevelopment.net/post/2016/09/19/updated-solution-for-scheduling-recurring-dynamics-crm-workflows/)
North52 Scheduler (http://www.north52.com/business-process-activities/scheduler-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-xrm/)
Workflow Automation (for Dynamics CRM 2011) (https://workflowautomation.codeplex.com/)

The winner is…

All above solutions do work and each one has pros as well as cons (free vs pay, on-premises vs online, customizable vs uncustomizable, DIY vs solution, …).

As Apex CRM team we currently applied some of above approaches. Since it’s release we really loved Alexander’s solution and we applied it to our latest projects. Why we love it?

easy to configure and monitor
works on both Online and On-Premises
free

We’ll keep on working with Alexander’s solution and any related news will be posted here.

Scheduling definition sample

Apex Planner – How to set default Team / Resource Group / Site

By: Giovanni Tedaldi / 16 Nov 2016 in Apex Planner

Monthly Archives: November 2016

All the steps to perform to upgrade your device to Windows 10 Mobile