In the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, most often referred to as the Q2 service release or UR9, there will be a lot of exciting new functionality (Preview Guide here). One of the most interesting pieces of development is the cross-browser support. This will allow customers to use not only Internet Explorer, but also other browsers as Chrome and Mozilla - and on other devices such as a native Mac running OS X and the iPad running Safari.
All this is very cool and will add to the user base and put CRM where the competition - to a certain extent - already is. However, it will also put a strain on developers extending and adding functionality to CRM. I strongly believe that a customer will have, and has the right to have, an expectation that whatever extensions have been developed should function also after an upgrade to UR9.
What can we do to be prepared? There are a lot of tools and resources out there to find and scope issues in already developed solutions, e.g. the Custom Code Validation Tool. Also the SDK has been updated and there are blogs from the product team on the topic. I have tried the tool on a number of heavily customized CRM 2011 solutions, all developed long before the notion of cross-browser surfaced from Microsoft.
Quick findings? If we stick to the normal definition of supported customization, we're green - more or less. If we're using JQuery - we're super-green. Problems? Well, XML manipulations have been a hassle – specially for code upgraded from CRM4. More on this in a separate upcoming article.
Installing the Custom Code Validation Tool
It's easy. Just download it from the above link. Extract the CRM 2011 Solutions file and import the managed solution into your CRM system.
When that's done, just double-click on the Custom Code Validation solution and it will automatically revert to the "Configuration Page" (by the way, using Configuration Pages like this is an excellent way to extend the user interface).
Select the web resource you wish to validate in the dropdown, and validation happens immediately.
Uninstall
Remember to uninstall the Code Validation Tool when you are ready. No need to keep solutions lying around and it's a good practice to keep your system nice and clean.
Conclusion
The upcoming UR9 (or Q2) release opens up new markets and a lot of new possibilities to do business. It also adds requirements on the development of solutions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 since any JavaScript included in the solution needs to be developed and tested for a wide range of different browsers. Using Microsoft guidelines for what is defined as a supported customization, and using standard third party frameworks such as JQuery, the development time can be minimized. But testing still needs to be done for all browsers.