Newbie with a couple of quick questions

Hi Folks,

We have an outside contractor that is supposed to be helping us implement
CRM. I am helping the service team collect requirements in order to generate
specifications. Our contractor has indicated that there is a limitation to
the number fields that can be created. We have a lot of custom fields we
would like to add (an example is a problem-cause-resolution set of fields).
Is there a limitation? Anyone know what it is?

Secondly, they have given us a test instance to play with. I will be a
super-user when we are ready to roll. I have been experimenting with
customizing the case report forms. My changes do not show up when entering
new cases. I have exited and re-accessed the app, and still don't see it. I
have the MS CRM for dummies book, not much help for what I'm doing. Is there
a utility that needs to be run to 'push' these updates out?

Thanks,
Don

Matt
Mon Dec 20 15:05:43 CST 2004

Yes, there is a limitation to the number of fields you can add. This is an
actual limitation to SQL server that requires each record to be able to fit on a
single page in the system, thus you are limited to 8000 bytes in each record.

The only table that tends to have a problem with this is the Contact table, as
it ships with almost 7000 bytes being used. You also need to remember that
character fields in CRM are stored as NVARCHAR, so they take up 2 bytes for each
character.

Form changes need to be published with Deployment Manager and then you need to
issue an IISRESET on the CRM server.

Matt Parks
MVP - Microsoft CRM

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On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 12:49:01 -0800, "DonE" <DonE@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

Hi Folks,

We have an outside contractor that is supposed to be helping us implement
CRM. I am helping the service team collect requirements in order to generate
specifications. Our contractor has indicated that there is a limitation to
the number fields that can be created. We have a lot of custom fields we
would like to add (an example is a problem-cause-resolution set of fields).
Is there a limitation? Anyone know what it is?

Secondly, they have given us a test instance to play with. I will be a
super-user when we are ready to roll. I have been experimenting with
customizing the case report forms. My changes do not show up when entering
new cases. I have exited and re-accessed the app, and still don't see it. I
have the MS CRM for dummies book, not much help for what I'm doing. Is there
a utility that needs to be run to 'push' these updates out?

Thanks,
Don

lindad
Tue Dec 21 11:19:04 CST 2004

One more note about field sizes .... it's SQL that controls that. And, if
you will be using Sales For Outlook Offline (and so synchronizing MSCRM data)
SQL Merge Replication is used. This has a direct effect on your limits.
Synch will not work if any field that is part of SFO (doesn't apply to cases
but does to contacts and accounts) and the size is >6000 bytes (vs. 8000
bytes without using merge replication); also there is a column limit of 246
(vs 1024 without using merge replication).

Lindad

"DonE" wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> We have an outside contractor that is supposed to be helping us implement
> CRM. I am helping the service team collect requirements in order to generate
> specifications. Our contractor has indicated that there is a limitation to
> the number fields that can be created. We have a lot of custom fields we
> would like to add (an example is a problem-cause-resolution set of fields).
> Is there a limitation? Anyone know what it is?
>
> Secondly, they have given us a test instance to play with. I will be a
> super-user when we are ready to roll. I have been experimenting with
> customizing the case report forms. My changes do not show up when entering
> new cases. I have exited and re-accessed the app, and still don't see it. I
> have the MS CRM for dummies book, not much help for what I'm doing. Is there
> a utility that needs to be run to 'push' these updates out?
>
> Thanks,
> Don

Razorback
Fri Dec 24 07:39:02 CST 2004

lindad,

But if Contacts ships with 7000 bytes used...then how does this work?

Mike

"lindad" wrote:

> One more note about field sizes .... it's SQL that controls that. And, if
> you will be using Sales For Outlook Offline (and so synchronizing MSCRM data)
> SQL Merge Replication is used. This has a direct effect on your limits.
> Synch will not work if any field that is part of SFO (doesn't apply to cases
> but does to contacts and accounts) and the size is >6000 bytes (vs. 8000
> bytes without using merge replication); also there is a column limit of 246
> (vs 1024 without using merge replication).
>
> Lindad
>
> "DonE" wrote:
>
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> > We have an outside contractor that is supposed to be helping us implement
> > CRM. I am helping the service team collect requirements in order to generate
> > specifications. Our contractor has indicated that there is a limitation to
> > the number fields that can be created. We have a lot of custom fields we
> > would like to add (an example is a problem-cause-resolution set of fields).
> > Is there a limitation? Anyone know what it is?
> >
> > Secondly, they have given us a test instance to play with. I will be a
> > super-user when we are ready to roll. I have been experimenting with
> > customizing the case report forms. My changes do not show up when entering
> > new cases. I have exited and re-accessed the app, and still don't see it. I
> > have the MS CRM for dummies book, not much help for what I'm doing. Is there
> > a utility that needs to be run to 'push' these updates out?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Don

Matt
Mon Jan 03 15:05:04 CST 2005

My understanding of this is that the Replication will still work, up to the
8,000 bytes, but data in the Conflict tables may be truncated. This won't be a
problem with CRM since the conflict tables aren't used anyways.

Matt Parks
MVP - Microsoft CRM

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----------------------------------------
On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 05:39:02 -0800, Razorback
<Razorback@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

lindad,

But if Contacts ships with 7000 bytes used...then how does this work?

Mike

"lindad" wrote:

> One more note about field sizes .... it's SQL that controls that. And, if
> you will be using Sales For Outlook Offline (and so synchronizing MSCRM data)
> SQL Merge Replication is used. This has a direct effect on your limits.
> Synch will not work if any field that is part of SFO (doesn't apply to cases
> but does to contacts and accounts) and the size is >6000 bytes (vs. 8000
> bytes without using merge replication); also there is a column limit of 246
> (vs 1024 without using merge replication).
>
> Lindad
>
> "DonE" wrote:
>
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> > We have an outside contractor that is supposed to be helping us implement
> > CRM. I am helping the service team collect requirements in order to generate
> > specifications. Our contractor has indicated that there is a limitation to
> > the number fields that can be created. We have a lot of custom fields we
> > would like to add (an example is a problem-cause-resolution set of fields).
> > Is there a limitation? Anyone know what it is?
> >
> > Secondly, they have given us a test instance to play with. I will be a
> > super-user when we are ready to roll. I have been experimenting with
> > customizing the case report forms. My changes do not show up when entering
> > new cases. I have exited and re-accessed the app, and still don't see it. I
> > have the MS CRM for dummies book, not much help for what I'm doing. Is there
> > a utility that needs to be run to 'push' these updates out?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Don