Submitted By :
by Boris Makushkin
Introduction
Microsoft CRM is now on the scene and it is increasing
its market share, due to Microsoft Business Solutions
muscles and marketing strategy. It is tightly integrated
with other Microsoft Business Solutions products such
as Microsoft Great Plains, Solomon, Navision. Being relatively
inexpensive in comparison to competitors, like Siebel,
Oracle - Microsoft CRM opens you the door for worldwide
operations automation. There are many crm web programs available, it's all a matter of researching which is best for you. In this small article we would
like to give you, software developer, some hints on Microsoft
CRM customization.
Today's topic is Activity of email type programming -
you usually deal with these customizations when you improve
Microsoft Exchange CRM connector. How do you create email
attachment - this is the main discussion topic. We’ll
use C#.Net.
Explanation :
In Exchange handler/event sink you create Activity of email
type in MS CRM and one of the tasks is transfer the attachment(s)
from the body of the incoming email to the attachment(s)
in the Activity. You can realize it through direct access
to Microsoft CRM DB. Let’s see C# code:
-
First we are getting access to the letter via ExOLEDB:
CDO.Message iMessage
= new CDO.MessageClass();
CDO.IBodyPart iPrt;
iMessage.DataSource.Open(bstrURLItem,
null,
ADODB.ConnectModeEnum.adModeRead,
ADODB.RecordCreateOptionsEnum.adFailIfNotExists,
ADODB.RecordOpenOptionsEnum.adOpenSource,
"",
"");
2. Next – we come through the attachment
list, get their names and save their bodies into temporary
catalogue:
for(int
i =
1; i <=
aNum;
i++) {
string
fName =
iMessage.Attachments[i].FileName;
string eName
= fName.Substring(fName.Length-3, 3).ToUpper();
log.Debug("Attachment: "
+ fName);
iPrt =
iMessage.Attachments[i];
string attName
= Path.GetTempPath() + fName;
iPrt.SaveToFile(attName);
attachments.Add(Guid.NewGuid(), attName);
iPrt = null;
}
3. Then we cycle through the cache, containing
attachments info and add them to the Activity created:
if (attachments != null) {
ICollection keys =
attachments.Keys;
int attCounter
= 0;
foreach (Guid o
in keys) {
string
attName =
(string)(attachments[o]);
crmConnector.AddAttachmentToActivity(emailId, attName, (new
FileInfo
(attName)).Length, attCounter);
File.Delete(attName);
attCounter++;
}
}
4. Here is the method of adding attachment
to Activity:
public
Guid AddAttachmentToActivity(Guid emailId,
string filename, long
filesize, int
attachmentNumber) {
try
{
log.Debug("Prepare for Mail Activity Attachment Creating");
// BizUser proxy object
Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.BizUser bizUser
= new
Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.BizUser();
ICredentials credentials
= new NetworkCredential(sysUserId,
sysPassword,
sysDomain);
bizUser.Url =
crmDir + "BizUser.srf";
bizUser.Credentials =
credentials;
Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.CUserAuth userAuth
=
bizUser.WhoAmI();
// CRMActivityAttachment proxy object
Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.CRMActivityAttachment
activityAttachment =
new
Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.CRMActivityAttachment();
activityAttachment.Credentials
= credentials;
activityAttachment.Url
= crmDir +
"CRMActivityAttachment.srf";
// Set up the XML string for the activity attachment
string
strXml =
"<activitymimeattachment>";
strXml +=
"<subject>Activity 1</subject>";
strXml +=
"<attachmentnumber>"
+ attachmentNumber +
"</attachmentnumber>";
strXml +=
"<activityid>"
+ emailId.ToString("B") +
"</activityid>";
strXml +=
"</activitymimeattachment>";
// Create the activity attachment
Guid attachmentId
= new Guid(activityAttachment.Create(userAuth,
strXml));
log.Debug("Create Attachemnt ID: "
+ attachmentId.ToString("B"));
UploadFileToDB(attachmentId, filename, filesize);
return
attachmentId;
}
catch
(System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException e) {
log.Debug("ErrorMessage: "
+ e.Message +
" " + e.Detail.OuterXml +
" Source: "
+ e.Source);
}
catch
(Exception e) {
log.Debug(e.Message +
"\r\n"
+ e.StackTrace);
}
return new
Guid();
}
5. Main problem, however is attachment
body adding to MS CRM database. Main requirement is –
attachment must be encoded as BASE64 stream and its length
must be specified correctly together with Nine Type and
file name of the file it will be knows as an attachment
in activity. Let’s look at the C# code:
public void
UploadFileToDB(Guid attachmentId,
string filename, long filesize)
{
string
contentType =
"application/octet-stream";
try {
Hashtable mimes
= LoadMimeDB(Environment.SystemDirectory +
"/Albaspectrum/ContentType.txt");
if
(mimes != null) {
string
tmpContentType
= GetMimeType(mimes, filename);
if
(tmpContentType != null
∓∓ !tmpContentType.Equals(""))
contentType
= tmpContentType;
}
byte[] memoryData
= new byte[filesize];
FileStream fs
= new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open,
FileAccess.Read);
BinaryReader reader
= new BinaryReader(fs);
reader.Read(memoryData,
0, (int)filesize);
reader.Close();
fs.Close();
OleDbCommand command
= conn.CreateCommand();
command.CommandText
= "UPDATE ActivityMimeAttachment
SET FileSize =
(?), MimeType = (?), FileName = (?), Body = (?) WHERE
ActivityMimeAttachmentId = (?)";
command.Prepare();
command.Parameters.Add(new
OleDbParameter("FileSize", filesize));
command.Parameters.Add(new
OleDbParameter("MimeType",
contentType));
command.Parameters.Add(new
OleDbParameter("FileName",
new
FileInfo (filename).Name));
command.Parameters.Add(new
OleDbParameter("Body",
Convert.ToBase64String(memoryData,
0, (int)filesize)));
command.Parameters.Add(new
OleDbParameter
("ActivityMimeAttachmentId", attachmentId));
log.Debug("Prepare to upload attachemnt "
+
attachmentId.ToString("B") +
" in ActivityMimeAttachment");
command.ExecuteNonQuery();
memoryData = null;
}
catch
(Exception e) {
log.Debug(e.Message +
"\r\n" + e.StackTrace);
}
}
6. File ContectType.txt is matching list
of the files extensions and their mime-type in the following
format:
asc application/pgp-encrypted Armored Encrypted file
(PGP)
asd application/astound Autosave file
(Word for Windows)
asm PC ASM File
asn application/astound
etc.
Happy customizing, implementing and modifying! If you want
us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com
About Boris Makushkin :
Boris Makushkin is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum
Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft
Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston,
San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas,
Atlanta, Miami, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Moscow and
Europe and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is
Microsoft CRM SDK, C#, VB.Net, SQL, Oracle, Unix developer.
Other articles :
Search