The Portal Connector Release Notes -

Release Notes - Version 4.3

New Features

  • Virtual Entity Support

    Support for the new virtual entities in Dynamics 365. Virtual entities in Dynamics 365 provide configurators the option to consume OData services, providing a window into the data returned by any of these web services. The Portal Connector in turn can display the read only data from any Dynamics CRM virtual entity.
    vertual-entity

  • New Knowledge Base Support

    New widgets that provide tighter integration with the Unified Service Desk and the new Knowledge Base article structure. This feature offers built in integration for searching and displaying of Knowledge Base articles from both types of knowledge article providers.
    Knowledge Base Revamp Preview

  • Dynamics 365/CRM Activities Widget

    The TPC Activity Feed widget allows for the activity feed from Dynamics CRM to be displayed on a TPC form.

    This widget allows you to view, add, edit and delete activities related to the record. Permissions of these operations are fully customizable per-activity type and custom activity types are also enabled.
    Dynamics 365/CRM Activities Widget

  • Multi-Select Picklists

    Updated the MVC Picklist widget to support multi-select picklists in newer versions of Dynamics CRM. Selecting a multi-select picklist in the widget designer enables the appropriate UI changes for the widget.
    Multi-Select Picklist

  • Inline MVC Template Editor

    The Portal Connector 4.3 introduces a new template editor for all The Portal Connector MVC widgets.

    Editing any view that each TPC widget uses can be done completely within the designer itself. The template editor is complete with syntax highlighting and basic code completion to assist you in bridging the differences between the out of the box presentation and your branding.
    Inline MVC Template Editor

Feature Enhancements

  • Added Loading Indicator to Template Editor

    Added loading indicator to template editor to display after a template is saved or deleted. This adds a visual indicator to wait for binding to complete.

  • Added remove_click to JS API

    Added remove_click to JS API on the TPC Registration, TPC User Invite, TPC Pay Button and TPC Submit button widgets.

  • TPC Pay Button Clear Cart Before Add

    Added new setting to clear cart before adding a product in the TPC Pay Button widget.

  • MVC form Session Variable Support

    Added support to retrieve entity records from a session variable.

  • TPC Subgrid Field Value Filtering

    Added Field Value filtering support to the TPC SubGrid widget that allows you to filter data from CRM on the server-side based on other fields on the form.

  • Page Designer Edit Form Button

    Added a button to Page designers that allow you to open a form for edit from within the page designer without having to navigate back to the Sitefinity backend.

  • reCAPTCHA Support for Registration Widgets

    Added reCAPTCHA support for the TPC Registration and TPC User Invite widgets.

  • TPC Text Field Read Only Formatting

    Added formatting capabilities to the TPC Text Field when in read only mode so users can format the data retrieved from Dynamics CRM in a style that they require.

  • TPC Static Value Session Variable Support

    Added support to the TPC Static Value widget to load and submit values from the Session.

  • No Lock Queries

    All queries that run through The Portal Connector are now marked as "NoLock" for performance reasons. This can be disabled by setting the NoLock property yourself before it hits the TPC API.

  • New naming scheme for builds

    The way builds are named on the download page has been changed to include the complete Sitefinity build number. This change will make the downloaded file name easier to understand especially when you have multiple versions downloaded.

  • Identity Object Roles

    Added roles to the TPC Identity object so users can now perform additional filtering and design decisions during run-time through JavaScript.

  • Rules Manager Enhancements

    - Added the ability enable and disable required field status from all applicable TPC field widgets via the Rules Manager designer.
    - Added the ability to hide/show/toggle form layout sections via the Rules Manager designer.
    - Added the filters tab to the Rules Manager designer so users can make use of the built in TPC filters from within the rules.
    - Improved support for Picklist fields.
    - Added initial support for Lookup fields

  • Pre-select First TPC Lookup Value

    Added a configuration option to pre-select the first value in the TPC Lookup widget.

  • TPC Lists Blank Item

    Added an option to the TPC Lookup and TPC Picklist widgets that removes the blank option from the datasource forcing the user to select an item when required.

  • TPC Client Side API Enhancement

    Added the ability to programmatically attach and detach click event handlers to the TPC Submit button, TPC Pay Button, TPC User Invite and TPC Registration widgets.

  • TPC Text Field Links

    Added functionality to the TPC Text Field that provides the ability to treat the data returned from CRM as a Hyperlink or mailing address. This feature automatically wraps an anchor tag around the data with the appropriate styles.

  • TPC DateTime Current Date

    Added the ability to prepopulate the TPC DateTime widget with the current date and time depending on the selection of views in the designer.

  • Field Tooltips

    Added tool-tip capabilities to all TPC MVC widgets that have inputs. You can now define hover tool-tips to be used in the frontend from within the designer of the widget.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed performance issue creating users on Sitefinity sites with lots of users.
  • Fixed typo in EnableBootstrapStyles property on all widgets.
  • Fixed issue where no indication message would be presented to the user when resubmitting failed form submissions to Dynamics CRM.
  • Fixed issue preventing N:N records from being associated to each other correctly on multi layer forms.
  • Fixed issue that occurred when navigating between pages using the browser buttons causing encoded data to be visible in the TPC input fields.
  • Fixed issue where the TPC Registration and TPC Invite widget were not following the Regular expression rules defined in Sitefinity for passwords.
  • Fixed issues where the browser back button would not behave as expected when redirecting from a TPC Submit Button or from a Grid.
  • Fixed issue where The Portal Connector was not compatible with multiple profile types in Sitefinity.
  • Fixed concurrency issues with The Portal Connector web services. Greatly increased the performance throughput capabilities across the board for all Dynamics CRM data services.
  • Fixed caching issues for the TPC Form widget that prevented any caching from being performed at all on the server side. This greatly increases the TTFB performance per user.
  • Fixed issue in the TPC designers where data would be lost randomly depending on the speed of the computer and bandwidth.
  • Fixed issue where TPC Error Logs would not be published and instead be left as Draft.
  • Fixed issue affecting the styling of the accelerators page when using Sitefinity 10 and above.
  • Fixed issue where the TPC Static Value widget designer could get out of sync with the design options the user selected.
  • Fixed issues where widget designers would clear label customizations when opened up for a subsequent time.
  • Fixed issue where all TPC page widgets would get their translations based on the connecting system user instead of the current page culture. All page widgets will now default to the page culture language if applicable and then fall back to the CRM system user culture.
  • Fixed issue where the SubmitForm property on the TPC Workflow button didn't do anything.
  • Fixed issue that executed multiple workflows when multiple TPC Workflow widgets were on the same form.
  • Removed the option to filter by field value on widgets that did not support that functionality.
  • Fixed issue where the TPC Validator would not correctly validate TPC Lookup fields on submission
  • Fixed and issue where the TPC Lookup widget would auto select the first value in the list when the page posts back after validation or otherwise.
  • Fixed issue with DST in the TPC Date Time widget causing dates not to match between the front-end portal and Dynamics CRM when the time zones of the user are the same.
  • Fixed issue with Form Configuration not showing relationships tab when certain designer configurations are set
  • Fixed issue where deactivating a Portal User record doesn't deactivate the Sitefinity user account.
  • Fixed issue causing the TPC File Upload widget to not rename files after successfully uploading to SharePoint

Known Issues

  • Templates cannot be saved when hosted on Azure as a WebApp

    Due to the applications restricted access to the file system on Azure WebApp instances, the template editor is unable to save templates.

    Actions Required:
    Templates can still selected and edited but attempting to save will display an error. In order to use templates created or edited by the template editor, you must copy the code into a text file and upload it to the server manually. Once uploaded, it can then be selected in the widget designer.

​Breaking Changes

  • Forms containing Rules Manager widgets broken after upgrade

    Displaying a form that contains a rules manager widget throws an error after upgrading to The Portal Connector 4.3. This is due to changes made to the backing model to better support PickList fields.

    Actions Required:

    This issue is resolved by opening the designer for the Rules Manager and then saving.

    • In the Sitefinity back end, navigate to the forms page.
    • Find the form that contains the Rules Manager widget and click it to edit it.
      • If you are unsure of which form needs to be updated, open the page that contains the form in the back end and use the Edit Form link on the TPC Form Manager to open the form used on a page.
    • Find the Rules Manager widget and chick its Edit link to open its designer.
    • Save the designer
    • Publish the form
    When you open the designer, the widget gathers the missing information needed to allow the Rules Manager to correctly function. This will need to be done for each form that contains a Rules Manager widget.

  • Additional steps required if using custom templates

    If you created or modified widget templates prior to version 4.3 of The Portal Connector, you may need to follow some additional steps to set these templates. If you have no custom templates, no action is required.

    Actions Required:
    Custom widget templates created in previous versions of TPC can be stored in /Views/{Widget Name} or /Mvc/Views/{Widget Name} folders of Sitefinity. Previously, either location was valid and the template would be found and used. Starting from TPC 4.3, templates must be in the /Mvc/Views/{Widget Name} folder for the editor to find it.

    To update an existing template to work with the template editor, do the following:

    • Rename the template to match the naming convention
      • For example: If you are creating a custom Read only template for the TpcTextField form widget named MyTemplate, its name would be Read.MyTemplate.cshtml
    • Check that the template is in the correct folder
      • Templates must be in the /Mvc/Views/{Widget Name} folder
      • Move the file to the correct folder, if needed
    • Open the page or form that uses the custom template.
      • Find the widget and click the Edit link to open its designer.
      • Click the Templates section at the bottom of the designer to expand it.
      • Select the template from the dropdown for that template view type.
        • If you do not see the template, verify its name and location match what is described here. If you are still having trouble, please contact support at support@crmportalconnector.com
      • Save the designer and publish the page or form.
    • Verify the page or form is using the selected template.