Navigation¶

The Mobile Client is an extension to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. It can be used by mobile users to work offline and synchronize periodically with the office. The following chapters describe the following subjects:

Basic functionality of the Mobile Client.
Initializing and starting the Mobile Client.
How the Mobile Client synchronizes with the server.
How navigation through the Mobile Client works.
How to use views to display relevant information.
How forms are used in the Mobile Client.

Basics ¶

CWR Mobile CRM is an application installed on the PDA and is found in the “Programs” folder via the start menu. The client has the following functionality:

The Mobile Client can go offline, storing its information in a local database.
The Mobile Client doesn’t require configuration updates after initialization. All updates are automatically transferred when the client synchronizes with the CWR Server.

Initialization ¶

When the Mobile Client is installed, the installation has to be initialized. This means that all basic configuration information is sent to the Mobile Client. When the initialization has been performed, the user can use the Mobile Client.

Upon first starting the Mobile Client, the system will display a message stating that the local database has not been created.

Figure 1: Local database not found

Click on the “OK” in the top-right corner to start the initialization process. The Mobile CRM Setup is started and will guide the user through the initialization process.

Figure 2: Mobile CRM Setup welcome screen

Click “Next” in the bottom menu to continue the setup. The following screen will ask the user for the remote URL where the CWR Server can be found. The screenshot is not representative of your organization, so make sure you have the correct URL available.

Figure 3: Mobile CRM Setup Step 1

Click “Next” in the bottom menu to continue the setup.

The user will be asked to insert his or her credentials. These settings will be used every time the user synchronizes with the office. Again, this screenshot is not representative of your organization, so make sure you have the correct information available.

Figure 4: Mobile CRM Setup Step 2

Click “Next” in the bottom menu to continue the setup. At this point, the user is validated as a legitimate Mobile User. If the user is not a valid mobile user, an error message is displayed. Contact the administrator of the Mobile Client. On the following screen, the user is asked to place the database file in a specific location. The default location is the “My Documents” folder on the PDA. The database can be placed at any location, like a memory card.

Figure 5: Mobile CRM Setup step 3

Click “Next” in the bottom menu to continue the setup. When the user clicks on the “Next” button, the wizard is ready to connect to the CWR Server, retrieve all the configuration data and initialize the Mobile Client. Before clicking “Next”, make sure you have a stable connection to the CWR Server. This is essential for a correct initialization.

Figure 6: Mobile CRM Setup ready to initialize

Click “Next” to start the initialization process.

Figure 7: Initializing the Mobile Client

The initialization process can take a while to complete. A message is displayed when the process is complete.

Figure 8: Successfully initialized

Click on the “OK” in the top-right corner to finish the initialization process. The CWR Mobile CRM Client will start automatically and the Sync screen will show.

Interface ¶

Navigation ¶

The first screen to open when the application is started is the main navigation. It consists of the following components:

Main navigation tabs to switch to and from the workplace to other sections of the application. In Figure 9 these tabs are “Workplace” and “Service”.
Sub navigation tabs that give access to the underlying data and are placed under the main navigation.
On- or offline status of the application. (See chapter “Working on- and offline” for more information)
Access to the Synchronization Manager. (See chapter “Synchronization”)
Access to the general menu.

Figure 9: Main Navigation Screen

Menu ¶

The menu of the navigation contains the following options:

Exit: Quit the application.
Info: View information about the installation and versions of the application and database.
Options: To the “Options” panel. More information in chapter “Options”.
Go on- or offline: Take the application on- and offline with this menu item.

Views ¶

Views are a way to filter and view the information in an entity, like accounts, in a user-friendly way. A view exists of a set of columns and a filter to show only relevant data. An example of a view is “My active accounts”. All accounts have an owner, and the view displays only accounts with the user as owner. This is called a filter. The columns in this example are “Account Name” and “Main Phone”. If the columns cannot fit on the screen, side scrolling bars become available at the bottom of the view.

When there are more results than the amount of lines on the screen, it’s possible to navigate to the second page by using the arrow signs at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 10: Account View

To view all the views that are available for an entity, click on “Menu” and “Views”.

Search and find ¶

Besides using views to filter data, it’s also possible to search the view. The search box is shown above the view in Figure 10 “Account View”. The administrator that maintains the views can determine which fields have to be searched when a mobile user searches for information. The administrator also determines which fields are displayed in the views. It’s not possible to update this information from the Mobile Client.

Menus ¶

The menu of a view contains the following options:

Refresh the view: This updates the view and resets to page one.
Navigate: Navigate to previous, next or first result screen. These options are available if there are more results available than can fit on the screen.
Views: All views defined for that entity.
Delete: Remove one or more records by selecting them and clicking “Delete”.
Close: Close the view and return to the main navigation.

Activities view ¶

There is a special view available to display a different activity types. This view is similar in look and feel to a regular one, with the difference that it’s possible to view and create the following activities:

Appointments.
Case Resolutions.
E-mails.
Phone calls.
Service Activities.
Tasks.

Figure 11: Activities view

Forms ¶

Forms display information about a record. For instance the entity “Account” and field “Account Name”. The user can open the form of a record from the view by clicking on it. An example:

The user starts the Mobile Client and navigates to the “My Accounts” view. The user clicks on an account and the form for that account opens.

Figure 12: Account form

Navigation ¶

To navigate through the form a number of options are available:

The scrollbar on the right side of the screen.
Tabs.

Tabs have the same functionality as tabs in Microsoft CRM. Tabs are used to switch between different information sets in the form. In Figure 12 “Account form” there are three tabs available, named “General”, “Details” and “Administration”. When the user clicks on the tab, that tab is displayed.

Menus ¶

Figure 13: Form menu

The menu of a form contains the following options:

Refresh: Refreshes all fields on the form. If the user updates the form and doesn’t save it, the modifications will be reverted to its previous state.
Cancel: Modification of the form is cancelled and the form is closed.
Save: Saves the form. This function is also available with the “Disk” icon below the top menu.
Delete: Deletes the record.
Properties: Displays the access rights of the record, the synchronization status and if an issue has occurred during synchronization.
Related: Any related views. More information, see chapter “Related views”.

Mandatory, business recommended and optional fields ¶

The administrator can set the type of fields, but also make them mandatory, business recommended or optional. They can be distinguished by their color.

Mandatory fields: These fields are displayed in bold and have a red color. When the Mobile User leaves this field empty, the Mobile Client will display a message stating that the field is empty.
Business recommended fields: These fields are displayed in bold and have a blue color. When the Mobile User leaves this field empty, the Mobile Client will not display a message.
Optional fields: These fields are displayed as normal text and do not have to be filled in.

Field types ¶

There are different types of fields that are available on a form. These fields are configured by an administrator and cannot be changed on the Mobile Client. The following list describes all the available fields and shows how the field looks like on the Mobile Client:

Open text field: In these types of fields Mobile Users can type anything. The administrator can set the maximum amount of characters the Mobile User can type. An example of an open text field is “Account name” or “Job title”.

Memo fields: Memo fields are large open text fields that are designed for displaying large amounts of text. The administrator can set the size of the field. An example of a memo field is “Description”.

Number fields: These fields are for inserting numbers only. An example of a number field is “Number of employees”.

Currency fields: These fields are for inserting amounts only, like “Annual revenue”. The localization of the Mobile User determines which currency symbol is used.

Picklist fields: A picklist is a list of defined number of choices the Mobile User can make. An example of a picklist field is “Relationship type”.

Date/Time fields: Date/Time fields are fields that can be used for displaying dates and/or times. This means that administrators can determine if only the date or time or both are displayed. An example of a date only field is “Birthday”. An example of a date/time field is “Appointment start”.

Telephone fields: These fields are similar to Open Text Fields, with the addition of the ability to directly call the number in the field. An example of this field is “Mobile Phone” or “Work Phone”.
A call box is open when the Mobile User clicks-and-holds the field. This is shown in the following figure.

Note: When the Mobile User clicks “Call…”, a new Phone Call activity is automatically created.

URL and E-mail fields: These fields are similar to Open Text Fields, with the addition of the ability to open the URL in a web browser and send an E-mail via Pocket Outlook. An example for this field is “E-mail address” and “Web Site”.

Boolean fields: A Boolean field is a field with two options, mostly “Yes/No”. Only one option can be set, so its value is either a yes or no. An example of this field is “Send Marketing Material”.

Lookup fields: A lookup field is a special type of field, because it links a single other record to the form. An example of this field is “Primary contact” on the account form. The contact is a different type of record, but through the “Primary contact” it is linked to the account.
It’s not possible to type in this field. The field is filled in by clicking on the search icon on the right side of the form.

After the Mobile User clicks the lookup icon, the following screen is displayed:

The Mobile User can click on a record and click “Select”. The record will be connected to the lookup field on the form.

If the value has to be removed, the Mobile User can click on the “Menu” “Select None”. The lookup field is then cleared.

Party list fields: A party list field is a lookup field where multiple records of multiple types can be linked to the form. An example of this field is “Required attendees” in the appointment activity.
This means that the Mobile User can link an account and contact to the form.

It’s not possible to type in this field. The field is filled in by clicking on the search icon on the right side of the form. When the user clicks on the search icon, the following display is shown:

It’s possible to link different types of records to the party list. This is done by selecting the type of record in the picklist. This picklist is positioned above the search.

Note: If the picklist field is not editable, it’s not possible to link other entities.

Records are added by selecting the record and clicking “Add” (See the figure above). When all records have been added, click on “OK”.

Related views ¶

Entities can be related to each other, like contacts and accounts. An example is that a contact can have one or more accounts. In this case, the contact is a primary contact at all these accounts. All related accounts are shown in the “Related” view in the contact. The following figures are meant to illustrate this example.

Figure 14: Related view

It’s possible that more than one related view has been created by the administrator. This has been done to filter the related view in much the same way as a regular view. (See chapter “Views”). To open other related views, open the related view and click on “Menu” and “Views”.

Note: If the menu item “Related” is grayed out, no related views have been created for this form.

It’s possible to create a new related record by clicking on the button “New” in the bottom menu (See Figure 14). This opens a new record, in this example an Account. After saving, the Account is displayed in the related view. The Mobile User can then select this record. It will then be related to the Contact.

Options ¶

It’s possible to change certain configuration options for the Mobile Client. These options can be found in the main navigation “Menu” and “Options” button. The following options are available for configuration:

Connection:

CRM Server: The location of the server. This field is not editable.
Username: The mobile username. This field is not editable.
Password: The password of the mobile user. When the mobile users’ password changes, it’s possible to update the password in this field.
Domain: The domain name of the user. This field is not editable.
Organization: The CRM organization name. This field is not editable.

Synchronization:

Work Offline: A checkbox. When ticked, the client is offline.
Always check for data updates: When this checkbox is ticked, the Mobile Client will synchronize the latest updates when a user opens a view. More information in chapter“Options”.
Enable background sync: When this checkbox is ticked, the Mobile Client will automatically synchronize in the background with the server, without user intervention. More information in chapter “Options”.
Sync interval: The interval at which the Mobile Client synchronizes the Mobile Client. The default setting is 15 minutes. The following settings are available:
- 5 minutes.
- 15 minutes.
- 30 minutes.
- 60 minutes.

Application:

Database location: The location of the content database used by the Mobile Client.
Attachment location: The location where attachments are stored.
Records per page: How many records there are displayed in the views. The following settings are available:
- 10 records.
- 20 records.
- 50 records.
- 100 records.
Logging level: The amount of information logged to the server from the Mobile Client. The following settings are available:
- Off: No errors are logged.
- Error: Only errors are logged.
- Info: All information is logged. This setting is only meant for development purposes, because of the amount of log entries it creates.
Search mode:
- No wildcard: No wildcard characters are added to a search query in the view.
- Wildcard prefix: A wildcard character is added in front of a search query.
- Wildcard suffix: A wildcard character is added behind a search query.
- Full wildcard: Two wildcard characters are added; one in front and in behind a search query.

More information about wildcard searching, see the next chapter.

Figure 15: Mobile Client options

Wildcard searching ¶

A wildcard character is used to substitute any other character or characters in a search query. The asterisk (*) substitutes as a wildcard character for any zero or more characters, meaning that it’s possible to search, for example companies, without knowing the full name of the company.

The following examples describe the differences with each wildcard setting.

No wildcard.
No asterisk is added to the search query. This means that the full search query has to be given or no results will be returned. An example:
The Mobile User wants to find the company “CWR Mobility”, but the user only remembers “CWR”. The Mobile User searches for CWR, but no results are returned, because the full company name must be inserted.
Wildcard prefix.
An asterisk is added before the search query. An example:
The Mobile User wants to find the company “CWR Mobility”, but the user only remembers “Mobility”. The Mobile User searches for “Mobility”, and the result “CWR Mobility” is found.
Wildcard suffix.
An asterisk is added before the search query. An example:
The Mobile User wants to find the company “CWR Mobility”, but the user only remembers “CWR”. The Mobile User searches for “CWR”, and the result “CWR Mobility” is found.
Full wildcard.
An asterisk is added before and after the search query. An example:
The Mobile User wants to find the company “CWR Mobility”, but the user only remembers “Mobi”. The Mobile User searches for “Mobi”, and the result “CWR Mobility” is found. This is because the wildcards replaced all characters before and after “Mobi”.

Uploading and viewing attachments ¶

CWR Mobile CRM is able to upload and relate attachments to records. This is accomplished by adding a related view (See chapter “Related views”). An example: A Mobile User received a document on his PDA. He wants to attach this file to the Account it’s related to. He will perform the following steps:

Open the Account where the note will be related to.
Click “Menu”, “Related” and “Notes”.
Click “New” to create a new note.
Fill in the required fields and attach a document to the note.
Click on the “Upload” icon to upload the document.
Save and close the note.

The following figures show the default Note entity.

Figure 16: Note form

Working on- and offline ¶

It’s possible for a mobile user to work on- and offline. The on- or offline status is displayed in the application by a green, blue, red or gray bar above the bottom menu. When the bar is green, the Mobile Client is online and connected to the server. The blue bar means that the application is looking for a connection to the server. A red bar indicates that the Mobile Client cannot find the server and a gray bar means the Mobile Client is set to offline.

Setting a Mobile Client offline is possible by going to the main navigation screen and clicking on “Menu” and “Go Offline”. The Mobile Client will ask the user if a last synchronization is required. After that, the client is offline and will have to be placed online manually. This can be accomplished by once again clicking on “Menu” and “Go Online”.

Figure 17: On- or offline status

Synchronization ¶

Synchronization is a process where data is exchanged between the server and the Mobile Client. There are two ways to synchronize data:

Automatic synchronization: The Mobile Client is synchronized every 15 minutes (Default) when the client is used in online mode. It’s possible to modify these settings. (Chapter “Options”)
Manual synchronization: The user manually starts synchronizing by clicking “Start Sync” in the Synchronization Manager.
To synchronize the client, navigate to the main screen and click on “Sync”. This opens the Synchronization Manager as displayed in the following figure.

Figure 18: Synchronization manager

Note: When the Mobile Client has been initialized, there is no data stored in the local database. To use any data from the server, synchronization must be performed first. There are three tabs available for the user:

Entities: In this tab, the user can choose which entities are synchronized. This means that synchronization time can be cut back when a mobile user unticks some of the checkboxes. When the next synchronization has occurred, this list is updated and all checkboxes will be ticked again.
Sync: The main tab where the synchronization status and progress is displayed.
Sync Issues: Items shown in this tab have failed to synchronize to the server. These issues have produced an error that the user must resolve before it’s to be sent again.

Note: For an explanation of how tabs work, see chapter “Navigation”.

Options ¶

The options can be found in the main navigation “Menu” and “Options” button. There are a number of configuration considerations to make. These are described in the following list:

If cost (Data plans) is a concern:

Activate the “Work Offline” option.
Do not activate “Always check for data updates” option. More information in chapter “Check for data updates”.
Do not activate “Enable BackgroundSync”.

If regular up-to-date information is a concern:

Do not activate “Work Offline” option.
Activate the “Always check for data updates” option. More information in chapter “Check for data updates”.
Activate “Enable BackgroundSync”.

Check for data updates ¶

The option "Always check for data updates" should only be used when you want real-time updates from the server. This means that every time you open a view or a form, it checks the server for updated information. It negatively affects the performance and slows down the application, so only use it when this functionality is really necessary.

Note: There is a difference between client and server updates. When using "Work Online" changes made on the client are immediately sent to the CRM server. This has no relation with changes received from the server. The background synchronization or the explicit synchronization using the Sync manager is used for retrieving changes from the server. If you require up-to-date information (but don't necessarily have to work online) from the server to the client, then you should enable the background synchronization.

When you synchronize using the “Enable BackgroundSync” option, both client and server changes are synchronized. If the mobile user is working offline and synchronization occurs, the queued client changes are sent to the server. Then the server changes are sent back to the client.

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