I was updating my web site last weekend and realized that I am coming up on the two year anniversary of the release of SnapShot! for Dynamics CRM so I thought I would add a little more background around how SnapShot! came to be.
In the Beginning
SnapShot! was actually created as an spin-off from my JavaScript conversion utility, Transformer! I had just finished an update to Transformer! when I realized that there was a lot of code used to extract specific data from Dynamics CRM.
I had always wanted to create a documentation tool that went beyond just extracting the metadata. So, I went through all of my existing Dynamics CRM-related applications and exacted any code that was used to pull data from Dynamics CRM, created a new reporting framework, combined all of the existing code with some new code, and SnapShot! was born.
Here are the reporting points for SnapShot! v1.0 for Dynamics CRM:
- System Settings
- Entities
- Fields
- Relationships
- Views
- Forms
- Option Sets
- Security Roles
- Field Security
- Solutions
- Web Resources
- Plugins
- Processes
- Templates
- Business units
- Users
- Teams
- Queues
Here and Now
Fast forward to today and SnapShot! is on version 3.3 and how contains the following reporting components:
- System Settings
- Entities
- Fields
- Relationships
- Views (with and without detail)
- Forms
- Option Sets
- Connection Roles
- Field Security Profiles
- Field Permissions
- Solutions
- Web Resources
- JScript Library Usage
- JScript function reference
- List of JavaScript functions found in each web resource
- Plugin Assemblies
- Plugin Steps
- Custom Workflow Activities
- Processes
- Templates
- Business Units
- Security Roles (with and without detail and with or without a dump of the raw data)
- User Security Privileges (with and without detail and with or without a dump of the raw data)
- Users
- Teams
- User and Team Security Roles
- Team Membership
- Queues
- User settings
- Email Configuration Analysis
- Auditing Summary
While it may not look like it, just by comparing the two lists, but the current version of SnapShot! probably extracts four or five times the amount of data as did version 1.0.
What is Next?
I continue to add new functionality and refine the reports as I encounter new requirements while working with both customers and partners.
If you have any feedback on how to make SnapShot! a better product, then please let me know.
