Dynamics CRM 2015 implemented a new system-wide alerts to inform you of issues with things like the Server-side Sync process. They appear in the user interface as a yellow bar at the top of the page, as you can see below:
Clicking the View Alerts button will take you to the Alerts view where you may review the individual alerts.
At this point I am not certain what will be alerted on, besides issues with Server-Side Sync, but those for sure are there.
Viewing Alerts
The actual Alerts view is on the Dynamics CRM user interface at the end of the Sales Area:
The rather fascinating thing about Alerts, is that they are not actually Alerts, they are Traces. So, when you are working with Advanced Find, you need to use the Traces entity.
Programmatic Access and Automation
The Traces (Alerts) entity is actually called TraceLog, which is the entity name to use when writing code using the Dynamics CRM SDK.
Traces are fairly locked-down so here are some of things you can do with the entity:
- Create a workflow to trigger on the Traces entity
- Perform a query using Advanced Find
- In the SDK TraceLog is listed a “internal use only” but it appears you may use the SDK to perform standard CRUD operations. NOTE: I have not tested this.
Security
Privileges for the Traces entity are found on the Core Records tab:
It would appear that everyone can Create, Read, and Append Trace records, but only the System Administrator role can delete them. Since these are standard security roles, you should be able to change these settings if you wish.
Conclusion
Traces are a very interesting addition to the Dynamics CRM platform and I need to get more information from Microsoft as to its intended use and if we as developers can actually create alerts that may be seen by the System Administrator.
That will be my next step, when I have time.