CRM Integration does not work with latest Microsoft Dynamics 365 release

[rgiordano]

Hello everybody.
We setup a 3CX server-side integration with Dynamics 365 online but the "click-to-call" feature of the browser extension does not work properly.
We enabled the "convert phone numbers on website/crm to clickable links" option in the extenion's options but we are experiencing issues with the latest version of Dynamics 365 online, based on the new "Unified Interface" of the CRM:
1) when the user is browsing a CRM view (a list of records), clicking on a phone number actually open the 3CX web client but then the user is redirected to https://[crmdomain].crm4.dynamics.com/[clicked_number] getting a 404 from the CRM web server. I think this is because in views the new Dynamics 365 version embeds phone numbers into a <a> html tag and the 3CX is changing the href attribute.
2) when the user is seeing a CRM form (the detail of a single record), clicking on a phone number does NOT triggers any action. I think this is because in forms the new Dynamics 365 version embed the phone number into an <input> tag that is not replaced by the 3CX browser extension.

Our client is evaluating 3CX for his CRM telephone integration but these problem are pushing him away from this solution.
As I said I think this wasn't a problem with previous versions of Dynamics 365 so I'm not sure the developers are aware of the issue. Please note that very soon all instances of Dynamics 365 online will be automatically updated to the latest version from Microsoft so the problem could became a lot bigger very soon.

I'm here if you need more technical details or information.
Thank you

 

[Evolute IT]

@Constantinos Constantinou @edossantos Those are your departments I believe!

 

[rgiordano]

Hello guys, news about this one?
Thank you

 

[edossantos]

When the CRM renders the page with specific behaviour when clicking a phone number, the 3CX extension can't change that behaviour. 3CX can only convert numbers to click to call links when they're plain text.

In the particular case of Dynamics, we're aware of the limitation.

When you are in the contact form you see this:


Clicking on the phone number changes it to a text box, so you can edit it:



We can't change that behaviour. But if you click on the Phone icon on the right, you will call that number using the "tel" protocol. Then, if you have the 3CX client for Windows, the browser will ask you if you want to use it to make that call:




When you are in the contact list page, the numbers by default are converted to click to call links with Skype:


However, this can be changed from Dynamics > Settings > System > Administration > System Settings, and changing these values:
- Set Skype for Business Options > No
- Set the telephony provider > Skype for Business / Lync

Then, these links will be "tel" URIs, and again you will be able to call them with the 3CX client for Windows, which supports this protocol:




So, with some adjustments to the configuration, you can get click to call working with the 3CX client for Windows.

 

[rgiordano]

Hello @edossantos thank you for the clarification.
I understand that as for now the user have to have BOTH the windows client (in order to handle the tel: url) AND the chrome extensions client (in order to have the "call popup" feature working) installed but in this case, when there is an incoming call, BOTH of the clients popup and ring, providing a terrible user experience.

Do you know if:
- it's possibile to get the call popup feature with the windows client, without having to install the chrome extension
- it's possibile to prevent one of the clients to popup and ring when a new incoming call is received


Finally, just a suggestion: I think that if you could make the browsers extension to intercept any tel: request you would end up with a much cleaner solution that could solve all these issues and allows developers to exactly tell which is a phone number and which is not.

Thank you

 

[edossantos]

- it's possibile to get the call popup feature with the windows client, without having to install the chrome extension

No, popups can only be triggered by the Chrome Extension or the Web Client. Not by the Windows client.

- it's possibile to prevent one of the clients to popup and ring when a new incoming call is received

You can configure one client in CTI mode and the other in softphone mode, but both will ring.

 

[rgiordano]

@edossantos so basically there is no way to prevent this issue right? I think you should at least mention that in your site (https://www.3cx.com/docs/dynamics-crm-integration/) because typically Microsoft Dynamics 365 is used in Enterprise scenarios where this kind of issue are not acceptable and the client could discover it after he already implemented the whole system. That said, thank for your help, at least we know that we can stop trying to solve it.

 

[edossantos]

There might be a different way if you have resources to investigate a bit. I remember that in previous versions of Dynamics (I'm talking about Dynamics CRM 4 on premise, but could be still valid), you could customize the system adding menus and toolbar buttons. These menus could receive contact's details, like the phone number. So it would be possible to add a custom toolbar button, which gets the phone number and launches the Web Client URL in a new browser tab:
https://my-pbx.example.com:5001/webclient/#/call?phone=1234567890

 

[rgiordano]

@edossantos of course this is possibile but you should add a button of every telephone field of every entity and still, the user could find confusing that pressing the "phone" icon near the number does not behave as expected