What's new in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework
This article provides a list of features introduced in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework versions 1.0 and 2.0.
What's new in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 2.0
Important
All APIs released for Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 1.0 can be used with the latest version. The APIs for managing tabs and sessions are not supported on single session apps.
Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 2.0 provides multiple enhancements over version 1.0, particularly in terms of its ability to integrate with the latest multisession agent experiences for customer service. Following are the key new features in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 2.0 over Channel Integration Framework 1.0.
Integration with multisession experiences
Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 2.0 provides APIs to integrate with the multisession experiences in the Omnichannel for Dynamics 365 Customer Service app. These APIs allow providers to show notifications on incoming conversations with relevant information, start new sessions for conversations, and open application tabs as needed. For more information, see Integration with multisession experiences.
More information: Microsoft.CIFramework methods
New modes and locations for the communication widget
Providers can now define experiences for the minimized mode of the communication widgets they build. Agents can manually change the mode of the control from docked to minimized. The same can be achieved programmatically as well.
More information:
Support for multiple providers
With Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 2.0, organizations can configure multiple providers in the Omnichannel for Customer Service app. Agents can simultaneously work on multiple sessions for different customers across various channels such as live chat and telephony, with each session belonging to a different provider.
More information: Support for multiple providers
Channel Analytics
The contact center analytics need operational and conversational data to provide historical and real-time insights into the performance of the contact center. To get precise insights into the call center performance, the analysts need data from the following sources:
- CRM transactional data: The data about the customers, their cases, their journey, and all round relationship with the organizations. The value is stored in Microsoft Dataverse.
- Communication Data: The data about the interactions (intended, ongoing, and completed) with known and unknown customers.
- Agent Behavior Data: The data about the behavior of agents before, during, and after the interactions.
Channel Analytics in the Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework, provides a model to build a consistent, seamless, and unified experience when it comes to channel-related analytics and insights.
More information: Channel Analytics
Important
For the complete list of features introduced in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 2.0, see the 2019 release wave 2 plan here: Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework.
What's new in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 1.0
This section provides a list of new features introduced for Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 1.0.
JavaScript Channel Integration Framework APIs
| JavaScript API | Description |
|---|---|
| Microsoft.CIFramework.getEntityMetadata | Returns the entity metadata for the specified entity. |
| Microsoft.CIFramework.renderSearchPage | Allows you to search among the records of a particular entity type. This API opens the Unified Interface entity page with the search field on it prepopulated with the search string that is passed as a parameter. |
Ability to pass Dynamics 365 URL to widget library
To access the Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework APIs, you need to load the msdyn_cilibrary.js file inside your communication widget. Since the widget is in a different domain, the JavaScript API library needs to identify the Dynamics 365 domain to interact. To enable the communication between the different domains, you must pass your Dynamics 365 instance URL to the widget library.
There are two ways to pass the URL to the widget library:
- By adding attributes to a script tag.
- By adding a parameter
ucilibin the URL.
More information: Pass a Dynamics 365 URL to a widget library
Ability to add another trusted domain
Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework allows you to add other trusted domains if the initial landing URL and the final domain from which the communication widget is hosted are different.
More information: Configure channel provider in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework
Custom Parameters field in the Channel provider configuration
Custom Parameters field takes a text blob as input and Microsoft.CIFramework.getEnvironment returns this as a value of key customParams.
More information: Configure channel provider in Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework