Walkthrough 1: Build a simple agent application

This walkthrough demonstrates how to set up a basic agent application from scratch using Unified Service Desk that can connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This agent application provides you with an empty desktop without any functionality, and you can use it when you go through the rest of the walkthroughs in this section. In this walkthrough, you’ll use the Unified Service Desk configuration to filter out existing controls in the base package from appearing in your agent application.

Prerequisites

• A Unified Service Desk package must be deployed on your CRM instance, and the Unified Service Desk client application must already be installed to test the application at the end of the walkthrough. More information: TechNet: Install and Deploy Unified Service Desk

• You must have required CRM permissions to configure Unified Service Desk and access the required CRM entities. More information: TechNet: Security in Unified Service Desk

• You must be familiar with the following concepts in Unified Service Desk:

  • Unified Service Desk Hosted Controls

  • These three types of hosted controls: Connection Manager, Global Manager, and Panel Layout. More information: Hosted control types and action/event reference

  • Filter access using Unified Service Desk. More information: TechNet: Manage access using Unified Service Desk configuration

In This Walkthrough

Step 1: Create the basic hosted controls

Step 2: Add the hosted controls to a configuration

Step 3: Assign users to the configuration

Step 4: Test the application

Conclusion

Step 1: Create the basic hosted controls

Create the following three types of hosted control so that the application can connect to an instance of CRM: Connection Manager, Global Manager, and Panel Type.

1. Sign in to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

2. Go to Settings > Unified Service Desk. (How do I get there?)

3. Click Hosted Controls.

4. Click New.

5. On the New Hosted Control page, specify the following values.

   Field	Value
   Name	Contoso Connection Manager
   Sort Order	1
   USD Component Type	Connection Manager

   

6. Click Save.

7. Click New to create another hosted control.

8. On the New Hosted Control page, specify the following values.

   Field	Value
   Name	Contoso Global Manager
   Sort Order	2
   USD Component Type	Global Manager

   

9. Click Save.

10. Click New to create another hosted control.

11. On the New Hosted Control page, specify the following values.

    Field	Value
    Name	Contoso Main Panel Layout
    USD Component Type	Panel Layout
    Panel Type	Standard Main Panel
    Application is Dynamic	No
    User Can Close	Unchecked

    

12. Click Save.

Important

If you don’t create a Panel Layout type of hosted control in your agent application, the default panel layout, Standard Main Panel, is created automatically when you run the client application.

Step 2: Add the hosted controls to a configuration

A configuration in Unified Service Desk helps you filter access to components that are displayed in the agent application to a user. In this step, create a configuration, and then add the hosted controls created earlier to the configuration.

1. Sign in to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

2. Go to Settings > Unified Service Desk. (How do I get there?)

3. Click Configuration.

4. Click New.

5. On the New Configuration page, type Contoso Configuration as the name of the configuration, and click Save.

6. After the new configuration is saved, on the nav bar, click the down arrow next to the configuration name, and then select Hosted Controls.

7. Click Add Existing Hosted Control, type Contoso in the search bar, and then press ENTER or click the search icon.

8. The three hosted controls added earlier display in the search results. Click the Look up more Records link.

9. Select the three hosted controls, click Select, and then click Add.

   

10. The hosted controls are added to the configuration. Click Save.

Step 3: Assign users to the configuration

In this step, assign users to the configuration so that when they sign in using the Unified Service Desk client application, they can only access the three hosted controls that are added to this configuration. For this walkthrough, assign only a single user to the configuration who will be testing the application at the end of the walkthrough.

1. On the nav bar, click the down arrow next to the Contoso Configuration, and then select Assigned Users.

2. On the next page, click Add Existing User, type the name of the user in the search bar, and then press ENTER or click the search icon.

3. From the search result, click the user name that you want to be assigned to the configuration. The user is added to the configuration. In this case, assign Randy Blythe to the configuration. Click Save.

   

Step 4: Test the application

Start the Unified Service Desk client application, and sign in to the CRM instance where you configured Unified Service Desk using the same user credentials that you assigned to the Contoso Configuration in the previous step. More information: TechNet: Connect to CRM instance using the Unified Service Desk client.

Your agent application will look like the following.

The desktop in the agent application is empty because no other controls were added to Contoso Configuration apart from the hosted controls required for setting up a basic agent application. In the rest of the walkthroughs, you’ll see controls appear in the agent application as you progressively configure and add controls to Contoso Configuration.

Conclusion

In this walkthrough, you saw how to quickly build a basic agent application that can connect to an instance of CRM. You also learned how to filter access to Unified Service Desk controls using configuration.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough 2: Display an external webpage in your agent application
Walkthrough 3: Display Microsoft Dynamics CRM records in your agent application
Walkthrough 4: Display a Microsoft Dynamics CRM record in a session in your agent application
Walkthrough 5: Display enhanced session information by displaying session name and overview data
Walkthrough 6: Configure the Debugger hosted control in your agent application
Walkthrough 7: Configure agent scripting in your agent application

Other Resources

Unified Service Desk configuration walkthroughs
TechNet: Administration Guide for Unified Service Desk for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Unified Service Desk
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