Cobalt Iterates on Dynamics CRM Snapshot with Deep Cloning, Rollbacks, Backups – MSDynamicsWorld.com
Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner and app developer Cobalt has been rapidly iterating on its Dynamics CRM Snapshot offering, a deep clone, backup, and rollback tool for Dynamics CRM and Dynamics CRM Online. And it’s free.
The company rolled out its Dynamics CRM Snapshot in April and has collected considerable feedback since then, says Lead Architect of R&D Michael Ochs.
“Deep copy was a lot of the feedback we got,” says Ochs, “like to be able to copy related records as well as the parent record. It was 2D before when you could copy just the one record, now 3D for the record and related children.”
This update in turn enables three new features:
- Configurable deep backup: Not only is the ability to back up child records available in Dynamics CRM Snapshot 3D, but it is configurable for the relationships you want to back up as well as which fields you with to include or exclude.
- Deep rollback, with the ability to fully restore a deep backup with a single click, or pick and choose the backups you want to restore. Because Snapshots are hierarchical (see image), users can visualize exactly what data is in the backup and select nodes of the hierarchy to restore.
- Configurable deep clone enables you to create copies of existing records, excluding fields you do not wish to copy and including related records using custom workflows.
CRM Snapshot arose out of an internal development contest, and based on the success of Snapshot, Cobalt rebranded the contest as The CRM Lab @ Cobalt. The contest began as an incubator program for ideas that come from internal and external stakeholders to solve common end-user problems in CRM. The CRM Lab has just released its first experiment, which addresses the top-most-voted enhancement on MS Connect, being to build “Not In” or “Does Not Have” queries in the Advanced Find tool that comes with Dynamics CRM.
A feature that Cobalt rolled out just this week for Snapshot is the Audit Rollback. Should a record be accidentally deleted in Dynamics CRM, you can restore any record in CRM from an audit entry by navigating to Settings Settings > Audit Rollback. With the filters available, you can limit results to a certain entity, a given operation (create, update or delete), and a date filter for when the change took place.
Regarding deep clones, Ochs says “Copying records and related records is a huge bonus in the 3D release.” He described a typical scenario of billing customers from CRM once a year, “And maybe you just want to recreate an invoice and all related products.” Configurable deep clone enables that. “Make a few adjustments and you’re done,” says Ochs.
CRM Snapshot 3D is available from Cobalt’s download page, and says Ochs. It installs in minutes, and right over the earlier release (1.1 forward) without interruption or data loss. While Dynamics CRM Snapshot 3D is no cost, the company also offers three premium solutions including Engagement Dynamics for marketing; Membership Dynamics for membership-driven organizations; and Certification Dynamics.