Configuring CRM.connectLive

You can configure CRM.connectLive by adapting the Configuration.xml file to your needs.

CRM.ConnectLive can be configured to work with multiple CRM systems with different configurations. This allows the user to easily switch between CRM systems. ConnectLive can also be configured to provide the user a choice of languages and select the CRM system he wants to work with on restarting Outlook. All the different configurations can be managed from the configuration.xml file.

DeploymentInfo.xml

The DeploymentInfo.xml file defines the path to the folder used to distribute the configuration files.

For example, this is the path to the folder where CRM.connectLive looks for configuration information when Microsoft Outlook is started. The path must include the name of the XML file that defines the configuration. This allows you to define more than one configuration file. For example, you can define separate configuration files for different user groups. You can also configure ConnectLive to use an external authentication provider.

Example:

In the example the path leads to a local drive. You can also enter an URL using http, https or ftp protocols.

You can also configure the following in the Deploymentinfo.xml file:

ConnectLive.manifest

Using the connectLive.manifest file you can define that available updates are indicated to the user.

The information is entered in the ConnectLive.manifest file. The path to the location of the manifest file must be given in the DeploymentInfo.xml file.

Enter the following information in the connectLive.manifest file:
  • The current version number
  • Whether this update is mandatory (mandatory = true).
  • The URL where the new msi-package is available for download
  • Information about the update.

CRM.connectLive checks this file on start-up whether a newer version is available. If the update is not mandatory, the user can decide whether to install the update.

ConnectLiveConfigGlobal.xml

The ConnectLiveConfigGlobal.xml file contains a copy of the Configuration.xml. Therefore, if you adapt your Configuration.xml file, do not forget to copy the content to the ConnectLiveConfigGlobal.xml.

The ConnectLiveConfigGlobal.xml is added to the client setup file and then stored locally. If the configuration cannot be downloaded from the server, the system accesses the connectLiveConfigGlobal.xml file.

Accessing CRM.connectLive in update.revolution SaaS

If you use CRM.connectLive in combination with update.revolution SaaS, authentication is carried out with the Revolution Access Service (RAS) using HTTP requests. RAS checks the credentials of a user and directs the request to the specific customer instance of Aurea CRM.

The users must enter their e-mail address as user name and their password.

To enable RAS you need to add the following node to the ConnectLiveConfigGlobal.xml file that you can find in the directory:

<revolutionauthentication>
          <ras>https://RAS-Web-Server</ras> Url to the RAS-WEB
          <appid>RasAppID</appid> RAS-Application-ID assigned to the User
          <\revolutionauthentication>

ConnectLiveConfigUser.xml

The connectLiveConfigUser.xml file contains user-specific settings and is stored on the client in the ..\AppData\Roaming\update CRM\connectLive directory.

The connectLiveConfigUser.xml file contains following information:

  • <search infoareas="0,1,2,3,4">: Defines which info areas are searched. By default, all info areas defined in the Configuration.xml are listed in the order they are defined in the Configuration.xml. If this tag does not exist, it is automatically created.
  • <cache=enabled timout=300>: Defines that data is cached on the client. The default cache period is 300 seconds.

ConnectLiveLanguages.xml

The ConnectLiveLanguages.xml file allows you to use use CRM.connectLive in more than the two default languages (German and English). You must enter the translation for each additional language in this file. This file must be stored in the directory given in the DeploymentInfo.xml file.

The user can select the desired language when logging on. The client downloads the language file during startup and stores it in the %appdata%\update\ConnectLive\ directory.

Example:

Configuring Proxy Settings

If a proxy server with authentication is applied, an HTTP error (407) can occur. You can prevent this error by setting the <ProxySettings> xml element.

Example:

<ProxySettings enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="false" 
credentials="C8c/BC4QXJ4ob6OAGbVduxbmL5FG/V5RWYjfUBqs2Lc="/>

The following attributes are available:

  • enabled='true': If set to true, the useDefaultCredentials attribute is checked.
  • useDefaultCredentials='false': If set to true, the default credentials are applied. If set to false, the credentials given in the credentials attribute are applied.
  • credentials='abcxyz': If this attribute is not given or is left empty, no credentials are applied for the proxy. If credentials are given, the encrypted value is decrypted into username and password and then applied to set the NetworkCredential object for the proxy.

Configuring an External Authentication Provider

You can configure ConnectLive to use an external authentication provider to authenticate ConnectLive users. You can enable this by setting the following properties in the <Authentication> element of the Deploymentinfo.xml file:
  • url - The URL of the external authentication provider.
  • showExternalLogin - Set this property to true, to enable external authentication.
  • saveCookies - Setting this to true, enables ConnectLive to use the cookies for subsequent authentication with the external provider, until the cookies expire.

As an example, see the following sample configuration:

<Authentication url="https://crmtest.com/UpdateCRM_web" 
                showExternalLogin="true" 
                saveCookies="true" 
                sendNtlmCredentials="false" 
                sso="true"/>