Tips and Tricks from R.J., the SalesLogix Consultant

As WWW functionality changes over the years (OK, months or minutes in Mozilla version time), we often have to brush off and update old code. It became time to come up with a way to send an email message from the SLX LAN client without using Outlook, MAPI, etc. or a connection to a valid Mail Server. The methodology chosen was SMTP via one’s Gmail account using a Microsoft technology called CDO.

Creating SalesLogix ID’s through T-SQL (only)

(And in the process demystifying SalesLogix Key field ID values)

This blog post was originally published on QGate KnowledgeBase, June 19, 2007.

A lot of records are being stored by your users in various SalesLogix tables. This can put a strain on Hard Drive Space (at $100/Tb, is this an issue?), Hard Drive Speed (how about those new 300Gb Solid State drives?), SQL Server RAM (the ideal is to put the entire SLX database into RAM), and user data retrievals. Microsoft SQL Server is geared to handling millions of records. Having said that, splitting up its resources amongst VMWares and/or databases reduces its handling capabilities. Going to one database running on its own machine with Quad Core processors and 16+ Gb of RAM will improve most SQL Server centric systems, of which SalesLogix certainly fits that category.

The SalesLogix Data Grid Control doesn't have a query builder or SortBy property available. So, how do you sort the data for the grid to create a more relevant display of information for the user?

The SalesLogix Associations table was developed from Day 1 (15 years ago!) to hold one pair of relationships between either two contacts or two accounts. Many of you have tweaked this to hold more than one pair of relationships (e.g., "Your Mother could also be your Boss?!" or "An Ace Hardware member store might be owned by Ace Hardware itself?," etc.); and in some cases even Opportunity, et al. relationships (e.g., Master Project, Contract, Opportunity and related Projects, Contracts, or Deals).

Nine Killers to a Successful SalesLogix (SLX) Install

1. Install Media is not local to the machine. Network traffic, routers, and firewalls can raise havoc reading large install files across the Ether.
2. Logged in as anybody who is not a Local Administrator (it doesn’t matter if you are god of the domain admin, you must be a local to the machine admin).
3. Install the Network Client for Admin/Architect installs. I am pretty sure an Admin/Architect install is missing crucial pieces, like the SLX OLE DB Provider Client.
4. Install the Correct SQL Server Client for both the install machine (32 or 64 bit) and target SQL Server: 2005, 2008, 2008 R2. That’s six separate installs from Microsoft, so make sure you install the correct one.
5. If you are on a Windows 7 box, UAC must be turned off.
6. Turn off the antivirus and antispyware stuff.
7. Turn off other applications.
8. Install the latest Windows hotfixes and updates, restart the machine (did I mention you can’t install this on a Mac OS or Linux box?). IE 7 or better is suggested.
9. Old SLX applications should be uninstalled. Not required, but personally I feel better scrubbing the SalesLogix program files and removing all registry settings as well. Then restart the machine.

Data in SalesLogix CRM can change, sometimes leaving a user in a state of flux.

We often get requests for a list of values in the SalesLogix CRM Picklists. There are some neat Crystal Reports and dump-to-Excel-workbooks kinds of utilities out there, but here’s how to do it the old fashioned way: via SQL Statement and T-SQL.

Many SalesLogix LAN installers are having trouble connecting the Network Client to the SLX OLE DB Provider. Since SQL Server 2005 was released, any client access to SQL Server requires the SQL Server Native Client to be installed on the client machine. This harkens back to the SQL Server 7 days of the SQL Server Client install from the SQL Server SERVER CD (which warned you that you were trying to install a Server product on a Desktop machine before giving you the option of only installing the SQL Server Client).