Introduction

Welcome to Alive5 Integration Guides. Here you will find how to connect your Alive5 account with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.

CRM Connection

To get started with Dynamics CRM integration, you will need a Dynamics CRM account connected to Alive5.

Steps to configure Dynamics account:

Select the Integrations button in the far bottom right on the main dashboard. (see figure)

A new screen will appear. Click on the Dynamics tab and select the Connect MS Dynamics Account

A dialog box as shown below will appear on the screen. Choose a version according to the instance of Dynamics 365.

In case of the ‘On Prem (Custom Domains)’ version, the following pop-up will appear:

Provide your Username, Application URL, & Password. Now click the Connect button. Username is usually the email address in case of Dynamics 365 cloud instances, however, for IFD (Internet Facing Deployment) username is a combination of the domain name and username like (Domain\username)

For the ‘365 Cloud (Microsoft Domains)’ version, pop-up will be displayed as shown below

Go to https://login.microsoftonline.com/ and pick your account to login to Dynamics. Then provide your password as shown below

After logging in to your account, choose the respective app.It will be redirected to that Dynamics 365 app.

Application URL can then be grabbed from the redirected url. For instance, if we select Dynamics 365 we are redirected to “https://orgc14c5c1f.crm.dynamics.com/main.aspx?appid=xxxxxxxxxxx........”.

Application URL in this case would be “https://orgc14c5c1f.crm.dynamics.com/”. Provide this “Application URL” and click the “Connect” button.

For the ‘365 Cloud (Dataverse Application User)’ version, pop-up will be displayed as shown below

Enter in the required fields:

Application URL: The URL of the Microsoft Dynamics Instance (Ex: https://alive5.crm.dynamics.com)
App Id: The Application (client) ID of the Azure Connected App (Microsoft Azure > App registrations)
Client Secret: The Secret ID of the Application (Alive5 Application > Certificates & secrets > Client secrets)
Tenant Id: The Azure Active Directory Tenant ID (Microsoft Azure > Properties

For Azure Application Registration, Setting Microsoft Dynamics CRM API permissions and Creating a Secret ID, follow this link Alive5 - MS Dynamics CRM Dataverse User

If the correct credentials have been entered, you will be redirected back to the alive5 page with the status connected.

Once the account is synced, go to the SMS or Live Chat applications to begin using the CRM integration.

If you are connected to your Dynamics Account, then on the right Panel click the second or “Info” tab and here you will find the “Connect with Dynamics CRM” button.

When you click on the Connect with Dynamics CRM button, a popup window will appear where you can search or create records and entities. By default, the search and record creation forms will pull in the following information from the visitors profile:

Phone Number
Email
Full Name

Integration Settings

In this section, you can set your search and create preferences for default entities (account, contact and lead) i.e. whether to allow search and creation of records or not. In addition, there is an option to “Allow Auto Chat Push” which is explained in the coming section.

Steps to configure these settings:

Click on the

image button as shown below

A new form will appear (referenced below)

This form has the following fields.

Allow Account Search: If “checked”, you will be able to search ‘Accounts’. If “unchecked”, you will not be able to search ‘Accounts’. By default, it is checked.
Allow Account Creation: If “checked”, you will be able to create a new ‘Account’, otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Allow Contact Search: If “checked”, you will be able to search ‘Contacts’, otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Allow Contact Creation: If “checked”, you will be able to create a new ‘Contact’, otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Allow Lead Search: If “checked”, you will be able to search ‘Leads’, otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Allow Lead Creation: If “checked”, you will be able to create a new ‘Lead’, otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Search Order (Drag to reorder): This feature allows users to set the search order preference on the basis of three fields (phone, email and full name) according to their requirements.

* Note: Working of Search Order is explained in detail below.

Allow New Creation: If this field is “checked”, a new activity is created whenever new SMS comes either from agent or the visitor along with previous messages (whole payload). On the contrary, if this option is “unchecked”, messages keep appending to the same existing activity whenever new SMS is sent by the agent or the visitor.

* Note: Working of this feature is explained in detail at the end of this section.

Allow Activity Closing: If this is marked as “checked”, activity will be closed/completed immediately after pushing conversations when tagging that SMS/Chats to an existing or new record. In case of SMS, whenever a new SMS is sent/received a brand new activity is created after a gap of 24 hour that remains closed if ‘allow closing’ is still checked. Otherwise, a new activity is created which remains open and all new SMS (excluding previous ones) are appended to this activity. However, in case of Chats every time new activity is created and that activity is marked as closed/completed.

* Note: When marking this field as “checked”, the user has to select ‘Task’ under ‘Save Chats To’ because by default chats are saved to ‘Notes’ and ‘Notes’ doesn’t have the option to be marked as closed. Therefore, it will give following error: the 'setstatedynamicentity' method does not support entities of type 'annotation'.

Chats Save To: This feature enables the user to save the chat/SMS as activity which in turn can be of three types: Notes, Task and Custom Activity Type.

* Note: This feature is explained in detail at the end of this section.

Allow Truncating: It enables users to truncate the chat/SMS activity from start, by default, by specifying the truncate limit in the respective field. The activity can be truncated from end as well by enabling ‘Truncate From End’ checkbox.

* Note: If enabled, a truncate limit must be specified.

Allow Fetch CRM Data: If “checked”, it will fetch records from dynamics with the same phone number as used for creating new SMS.

* Note: Allow Fetch CRM Data is explained in detail at the end of this section.

Allow Auto SMS Push: If ‘Allow Auto SMS Push’ is marked as “checked”, SMS will be tagged automatically to the very first record fetched from Dynamics on the basis of a set of Entity Field to Map against the selected Entity from the default ones. For instance, you can select the entity ‘Contact’, its field ‘telephone1’ and ‘emailaddress1’ which refers to the ‘business phone’ and ‘email’ field respectively. By doing so, it will take visitors' phone number and find the corresponding record from the Contact section of Dynamics having the same phone number. If no record is found, it will pick the email address to search for. In another scenario, when the phone is not provided, email will be used and vice versa. On success, it tags SMS conversation to this record.

Push To All Records: If “checked” along with “Allow Auto SMS Push”, SMS conversation will be pushed to all records found in MS Dynamics on the basis of preferences set for “Entity Field To Map”.

Allow Auto Chat Push: If “checked”, form will appear like this

* Note: Allow Auto Chat Push is explained in detail at the end of this section.

Allow Creation: If “checked” along with “Allow Auto Chat Push”, a new record will be created against the selected Entity in MS Dynamics having FullName as provided by the visitor.

Push To All Records: If “checked” along with “Allow Auto Chat Push”, chat will be pushed to all records found in Dynamics on the basis of preferences set for “Entity Field To Map”.

* Note: When “Push To All” and “Allow Creation” are both enabled and there are no records in the CRM with the same Phone(Entity Field To Map) then a new record is created else chat is pushed to all records found.

SMS Opt-In - Entity: If “checked”, it will push the value of opt-in against current SMS contact to the external CRM. You will be required to choose the entity against whose field you want to push SMS Opt-In value.

SMS Opt-In - Field Name: If you choose an SMS Opt-In entity, form will appear as above where you will be required to check the Opt-In option to provide the Field Name (API Name) on the basis of phone number (Business, Home, Mobile or Alternate Phone).

Search Order (Drag To Reorder) Explanation

Assume that user sets the search order as following:

phone
email
full name

SCENARIO#1: WHEN ALL THREE FIELDS ARE POPULATED

In this scenario, whenever search is done it will pick visitors' phone number and search for Dynamics records matching that phone number and display them to the user. In case there exists no record with that phone number, alive5 will continue the search for records but this time for records having the same email as that of the visitor. Furthermore, if there are no records whose email matches the visitor's email, the system will search for records having the same full name as of the visitor.

SCENARIO#2: WHEN NOT ALL THREE FIELDS ARE POPULATED

In case, user has not provided a phone number, alive5 will search for records on the basis of email. Furthermore, if the user has not provided both phone and email, the system will search for records on the basis of full name.

SYSTEM FETCHES RECORDS ON BASIS OF PHONE NUMBER

SYSTEM FETCHES RECORDS ON BASIS OF EMAIL ADDRESS

SYSTEM FETCHES RECORDS ON BASIS OF FULLNAME

Allow New Creation For Activity

When this field is “unchecked”, messages keep appending to the same existing activity as shown below.

When this field is marked as “checked”, new activity is created when new messages are sent either by the agent or the visitor as shown in the screenshot below.

Chats Save To

Notes: Notes are selected by default. All the chat/SMS transcripts will be saved into the Notes entity.

Task: Select this option if you want to save chat transcripts into Activities > Task. In this case, the user has to provide ‘Activity Type Name’ as “Task” otherwise it will produce an error.

Custom Activity Type: This option enables users to save chat/SMS transcripts into any custom activity. In this case, the user has to provide the name of the custom activity in ‘Activity Type Name’. It could be

Any of three types (already existing):

Or name of custom created entity by the user by following these steps (Example: “test”):

Go to Menu and click Settings.
Then click Customizations. Click Customize the System.
New window will pop-up. Click Entities and then New.
Fill in the mandatory fields and mark Define as an activity entity as checked.
Click save and close.

Allow Fetch CRM Data

This feature allows you to fetch information from Dynamics against the phone number used to create new SMS. If there exists any record with the same phone number, it grabs the information and auto fills the last name and first name for the user. Otherwise, remain empty when allowing fetch CRM data is “unchecked”.

On the other hand, when this feature is enabled, information from Dynamics is fetched and fields are auto filled with respective data.

Allow Auto Chat Push

This feature enables you to automatically tag a chat to one or more records based on your preferences and the visitor's information. Additionally, it allows you to create a new record if none exists. You need to choose a channel, an entity and its corresponding set of entity fields to map. Choosing a channel from the dropdown list allows you to limit pushing your chats only if the chat automation channel matches that of the widget.

The field identifier allows setting the priority on the basis of three fields (phone, email and account id). For instance, you can select the entity ‘Contact’, its field ‘Phone’ and ‘Email’ and set the field identifier to 'Phone’, ‘Email’ and then ‘Account id’. By doing so, it will take visitors' phone number and find the corresponding record in the MS Dynamics contacts. In case there is no record with that phone number it will take the email and search for a record. If a record (one or more) is found, the chat thread is pushed to it on ending the chat (either by agent or the visitor). In another scenario, if the phone is not provided by the visitor, Email will be used to search for a record in the MS Dynamics and vice versa. And in case there is no record with those details, a new record will be created if “allow creation” is enabled.

However, in case of manually tagging a chat to a record in Dynamics, the whole conversation is pushed to it.

Default Field Settings

In this section, one can change the default settings i.e., the fields that are mandatory by default can be changed to “required” or “not required”, as per the agents’ requirements, through these settings.

Steps to configure these settings:

Click on the

image button as shown below

A new form will open as shown below. Here you can choose which default fields are required for your organization.

Account Number Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide account number when creating a new Account, otherwise not.
Account Number Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Account Phone Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide a phone number when creating a new Account, otherwise not.
Account Phone Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Account Description Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide a description when creating an Account, otherwise not.
Account Description Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Contact Phone Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide a phone number when creating a Contact, otherwise not.
Contact Phone Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Contact Email Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide an email when creating a Contact, otherwise not.
Contact Email Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Lead Phone Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide a phone number when creating a Lead, otherwise not.
Lead Phone Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Lead Email Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide an email when creating a Lead, otherwise not.
Lead Email Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.
Lead Company Required: If ‘checked’ then the agent will be required to provide a company name when creating a Lead, otherwise not.
Lead Company Show on Form: If ‘checked’ then this field will appear on the form otherwise not. By default, it is checked.

Entity Settings

This part of the integration settings allow users to add an entity (such as opportunity, task, etc.) other than default entities which are Account, Contact and Lead. By adding an entity, users will be able to search corresponding records or create a new one, plus tag chat or SMS and see details in a similar way as for default entities.

Steps to configure these settings:

Click on the

image button as shown below

Following form will appear as shown below.

Entity Display Name: This is the display name visible to agents when using the Dynamics CRM Integration.
Entity Name: It must be spelled the same as it is in the Dynamics CRM.
Primary Field Display Name: This is the display name of the primary field visible to agents when using the Dynamics CRM Integration.
Primary Field Name: It must be spelled the same as it is in the Dynamics CRM.
Allow Record Search: If Yes then you will be able to search records for this newly created entity, otherwise not.
Allow Record Creation: If Yes then you will be able to create records for this newly created entity, otherwise not.

An example: Opportunity

Custom Export Fields

This part of integration settings enables the user to add more fields, which belongs to default or custom added entities, to the record creation form either as a constant variable type or as an input variable type. The constant variable type will push the value of that field set while adding it as export field each time a record is created but will not be visible on the form. On the other hand, input variable type will add the field to the form and let the user enter the value while creating a record. You can make these input variable type fields required for any new records that your agents create to push to your CRM.

Steps to configure these settings:

Click on the

image button as shown below

A new form will appear as shown below.

Field Name: This is the API Field Name spelled exactly the same as it is in the Dynamics CRM.
Entity Type: Select the Entity from the drop down list. This list includes three default entities and the one or more entities added by the agent in the Dynamics CRM entity settings section.
Variable Type: This allows setting the variable type for the field. There are three options:

AliveChat Variable: These are custom variables that can be included from the header of a chat conversation (Location, IP Address, Computer, Referrer URL, Page URL). *This can be customized. Please contact your alive5 representative for this.
Constant: A constant variable type allows setting the value for the field while adding the export field. Each time a record is created the same constant value is pushed. And therefore, this field will not be visible on the form.
Input Field: An input variable type allows to set the value for the field while creating a record unlike constant variable type. This field will appear on the form where the user can provide the value each time a record is created.

Additional field labeled as “Input Field Type” appears on the form in case of ‘constant’ and ‘input field’ variable type.

Input Field Type: After selecting the variable type either ‘constant’ or ‘input field’, the user has to select the data type for the field from the available options. These are the eight different types:

Custom Export Fields – Alive5 Custom Variable

An additional field labeled as “value” appears on the form after selecting entity type, field name and “alive5 custom variable” variable type. It will be a dropdown list of available values/options.

Note:

“Field Name” while adding the export field should be the same as that in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Values against these variables can be passed either through script or URL that is used to initiate a chat. The name of the custom variable in the script or URL should be the same as selected from the dropdown list.

Run the above script and initiate a chat. Once the chat has ended, go to alive5 and click the button “Connect with Dynamics CRM” and go to the “Accounts” tab.

Create a new account and click the ‘Save Account’ button.

Custom Export Fields – Constant Variable Type

Further fields are added on the form after selecting entity type, field name and “constant” variable type. Field with a label as “value” is added for each input field type except for lookup for which “related entity” and “lookup” fields are added to the form.

Currency input field type:

Date input field type:

Lookup input field type:

Option Set input field type:

Status Reason input field type:

Text Box input field type:

Two Options input field type:

Whole Number input field type:

Custom Export Fields – Input Variable Type

Additional fields appear on the form after selecting entity type, field name and “input” variable type. Fields with following labels: “input field label” and “required”, are added for each input field type. Other changes includes following:

In case of currency, textbox and whole number, a field labeled as “max length” is added to the form. User has to provide a numeric value in this field so that input provided by the user while creating a record can be restricted to that particular length.

For date type a checkbox is added to the form with a label “use current date time”. If checked, the current date appears in the date field on record creation form otherwise “mm/dd/yyyy” appears.

In case of lookup, “related entity” and “use lookup optional fields” fields are added to the form.

Furthermore, if checkbox “use lookup optional fields” is checked, form looks like this:

Currency input field type:

Date Time input field type:

Lookup input field type:

Option Set input field type:

Status Reason input field type:

Textbox input field type:

Two Options input field type:

Whole Number input field type:

Drag and Drop Feature for Custom Export Fields

The order in which input type export fields appear on the form can be altered by using drag and drop feature.

icon can be used to drag the target field and drop it to the desired location. Hold the icon and move it upward or downward, then releasing the mouse at the location where that field needs to be on the form.

According to the above example, input type fields will appear in alphabetical order on the form. It should be noted that constant type fields are not added to the record creation form as fields, so their location in the custom export fields settings does not affect the order of input type fields. Form will appear as shown below

Custom Search Fields

By default, the agent can search for a record by “name”, “email” & “phone no”. If you want to search in other fields, then use this option. Just add the field that you want to search/filter. This will add a column in the Search field for your agents to easily see.

(*Adding in a Search Field will add an extra column in the search results. It is recommended to use the Custom Detail Fields)

Steps to configure these settings:

Click on the

image button as shown below

A new form will appear as shown below:

Field Label: Provide the Field Label. This label appears in the search results.
Field Name: Provide the field name. It should be the same as in the CRM.
Entity Type: Select desired entity from the dropdown list on which search criteria needs to be applied.
Search Type: This refers to the data type of the field added in the form. Select the corresponding data type from the dropdown list.

Add Filter Value: This enables the user to apply a filter. It will help fetch only those records that match the filter value.

If the “add filter value” checkbox is marked as “checked”, a field with label “value” will appear on the form requiring the user to provide the filter value.

However, in case of search type “lookup” fields labeled as “related entity name” and “value” will be added and the form will appear like this:

Custom Search Fields – “Add Filter Value” as “Unchecked”

Adding a search field without applying filters will help the agent to fetch records using value from the field (added as search field) as the search value. For instance, adding a currency type “revenue” field for entity Account will enable the user to search records on the basis of annual revenue. If the user types 500 in the search input field, all records from the entity Account where annual revenue is 500 will be fetched.

Custom Search Fields – “Add Filter Value” as “Checked”

Adding a search field with “add filter value” as checked will help the agent to fetch only those records which meet the filter criteria. In this scenario, users can use any value belonging to any field as a search value. This feature is meant to limit the records fetched. For instance, adding a currency type “revenue” field for entity Account with 500 as the filter value will fetch only those records whose annual revenue is 500.

Result of searching records using “umer” as the search value without applying filter:

Result of searching records using “umer” as the search value when filter value of 500 as annual revenue is applied:

Drag and Drop Feature for Custom Search Fields

The order in which search fields appear on the search form can be altered by using drag and drop feature.

Altering the positions of the fields like this

will yield following output

Custom Detail Fields

The purpose of custom detail fields is to show the detailed information of the records other than default detail fields for each entity which are as following:

Account - account name, account number, phone and description
Contact - name, email and phone
Lead - name, company, phone and email

Steps to configure these settings:

Click on the

image button as shown below

A new form will pop up:

Label: Provide the Field Label. This label appears in the detail view window.
Field Name: Provide the field name. It should be the same as in the CRM.
Entity Type: Select desired entity from the dropdown list for which detail field needs to be added.
Field Type: This refers to the data type of the field added in the form. Select the corresponding data type from the dropdown list.

Add Filter Value: This enables the user to apply a filter. It will help fetch only those records that match the filter value.

If the “add filter value” checkbox is marked as “checked”, a field with label “value” will appear on the form requiring the user to provide the filter value.

However, in case of search type “lookup” fields labeled as “related entity name” and “value” will be added and the form will appear like this:

Detailed information can be seen by clicking the detail icon

under the Action column at the end of the search results. You can add as many detail fields as needed.

By clicking the Details Icon

the “detail view” window will appear and show information against each default as well as a custom added detail field for records fetched for that particular entity (for which detail fields are added).

Custom Detail Fields – “Add Filter Value” as “Unchecked”

Adding a detail field without applying filters will help agents to view detail regarding that particular field in the detail view. Additionally, just like a custom search field, users can also search a record on the basis of a value that belongs to the detail field added to the form. For instance, adding a currency type “revenue” field for entity Account will enable the user to see the value of annual revenue against each record that is fetched in its respective detail view.

It will also enable the user to search records using annual revenue value. The figure below shows two records fetched where annual revenue value equal to 500 is used as a search term.

Custom Detail Fields – “Add Filter Value” as “Checked”

Adding a detail field with “add filter value” as checked will help the agent to fetch only those records which meet the filter criteria. In this scenario, the user can use any value belonging to any field as a search value. This feature is meant to limit the records fetched. For instance, adding a currency type “revenue” field for entity Account with 500 as the filter value will fetch only those records whose annual revenue is 500.

Result of searching records using “umer” as the search value without applying filter:

Result of searching records using “umer” as the search value when filter value of 500 as annual revenue is applied:

Drag and Drop Feature for Custom Detail Fields

The order in which detail fields appear on the detail view form can be altered by using drag and drop feature.

According to the above example, a field labeled “Revenue” will appear first, then followed by “Industry” and “Primary Contact” on the detail view form. It will appear as shown below

Backend Fields

This part of integration settings enables the user to add backend fields which belong to default or custom added entities either as a constant variable type or as an input variable type. Back End Fields allow the user to push data for specific fields to your Dynamics CRM automatically whenever a chat transcript ends, an SMS is pushed, or a new Entity is created. The constant variable type will push the value of that field set while adding it as a backend field. On the other hand, input variable type will add the field to the form and let the user enter the value while creating a record or tagging a chat or SMS.

Steps to configure these settings:

Click on the

image button as shown below

A new form will appear as shown below:

Name: This is the API Field Name spelled exactly the same as it is in the Dynamics CRM.
Entity Type: Select the Entity from the drop down list. This list includes three default entities and the one or more entities added by the agent in the Dynamics CRM entity settings section.
Variable Type: This allows setting the variable type for the field. There are two options:

Constant: A constant variable type allows setting the value for the field while adding the backend field. Each time a record is created or tagged the same constant value is pushed. And therefore, this field will not be visible on the form.
Input Field: An input variable type allows setting the value for the field while creating or tagging a record unlike constant variable type. This field will appear on the form where the user can provide the value.

Field Type: After selecting the variable type, the user has to select the data type for the field from the available options. These are the eight different types:

Overwrite Existing Record: Backend fields will overwrite anything previously entered in these fields if the checkbox labeled as “overwrite existing record” is marked as checked.

Backend Fields – Constant Variable Type

Further fields are added on the form after selecting field name, entity type, “constant” variable type and field type. Field with a label as “field value” is added for each input field type except for lookup for which “entity” and “lookup” fields are added to the form.

Currency field type:

Date Time field type:

Lookup field type:

Option Set field type:

Status Reason field type:

Text Box field type:

Two Options field type:

Whole Number field type:

Backend Fields – Input Variable Type

Additional fields labeled as “field label” appear on the form after selecting field name, entity type, “input field” variable type and field type. This is the user's preferred name of the field, visible to the operator. This additional field is added to the form for all field types except lookup.

In case of lookup, “entity” and “use lookup optional fields” fields are added to the form.

Furthermore, if checkbox “use lookup optional fields” is checked, form looks like this:

After adding backend fields as input variable type for entity “contact”, following window with backend fields will appear on creating new record or tagging existing record:

Drag and Drop Feature for Backend Fields

The order in which fields appear on the backend fields form can be altered by using drag and drop feature.

According to the above example, a field labeled “Primary Contact” will appear at the top, then followed by “Industry” and “Revenue” on the backend fields form. It should be noted that constant type fields are not added to the backend fields form, so their location in the backend fields settings does not affect the order of input type backend fields. These fields will appear in the order as shown below

Pushing SMS / Chats

A SMS / Chat is automatically pushed whenever a new record is created. Additionally, to manually push SMS / Chat, go to the SMS or chat section, click the info tab and then, click Connect with Dynamics button. A popup window will appear as shown below.

After searching a record, a tag icon

appears under the Action column beside each search result which can be used to tag a chat/SMS. In the case of an SMS, you just click this icon to push the SMS to Dynamics CRM.