Be Sure You’re Ready—Dynamics CRM 2016 Deprecation Announcements
As improved functionality is announced, Microsoft may decide to deprecate older functionality. When a CRM feature is announced as deprecated Microsoft will remove it in the future, but not immediately. Microsoft always has provided advance notice so we can be ready to make adjustments needed to transition. Deprecated items still work and are still fully supported until the next major release.
When you have an existing deployment of Dynamics CRM to update you need to avoid an unexpected disruption. You’ll want to begin using newer capabilities for new CRM-related work. Then, begin planning (and implementing) changes to your existing deployment using the improved features well before you upgrade.
Here’s a quick laundry list of deprecated items announced with Dynamics CRM 2016 Service Pack 1 and Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update in the order we think is of greatest interest.
The Use legacy form rendering option will be removed
- If you currently have the Use legacy form rendering option set to on, you’ll want to be sure to turn this option off and start testing your forms to see if you will need to repair/redesign any of your CRM forms that exhibit issues. Deployments with complex forms and/or forms using Web Resource scripts could have issues rendering after this option is turned off. See: Removal of legacy form rendering option
- Deprecation of some Knowledgebase management entities (there’s a new KnowlegeArticle entity in CRM 2016) See: Knowledge management entities deprecation
- Older Android versions no longer supported. See: Removal of support for some Android versions
- The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 endpoint will be removed; See: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 endpoint
- The Microsoft Dynamics CRM List component for integration with SharePoint is deprecated. See: Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component is deprecated
- Updates to the CRM SDK assemblies; See: Updates to the CRM SDK assemblies
You can find details in-depth on MSDN and TechNet:
- TechNet: Important changes coming in future releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
TechNet focuses changes of interest to CRM administrators and IT professionals
- MSDN: Important changes coming in future releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
MSDN focuses on areas of interest to CRM developers
Optimally, you’ll want to use a Dev and Test instance of CRM to develop and test changes that may be needed in your Deployment based on these upcoming changes.
