How to create a custom notification in Dynamics

Question

I am looking in to creating a notification function in Dynamics 365, and to find the best solution, I have began with searching for the possibilities (Javascript/C#/All others). Example: Sending a user a notification that a new lead is created.

Edit:It should be generic and easy to add a new notification. So maybe it should be a workflow step, or connected to an entity.

1. Email notification is already integrated in Dynamics 365

2. Microsoft Graph has a Notification possibility (Only in Beta)

   https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/graph-explorer#

3. Create a custom entity which. And on dashboard add a Web Resource (Javascript) that looks through the entity to find if there are any Records on the current user. If so make a popup.

4. Use Chrome extension to notify user. (Example: https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/bruce365usingdynamics/archive/2017/11/02/announcing-365-notify)

Is there any other possibility you know of?

Or do you have any experience with any of these. What one should go for or not.

Answer 1

Your best bet is Dashboard with Posts in Timeline/social pane. This just need couple of configurations like Post rule, Timeline embedding in Dashboard & user training.

Activity feeds

Activity Timeline

If not, timely workflow or MS Flow to send a digest notification.

Answer 2

1. I would say if you wish to go code less solution then use Workflow and place trigger as you wish. Send an Email to Either team or particular user from this workflow. Just set regarding in Email as Account or Contact or any entity from which you have an Trigger. By this way You can see all these notification in your Social pane timeline as well.
2. If you need some custom logic, Use plugin but in turn call a workflow which will be onDemand workflow and this will only be used to send Email.

There can be different Ideas as well. But we have this in place on one of our productive system and it fulfilles requirement of Notification very well.

Answer 3

Since you specifically want to interact with users within the CRM system, there are a number of simple approaches:

Task Queue (Passive) - Create task records within CRM (these can also sync to Outlook if you want to get fancy). Users review a queue containing all of their tasks. You can similarly assign tasks to teams of users. I recommend this approach for CRM oriented users who have a number of different tasks.

View/Report/Dashboard (Passive) - Create views of records requiring action. Users then review these views on a regular basis. I recommend this approach for non-time sensitive tasks, and tasks executed in bulk across many records.

Email (Active) - Create a workflow with a Send Email step. This is easy to do but could generate a lot of emails which the users may then ignore. I only recommend this approach for rare notifications, or those requiring urgent action.

Emailed Reports (Active) - A hybrid of the second and third approaches, there are third party solutions that will email view results to users on a scheduled basis. This would be my recommendation if you want an active approach without spamming users constantly. These are easy to install and configure and entail a small cost.

Answer 4

In addition to the many viable options offered above (a few of which I was unaware), if the user's daily responsibilities include working with Leads, you might want to keep it super simple - create a My New Leads view and instruct them to check it throughout the day. You could even place this view on a dashboard, making your option 3 redundant.

If the user rarely needs to concern themselves with Leads, the need for a notification strengthens. Assuming that the Lead volume will not flood their inbox, in the interest of simplicity you could start with a workflow email notification.