Important changes in Dynamics 365 (Version 9)

In recent versions of MS CRM there are lot of changes or modification done by Microsoft as well few things are get deprecated. Below are important changes done Dynamics 365 latest version for development point of view.

While development of the latest version we should be careful about deprecated methods of API. The deprecated client APIs will continue to be available and supported until they are officially removed from a future major release of Dynamics 365.

The changes listed below are not all of them, I am trying to list down here only those which we always use while development. Complete list is listed with the URL- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/get-started/whats-new/customer-engagement/important-changes-coming

Xrm.Page. context Changes

Deprecated API	Replacement API
Xrm.Page.context.getTimeZoneOffsetMinutes	globalContext.userSettings.getTimeZoneOffsetMinutes
Xrm.Page.context.getUserId	globalContext.userSettings.userId
Xrm.Page.context.getUserLcid	globalContext.userSetings.languageId
Xrm.Page.context.getUserName	globalContext.userSettings.userName
Xrm.Page.context.getUserRoles	globalContext.userSettings.securityRoles
Xrm.Page.context.getIsAutoSaveEnabled	globalContext.organizationSettings.isAutoSaveEnabled
Xrm.Page.context.getOrgLcid	globalContext.organizationSettings.languageId
Xrm.Page.context.getOrgUniqueName	globalContext.organizationSettings.uniqueName
Xrm.Page.data.entity.getDataXml	No change in the method, but use "typename" instead of type for lookup attributes.

Grid Methods Changes

Deprecated API	Replacement API	Description
GridRow.getData	GridRow.data	GridRow is essentially a form context. This change unifies the interface of GridRow with formContext.
GridRowData.getEntity	GridRowData.entity	GridRowData is form data. This change unifies the interface of GridRowData with formContextData.

Xrm.Utility Changes

Deprecated API	Replacement API	Description
Xrm.Utility.alertDialog	Xrm.Navigation.openAlertDialog	The new signature is consistent with other APIs (openForm) and takes a new set of parameters for flexibility.
Xrm.Utility.confirmDialog	Xrm.Navigation.openConfirmDialog	The new signature is consistent with other APIs (openForm) and takes a new set of parameters for flexibility.
Xrm.Utility.isActivityType	Xrm.Utility.getEntityMetadata	The isActivityType method is synchronous so it was suitable for ribbon rules. However, the replacement method, getEntityMetadata, is asynchronous, and is not suitable for ribbon rules.
Xrm.Utility.openEntityForm	Xrm.Navigation.openForm	Moving navigation actions to Xrm.Navigation
Xrm.Utility.openQuickCreate	Xrm.Navigation.openForm	Moving navigation actions to Xrm.Navigation
Xrm.Utility.openWebResource	Xrm.Navigation.openWebResource	Moving navigation actions to Xrm.Navigation Note: This API returns VOID in Unified Interface.

New client APIs

Here is a list of new namespaces in this release that contains new and some existing methods that are moved under these namespaces for an enhanced object model design.

New Namespace	Description
Xrm.Device	Provides methods to use native device capabilities of mobile devices.
Xrm.Encoding	Provides methods to encode strings.
Xrm.Navigation	Provides navigation-related methods.
Xrm.WebApi	Provides properties and methods to use Web API to create and manage records and execute Web API actions and functions.

The following new APIs were introduced in the existing namespaces:

Namespace	New APIs
formContext.data	- OnLoad event and even handlers (addOnLoad and removeOnLoad) - isValid - Updated saveOptions in the formContext.data.save method to include a new value called saveMode to let the onSave event handlers know why the save is happening - attributes collection
formContext.data.entity	getEntityReference isValid
formContext.data.entity attribute	isValid setPrecision
formContext.ui	event handlers for the OnLoad event (addOnLoad and removeOnLoad)
Xrm.Utility	getAllowedStatusTransitions getEntityMetadata getGlobalContext getLearningPathAttributeName getResourceString invokeProcessAction lookupObjects showProgressIndicator closeProgressIndicator refreshParentGrid

Silverlight (XAP) web resource is deprecated

The Silverlight (XAP) web resource is deprecated on the web client, and is not supported on the new Unified Interface introduced in the Dynamics 365 (online), version 9.0. Instead of Silverlight web resources, you must use custom controls created using the HTML web resources with HTML5 to create UI components to visualize and interact with data.