Important changes coming in future releases of Microsoft Dynamics 365

Article
07/19/2018

Applies To: Dynamics 365 (online), Dynamics 365 (on-premises), Dynamics CRM 2016, Dynamics CRM Online

Administrators and IT professionals should use this information to prepare for future releases of Microsoft Dynamics 365. With the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update 1 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Service Pack 1 (on-premises) releases, some knowledge management entities are deprecated, and older Android and iOS versions will no longer be supported. There are also details about removal of the legacy form rendering option and a reminder about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component. For information about changes that developers should consider to prepare for future versions of Dynamics 365, see MSDN: Important changes coming in future releases of Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Changes coming for mobile offline drafts

In future releases of Dynamics 365, the mobile offline drafts feature will be removed. Users will no longer be able to create offline records such as contacts or leads on their mobile devices and then upload them when they’re back online.

Removal of support for older mobile operating systems

In support of the latest technologies, these mobile device operating systems will no longer be supported in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 mobile app:

Android versions 4.2 and 4.3.
Apple iOS 7 and iOS 8.

More information: Support for Dynamics 365 for phones and Dynamics 365 for tablets

Some knowledge management entities are deprecated

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update 1 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Service Pack 1 (on-premises) release, the following entities used for knowledge management are deprecated: KbArticle, KbArticleComment, and KbArticleTemplate. These entities won't be supported in a future major release of Dynamics 365. You must use the newer KnowledgeArticle entity (introduced in CRM Online 2016 Update and Dynamics 365) for knowledge management in Dynamics 365. More information: MSDN: Knowledge management entities

Removal of legacy form rendering option

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 we introduced a new form rendering engine (sometimes called "turbo forms" ) that provides improved performance. This new rendering engine became available for customers with on-premises deployments with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Because such a change can introduce different behaviors in form scripts, we currently provide a Use legacy form rendering option in System Settings so that an organization can opt out if they detect problems. This is intended to be a temporary solution. As documented in What's new for administrators and customizers in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 and CRM Online and MSDN: Write code for Microsoft Dynamics CRM forms, we recommend addressing issues as soon as possible.

The Use legacy form rendering option will be removed in the next major release. Legacy form rendering (sometimes called "refresh forms") is deprecated and will no longer be available. Only the rendering option will be removed; the form definition is still supported. Organizations who have not yet resolved issues with their customizations by using the new form rendering engine should take action immediately so that they will be able to upgrade to the next major version.

If you have turned on legacy form rendering, please turn it off and test your scripts. During testing, if you see breaking changes in forms that use:

The supported client API objects and methods documented in MSDN: Client-side programming reference, report this to Dynamics 365 technical support.
Unsupported form objects or methods, remove these customizations or find a different way to achieve the results you want.

Removal of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component will not be included and will not be supported for use with future releases of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Sandboxed solution support has been removed in Microsoft SharePoint Online and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component is a sandboxed solution.

Customers must use Server-based SharePoint integration for document management with Dynamics 365 and SharePoint. For more information about how to configure server-based SharePoint integration, see Set up SharePoint integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Removal of support for Microsoft Office 2010

Future releases of Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications and features, such as Dynamics 365 for Outlook, export to Excel, and mail merge, will no longer be supported for use when you run them using Microsoft Office 2010, which includes Microsoft Office Outlook 2010. To prepare for this change, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to a later version of Microsoft Office. More information: Microsoft Office

Microsoft Dynamics Email Router is deprecated

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Email Router will become deprecated in the next major release of Microsoft Dynamics 365. To prepare for this change, we strongly recommend that you migrate all email routing functionality to use the server-side synchronization feature. More information: Migrate settings from the Email Router to server-side synchronization