Portal capabilities version 8.2.0.266 for Microsoft Dynamics 365 is now available. This article describes the enhancements that were included in this update, as well as how to obtain the updated solutions. For a full list of all portal updates released to date and their corresponding KB articles, please reference KB #3181191.
Introduction
Upgrade to portal capabilities version 8.2.0.266 for Microsoft Dynamics 365
This release includes an updated portal host and updated solution packages, though the deployment of these two components will be staggered and are dependent upon your version of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Please refer to the chart below for more information regarding the deployment phases:
Deployment Phase |
Dynamics 365 Version |
Scope |
Starting Date |
---|---|---|---|
Phase 1 |
8.2.x |
Portal Host and Solutions Updated |
November 28th, 2016 |
Phase 2 |
8.1.x |
Portal Host Updated |
December 13th, 2016 |
Phase 3 |
8.1.x |
Portal Solutions Updated |
January 3rd, 2017 |
Once the portal solutions update is made available for your Dynamics 365 organization, you must upgrade the portal solutions to take advantage of some or all of the included enhancements in this release. For instructions on how to upgrade the portal solutions, please refer to this KB article.
More information regarding the portal host and solution update for portals on the version 8.1.x release of Dynamics 365 will be provided at a later date.
New features introduced in portal capabilities version 8.2.0.266 for Microsoft Dynamics 365
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Multi-language portal support: By surfacing the multi-language content you create in Portal capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can support your customers, partners, and employees in multiple regions. Multi-language portals also support languages with multi-byte characters, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
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Faceted search for knowledge articles: Search portal content by using different characteristics of knowledge articles as filters to improve how quickly customers can find the content they are looking for. Faceted portal searches can increase the visibility and effectiveness of content that may not have been surfaced through a traditional search.
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Content access levels for knowledge articles: Develop a well-structured knowledge base and provide content to the right audience using content access levels. You can create structured learning paths for your users and prevent content that is not relevant from surfacing.
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Partner onboarding and recruitment: Use the partner recruitment and onboarding capabilities to identify, recruit, and onboard the best partners in your partner channel for better customer sales and service experiences. Use built-in dashboards to get better visibility of your current partner channel and focus efforts into enhancing your channel coverage based on identified gaps.
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Partner portal dashboard: Partners can gain insight into their opportunity pipeline and their performance using portal dashboards. With this information, partners can make more informed decisions about opportunities they bid on, as well as currently active opportunities to more intelligently devote resources and improve the health of their relationships with customers and the parent organization.
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Multi-partner collaboration: Distribute opportunities to multiple partners to maximize a sales opportunity and provide the best solutions for your customers’ needs. Partner sellers can work collaboratively to cover the needs of customers they normally couldn’t with the assistance of other partners and provide information to one another, such as product and pricing updates, notes or comments, and partner contacts to enhance the health of the opportunity.
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Deal registration and protection: Enable your partner channel to register more deals by providing deal registration capabilities. Partners can register opportunities through the portal to get deal protection and other benefits. Using these capabilities, encourage your partner channel to partner with you to sell more.
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Partner locator: Enable your customers to find the right partners in your partner ecosystem based on geographic location, product expertise, supported industries, partner categories, and more.
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Project Service Automation integration: Vendor companies can use Project Service Automation integration to provide access and visibility for active and closed projects across all stages of a project lifecycle to their partner channel and customer. Partner project service team members, reviewers, and customers can view project status and view quotes, order forms, and bookable resources directly from the partner portal.
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Field Service integration: Vendor companies can use the Field Service integration to expose information about active agreements, assets, work orders, invoices, and support cases to their partner channel and customers. Partner field service team members, reviewers, and customers can access this information directly from the partner portal.
Issues that are resolved in portal capabilities version 8.2.0.266 for Microsoft Dynamics 365
Version 8.2.0.266 resolves the following issues:
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It's not possible to change DateTime format on portal
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Custom Portals without the PortalTimeline solution cannot use the "Attach File" functionality
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After enabling OData on an Entity List, an error is returned when consuming the data
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The default language of a user is not honored
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Special characters +, /, and = have been removed from invitation code to prevent URL parsing issues
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Portals are not restarting on change of the Website record
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An "ActivityPointer With Id Does Not Exist" error occurs for invitations of type "Group"
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The portal-side filter for an Entity List does not function correctly