Connect to Yammer

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Applies To: Dynamics CRM 2013

To enhance your organization’s collaboration, use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to connect directly to Yammer, a powerful tool for social networking in your company. Before you set up a connection to Yammer in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you must purchase Yammer enterprise licenses for your organization, such as an Enterprise Network or SharePoint Online + Yammer account.

Note

Connecting to Yammer is a one-way process. After the connection is established, it can’t be removed.

Several attributes are available that support connection to Yammer. The msdyn_PostRuleConfig.msdyn_PostToYammer attribute determines whether certain auto posts are posted in CRM and Yammer, or only in CRM. Other attributes, intended for internal use only, are added to the Post, PostFollow, Organization, and SystemUser entities. To view the entity metadata for your organization, install the Metadata Browser solution described in Browse the metadata for your organization. You can also view the metadata for an uncustomized organization in the Excel file called EntityMetadata.xlsx included in the top-level folder of the SDK download. The description of the msdyn_PostRuleConfig.msdyn_PostToYammer attribute appears as “For internal use only” until you enable the Yammer connection. After the connection is enabled, the attribute’s description is updated in the metadata. The attributes exist in the databases of all deployments.

You’ll notice that, if you enable the Yammer connection, Activity Feeds behavior changes, as shown here:

  • User posts (manual posts) added through the CRM user interface are created and stored directly in Yammer. Existing user posts, created before the Yammer connection was enabled, aren’t migrated from CRM to Yammer.

  • Auto posts are created and stored in CRM.

    Note

    Selective auto posts are stored in Yammer in addition to CRM, if you set the msdyn_PostRuleConfig.msdyn_PostToYammer attribute to true. Some of the auto post rules for Yammer are enabled out-of-the-box. Other rules can be enabled by the administrator. To see the auto post rules that are available for Yammer in the CRM web application, on the nav bar, click or tap Microsoft Dynamics CRM > Settings > Post Rule Configurations. Click or tap the All Activity Feeds Rules drop-down list, and then click or tap All Yammer Rules.

  • Objects, except users, are followed in CRM and Yammer. You must enable the Yammer connection before you can follow an object in Yammer.

  • Users are only followed in Yammer. A user must have a valid Yammer account to be followed.

  • You can stop following an object in Microsoft Dynamics CRM programmatically or through the user interface. However, this doesn’t unfollow the object in Yammer. To stop following an object in Yammer, you have to use the Yammer user interface. You can’t unfollow an object in Yammer programmatically.

If you’re connected to Yammer, the RetrieveRecordWallRequest message and the RetrievePersonalWallRequest message return the following posts:

  • All auto posts.

  • User posts created by using the Yammer web application, before you enabled the connection to Yammer.

  • User posts created programmatically in Yammer before or after you enabled the connection to Yammer.

See Also

Activity feeds entities
Post entity messages and methods
Collaborate and communicate with Yammer
Connect Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Yammer