In order to continue to provide great capabilities for people using Microsoft CRM we occasionally need to replace older capabilities with better ones. Because these changes can be disruptive we provide as much advance notice as we can so that you can be ready to make any necessary transition. When a feature is deprecated it means that we intend to remove it at some future point, but for the time being it will continue to work and remain fully supported. You should focus on using the newer capabilities for any new work you begin and start planning for how you can move any existing deployments using the deprecated features to the better ones which will replace it.

Most recently we have documented these changes in these topics on MSDN and TechNet respectively:

• MSDN: Important changes coming in future releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• TechNet: Important changes coming in future releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM

These topics focus on the areas of interest to technical audiences. The MSDN topic focuses on areas of interest to developers, while the TechNet topic highlights changes that administrators and IT professionals should know about. There is some overlap, so if you participate in both of these roles, you should read both. This post will call out the major changes and include links to the sections of these topics where you can learn more.

Deprecation of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 endpoint

As described in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 endpoint, the Dynamics CRM 2011 endpoint is deprecated in favor of the Web API. Deprecating an endpoint is a pretty big deal, especially when the programming model is as different as it is with these two endpoints. We strongly encourage developers to use the Web API for applications that connect to CRM. For plug-ins and workflow assemblies you can continue to use the SDK assemblies. In coming releases we will modify these assemblies so that they will use the Web API instead of the 2011 endpoint. More information: Developer Guide: Choose your development style for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

Updates to the CRM SDK assemblies

As described in Updates to the CRM SDK assemblies, we will be updating the SDK assemblies we have shipped for CRM versions going back to CRM 2011. There are some changes to the underlying security architecture for CRM Online which we have already applied to the assemblies shipped for the most recent release. Any applications using older assembly versions to connect to CRM Online will need to be re-linked to the updated assemblies to function normally.

Removal of the Use legacy form rendering option

As described in Removal of legacy form rendering option, we will remove ability to use legacy form rendering. This means that that the improved form rendering introduced with CRM Online 2015 Update 1 will be used for all forms.  This different rendering changes the underlying document object model (DOM) of the pages and can break scripts using unsupported methods. We are also aware that there have been some behaviors in the supported Xrm.Page client object model that are not fully backward compatible. If you have used this option, you should start testing your forms with this option turned off and disable any unsupported scripts to understand whether the undesirable behavior is due to unsupported scripts or a backward compatibility problem. If this is a backward compatibility problem, please contact CRM technical support to get help about resolving the issue.

Deprecation of some knowledge management entities

As described in Some knowledge management entities, we are deprecating three knowledge management entities in favor of the new KnowlegeArticle entity introduced in CRM Online 2016 Update and CRM 2016.

Removal of support for older Android versions

As described in Removal of support for some Android versions, we are removing support for some older versions of the Android operating system with future versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Android.

Reminder that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List component is deprecated

Finally, as described in Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component is deprecated, we want to remind you that customers currently using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component for SharePoint Server are advised to upgrade to use server-based Microsoft SharePoint integration.

Please be aware of these changes so that you can take advantage of all the improved capabilities we are continually adding the Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Content Publishing Team

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