Our current setup is as follows, and fairly unmaintainable if our dataset changes.
We currently export data from CRM to an excel sheet which gets updated regularly through the use of a Excel-CRM plugin. This already runs into a problem because the automated scripts that are in place can’t update and save the file if someone leaves it open (currently running scripts during off hours but still sometimes people are a little “special”).
After pulling and saving the data we have some scripts that manipulate the data in python and output JSON to a metrics dashboard that is in the company breakroom, this dashboard is supplied information from multiple sources (this is why we can’t just use Dynamics CRM’s built in dashboard).
My question is thus, I would like a more direct approach to getting the data from CRM to our Dashboard – thus cutting out the need for the excel-CRM plugin as a middle man – I’ve been looking into the options and I’m not sure which one would best suit our situation.
Current options are as follows:
- Javascript and either the Microsoft REST API or SOAP transactions
- Python and SOAP transactions using PyCurl or some other system that can do SOAP calls (not sure if it allows for REST but I don’t think so).
- Using the Microsoft SDK and C# to get the information needed (not a great option since I don’t know C#)
- Using the Microsoft SDK and IronPython? (is this even viable? has anyone else tried it)
These are the options that I’ve fleshed out, I’m looking for something simple and fairly easily implementable to reach the goal of getting CRM data and being able to manipulate it w/o having to pull the data to excel from the plugin.
I’ve never used python before, but according to this site: Using Rest In Python you should be able to make Rest calls to the CRM OData endpoints, which returns Json which is what you’re looking for anyway…