Unified Service Desk 3.0 has just been released. One of the first new features I’ve started to explore is an enhanced debugger. In this post I will show the new features and comment on when I am likely to use them.

Spoiler alert
… I love some of the new features!

An important note here …. Unified Service Desk 3.0.0 is compatible with an instance of Microsoft Dynamics 365 version 8.2 (online or on-premises), Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015, or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is required.

Sort

Firstly a simple but useful change allows us to sort the columns in the debugger by clicking on the column heading.

Clicking a column heading will alter the sort order to that column. And you also have a new refresh button that when clicked will restore the original sort order. (A nice touch!)

Why is this useful? Sorting by the action name or an application (hosted control) will help you find occurrences of a particular action. Another useful feature might be to sort all of your actions by duration. This would help you spot any long running processes. Bonus!

Replay

When we select an action in the action calls list in the debugger we now have a replay option. I really like this idea as it will let me retry any failing actions and then(hopefully) diagnose the cause.

Edit

I often edit actions (and save my changes) directly from within the debugger. Currently this involves picking the action from the full action list and then using the edit button. Now we can select the edit option right from the action list in the debugger. This will save me time. I like that!

Clear

Another small but useful change is the addition of a clear icon in the Direct Actions tab. Say, I have finished editing an action but want to experiment with something new. Now instead of manually clearing all of the fields I simply click the “X” and away I go. A small change but again a time saving feature.

Enhanced Capabilities with Data Parameters

Three new icons have been added to the data parameters toolbar.

Our first new icon allows us to copy the parameter value. We already have an option to copy the replacement parameter name. (Which is really useful!) But we now additionally can copy the value. This might allow me to grab the GUID of the current record. Or url displayed in the current hosted control. Being able to quickly grab information like this will really help me when debugging.

I love he second new feature! I can now edit the value of a data parameter right from within the debugger. Today, if one of my global options has an incorrect value I must close USD, alter the parameter and then reload. But now I can edit them on the fly. This will really help me diagnose issues quicker.

Our final icon the green “+”, allows us to create data parameters. In my test I found I couldn’t create a global data parameter! But below you can see that I have selected account and then clicked “+”. Now I can enter a key, value and type.

You can now see that the parameter has been added under account.

Being able to edit and add data parameters will make testing my changes much quicker. Say I need to test certain combinations I will be able to do this without closing USD or even editing my source data. Again this will save me time.

I am all for saving developers time and making life easier. And it seems to me that all of these enhancements will achieve that. I am confident more enhancements could be added to the debugger. (I would like a search option, for example.) BUT, I am also very pleased that all of these changes are a step in the right direction. Thanks Microsoft.