What's new with CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12

During my regular Internet roaming for new CRM information, I came across the following article detailing some of the best new additions to CRM 2011. As I enjoyed reading it I decided to repost it here.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2013/01/29/10-things-i-love-about-dynamics-crm-2011-december-2012-service-update-or-polaris-update.aspx

CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 is finally out!

Following many delays, Microsoft have finally released CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12.
You can catch up on the release exploits here.

If you'd rather download the update or read about what's new in it, go right ahead.
Just a friendly tip, I suggest waiting at least 3-4 weeks before deploying this update to any production/live environment.

The updated SDK is also available and is now at build 5.0.13.

Running SQL queries in PowerShell

Sometimes I come across such a requirement. It is quite useful for many many scripts.
Whenever I search for this information I come up with long code sinplets of various optimisation level.
On my last search for this I found an actual PowerShell function for executing SQL queries. I rejoiced but not for long. While this worked very well, it required the local installation of the SQL management tools. Quite a tall order for something that should work practically anywhere.
So I decided to write my own (simplified) SQL query execution function.

Here's the result.

Function Execute-SqlQuery {
    [cmdletbinding()]
    Param (
        #SQL server name.
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [validateNotNull()]
        [String]
        $Server,
        #SQL query to execute.
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [validateNotNull()]
        [String]
        $Query,
        #Database name on the SQL server.
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [validateNotNull()]
        [String]
        $Database
    )
    Process {
        #Only basic connection string support implemented. Always use Integrated Security.
        $ConnStr = "Server=$Server; Database=$Database; Integrated Security=SSPI;"

        #Create SQL connection object and pass connection string.
        $SqlConn = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
        $SqlConn.ConnectionString = $ConnStr
        $SqlConn.Open()

        #Create SQL command object and apply the connection to it.
        $SqlCmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
        $SqlCmd.CommandText = $Query
        $SqlCmd.Connection = $SqlConn

        #Crate SQL adapter object to return query data to the end user.
        $SqlAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
        $SqlAdapter.SelectCommand = $SqlCmd

        #Fill the SQL query results into a temporary DataSet object.
        $Results = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
        $SqlAdapter.Fill($Results) | Out-Null

        #Clean up
        $SqlCmd.Dispose()
        $SqlConn.Close()
        $SqlConn.Dispose()

        #Return
        Return $Results.Tables[0]
    }
}

I hope you all find this useful. It's a big time saver for sure.