Whether you are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 in a personal environment or in any of the pre-prod environments it is a good practice to keep your environment up to scratch. One of the items that is usually overlooked is the setting up of Bing maps. If the Bing map key is not entered correctly you end up with the following message on each Bing map “The specified credentials are invalid. You can sign up for a free developer account at https://www.bingmapsportal.com“.
Setting up the key only takes you a couple of minute. All you need is a valid Bing maps key.
Getting a Bing Map Key
If you don’t already have a key, follow the instructions on the MSDN article “Getting a Bing Maps Key” http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428642.aspx to aquire one.
In summary all you have to do is go to https://www.bingmapsportal.com and click on “Create or view keys”.
Getting up the Bing key in Dynamics CRM 2013
Navigate to the system settings by following the path Settings > Administration > System Settings
or you can navigate to the following URL
http://: //tools/systemsettings/dialogs/systemsettings.aspx
In the General Tab you will find a field with the label “Please enter Bing Maps key“, enter your key in this field and click on “OK“. That is it!
Alternatively you can always switch off the Bing map feature on the form by setting the “Show Bing Maps on forms” value to “No”.
This article also applies to the latest rollups of CRM 2011.