Impersonate a Dynamics CRM user with the Mod Header Extension

No matter how big or small your project is, there will always be a time when you need to test custom CRM Security roles or troubleshoot a user's issue.  

By using the Mod Header extension for Chrome, you no longer have to "log in" as if you were the user in a new browser session. You can impersonate the user in the same browser as if you logged in with the user credentials. This add-on will streamline your testing of the security roles or troubleshoot a problem.  It allows you to modify the request and response headers on the page.  No, longer do you have to coordinate with a system administrator to keep on switching security roles back and forth. In this post, I will show how to set up and use the Mod Header.

As you can see, I am logged in as myself, and the Mod head extension is turned off. You can toggle the extension from on to off, by selecting the pause icon in the banner. 

When you are ready to impersonate a user, you need to modify the request header; the header value will be updating is called "MSCRMCallerId" and provide the value of the user you want to impersonate. You can retrieve the Guid of the user you would like to impersonate by opening the user profile in a new window. From here, you can copy the Guid from the address bar. 

Note: You can create multiple profiles at a time, effectively setting up different profiles for you to test/troubleshoot roles at your leisure. The profile name, number, background, and text color are all editable to differentiate the various profiles. Within each profile, you can add multiple headers. This can be helpful when you are trying to troubleshoot multiple business units with numerous security roles, which can be a handful.      

Mod Header Limitations 

The one limitation about Mod Header is that it only works for UCI environment and not the web client. Hopefully, by the time you read this post, your CRM will be updated to the Unified Interface. 

Check the box next to the request header and minimize Mod Header and refresh your browser.  

Note: you will have to refresh your browser twice in-order for the change to take place.  

Once you refresh, you are now impersonating the user you selected. No login is needed, and you can quickly troubleshoot/test your issue.  

I could not tell you how exciting I was to be able to troubleshoot easily and efficiently a client issue by impersonating the user in minutes and be able to replicate the error and then resolve. To me, this is real game changer when it comes to testing/troubleshooting. 

Conclusion

So that is it, folks. This is how you can easily test your Dynamics CRM Security Roles by impersonating the user with the Mod Header Extension. If you have any questions or queries regarding this blog, please leave a comment below! 

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