Read-only fields on forms are not read-only

Huib Aarts — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:10:10 +0000

Fields in Ms Dynamics CRM cannot be set to read-only!!!
Ok, a little explanation and a demo script to show what I’m implying.

Yesterday a customer asked me to change the text in a read-only field. I’m system administrator on their system, so the easiest way should have been to change the Field Properties of the attribute, but this would allow all users to change this attributes on all records.
Another option would be to use the Enrich Functionality, described in this post.

I tried a third option, triggering javascript via the Address Bar of Internet Explorer. The usage may be well know, but I never thought of using it to modify read-only fields on records. Well, it is surprisingly easy. All you need to know it the id of the attribute you want to modify. (The id can be found with something like the IE Developer Toolbar.)
If you have the id the code is easy and you only have to copy it into the address bar of the record you want to modify:

javascript:crmForm.all.new_attribute.DataValue = "read-only doesn't work for me"; crmForm.all.new_attribute.ForceSubmit = true; crmForm.Save();

This means every user with modify rights on a record can change read-only field on that record.

Minimum rights to use Set Regarding

Huib Aarts — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:55:46 +0000

When it comes to the security roles I like to use roles based on a functionality instead of based on business roles.
In most companies employees with a similar business roles are allowed to do different things in the MS CRM system. Making exceptions is hard when you use role based security roles. Functionality roles on the other hand can be easily combined to create the right level of authorization.
A functionality based role can be, ‘Maintain Accounts’. A user with this role is allowed to read, write, append, append to, share and assign accounts on Business Unit level. Combined with ‘Maintain Contacts’ or ‘Create and Delete Account’, etc, gives a complete set of functionality.
Next to these clear functionality roles a user needs in general a basic role to be able to use the MS CRM basic functionality. For example the ‘Set Regarding’ functionality to link a email to a record in MS CRM.
When designing the basic use role I came across some oddities I couldn’t directly explain. Users with the basic role should be allowed to use the ‘Set Regarding’ functionality, but for some reason I couldn’t get it to work. So I created a new organization with 1 custom entity and puzzled until I found the minimum rights to use the ‘Set Regarding’ functionality.
That’s when I came to the conclusion you must have read rights on Account, Contacts, Leads and Opportunities, to regard an email to a custom entity.
I put the complete set of rights in the pictures below (click the pictures to see an enlargement):

crm.atechnisch.nl » authorization

Read-only fields on forms are not read-only

Minimum rights to use Set Regarding