crm.atechnisch.nl » Customization

A simple “day of the week” script

Jan-Willem Cobelens — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:16:37 +0000

Some months ago a customer asked us if it was possible to prevent users from selecting a Saturday or Sunday in a date field. Here is a simple function you can use to call the selected day of the week. You can customize it to suit your own wishes. Please remember that Sunday is 0 and Saturday is 6.

Happy Easter!

function weekday () {
//Script to show which weekday the selected date is.
//Sunday = 0, Saturday = 6
//Script to be called during Onchange event

/* CRM 3.0 & 4.0 */ selectedDate = crmForm.all.estimatedclosedate.DataValue;
/* CRM 2011 */ selectedDate = Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get("estimatedclosedate");
var weekday = selectedDate.getDay();
var dayNames = new Array("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday");

alert("You have selected a " + dayNames[weekday]);
}

CRM 2011: Maximum number of tabs allowed

Jan-Willem Cobelens — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:06:46 +0000

Having to study for my MB2-631 Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration exam a couple of weeks ago, the tabs subject also came by. Of course you all know that the maximum amount of tabs in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is 8 (out-of-the-box).

I was wondering how many tabs are allowed on the form in CRM 2011. Well, it’s one hundred. Just so you know. Happy scrolling!

CRM 4.0 Sitemap – ShowGroups=”true”

Jan-Willem Cobelens — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:49:41 +0000

For a CRM 4.0 implementation at one of our clients we had to create a lot of custom entities. Since we wanted to improve the usability for the users, we decided to customize the sitemap. With the help of the SDK SiteMap Overview (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc150833.aspx) and the related subjects, a nice layout was constructed.

However the sitemap did not work…

Having checked the XML over and over again, and even asking a Microsoft consultant for advice (who happened to be in the same room) I was lost.

It turned out that the “ShowGroups” attribute needed to be set in the Area Element. It is described in the SDK (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc150877.aspx), but we totally forgot.

So when customizing the Sitemap, remember to set the ShowGroups to ‘true’, it can save you a lot of frustrations.

ShowGroups=”true”>

Add Columns to Marketing List Members Views

Huib Aarts — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:09:15 +0000

I have found a small post about Adding Columns to Marketing List Members Views from Peter Toftager-Larsen (link). I found this post interesting enough to write a post about it.
The described steps should be supported.
As you’ll know the Marketing List Members View cannot be edit as the regular Customizations. Hacking in the database is not supported.
The views can, however, be accessed via the Advanced Find. In the Advanced Find you can select ‘Views’ in the ‘Look For’ Box. The result gives you a list of all the Views in the system (Personal views not included). In this list you can find the Marketing List Members Views. Easiest way to find them directly is to add the Filter ‘”Name” Contains “member”‘.

As you will see the views (All Members, Active Members, Inactive Members and Quick Find) all exist 3 times. All the Views are separately created for Account, Contacts and Leads. By opening you can distinguish one and other. After opening you can change the Description to make it easier to distinguish the Views in the future.

Now you can add and/or change the columns.

Open a specific view and add and/or change the columns.
Save you changes and publish your customizations.

Conditional Lookup on Primary Contact of an Account

Huib Aarts — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:55:53 +0000

This Post is based on a Post from AdvantageWorks in which a Filtered Lookup between 2 Lookups is described. Hessel Miedema and I created a Version of the Lookup for the Primary Contact of an Account. We used the Account Name as input for the Search Box of the Lookup of the Primary Contact. (Be aware that your Account Names need to be Unique in this Case).

The main Reason for this Post is that we noticed that the “&” character is Not allowed in a URL Request, but is allowed as Search Value. The “&” character needs to be replaced by “%26″ to function properly. A list of characters can be found in the The extended ASCII table .

The example we used on the OnLoad of the Account:

crmForm.all.primarycontactid.additionalparams = 'search=' + crmForm.all.name.DataValue.replace("&","%26").replace("+","%2b");

This works out-of-the-box (with Point & Click customization) in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Official Technical Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Documentation

Huib Aarts — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:00:47 +0000

With the addition of the 3 parts of the implementation guide on Microsoft TechNet, the Dynamics CRM team is a step closer to provide all Technical Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Documentation online:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Use Tooltips as Hot Help

Huib Aarts — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:53:13 +0000

There are multiple ways in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help users using the system. Next to training and external guides, the system can also provide information. In the system the help files (on the top right of every screen) can be improved. As you will know this has advantages and disadvantages.

Another option is to improve the tooltips.

The modifying and maintaining of the tooltips will be discussed in this post.

A tooltip is a small box, which contains a brief text message explaining the field. It appears below the label of a field on the MS CRM forms when the pointer of a mouse passes over or rests on that label and which contains a brief text message identifying or explaining the object. When the pointer moves away from the label the tooltip disappears.

Tooltips are available on every field on a Microsoft Dynamics CRM form. The current tooltips show the text of the label, which, in my opinion, does not have any benefits. If you can read to label, you can read to tooltip. But the good thing is, we can change the contents of the current tooltips.

At the moment the only restrictions to the tooltips are that only unformatted text can be used and that the total amount of characters is no more than 512.

The onLoad code:

crmForm.all.new_attribute_c.title = “contents of the tooltip”

Example: