Adding "Next/Previous" buttons to Entity Details Form

Update: I've updated the sample due to some feedback I received, read about it here! BTW, the download link at the bottom of this article also points to the updated sample!

Last week, I was looking through the history of a Contact in CRM, trying to locate a certain e-mail activity. So I opened the History tab and opened the first e-mail. Nope, not the one. Next.

After closing and opening 4 e-mails, I thought it would be nice to have some Previous/Next buttons, just like Outlook has when you open an e-mail. It's not very productive to keep opening and closing those popup windows.

So I came up with some javascript that does this for me. All you have to do is put this in your isv.config.xml:

< name="account">< validforcreate="0" validforupdate="1">< title="Previous" javascript="var _cwrRecordIndex; var _cwrGrid=window.opener.document.all['crmGrid'].InnerGrid; var _cwrRecords=_cwrGrid.AllRecords; for(var i=0; i<_cwrRecords.length; i++){if(_cwrRecords[i][0] == crmForm.ObjectId){if(i!=0){window.location.href=window.location.href.split('?')[0]+'?id='+_cwrRecords[i-1][0];_cwrGrid.UnselectRecords();_cwrGrid.SelectRecords(i-1,i-1,false);}}}" client="Web" icon="/_imgs/cwr_previous.gif">< title="Next" javascript="var _cwrRecordIndex; var _cwrGrid=window.opener.document.all['crmGrid'].InnerGrid; var _cwrRecords=_cwrGrid.AllRecords; for(var i=0; i<_cwrRecords.length; i++){if(_cwrRecords[i][0] == crmForm.ObjectId){if(i!=_cwrRecords.length-1){window.location.href=window.location.href.split('?')[0]+'?id='+_cwrRecords[i+1][0];_cwrGrid.UnselectRecords();_cwrGrid.SelectRecords(i+1,i+1,false);}}}" client="Web" icon="/_imgs/cwr_next.gif">

Note, it should go all on one line in your isv.config.xml. No line breaks.

Note 2: I put a space between the "<" and the element name, otherwise blogger thinks it's markup. I didn't really optimize the javascript code. Probably could be better, but this is the quick and dirty approach and I didn't feel like including a javascript file and then calling a function. All the code is inside the Javascript attribute. Also note that I use some undocumented javascript methods, so it's not supported! BTW, If you paid attention you would see that the code uses the entity "account". That's right. Unfortunately, CRM only permits you to customize the detail forms of certain entities, namely: account campaign campaignactivity campaignresponse incident (SDK wrongly calls this case) contact Custom entities invoice lead list opportunity salesorder quote You see? No activities! Anyway, for educational purposes I continue :). It does work for the other entities. So if you want to quickly browse through the invoices of an account, you can do that. Just add the two buttons to the invoice entity in your isv.config.xml. Here's a screenshot that shows browsing through accounts. Screenshot.

You can download a zip file which includes a sample isv.config.xml file and two images that you can put in the _imgs folder of your CRM webroot. Download it here.

Have fun!

3 Times Certified on CRM

I am somewhat excited to blog (or is it brag) about the fact that this morning I took the three Microsoft Exams for Microsoft CRM 1.2 and got certified for all of them.

The Certifications and the scores:
Installation and configuration: 82%
Customization: 90%
Application: 91%

Even though I have been working with CRM 1.0 and 1.2 from the early beta stages up untill today, I never bothered about being a certified pro. It also wasn't really necessary. It is more important to deliver quality work, then have a certificate.

But now that I have the certification, I must say that I am proud to call myself a Microsoft Certified Professional.

Update Rollup 2 is available for Microsoft CRM 1.2

Update Rollup 2 is a tested, cumulative set of updates for Microsoft CRM Server 1.2, Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook 1.2, and Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-mail Router 1.2, including performance enhancements, that are packaged together for easy deployment.

Find more info here:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=904435

Or download the package here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=172861AE-D02E-4441-B432-26E88DD0AB14&displaylang=en

(Source: Ronald Lemmen - CRM, C# and Cme)

CRM 3.0 SDK Update (3.0.1)

Microsoft has release an update on their SDK for CRM 3.0.
This new release contains some helper classes as explained in Arash Ghanaie-Sichanie's Blog

You can download it from the Microsoft Download site

Integrate SharePoint with CRM 3.0

We have all seen it and were amazed. The Sharepoint integration with that nice Pivot table...

But now we can do it try and build it ourselves...

This article describes how to integrate sharepoint with CRM 3.0.

Email Spelling Checker Add-On for CRM 3.0 released!

A lot of people were asking for this and now it's here! We are pleased to announce that we have released our Email Spelling Checker for CRM 3.0 today!

It's a freeware add-on that you can download from our product page. Try it out and if you have any feedback, leave it on our forum.

Have fun.

Microsoft CRM Sandbox

John O'Donell, Guy Riddle and Anna Stanton have started a nice project on GotDotNet.

Welcome to the Microsoft CRM Sandbox — a GotDotNet project created for
Microsoft CRM users. Use this project to learn about Microsoft CRM and to
share your knowledge with other Microsoft CRM administrators, customizers,
users and developers. Contributions to this project from users like yourself
are what will build it into a timely source of Microsoft CRM information,
through postings to message boards, links to blogs and articles, and participation in the community.

Let's all participate!

Hardware requirements for CRM 3.0

Microsoft has published the hardware requirements for CRM 3.0.

You can find the information here.

CRM 3.0 Desktop Client for Outlook Deployment with TS

This deployment package helps you to install and configure Microsoft® CRM 3.0 desktop client for Microsoft Office Outlook® in the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 Terminal Server environment.

It can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=cbad1af7-8fde-40f2-8df5-935a363f87d9&DisplayLang=en

Dynamic Required Fields - Using JScript for CRM 3.0

During a customer, sales or service lifecycle, requirements for data entry can change as a customer goes from being a prospect to a customer, from a cold opportunity to a hot opportunity, from a inquiry case to a system down case.

A nice article on how to achieve dynamic required fields that change based on on screen data can be found at: http://blogs.msdn.com/midatlanticcrm/archive/2005/12/02/499398.aspx

(Source: Mid Atlantic CRM)

CRM 3.0 SDK - Final Release

The final release of the Microsoft CRM 3.0 SDK is now available.
You can download it at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9c178b68-3a06-4898-bc83-bd14b74308c5&displaylang=en

Arne Janning is blogging!

Arne Janning, frequent contributor to the CRM newsgroups is blogging!

He starts out with a nice post about tracing in CRM 3.0.

New CRM 3.0 Product brochures and presentation

Microsoft has released new product brochures:
- CRM Pro Overview
- CRM SBE Overview
- CRM SBE Top 10 List

Also a new PowerPoint presentation is available covering 30 New Features in CRM 3.0.

They can be downloaded from the CWR Mobility documentation area.

(Source: Mid Atlantic Microsoft CRM)

Dynamics CRM 3.0 Licensing clarity

MS CRM 3.0 has two versions the Small Business Edition (SBE) and Professional. Micrsoft really cleared up the market and the licensing messages after a ton of experience with MS CRM 1.2. So MS CRM 3.0 licensing and what is included is significantly different.

The differences:

MS CRM 3.0 SBE requires Microsoft Small Business Server and can only be installed on SBS.

MS CRM 3.0 SBE is limited to 75 users (just like SBS)

MS CRM 3.0 Professional is not limited by total number of users and would be installed on Windows Server.

MS CRM 3.0 Professional also has an EXTERNAL connector LICENSE which supports the need for outside servers (partners, vendors, etc) to connect to the CRM server at the client's location. For every external server connecting, a customer will need an External Connector License.

(Source: Tidbits on MS CRM!)

FYI: Creating "Disabled" users through User Manager

While I was working on our CRM Mobile Service Add-on, I wanted to add some users to CRM.

I added an extra field to the user, called IsMobileUser to indicate that this is a user that works offline on a PDA. You can use this field in combination with the "Restricted Access Mode" field, so that you can schedule the user in CRM, but don't need a license.

However, I'm working on the MSDN version and I imported the sample data, so I already used up my 10 CRM licenses. I created a user in AD and started up the CRM User Import Wizard to add that user to CRM. This is what I got.

No problem, just go to CRM, find the user, check "Restricted Access Mode" and viola! Right? Eh no. Look at this. Because the user is disabled in CRM, you cannot change the information, except for some things like trying to enable the user, or remove the user from a team. Makes sense in a way, however I would expect that you still could check "Restricted Access Mode" because this frees the user from the licensing restrictions and then you can enable the user.

So, to make a long story short: if you're out of licenses and want to add "restricted" users, don't do it through the Add User Wizard, just do it directly in CRM. :)