Robs MS CRM Blog

Determining the veresion number of CRM Components

2011-05-27T09:48:00.002+10:00

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946594

User Creation

2010-08-26T21:32:00.002+10:00

The Error:
AddPrincipalToGroupByName should never be called when AutoGroupManagement is turned off.

The Solution
Just switch the registry entry HKLMMicrosoftMSCRMAutoGroupManagement from 0 to 1

Gleaned from: http://mrhodes.net/?s=AutoGroupManagement

Using Regular Expressions

2010-08-16T15:38:00.003+10:00

I had to re-learn (again) reg Exp so thought I would write it down :-)

The idea here is to search for a bit of text in antother:

The /gi option means global and case insensitive

var pattern = //gi
var match = stringToSearch.search( pattern )

If match > -1 a match has been found.

for example:
var stringToSearch = "Is Rob here"
var pattern = /rob/gi
var match = stringToSearch( pattern );

This "should" return 3.

Cloning-Entities using Javascript - great posting

2010-06-23T20:42:00.000+10:00

http://mscrm4ever.blogspot.com/2008/06/cloning-entity-using-javascript.html

Internet Facing deployment config

2010-06-15T21:32:00.001+10:00

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/op/articles/ifd_common_issues.aspx

CRM on multiple servers

2010-06-15T21:24:00.000+10:00

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/op/articles/crm_server_nlb.aspx

Fixing Popup Blocker Issues

2010-01-11T10:27:00.002+11:00

A MS document on how to fix Popup Blocker Issues

Duplicate Detection Rules

2010-01-11T10:21:00.002+11:00

A Short MS Video on creating duplicate detection rules

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/op/articles/vid_duplicatedetect.aspx?WTT.rss_f=CRMRC_OP

Network Ports Used By CRM

2010-01-11T10:13:00.002+11:00

This article lists the network ports used by CRM

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/op/articles/crmports.aspx?WTT.rss_f=CRMRC_OP

Personalising CRM

2010-01-11T10:03:00.001+11:00

A brief MS video on how to personalise CRM

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/op/articles/vid_personalize.aspx?WTT.rss_f=CRMRC_OP

Standard Buttons and their Security Role Requirements

2010-01-11T08:45:00.001+11:00

Why can't I see some of the menus or buttons?

This article from MS lists the standard buttons and their security role requirements:

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/op/articles/securityroles.aspx?WTT.rss_f=CRMRC_OP

Authentication prompt in OUtlook

2010-01-08T10:56:00.003+11:00

This issue is when you are able to open the CRM site in IE without authentication but are prompted to authenticate when opening in the outlook client.

To resolve this add the address (including the port if needed) to the Local Intranet Zone

CrmWRPCTTokenKey Error

2009-10-30T14:55:00.003+11:00

I was getting an error where I was being prompted for authentication and occassionally this even crashed the app pool.

I found this great post which suggests checking that the async process is still running.

http://peitor.blogspot.com/2008/12/microsoft-crm-4-crmexception-expired.html

One of the possts also suggests that this can be connected to imported organisations and dodgy values in the config databases.

I have copied the references below (just in case this post ever gets moved etc)

#1
There is a KB article on this
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961311/
This article says: the AsyncSdkRootDomain field in the DeploymentProperties table of the MSCRM_CONFIG database contains an incorrect value.

#2
In our case the problem was an import of an organization from another Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 deployment, from Development Server to Test Server.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949844

View Replicator

2009-10-20T08:40:00.002+11:00

This is a site with some great tools including..... a view replicator! Fantastic!

http://mscrmtools.blogspot.com/

Problem importing / publishing Customisations

2009-10-19T12:14:00.002+11:00

We were having a problem importing or creating new entities.

Enabling trace revealed the following error being logged

Exception when executing non-query: exec p_RecreateIndexes Exception: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

Happily I then found a post here which describes how to change the time out value

http://mscrmuk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sql-timeouts-in-crm-generic-sql-error.html

the content of that post (in case it is ever moved is) quoted below...

Increase the Timeout
The SQL timeout is controlled by a registry value on each CRM server:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM\OLEDBTimeout

This value does not exist by default, and if it does not exist then the default value will be 30 seconds. To change it, add the registry value (of type DWORD), and put in the value you want (measured in seconds). Then you have to recycle the CrmAppPool application pool for the change to take effect (this is a step most Microsoft documentation omits to mention); do this we IISReset, or less drastically via iisapp.vbs

This has now resolved the issue...

Import Customisations Address

2009-09-07T11:45:00.005+10:00

Useful if you stuff up the Site Map

http://[Server Name]/Tools/SystemCustomization/ImportCustomizations/importCustomizations.aspx

Merge Templates Not Displaying

2009-07-13T14:10:00.003+10:00

I recently had a problem ata customer site where Mail Merge Templates were being created without any problems but then not displaying in the list of available templates.

It turns out that someone had removed the language field from the form. Placing it back onto the form resolved the issue.

Hope this helps someone else seeing this issue...

Problem at end of going offline

2009-07-06T17:02:00.001+10:00

https://mbs.microsoft.com/knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?WTNTZSMNWUKNTMMYYMYQKSYMXOSOOUMLXWTQWKUPQQSTWPWVMMKZNPMOUNOSNYTP

Unable to connect: Still unable to connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

2009-07-06T13:05:00.001+10:00

Problem appears to be a permissions issue on the _img directory (requires anonymous enabled.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951146

or

https://mbs.microsoft.com/knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?WTNTZSMNWUKNTMMYXUPYZQPOUXNXSPSYPVMNLKNQXSKLXSMWOUNSQUOTKTMRZQZSNQQMKQXQSTXKLNNRYOZLPQOZUMROKQRX

CRM 4.0 E-Mail Connector Logger Tool

2009-06-18T14:30:00.000+10:00

http://blogs.msdn.com/benlec/archive/2008/07/02/crm-4-0-e-mail-connector-logger-tool.aspx

Email Routing Config

2009-06-18T12:55:00.001+10:00

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8ea05b4e-825a-4db1-ad59-d894aa5ef33e&DisplayLang=en

CRM Trace Documentation

2009-06-18T12:54:00.000+10:00

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907490

Removing the ‘Add Existing [Entity] to this record’ button

2009-03-11T10:54:00.001+11:00

This content comes from here: http://blog.davehawes.com/post/2008/04/23/MSCRM-4-Remove-Add-Existing-xxxxx-button.aspx. I have reproduced it here because it is really handy and I don’t want to loose it.

Take note: Strictly speaking this is unsupported (and the previous method for doing this broke when upgrading ver 3 to ver 4). Apparently they are going to provide a supported way for doing this in the future. Use knowingly…

Thanks Dave Hawes!

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HideAssociatedViewButtons = function(loadAreaId, buttonTitles){
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

var navElement = document.getElementById('nav_' + loadAreaId);

if (navElement != null) {

navElement.onclick = function LoadAreaOverride() {

// Call the original CRM method to launch the navigation link and create area iFrame

loadArea(loadAreaId);

HideViewButtons(document.getElementById(loadAreaId + 'Frame'), buttonTitles);

}

};

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HideViewButtons=function(Iframe, buttonTitles) {
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if (Iframe != null ) {

Iframe.onreadystatechange = function HideTitledButtons() {

if (Iframe.readyState == 'complete') {

var iFrame = frames[window.event.srcElement.id];

var liElements = iFrame.document.getElementsByTagName('li');

for (var j = 0; j < buttonTitles.length; j++) {

for (var i = 0; i < liElements.length; i++) {

if (liElements[i].getAttribute('title') == buttonTitles[j]) {

liElements[i].style.display = 'none';

break;

}

} ;

To hide just the add existing btton the call is this:
HideAssociatedViewButtons('lwb_contact_lwb_service', ['Add existing Program to this record']);

To hide both buttons the call is this:
HideAssociatedViewButtons('lwb_contact_lwb_service', ['Add existing Program to this record', 'Add a new Program to this record']);

replace the bold bits with:
[Customisation Prefiix] + “_” + [Entity Schema Name] + “_” + [Customisation Prefiix] + [Entity Schema Name]

and Program with the Entity Display name

Hiding and displaying a tab

2009-02-20T11:44:00.001+11:00

There are two parts to this

//---------------------------------------------------------------------
// PART 1. Code to go in the Form Onload as global functions
//---------------------------------------------------------------------

//---------------------------------------------------------------------
hideTab = function( tTab ) {
//---------------------------------------------------------------------

tTab.style.display = 'none';

};

//---------------------------------------------------------------------
showTab = function( tTab ) {
//---------------------------------------------------------------------

tTab.style.display='block';
tTab.style.display='inline';
};

//---------------------------------------------------------------------
//PART 2: Code that can go underneat the onload or on an event to hide a tab
//---------------------------------------------------------------------

hideTab( crmForm.all.tab1Tab );

Doing a Retrieve to get associated object valies based on ID

2009-01-21T12:48:00.001+11:00

This function takes an entity name,GUID and attributes list as input and returns the attribute values from the matching record. Its great if you just need to get the values from one record.

A good example of what is needed here is available from the online SDK http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc677076.aspx

My intention is to break this into some re-usable function units and git it a nice wrapper.

For the meantime I have reproduced it here so I can find it easily…

// Prepare variables for a contact to retrieve.
var contactid = "4696f8cb-9a1c-dd11-ad3a-0003ff9ee217";
var authenticationHeader = GenerateAuthenticationHeader();

// Prepare the SOAP message.
var xml = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>"+
"<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'"+
" xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'"+
" xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'>"+
authenticationHeader+
"<soap:Body>"+
"<Retrieve xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices'>"+
"<entityName>contact</entityName>"+
"<id>"+contactid+"</id>"+
"<columnSet xmlns:q1='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query' xsi:type='q1:ColumnSet'>"+
"<q1:Attributes>"+
"<q1:Attribute>fullname</q1:Attribute>"+
"</q1:Attributes>"+
"</columnSet>"+
"</Retrieve>"+
"</soap:Body>"+
"</soap:Envelope>";
// Prepare the xmlHttpObject and send the request.
var xHReq = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xHReq.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xHReq.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Retrieve");
xHReq.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xHReq.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xHReq.send(xml);
// Capture the result.
var resultXml = xHReq.responseXML;

// Check for errors.
var errorCount = resultXml.selectNodes('//error').length;
if (errorCount != 0)
{
var msg = resultXml.selectSingleNode('//description').nodeTypedValue;
alert(msg);
}
// Display the retrieved value.
else
{
alert(resultXml.selectSingleNode("//q1:fullname").nodeTypedValue);
}

Checking to see if an owner lookup is an account or contact

2009-01-21T12:30:00.001+11:00

//In this examples the code block would only run when a contact is selected

var luField = null;
if (crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue != null ) { luField= crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue[0];}

if ((luField != null) && (luField.typename != 'account') ){

//stuff goes here

}

You could make the initial assignment and if statement use the funky little JS ? operator but I prefer this approach as it is easier to expand etc.

A starting list of CRM resources

2009-01-21T09:14:00.001+11:00

Certification: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/dynamics/default.mspx

E-Learning: https://dynamics.microsoftelearning.com/catalog/default.aspx then select CRM 4.0 in the Product line

Course Manuals: https://mbs.microsoft.com/CMS/Templates/site/DLPP.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID={2A456C8E-6563-43D2-8B6A-4B108D31159D}&NRORIGINALURL=/partnersource/communities/training/trainingmaterials/trainer&NRCACHEHINT=Guest&wa=wsignin1.0

Partnersource: http://crm.dynamics.com/crm_training_and_support/microsoft_crm_training/index.html

Resource Centre: http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/onlinedefault.aspx

Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc160840.aspx

Some key CRM Forums are:

General: http://forums.microsoft.com/Dynamics/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=487&SiteID=27

Development: http://forums.microsoft.com/Dynamics/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=489&SiteID=27

Deployment: http://forums.microsoft.com/Dynamics/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=488&SiteID=27

Blogs / Other Sites:

MS CRM Team http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/

Stunnware: http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/

Ronald Lemmen: http://www.ronaldlemmen.com/

CRMStuff: http://crmstuff.blogspot.com/ (some of this guys stuff is unsupported but other bits are good)

My own: http://robscrm.blogspot.com/

Umar Khan: http://umarkhan.wordpress.com/

Online Resource Centre

2009-01-21T09:12:00.001+11:00

Just for reference….

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/onlinedefault.aspx

Changing the default / availability of options for an account & contact lookup

2009-01-21T09:06:00.001+11:00

This is copied from http://umarkhan.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/how-to-change-the-default-entity-in-lookup-window/ (just in case it is ever removed)

For instance, in Opportunity form of Microsoft CRM you want to change the “Potential Customer” field’s default entity from Account to Contact. You need to use the following piece of code in onLoad event of the Opportunity Form.

if ( crmForm.all.customerid != null )
{
crmForm.all.customerid .setAttribute(”defaulttype”, “2″);
}

Remember to enable the event and then save and publish the opportunity entity.

Following are codes of basic entities of Microsoft CRM 3 ;

Account 1
Contact 2
Lead 4

Limiting the selection List can be done this way:

crmForm.all.customerid.setAttribute(”lookuptypes”, “1″);

Thanks heaps uMar.

Word Merge in CRM

2009-01-09T10:18:00.002+11:00

Here is a link to a great article I found on merging to Word in CRM

http://www.ssw.com.au/SSW/Standards/CRM/RulestoBetterCRMMailMergeTemplate.aspx

Cheers
Rob

Windows Live Writer

2008-08-13T10:15:00.002+10:00

This an awesome tool! Available FREE from the Windows Live services site!

http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

It makes adding graphical blogs HEAPS easier. I am planning to go through and add some pictures to my previous posts to make them a bit easier to follow.

Thanks MS!

CRM Professional

2008-08-13T09:58:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I got my CRM Professional certification. My aim is to get my MCT as well ASAP

YEAHHHHH!!!!

MS Dev Toolbar Link

2008-04-15T11:27:00.000+10:00

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?familyId=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displayLang=en

Alerting a fetchXML Query

2008-04-09T13:58:00.000+10:00

Taken from http://ronaldlemmen.blogspot.com/2006/11/using-advanced-find-for-fetchxml.html

You can just open the Advanced find page and build the query as you like. Then run the query to see if it returns the data as you wish it should. If you are satisfied with the results and you want to know what query was sent into the CRM Framework, then press F11 to get the address bar and enter this script and press enter.

javascript:alert(resultRender.FetchXml.value);

If you get a warning about leaving the page, just press 'ok' and then the query which is sent to the framework opens up in a popup. Unfortunately you cannot select the text to copy and paste. But with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 you can copy all text on the popup by clicking somewhere on the popup (not on the button "OK" ofcourse) and pressing ctrl+c. Now in notepad you can paste the text of the FetchXML.

Good luck!

Update: Thanks to Piotr in the comment section I have learned the javascript prompt command. Try this instead of the alert:

javascript:prompt("my query:", resultRender.FetchXml.value);

An Awesome entry on filtering picklists

2008-02-05T11:00:00.001+11:00

A much better way that the one included by MS

http://thecrmgrid.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/a-slightly-different-approach-to-dynamic-picklists/#more-12

Thank You!

Filtering Picklist choices

2008-01-31T14:21:00.000+11:00

To filter Picklist choices based on the choice of a parent list see the example in account in teh VM

MS CRM Caching

2008-01-10T08:49:00.001+11:00

http://blogs.msdn.com/joris_kalz/archive/2006/08/09/Caching-Tool.aspx

another great Blog

Forcing field Save

2008-01-07T12:36:00.001+11:00

crmForm.all.[fieldName].ForceSubmit=true;

Titan Download

2007-12-21T14:11:00.000+11:00

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=99cb3a7a-eba9-4de9-b0f1-2ebf11c3d756&DisplayLang=en

Customising Marketing Lists

2007-12-21T14:01:00.001+11:00

http://blogs.technet.com/crmbipl/archive/2007/10/11/how-to-customize-the-marketing-list-member-view.aspx

CRM & SMTP Settings

2007-12-21T12:32:00.001+11:00

http://dmcrm.blogspot.com/2007/09/moving-smtp-from-exchange-to-local-crm.html

Processing exsting Mail with CRM

2007-12-20T08:43:00.000+11:00

http://blogs.infinite-x.net/category/dynamics-crm/installation/

And again Mitch!

Adding a toolbar button to create new, related entities

2007-12-20T08:40:00.000+11:00

http://blogs.infinite-x.net/category/dynamics-crm/customization/

Thanks agfain Mitch!

Function Declarations in Javascript

2007-12-14T10:45:00.000+11:00

Michael has documented how function declarations work and why really well here

Thank you once again Michael!

Changing Date Colors

2007-12-14T09:41:00.000+11:00

The problem with the date field is that they all end up at the INPUT tag level with the same ID. This means that you can't go directly to the date field input element. It is therefore neccessary to traverse through the DOM tree to get to it. This example is for date only fields. I will do another version for date time fields.

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function setDateColors( tFieldName, tColor, tBackgroundColor, tFontWeight ) {
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
var tBaseElement = window.document.getElementById( tFieldName );
var tElement = tBaseElement.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].childNodes[0].childNodes[0].style;
tElement.color = tColor;
tElement.backgroundColor = tBackgroundColor;
tElement.fontWeight = tFontWeight;
};

an example of how this might be called is (to make it bold white text on red background):

setDateColors( new_startDate, "#ffffff", "#ff0000", "bold" )

Building Queries (MSDN)

2007-11-21T12:53:00.000+11:00

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa680438.aspx

Hiding the Form Assistant

2007-11-21T08:29:00.000+11:00

With thanks to Bertil (on the MS Dev forum)

//Hide or Show RelatedInformationPane
document.all.RelatedInformationPane.ToggleInformationPane();

Checking a lookup field for null and setting a default value

2007-11-20T14:15:00.000+11:00

//functions to be defined in onLoad
// Also requires the function getattribsByLookup - this is detailed elsaewhere on this site.

//----------------------------------------------------------
setLookupDefault = function( entityName, lookupAttrib, defaultValue, attribsToReturn, fieldToSet ) {
//----------------------------------------------------------

//get the lookup value and put it into the lookup field
var resultXml = getattribsByLookup(entityName, lookupAttrib, defaultValue, attribsToReturn );
var idValue = getXMLNodeText( resultXml, "//" + fieldToSet );
var tField = window.document.getElementById( fieldToSet );
var luObject = getLookupObject( idValue, defaultValue, entityName );
tField.DataValue = luObject;

}

//----------------------------------------------------------
getXMLNodeText = function( resultXml, bitToGet ) {
//----------------------------------------------------------
return resultXml.selectSingleNode( bitToGet ).text
};

//Code for object event
// This code sets the lookup field subjectid to 'Unclassified'
// 'Unclassified' is an entry in the subject
// The field subjectid appears on the Case form and is used by the Knowledgebase system

var subjectItem = new Array;
subjectItem = crmForm.all.subjectid.DataValue;

if ( subjectItem == null ) {
var attribsToReturn = ['subjectid', 'title'];
setLookupDefault( 'subject', 'title', 'Unclassified', attribsToReturn, 'subjectid' );
}

Setting the color of a picklist option

2007-11-20T13:37:00.000+11:00

//get the field
var list = crmForm.all.prioritycode;

var option = list.options[0]; //select the option to be coloured
option.style.backgroundColor = "#FF0000"; //Set the background color to red.
option.style.color = "#FFFFFF"; //Set the text color to white.

Launching a Workflow Rule from Javascript

2007-11-19T11:36:00.000+11:00

This is an absolutely awesome post By Mitch Milam.

http://blogs.infinite-x.net/2007/06/15/launching-a-workflow-rule-from-javascript

The SQL Code for getting the WF ID is
SELECT
processID,
[name]
FROM
wfprocess
WHERE
ProcessTypeCode = 1

Thanks Mitch!

MetaData Services

2007-11-19T10:28:00.000+11:00

Another great article by Michael Hohne I didn't want to loose track of.

http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2007/07/13/advanced-metadata-service-scenarios.aspx

Showing related entities in an iFrame

2007-11-17T08:05:00.001+11:00

Updated for Version 4...

Sometimes I want to show related entities in iFrames on the forms rather than via the LHS navigator. The technique shown below allows you to do this quickly and easily and allows you to have a number of related entities showing this way on the same page.

For this example I will show a related entity called new_city in an iFrame called Cities. In the IFrame properties it is important that restricting scripting is UNticked and that the ID is passed. The IFrame is therefore referenced as crmForm.all.IFRAME_Cities (ignore the old entiy names in the pics below).

I set the contents of the IFrame in the onLoad event using the following line of code and the function shown below

The function that I use to set the contents of the IFrame is included as part of the onLoad for the page (make sure it is loaded before the line above is called)

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function getFrameSource( tabSet ) {
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if (crmForm.ObjectId != null) {
var oId = crmForm.ObjectId;
var oType = crmForm.ObjectTypeCode;
var security = crmFormSubmit.crmFormSubmitSecurity.value;

//this two lines are optional and used to hide th link on the LHS navigation
var navItem = window.document.getElementById( 'nav_'+ tabSet );
navItem.style.display = 'none';

return "areas.aspx?oId=" + oId + "&oType=" + oType + "&security=" + security + "&tabSet=" + tabSet;

} else {

return "about:blank";

}
};

//Line to in set IFrame contents
crmForm.all.IFRAME_Cities.src = getFrameSource('new_new_state_new_city');

Getting a list of entities and attributes from crm

2007-11-13T15:06:00.001+11:00

A list of the entities and attributes can be easily retrieved from crm using the url

http://[server:port]/sdk/list.aspx

eg http://mycrm:5555/sdk/list.aspx

Setting Lookup Fields

2007-11-13T10:28:00.000+11:00

This function is intended to be included in the onLoad library of a page or a common .js library. Its purpose is to construct the required object/array for setting a lookup value on a form.

An example of The calling function is also shown (using a value retrieved from a xml doc retrieved from another lookup function)

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function getLookupObject( idValue, lookupLabel, typeName ) {
//Create an array to set as the DataValue for the lookup control.
//then Create an Object add to the array.
//Set the attibutes of teh object
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
var lookupData = new Array();
var lookupItem= new Object();
//Set the id, typename, and name properties to the object.
lookupItem.id = idValue;
lookupItem.typename = typeName;
lookupItem.name = lookupLabel;
// Add the object to the array.
lookupData[0] = lookupItem;
// Set the value of the lookup field to the value of the array.
return lookupData;
};

Example Usage (to set the lookup field new_departmentid):
if ( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid") != null ) {
f.new_departmentid.DataValue = getLookupObject( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid").text,
resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid/@name").text,
'new_department' ) ;
}

Setting Multiple vales from a lookup

2007-11-13T10:20:00.001+11:00

This function should be embeded on the form onLoad and then called by the relevant fields onChange event.

The code for getattribsByLookup and getLookupObject can be found here. They should be included either in the forms onLoad function definitins or ina common .js library

//----------------------------------------------------------
setSystemUserInformation = function() {
//----------------------------------------------------------
//setup some vars to use in constructing the formula and storing the values
var f = crmForm.all;
var entityForList = 'systemuser';
var attribForFilter = 'systemuserid' ;
var idToFetch = f.ownerid.DataValue[0].id+ '' ;
var attribsToReturn = ['mobilephone', 'new_departmentid' ];

//clear the existing values
f.new_departmentid.DataValue = "";
f.new_mobilephone.DataValue="";
var resultXml = getattribsByLookup( entityForList, attribForFilter, idToFetch, attribsToReturn );

if ( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//mobilephone") != null ) {
var tempText = resultXml.selectSingleNode("//mobilephone").text;
f.new_mobilephone.DataValue = tempText;
f.new_mobilephone.ForceSubmit=true;
}

if ( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid") != null ) {
f.new_departmentid.DataValue = getLookupObject( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid").text,
resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid/@name").text,
'new_department' ) ;
}
};

Getting Multiple attibutes from a related entity

2007-11-13T10:13:00.000+11:00

The following function can be used to retrieve multiple attributes from a related entity. It returns an xml document which can then be parsed to place into the currently open document.

I have included an eample of how this can be used here.

You will need to replace the [ ] chars with < > (done to get around some blogger limitations

//----------------------------------------------------------
function getattribsByLookup(entityForList, attribForFilter, idToFetch, attribsToReturn ) {
// attribs to return is an array
//----------------------------------------------------------
var f = crmForm.all;
var attribsList = '';
for( i = 0; i [ attribsToReturn.length; i++ ) {
attribsList += " [q1:Attribute]" + attribsToReturn[i] + "[/q1:Attribute]";
}
var xml = "" +
"[?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?]" +
"[soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\"]" +
" [soap:Body]" +
" [query xmlns:q1=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query\" xsi:type=\"q1:QueryExpression\" xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices\"]" +
" [q1:EntityName]" + entityForList + "[/q1:EntityName]" +
" [q1:ColumnSet xsi:type=\"q1:ColumnSet\"]" +
" [q1:Attributes]" +
attribsList +
" [/q1:Attributes]" +
" [/q1:ColumnSet]" +
" [q1:Distinct]true[/q1:Distinct]" +
" [q1:Criteria]" +
" [q1:FilterOperator]And[/q1:FilterOperator]" +
" [q1:Conditions]" +
" [q1:Condition]" +
" [q1:AttributeName]" + attribForFilter + "[/q1:AttributeName]" +
" [q1:Operator]Equal[/q1:Operator]" +
" [q1:Values]" +
" [q1:Value xsi:type=\"xsd:string\"]" + idToFetch + "[/q1:Value]" +
" [/q1:Values]" +
" [/q1:Condition]" +
" [/q1:Conditions]" +
" [/q1:Criteria]" +
" [/query]" +
" [/soap:Body]" +
"[/soap:Envelope]" +
"";
var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2006/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
return resultXml;
};

Using a central .js file

2007-11-09T15:51:00.000+11:00

It is common to want to have a single file where commonly used Javascript can be stored. This makes it easier to maintain code consistently and also increases page load speeds.

Because scripts loaded in this way are loaded asynchronously there is the possiblity / probability that if calls are made to functions loaded within the library immediately the function may not yet be available (because the code is stil being laoded).

After fiddling with this I have come upon the following solution. This material is an adaptaion/combination of material I found here on the MSDN dev forum and also http://unixpapa.com.js/dyna.html. The post on the forum by itself doesn't cater for the varoius browser anomolies but was a great place to get started.

Solution:

1. At the bottom of the js library file place the function call pageLoad(); (assuming that this is NOT defined in the library).

2. In the onLoad event for the CRM form add the following code at the BOTTOM of the form

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
pageLoad = function() {
//now we do the stuff that includes stuff from within the loaded js page
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// the code you want to execute once the page has loaded.
//This can safely call functions in the library
};

//=================================================
//Script for including external JS files
//The last line of this includes a call to the pageLoad function
//=================================================
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.language = 'javascript';
script.src = '/CustomDevelopment/jsLibraries/FormActions.js?';
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);

Explanation:
This technique assumes you are able to edit the js library files. The js Library file in this case has been to a directory Customdevelopment/js Libraries located off the root of the web server directory.

The js library file has as its last line the function call pageLoad().

The js library is attached as the last section of the onLoad code. The reason for doing this is because Javascript libraries are loaded asyncronously. By placing the inclusion at the bottom of the onLoad code and placing the function call at the bottom of the js file it can be known that all functions defined in the onLoad code and in the library will be available.

Caveats:
I am pretty sure that this technique will not work well with the Outlook client and definetly not when it is offline.

My suggestion is that this could be used in a dev environment and then the functions cut and pasted from the library file into the top of the forms if needed in the production environment. It should at least make the dev process more standardised and this should help contribute to better codig etc :-)

It definietly helps to have a standard set of functions that you know work and are all the same.

Caclulating with values from siblings

2007-11-09T15:45:00.000+11:00

I have a form where I want to be able to specify a percentage value. I also want to make sure that the total value of all siblings is not more than 100 and to calculate the value based on teh value in the parent document.

In this case it was Operatives for a Deal. My structure is
Deal $20,0000
Operative 1 : 25%
Operative 2: 55%
Operative 3: 20%

What I want to prevent is somebody coming along and changing the value of Operative 3to 30%.
To do this i include this code in the forms onLoad event:

//----------------------------------------------------------
checkPercentage = function() {
//----------------------------------------------------------
var f = crmForm.all;
var retVal = false;

//setup some vars to use in constructing the formula and storing the values
var entityForList = 'new_listingoperative';
var attribForFilter = 'new_dealid' ;
var idToFetch = f.new_dealid.DataValue[0].id+ '' ;
var attribToReturn = 'new_percentage';
var resultXml = getattribByLookup( entityForList, attribForFilter, idToFetch, attribToReturn );
var totalPerc = 0.00;

if ( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//RetrieveMultipleResult") != null ) {
var node = resultXml.selectSingleNode("//RetrieveMultipleResult");
var percNodes = node.selectNodes("//new_percentage");
var idNodes = node.selectNodes("//new_listingoperativeid");

// if this is a new & unsaved form add it to the total before cycling through the return list
var totalPerc = 0.00;
if ( crmForm.FormType == 1 ) { totalPerc += f.new_percentage.DataValue; }

//this list will only include saved forms
for ( i = 0; i < percNodes.length; i++ ) {
if( isCurrentRecord( idNodes[ i ].text ) ) {
totalPerc += f.new_percentage.DataValue;
} else {
totalPerc += parseFloat( percNodes[ i ].text );
}
}
}

if( totalPerc <= 100.00 ) { retVal = true; }
return retVal ;

};

And this code in the fields onChange event
if( !checkPercentage() ) {
alert( 'ERROR: The total of all percentage amounts must be no greater than 100%');
crmForm.all.new_percentage.DataValue = 0.00;
}

Getting an attribute from a related entity

2007-11-07T16:50:00.000+11:00

This code / function can be used to retrieve a particular field/attribte from related records. It passes back an XML doc which can then be parsed to get the particular value.

I have substituted the <> chars with [ and ] due to the probs of rendering in blogger

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
getattribByLookup = function(entityForList, attribForFilter, idToFetch, attribToReturn ) {
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

var f = crmForm.all;
var xml = "" +
"[?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?]" +
"[?xml:namespace prefix = soap /][soap:envelope xsd="\" xsi="\" soap="\"]" +
" [soap:body]" +
" [query xmlns="\" type="\" q1="\"]" +
" [?xml:namespace prefix = q1 /][q1:entityname]" + entityForList + "[/q1:entityname]" +
" [q1:columnset type="\"]" +
" [q1:attributes]" +
" [q1:attribute]" + attribToReturn + "[/q1:attribute]" +
" [/q1:attributes]" +
" [/q1:columnset]" +
" [q1:distinct]true[/q1:distinct]" +
" [q1:criteria]" +
" [q1:filteroperator]And[/q1:filteroperator]" +
" [q1:conditions]" +
" [q1:condition]" +
" [q1:attributename]" + attribForFilter + "[/q1:attributename]" +
" [q1:operator]Equal[/q1:operator]" +
" [q1:values]" +
" [q1:value type="\"]" + idToFetch + "[/q1:value]" +
" [/q1:values]" +
" [/q1:condition]" +
" [/q1:conditions]" +
" [/q1:criteria]" +
" [/query]" +
" [/soap:body]" +
"[/soap:envelope]" +
"";

var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2006/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
return( resultXml );
};

Debugging Javascript

2007-10-26T10:11:00.000+10:00

Want to be able to step through your Javascript? There are two really easy steps...

1. Add: debugger to the top of the onload javbascript code

2. Enable the debugger in your browser...

(Uncheck the IE debug option)

showing the page source

2007-10-18T10:42:00.001+10:00

Enter the following into the address bar:

javascript:alert(document.body.outerHTML)

Getting Systemuser & related entity fields

2007-10-17T10:40:00.000+10:00

//----------------------------------------------------------
getSystemUserInformation = function() {
//----------------------------------------------------------
var f = crmForm.all;
//setup some vars to use in constructing the formula and storing the values
var entityForList = 'systemuser';
var attribForFilter = 'systemuserid' ;
var idToFetch = f.ownerid.DataValue[0].id+ '' ;
var attribToReturn = 'mobilephone';
var attribToRtn2 = 'new_departmentid';

var xml = "" +
"" +
"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">" +
" " +
" http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query\" xsi:type=\"q1:QueryExpression\" xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices\">" +
" " + entityForList + "" +
" " +
" " +
" " + attribToReturn + "" +
" " + attribToRtn2 + "" +
" " +
" " +
" true" +
" " +
" And" +
" " +
" " +
" " + attribForFilter + "" +
" Equal" + " " +
" " + idToFetch + "" +
" " +
" " +
" " +
" " +
" " +
" " +
"" +
"";

var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2006/CrmService.asmx", false); xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple"); xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8"); xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length); xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
//alert( resultXml.xml )

if ( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//mobilephone") != null ) {
var tempText = resultXml.selectSingleNode("//mobilephone").text;
f.new_mobilephone.DataValue = tempText;
f.new_mobilephone.ForceSubmit=true;
}

if ( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid") != null ) {
f.new_departmentid.DataValue = setlookupValue( resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid").text,
resultXml.selectSingleNode("//new_departmentid/@name").text,
'new_department' ) ; }
};

Setting a Lookup Value

2007-10-17T10:08:00.000+10:00

This code snippet should be copied into the form onLoad event code so that it is available as a global function for the form.

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
setlookupValue = function( idValue, textValue, entityName ) {
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
var lookupItem = new Object();
var lookupData = new Array();
lookupItem.id = idValue;
lookupItem.name = textValue;
lookupItem.typename = entityName;
lookupData[0] = lookupItem;
return( lookupData );
};

It can then be called from within the form (replace the bits in square brackets[ ]):
var f = crmForm.all;
f.[fieldSchemaName].DataValue = setlookupValue( [idValue], [lookupText], [entitySchemaName] );

Hello World!

2007-10-16T16:23:00.000+10:00

I started working with Microsoft CRM about 2 years ago now and it has been an 'interesting' journey. This is going to be my place for putting all CRM bits (AJAX, javscript, c#, xml, webservices etc) I come across or discover myself and don't want to forget.

One of the most helpful guys out there for MS CRM stuff has to be Michael Höhne. His website is excellent and full of fantastic tools and stuff. Thank you!

Some of what is on this site is derived from stuff from there (and other places). I will always endeavour to acknowledge where the original came from.

Blogs I like

2000-12-15T18:12:00.000+11:00

The Blogs I like are here:

(this list is very incomplete and I will be adding a more very soon!)

http://crmstuff.blogspot.com/

http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/