Customize the crmForm

There are some useful crmForm customization skills which I want to share:

1. Change a filed label style

/* change new_button field label style */
if (crmForm.all.new_button != null)
{
  var field = crmForm.all.new_button_c;
  field.style.fontWeight = 'bold'; // change font to bold
  field.style.fontSize = '12px'; // change font size
  field.style.color = '#ff0000';  //change font color
}

2. Replace a field to a button, and attach the onclick() event

/* replace new_button_d to a button */
if (crmForm.all.new_button != null)
{
  var field = crmForm.all.new_button_d;
  var html = "<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0'><tr><img width='32' height='32' style='cursor:hand' src='/_imgs/ico_32_134.gif' alt='Click button' onclick='Button_OnClick()' /></tr></table>";
  field.innerHTML = html;
}
Button_OnClick = function()
{
  alert("button clicked!"); 
}

3. Replace a field to a lable (use replaceNode())

/* replace new_button_d to a label */
if (crmForm.all.new_button != null)
{
  var html = document.createElement( "<TD id='new_button_d'>");
  html.innerText = "this is a lable";
  crmForm.all.new_button_d.replaceNode(buttonText);
}

4. Append text under a field (you don't need to create an attribute for that)

/* append text under new_button */
if(crmForm.all.new_button != null)
{
  var html= document.createElement( "<LABEL>");
  html.innerText = "this is a text field";
  crmForm.all.new_button.parentNode.appendChild(html);
}

Double Click EmailAddress to Open in Outlook

There is a question on Microsoft CRM Forum asking how to: Double Click EmailAddress to Open in Outlook

I think it's worth to bring it here because it's also demonstrate how to send parameters in attachEvent method, so here is the answer:

/* Double Click EmailAddress to Open in Outlook, put into entity.OnLoad */
function CreateEmail(emailAddress) 
{
    return function()
    {
        if (emailAddress != null && emailAddress.value.length > 0) 
        {
            window.navigate("mailto:" + emailAddress.value);
        }
    }
}

crmForm.all.emailaddress1.attachEvent('ondblclick', CreateEmail(crmForm.all.emailaddress1));
crmForm.all.emailaddress2.attachEvent('ondblclick', CreateEmail(crmForm.all.emailaddress2));
crmForm.all.emailaddress3.attachEvent('ondblclick', CreateEmail(crmForm.all.emailaddress3));

FilteredView and CrmImpersonator?!

I was curious about how to use FilteredView in the CrmImpersnator class for a IFD(Internet-Facing Deployment) solution? Thanks to David Jennaway who gave me a clue.

Ok, the reason for that is because I'm building a CRM dashboard for an On-Premise/IFD CRM deployment. In order to use the Web services from an APSX page, I have to use the Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.CrmImpersonator class, however by doing that it's not possible to get relevant data from the FilteredView, because the CrmImpersnator() will authenticate as [NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM] account(which is a system account in CRM).

The solution is to use SQL Execute As statement, see the sample code below:

using (new CrmImpersonator())
{
........
    string username = "domain\\Guest";
    string sqlQuery = "SELECT name FROM FilteredAccount";
    string queryString = "GRANT IMPERSONATE ON USER::[NT AUTHORITY\\SYSTEM] TO [" + username + "] EXECUTE AS USER='" + username + "' " + sqlQuery + " REVERT";

........
}

In this example, you have to give user the Impersonate permission first, then use Execute As statement to impersonate the user.
After running the code, if you have a look the CRM database, under the Security\Users folder, the impersonated user account is added in the list, and it grant the 'Impersonate' permission to user [NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM], see picture below:

By using this technic, you also need to map the user [NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM] to the CRM database(e.g: Contoso_MSCRM).