CRM 4.0 : Field Level Security on Print form

CRM 4.0 doesn't provide a true field level security, e.g.: If developers hide attributes/tabs for certain users using crmForm.all.filed.style.display = "none"; These users can still see the field if they Print the record(CRM print preview). I have submitted a feedback to Microsoft about it.

There are no supported way to achieve that, this workaround is not supported and it's not the true field level security!

The file you need to modify is: \CRMWeb\_forms\print\print.aspx
Add the following code just before the 〈/html〉 tag.

<!--
Field level security on Print form
author: Jim Wang @ July 2009
http://jianwang.blogspot.com
-->

<script language="javascript">
var printFrame = document.getElementById("printMain");
var printWindow = document.frames["printMain"];
printFrame.onreadystatechange = function() 
{
    if(window.opener && printWindow.document.readyState == "complete")
    {
        //hide attributes
        var allFields = opener.document.getElementsByTagName("TD");
        for (var i = 0; i < allFields.length; i++)
        {
            var thisField = allFields[i];
            if (thisField.style.display == "none")
            {
                printWindow.document.getElementById(thisField.id).style.display = "none";
            }
        }
        
        //hide tabs
        var printTabs = printWindow.document.getElementsByTagName("DIV");
        var openerTabs = opener.document.getElementsByTagName("LI");
        for (var i = 0; i < openerTabs.length; i++)
        {
            var openerTab = openerTabs[i];
            if (openerTab.className && openerTab.className == "ms-crm-Tab")
            {
                if(opener.document.getElementById(openerTab.id).style.display == "none")
                var printTab = printTabs[openerTab.id.replace("tab","").replace("Tab","")];
                printTab.style.display = "none";
            }
        }

    }
}
</script>

CRM 4.0 IFrame: Show Advanced Find Result View

There are many people asked about: How to show the Advanced Find result view in an IFrame? Instead of building a custom aspx page(dynamically passing parameters, see Adi's solution), I have another method to share if you don't need passing parameters into the query.

1. Build your Advanced Find query and save it, then copy the Shortcut.



2. Put a IFrame control on the Form, clear the "Restrict cross-frame scripting" checkbox.



3. Put the below code to the OnLoad() event, you need to change the IFRAME_view name and the iFrame.src (copy and paste from the step 1)

var iFrame = crmForm.all.IFRAME_view;

iFrame.src = SERVER_URL + "/advancedfind/advfind.aspx?etn=contact&QueryId=%7b3882F0FA-2B3A-DE11-BFB8-0018FE7F3A64%7d&ViewType=4230&AutoRun=True";
iFrame.attachEvent( "onreadystatechange" , Ready);

function Ready()
{
  var iDoc = iFrame.contentWindow.document;
  if(iDoc.getElementById("crmMenuBar") != null && iDoc.getElementById("btnBack") != null)
  {
    iDoc.getElementById("crmMenuBar").style.display = "none"; // hide the top menu bar
    iDoc.getElementById("btnBack").style.display = "none"; // hide the bottom BACK button
  }
}

CRM 4.0 IFrame: Show Entity's Associated View

It's a common requirement to show entity's associated view(1:N, N:N) in IFrame, the below code works for both 1:N and N:N relationship, it also works on both On-Premise and IFD deployment. All you need to do is find out(IE Developer Toolbar) the ID of the associated link.

The 1:N relationship needs these parameters in the request URL: oId, oType, security, tabSet
The N:N relationship needs an extra parameter: roleOrd in the request URL, which has been involved in the code.

var navId = "nav_new_new_myentity_account";

if(document.getElementById(navId) != null)
{
  var tmp = document.getElementById(navId).onclick.toString();
  tmp = tmp.substring(tmp.indexOf("'")+1, tmp.indexOf(";"));
  var loadArea = tmp.substring(0, tmp.indexOf("'"));
  var roleOrd =  (tmp.indexOf("roleOrd") == -1) ? -1 : tmp.substring( tmp.indexOf("roleOrd"), tmp.lastIndexOf("'")).replace("\\x3d", "=");
  crmForm.all.IFRAME_view.src = (roleOrd == -1) ? GetFrameSrc(loadArea) : GetFrameSrc(loadArea) + "&" + roleOrd;

}

function GetFrameSrc(tabSet)
{
  if (crmForm.ObjectId != null)
  {
    var id = crmForm.ObjectId;
    var type = crmForm.ObjectTypeCode;
    var security = crmFormSubmit.crmFormSubmitSecurity.value;
    var path = document.location.pathname.substring(0, document.location.pathname.indexOf("edit.aspx")) + "areas.aspx?";

    return (path + "oId=" + id + "&oType=" + type + "&security=" + security + "&tabSet=" + tabSet);
  }
  else
  {
    return "about:blank";
  }
}

Enjoy it! ;-)

Show both active and inactive records in the lookup view

I had a post about how to return both active and inactive records in the Quick Find View.
People then ask: how to show both active and inactive/deactivated records in the entity's Lookup View?

CRM MVP Batistuta Cai already had a post about a plug-in solution.

If the lookup entity is a system entity, you can also use this technique:

Let's start from an example: you have a custom entity call: MyEntity, you have setup a N:1 relationship between MyEntity and Opportunity, so the user can see an opportunity lookup field on the MyEntity form. Now you want to show users both active and inactive opportunities from that lookup field, all you need to do is put the below code into MyEntity.OnLoad() event:

crmForm.all.new_opportunityid.lookupclass = "alllookups";

The lookup class are controlled via xml files in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft CRM\Server\ApplicationFiles\
If you take a look at the file: opportunity.xml, you may find a condition like: <condition attribute="statecode" operator="eq" value="0"/>

you can remove the condition, and then use this class, e.g: crmForm.all.new_opportunityid.lookupclass="opportunity"; However it's very much unsupported way(by changing files)! But if you open the file: alllookups.xml, you may find that the opportunity(object type="3") entity doesn't have such condition, so we can use this class to get all opportunities.

Customizing CRM by Using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit

Thanks Microsoft CRM E2 team to provide this useful Toolkit for CRM developers.

To provide developers with the ability to create and manage on-premise CRM solutions in an integrated Visual Studio environment, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Engineering for Enterprise (CRM E2) team initiated and sponsored the development of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit. The toolkit includes two primary components:

The CRM Explorer
The CRM Explorer complements the CRM
Solution Framework, providing the project factories required to open and build
the solution from within Visual Studio. The Explorer manifests as a window
within Visual Studio 2008 and provides direct access to CRM for creating and
editing business units, security roles, and most importantly, entities. The CRM
Explorer is linked to the solution framework which enables it to intelligently
place generated code into the relevant solution framework project.

The CRM Solution Framework
The CRM Solution Framework is a suite of Visual Studio C# projects that are coupled with CRM Entity customizations and wrapped with extensible MSBuild–based developer builds and daily builds. The Framework contains several “pre-canned” projects for the typical tasks that are required of developers when undertaking most Enterprise-level CRM projects. Several of these projects have an inheritance model that affords simple and intuitive augmentation, which can significantly reduce the time required to “jump start” development of new projects.




Software Requirements
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Visual Studio 2008 Professional
Visual Studio Team Explorer
StyleCop 4.3 or later (full installation, including MSBuild Integration files)
.NET 3.5 SP1

Installation:
1. Install the CRM Explorer(under folder \CRM Explorer\setup.exe)
2. Install the CRM Solution Framework(under folder \CRMSolutionFrameworkTemplate\Setup.cmd)
Use command prompt to install: Setup.cmd {InstallDir} {ProjectName} {Project Long Name} {Organization Name}

Configuration:
1. Load the project UKDynamics first(Load project normally), then build the solution.
2. Load the project MyCrmSolution(Load project normally), it will referce the UKDynamics class on the step 1. *[1] *[2]
3. From Visual Studio menu bar, click [Tools], then select the [Connect to CRM Server...], give the information then click [OK] button;
4.From Visual Studio menu bar, click [View], then select the [Other Windows]>>[CRM Explorer] *[3]

*[1] If you get warnings like: The referenced component 'UKDynamics.Instrumentation' could not be found. Then you need to re-add the dll reference(UKDynamics.Instrumentation.dll) from UKDynamics\bin folder.

*[2] If you get errors like: The command ""C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin\gacutil" /i "C:\Projects\MyCrmSolution\SourceCode\MyCrmSolution\Core\Configuration\bin\Debug\MyCrmSolution.Core.Configuration.dll" /f" exited with code 1. Configuration
It because all assemblies are delay-signed, you can turn off the strong-name verification on the dev environment by using the SN tool from Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt: SN.exe -Vr *,*
then run IISRESET.exe

*[3] If you get errors when expand the item, like:
Client found response content type of 'text/html; charset=utf-8, but expected 'text/xml'. HttpException 1310
Exception message: Could not load file or assembly 'MyCrmSolution.Core.BusinessProcesses, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=2c1937e0898110b2' or one of its dependencies. Strong name signature could not be verified. The assembly may have been tampered with, or it was delay signed but not fully signed with the correct private key. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131045)
It is the same reason and solution with *[2]


Note: The Toolkit is based on components that were initially developed within the Dynamics CRM MCS team in the UK subsidiary. Those components have been refined over a number of UK-based global engagements.

Important: The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit currently supports customization of on-premise CRM deployments only. This Toolkit and the accompanying documentation are unsupported and are being provided “as is” by the CRM E2 team to assist developers with managing and extending their on-premise Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementations.

Get Entity/Attribute's Display Name from CRM database

The Display Name for CRM Entity/Attribute is always a special case. In CRM 3.0, the Display Name is saved in the table: OrganizationUIBase, column: FieldXml. To get the Display Name for each attributes isn't an easy job. My approach was transfer the FieldXml column(NVARCHAR) into XML type, then get data from there. Here's the code I'd like to show about how to get the Display Name from CRM 3.0 (I suppose that you only want to see entity Account and Contact):

-- Get the display name from xml field
USE [Contoso_MSCRM]
GO
SELECT CONVERT(XML, REPLACE(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX), O.FieldXml),'' ,'')) AS XmlField
INTO #temp1 FROM OrganizationUIBase O
WHERE NOT EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM OrganizationUIBase WHERE Version>O.Version AND ObjectTypeCode=O.ObjectTypeCode)
SELECT DISTINCT
   t2.x.value('(../../@objecttypecode)[1]','int') AS ObjectTypeCode,
   t2.x.value('(../../@name)[1]','nvarchar(100)') AS EntityName,
   t2.x.value('@name', 'nvarchar(50)') AS AttributeName,
   t2.x.value('(displaynames/displayname/@description)[1]','nvarchar(100)') AS DisplayName
INTO #temp2
FROM #temp1 AS t1 CROSS APPLY t1.XmlField.nodes('/entity/fields/field') AS t2(x)

-- Join the metadata database
USE [Contoso_METABASE]
GO
SELECT
   Entity.Name AS EntityName,
   Attribute.Name AS AttributeName,
   #temp2.DisplayName AS AttributeDisplayName,
FROM Attribute
   INNER JOIN Entity ON Attribute.EntityId = Entity.EntityId
   INNER JOIN #temp2 ON #temp2.AttributeName = Attribute.Name AND #temp2.ObjectTypeCode = Entity.ObjectTypeCode
WHERE EntityName IN ('Account', 'Contact')
ORDER BY  EntityName, AttributeName

DROP TABLE #temp1
DROP TABLE #temp2

In CRM 4.0, because it supports multi languages, so the database has been re-designed: the FieldXml field has been abandoned. Instead, Microsoft uses a new table: LocalizedLabelView to save the Entity/Attribute's Display Name, it's much easy to get the Display Name, same example here (English version, the LanguageId is 1033):

USE Contoso_MSCRM
GO

SELECT  EntityView.Name AS EntityName, LocalizedLabelView_1.Label AS EntityDisplayName,
       AttributeView.Name AS AttributeName, LocalizedLabelView_2.Label AS AttributeDisplayName
FROM    LocalizedLabelView AS LocalizedLabelView_2 INNER JOIN
       AttributeView ON LocalizedLabelView_2.ObjectId = AttributeView.AttributeId RIGHT OUTER JOIN
       EntityView INNER JOIN
       LocalizedLabelView AS LocalizedLabelView_1 ON EntityView.EntityId = LocalizedLabelView_1.ObjectId ON
       AttributeView.EntityId = EntityView.EntityId
WHERE   LocalizedLabelView_1.ObjectColumnName = 'LocalizedName'
 AND LocalizedLabelView_2.ObjectColumnName = 'DisplayName'
 AND LocalizedLabelView_1.LanguageId = '1033'
 AND LocalizedLabelView_2.LanguageId = '1033'
 AND EntityView.Name IN ('Account','Contact')
ORDER BY EntityName, AttributeName

Introduce a Data Audit solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

I'm pleased to introduce a Data Audit solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM:

What it does?
Data Audit add-on can record the fact: Who did What at When. For example: you want to audit changes for the field: Account.EmailAddress1, all you need to do is just 3 clicks! The add-on will record the entity name, audit field, record id, original data, modified data, modified time, modified by information. Those audit histories for this record will associate with the record(for applicable entities), furthermore, you can also see all audit histories in one place.

What it is?
It is an ISV solution to integrate to Microsoft Dynamics CRM seamlessly, with same interface and user experience.

What does it support?
Data Audit 1.0 supports both On-Premise and IFD deployment, Stand-Along and Web-Cluster server structure, and Multi-Tenants. It supports both system entity/attribute and custom entity/attribute.
* The 1.0 version of Data Audit supports 32bit English Version Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

How it works?
See this 2 minutes demo video:




Please email us to get an evaluation license(30 days full function).

MVP Summit 2009 @ Seattle - Meet the CRM MVPs

It's a great summit and nice to meet CRM team and MVPs.



Meet the famous CRM authors: Jim Steger and Mike Snyder



MVP Darren Liu and me eatting the Red King Crab...



Jim Wang with the coffee which made by the world's first Starbucks @ Seattle, US



Jim Wang with his baby Niu

Happy Chinese New Year! 2009 - The Year of The Ox

My dear friends, happy Chinese New Year! 2009 - The Year of The Ox ('牛'), and hopefully it could help the economics!!! ;-)

Cheers,
Jim

CRM 4.0: Checkbox style Multi-Select Picklist

CRM 4.0 doesn't have many out-of-box user controls, e.g: a mulit-select picklist. The standard CRM picklist can only save one value in the database, it's not easy to extend this functionality, in addition, you have to deal with the Advanced Find feature.

You can make a picklist multi-selectable by enable the picklist mulitple attribute , e.g: crmForm.all.new_picklist.multiple = true; And then save the selected values somewhere else. However, it does not very impressive the user because the user has to use the CTRL key to select options, which is not user-friendly (Thanks for Alastair Westland (PM @ Parity) who work with me to improve the interface design:)

The script below will draw a checkbox style mulit-select picklist control on the CRM form, and then get options from the real picklist attribute. So how to use it?

1. Create a standard picklist attribute with all options in CRM, put it on the CRM Form. e.g: new_picklist;
2. Create another nvarchar attribute in CRM to save the selected text, put it on the CRM Form and hide the label. e.g: new_picklistvalue;
3. Put the following script in the Form.OnLoad() event.

*NOTE: There is a 'br' flag(var addBr = document.createElement(...) ) just been ignord by blogspot, please replace it when you paste the code!!!

/*
Checkbox style Multi-Select Picklist
author: Jim Wang @ January 2009
http://jianwang.blogspot.com
*/

// PL - the picklist attribute; PLV - used to save selected picklist values
var PL = crmForm.all.new_picklist;
var PLV = crmForm.all.new_picklistvalue;

if( PL != null && PLV != null )
{
  PL.style.display = "none";
  PLV.style.display = "none";

  // Create a DIV container
  var addDiv = document.createElement("<div style='overflow-y:auto; height:80px; border:1px #6699cc solid; background-color:#ffffff;' />");
  PL.parentNode.appendChild(addDiv);

  // Initialise checkbox controls
  for( var i = 1; i < PL.options.length; i++ )
  {
    var pOption = PL.options[i];
    if( !IsChecked( pOption.text ) )
      var addInput = document.createElement("<input type='checkbox' style='border:none; width:25px; align:left;' />" );
    else
      var addInput = document.createElement("<input type='checkbox' checked='checked' style='border:none; width:25px; align:left;' />" );

    var addLabel = document.createElement( "<label />");
    addLabel.innerText = pOption.text;

    var addBr = document.createElement( "<br />"); //it's a 'br' flag

    PL.nextSibling.appendChild(addInput);
    PL.nextSibling.appendChild(addLabel);
    PL.nextSibling.appendChild(addBr);
  }

  // Check if it is selected
  function IsChecked( pText )
  {
    if(PLV.value != "")
    {
      var PLVT = PLV.value.split("||");
      for( var i = 0; i < PLVT.length; i++ )
      {
        if( PLVT[i] == pText )
          return true;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

  // Save the selected text, this filed can also be used in Advanced Find
  crmForm.attachEvent( "onsave" , OnSave);
  function OnSave()
  {
    PLV.value = "";
    var getInput = PL.nextSibling.getElementsByTagName("input");

    for( var i = 0; i < getInput.length; i++ )
    {
      if( getInput[i].checked)
      {
        PLV.value += getInput[i].nextSibling.innerText + "||";
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: Please be aware of this is an unsupported customization.