Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Scripting Cookbook

Table of Contents

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Scripting Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Overview of Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization

Introduction

Opening a free 30-day trial of Dynamics CRM 2011 Online

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

Using solutions to package our work

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Solution model

See also

Creating and managing entities

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating and managing fields

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating and managing forms

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating and managing scripts

Getting ready

How to do it...

Creating and managing other resources

Getting ready

How to do it...

Creating and managing workflows

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating and managing dialogs

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Starting a workflow from a dialog

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Working with security roles and permissions

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

2. Scripting Form Fields

Introduction

Working with text fields

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Retrieving the field name to be used in the script

Formatting phone numbers

Validating Country/Region against State/Province relationship

Writing information back to the text field

Working with number fields

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Working with currency

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Working with date and time

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Working with option sets

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Assigning a value programmatically

Working with lookups

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Clearing a lookup selection

Changing a lookup selection

Expanding on the State example

3. Field Validation

Introduction

Custom e-mail field validation

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Handling erroneous input

See also

Custom web address field validation

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Validating the ticker symbol field

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Re-routing your request to another provider:

See also

Formatting phone numbers

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Formatting for mobile forms

Formatting postal codes

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Replacing the Country and Province fields with lookups

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

4. Rules and Events

Introduction

Form load event usage

Getting ready...

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Form save event usage

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Starting a process instead of saving the form

See also

Field change event usage

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Working with tabs and sections

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Combining events

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

You cannot add new fields dynamically

Be mindful of form layout

See also

Enforcing business rules

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

5. Error Handling

Introduction

Handling unexpected user input

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Handling unexpected processing

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Throwing custom errors

See also

Blocking events

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Forcing a Save

Save and New

Save and Close

See also

Handling UI events

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Advanced error handling

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding a new account and contact with validation

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

6. Debugging

Introduction

Debug messages

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using IE for tracing and debugging

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Debugging using Visual Studio

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Error logging

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Using Fiddler with CRM

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

7. Extended UI Manipulation

Introduction

Showing or hiding form elements

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Formatting fields

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a rating gauge field

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Flagging a section for the user

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding a contact picture

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding an account logo

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Marking accounts for review

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Dynamic form elements

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

8. Working with Ribbon Elements

Introduction

Adding a new ribbon button

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding a ribbon button to a specific entity

See also

Removing ribbon artefacts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Starting a dialog/workflow from a ribbon button

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Pre-populating form elements with a button click

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating other ribbon artefacts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Security trimmed ribbon elements

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Enhancing the progression process of a record

See also

Using the ribbon for displaying information

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

9. Extending CRM Using Community JavaScript Libraries

Introduction

Using jQuery with Dynamics CRM for page element selection

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Using jQuery and CSS

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Animating form elements with jQuery

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Using jQuery UI for user interaction

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Using jQuery UI for customizations

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Integrating jQuery UI widgets

Getting ready

How to do it...

See also

Using LiveValidation for input validation as you type

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Using Datejs for date manipulation

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

10. Light Social Media Integration

Introduction

Integrating with Facebook

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Integrating accounts with LinkedIn

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Integrating contacts with LinkedIn

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Adding Twitter feeds

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding CSS

Parsing URLs

Parsing Tweeter handles

See also

Working with Del.icio.us data

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Index

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Scripting Cookbook

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Scripting Cookbook

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: March 2013

Production Reference: 1150313

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84968-882-6

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Artie Ng (<artherng@yahoo.com.au>)

Credits

Author

Nicolae Tarla

Reviewers

Michael G. Ferreira

Sandor Schellenberg

Tanguy TOUZARD

Acquisition Editor

Mary Nadar

Lead Technical Editor

Susmita Panda

Technical Editors

Sharvari Baet

Devdutt Kulkarni

Dennis John

Project Coordinator

Esha Thakker

Proofreaders

Sandra Hopper

Samantha Lyon

Lydia May Morris

Indexer

Tejal R. Soni

Graphics

Aparna Bhagat

Production Coordinators

Aparna Bhagat

Prachali Bhiwandkar

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Nicolae Tarla is a Senior Consultant in a Solutions Architect role. He has worked on various mid-size to enterprise-level Dynamics CRM and SharePoint solutions for both the private and public sectors. He has been delivering Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions since the version 3.0 of the product. Nicolae also participated as a technical reviewer on the book Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Dashboards Cookbook.

I would like to thank my wife and daughter, who put up with the hectic schedule and the long nights and weekends consumed over the last few months on this project. They both fully supported me from start to finish. I want to give an additional thank you to Mark for introducing me to the writing process and asking me the dreaded question: When are you writing yours? That was the starting point.

About the Reviewers

Michael G. Ferreira, is a diverse hands on leader, entrepreneur, and executive consultant with 20 years of widely diverse business and technology leadership experience. He has crafted client/vendor/partner relationships, advisory services, managed large project portfolios, directed product development, implemented transformation change, and pioneered new service delivery techniques.

Since 2003 (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 1.0 beta), Michael has been working with a diverse range of customers and partner organizations (start-up to enterprise; across industries). He has proposed, lead, architected, and deployed over 100+ Microsoft CRM-based technology solutions ranging from out-of-the-box configurations to product upgrades to very complex integrated multi-channel service delivery platforms (CRM, ERP, Portal, Mobile, Social, BI/DW with integration).

Beyond implementation, Michael has played a key role in building the Microsoft CRM partner and consultant community, having helped launch seven organizational practices/delivery teams as well as building and selling his own uniquely positioned Microsoft-based technology solutions provider offering professional and managed services, vertical software/platform-as-a-service products, and hardware and software sales.

I'd like to thank Packt Publishing for letting me participate and my wife for her support throughout the process.

Sandor Schellenberg is the owner and founder of friendlyITsolutions (http://www.friendlyitsolutions.nl/), which mainly focuses on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and related software in the Microsoft stack. He is a Senior Microsoft Dynamics CRM Consultant/Solution Architect and specializes in data migrations and integrations.

In autumn of 2009 his work was recognized and rewarded with an invitation to the Scribe Software MVP Program. In 2013 he was rewarded for a fifth time for the program.

His roots in Microsoft-based Internet technologies go back more than 15 years, and since 2005 he has specialized in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Starting with his first guest post on the blog of Menno te Koppele, he then decided to start his own blog, Friendly Microsoft CRM Monster (http://www.friendlycrmonster.com/), a blog with a wink. The blog is widely read in the Dynamics CRM community and focused mainly on Microsoft Dynamics CRM technical and integration/migration topics. He is also the author of several musings at msdynamics.com, where he writes about common topics that have to be faced during implementations of Dynamics CRM.

He has experience with implementing Dynamics CRM in several branches and companies in the small to midsize segment, but also in the enterprise segment. Migrations and integrations are not only within the Microsoft stack, but also with widely used software of other vendors including SalesForce, Oracle, and SAP.

Tanguy TOUZARD is a technical consultant and expert on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. Since the first version of the application, Tanguy works on integration projects as a developer, consultant, and trainer.

He has expertise in all areas of development and integration around Microsoft Dynamics CRM (JavaScript, Plugins and workflow activities, Reports) and shares his knowledge through Microsoft forums and his blog. He also developed many tools available to the community Dynamics CRM, which made him a Microsoft MVP in the category Dynamics CRM.

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Preface

This cookbook presents practical and quick solutions that will teach the reader how to customize Dynamics CRM 2011 with minimal effort. The client-side customizations presented in this book work in conjunction with the system customizations to cover a large scale of customizations available for your environment.

The book moves on to more advanced topics as you progress through the various recipes. While the beginning focuses on the basics of working with client side scripting, the later chapters present various solutions you can implement in your environment to help the user see the collected data in new ways.

Taking advantage of various additional client-side libraries, the customizations presented show new ways to extend your Dynamics CRM environment and achieve new levels of customization otherwise not available.

While some of these customizations do have a counterpart in using plugins, the approach presented here is targeted at system customizers and developers that look to achieve the expected results with the minimal effort and in the shortest period of time. In addition, these customizations will add minimal load to the server side, if any.

What this book covers

Each of the chapters in this book adds incremental information, and is based on the prior knowledge gained from previous chapters. For a user that has already knowledge of customizing Dynamics CRM through scripting, you can skip to the recipes of interest, or follow along and see if there is anything new.

Chapter 1, Overview of Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization, introduces the concept of solution packages, and presents the scripting model used for Dynamics CRM 2011. In addition, basic system configuration and settings that work in conjunction with your customizations are