Author: Rawish Kumar Prajapati

Dynamics CRM 365 Online Microsoft Dynamics CRM Emails

Email Template Demystified

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

Before I start this blog – I would like to mention that my previous blog on email template functionality How to insert dynamic values from custom entities in an email template – Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been a huge success and got 10K + views on both Dynamics Community and on my personal blog.

In this blog I am going to cover below:

  1. Using HTML in email template. I.e Adding a table, border etc.
  2. Adding images to email template, prerequisites, limitation etc
  3. Using desired fonts

 


Quick Tips:
1. Always use Internet Explorer when creating email template
2. Adjust IE settings to be in compatible mode with your CRM. (i.e adding CRM url to compatibility mode)

 

Using HTML in email template. I.e Adding a table, border etc..

The first question would be , what is the need to use html in email template? If you know email template has very limited option available from the designer such as limited number of fonts, Colors, font size etc. So using html to provide rich look to your email content can be a good choice. I have used them personally and customer loved them.

In this blog I will quickly create a basic html email template which will have a table with some information from CRM record and we will beautify it. Lets say i would like to create table with custom loyalty reward information. I can do something like below:



You can use any online html editor to create the required content like the one I used here: https://html-online.com/editor/  

Now save the template and go to a contact > activities > add an email and insert this email template:


This is just to show the capability. You can do a lot with HTML in your email template.

Adding images to email template, prerequisites, limitation etc.

Adding images to a email template has been very tidy work. However with correct knowledge its quiet easy.  Keep below in your mind when you want to add an image to an email template:

  1. Email template is not a container/storage. The image can only be referenced from a public source. Meaning image must be available/accessible public ally.  i.e located on sharePoint, company website, social network public image etc.
  2. You should set the image size using html rather then manually dragging the corners.

Lets take an example below. I would add an image to my email template showing my recent accomplishment which is available on my blog page:


Now if I need this image in email template. There are two options.

1. Copy the image directly by right clicking on the image from website or create an html using image. Open in browser and copy from there and paste in your email template:

however this method is risky as your image might vanish anytime.

2. Copy image hyperlink or image address and paste it and create html by proving the image source:


Save the template and insert into email and you will see image has been populated.

Quick Tip : You can store images as Image web resource within your dynamics CRM and use them like I have used above by simply taking the image web resource url.

Using desired fonts

Though template editor gives you very limited option on fonts and size. You can very add other fonts and desired size or any colour to your content.

 

Here is what you can do:

  1. Format your content on a word document and copy paste from there into your email template. It should retain the fonts, size and color.
  2. Set the formatting within your HTML.

 

<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"> Rawish Kumar</span></strong></p>

I hope this helps!

Feel free to contact me in case of any difficulties.

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Alternate Keys Dynamics CRM 365 Online

Alternate Key Creation – Stuck On Pending Status

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

Alternate key is a great addition to useful features in dynamics crm. I have blogged about it here : Work With Alternate Keys

In this blog I just want to quickly show resolution when you create an alternate key and its corresponding job stays in “Pending” Status.

I.e Consider an example of my entity. On my customer entity I have a contact reference field  which I would like to be unique. hence I decide to create an alternate key. So I go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System > Entity > My Enity > Key and create a new one by adding the contact reference field:

  1. Create new alternate key and add the required field:
  2. Click Save and Close. you will see job is created and shows you status. However even after waiting for minutes , it shows as “Pending” the expect status should be “Activated”.
  3. click on the job:
  4. But there also , you wont see anything 😦

Reason & Resolution

There are two possibilities:

  1. Since creating an alternate key essentially creates indexing on the table in the database. It will fail if duplicate records are already there.To remove duplicates either use advanced find to manually delete or update records or duplicate detection job to delete the record, see here :Set up duplicate detection rules to keep your data clean
  2. Other reason I can think of is the job is stuck may be due to some CRM Async Service. Try to delete and recreated the alternate key.
    If you are onpremise – you can restart async service and see if that works.

For me 1st one was the issue. I deleted the records with same contact reference number and it worked:

Now I could create the key and it was activated:

I hope this helps!

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CRM WebApi/Javascript Dynamics CRM 365 Online

Populate Data From Child Record To Parent Record’s Quick Create Form In Dynamics 365

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

Populating data on forms in CRM is not a headache since you can do mappings for your 1:N record or simply do a Web API request using the parent lookup exist on the new form to retrieve the values from that record and set them on the current form.

However what if you have to populate data on a parent record form from a child record form? there is no out of the box functionality or script available for this. I digged in further and found below method. Its a rare but an important requirement. 

  1. I have an entity named “Potential Customer” which has a lookup of Contact along with some other fields such as name, contact ref number etc. My requirement is to pass name and contact ref from potential customer to contact on quick create form:
  2. Here are the two field below the parent contact lookup which I would like to be propagated to contact quick create form:
  3. To achieve this, I have used a concept of localStorage property.
  4. Create below javascript resource and add to your child record form( from where you will add new parent record) in my case its potential customer:
function SetLocalStorage(executionContext)
{

var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
var firstName = formContext.getControl("new_name").getAttribute().getValue().toString();
var refNumber = formContext.getControl("new_contactrefnumber").getAttribute().getValue();

localStorage.setItem("FirstName",firstName );
localStorage.setItem("ContactRef",refNumber );

}

In the code above I am simply retrieving the value from current record on load event and setting it to the localStorage. You have to set value using a key and the value. so from code below; FirstName is the key(using which we will retrieve the value) and firstName variable is the value.

localStorage.setItem(“FirstName”,firstName );

       
         5. Now add below code to your onload quick create form of the parent record in my case its contact.         

function RetrieveStorageValue(executionContext)
{
debugger;
var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
var firstName = localStorage.getItem("FirstName");
var contactRef = localStorage.getItem("ContactRef");

formContext.getAttribute("firstname").setValue(firstName);
formContext.getAttribute("new_contactref").setValue(contactRef);

localStorage.removeItem("FirstName");
localStorage.removeItem("ContactRef");

}

In the above code i am simply retrieving the value set using localStorage.getItem(“KeyName”); and then setting it on the required fields.

Use this link explained very well by Neil on how to add javascript code to your form : JS Basics

So now when Click on the new button from the lookup dropdown to add a parent record , I get values populated:

 

Here you go! 

Few important points:  

  1. I don’t encourage using properties and methods which are not defined by/for Microsoft dynamics CRM.
  2. The data you add to localStorage doesn’t have expiration which means the data will be there unless you don’t clear it (hence in my code I clear it everything once I have  used the values)
  3. It is just one of the methods (sometimes referred to as “Unsupported”) to achieve this requirement.
  4. The above script is for Dynamics crm 365 v9 or above. Please use Xrm.Page instead of formContext if you wish to implement this in earlier versions.

 

I hope this helps! 

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Search For Privilege Name Using Privilege Id

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

Quick post on how to search for privilege/permission name using privilege Id. You often in dynamics receive an error like below during your plugins or Web Api requests.:

“user is missing privilege ba09ec92-12c4-4312-ba16-5715c2cbd6da”

looking at the error, its difficult to tell what is the permission missing and on what entity.

Use this approach

All privileges are stored in an entity called privilege : Read more here.
you cannot see this entity in dynamics CRM front-end as its not available however you can easily query this entity using Web Api.

  1. Get web api url of your organization by going to Settings > Customizations > Developer Resources > Web API instance url:

    i.e. https://organizationname.api.crm8.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.1/

  2. Append this url with “privileges?$select=name” and put it in your browser: https://organization.api.crm8.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.1/privileges?$select=name

    1

  3. hit Ctrl+F and search using id:

    1.png

  4. Now we know the id refers to “PrvReadContact”. Go to the security role and assign appropriate read access on contact entity.

    hope this helps!

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CRM Code Helpers Uncategorized

Plugin on Retrieve Multiple in CRM.

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

Filtering records using javascript in subgrid or a view is unsupported and doesnt work hence here is how you can/should filter subgrid records using a plugin.

Nishant Rana's Weblog

Recently we had a requirement to filter sub grid on one of the forms. We thought of using Plugin on Retrieve Multiple for this.

Here we were showing Opportunity Sub Grid on Account form.

So we created a view for Opportunity that will be used as Sub Grid. Used it as Related Record Sub Grid so that we can have the GUID of the Account record being passed to the plugin.

The problem we faced à Sorting and Paging stopped working for the Sub Grid.

http://crmtipoftheday.com/2015/10/05/limitations-of-retrieve-plugins/v

Hope it helps..

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services

Prevent Data loss/Duplicates Using Concurrency Behavior In Dynamics CRM

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

This blog is just a reference to very important article on dealing with a problem when two or more update or delete operations on the same piece of data happen at the same time. This situation could potentially result in data loss.

Explanation : Reduce potential data loss using optimistic concurrencyReduce potential data loss using optimistic concurrency.

Sample Code : Use optimistic concurrency with update and delete operations

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CRM WebApi/Javascript Dynamics CRM 365 Online

Get User’s Teams Using WebApi JavaScript In Dynamics 365

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

If you need to get current/logged in or of any other user’s all teams. You have to look for the N:N relationship schema name and use that association in WebApi request:

1

So below is the code you can use to achieve this requirement. I have just retrieving the name of the teams associated and putting an alert on Onload of a form.

I have generated the code using Rest Builder Tool . And added the filter ($filter=systemuserid eq  IdOfTheuser) manually.

function GetUserTeams()
{
    var userSettings = Xrm.Utility.getGlobalContext().userSettings; // userSettings is an object with user information.
    var current_User_Id = userSettings.userId; // The user's unique id
    var newid = current_User_Id.slice(1, -1);	
    var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
req.open("GET", Xrm.Page.context.getClientUrl() + "/api/data/v9.1/teams?$select=name&$expand=teammembership_association($filter=systemuserid eq "+newid+")", true);
req.setRequestHeader("OData-MaxVersion", "4.0");
req.setRequestHeader("OData-Version", "4.0");
req.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
req.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
req.setRequestHeader("Prefer", "odata.include-annotations=\"*\"");
req.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (this.readyState === 4) {
        req.onreadystatechange = null;
        if (this.status === 200) {
            var results = JSON.parse(this.response);
            for (var i = 0; i < results.value.length; i++) {
                var name = results.value[i]["name"];
                             
                alert(name);
            }
        } else {
            Xrm.Utility.alertDialog(this.statusText);
        }
    }
};
req.send();
}

I am calling the function on Onload event of lead record. My user has two teams associated to it:

1


2


Important – Make sure you format the code fully before you use it. i.e use the latest method in the script i.e not using Xrm.Page but rather the formContext for v9.

I hope this helps! Cheers!

 

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CRM WebApi/Javascript Dynamics CRM 365 Online

Get Selected Record Information From Main View Or A Subgrid In Dynamics 365

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

I recently had a requirement to get selected record id from a main view of an entity i.e. Home page view of an entity and also on a subgrid within the form.

I also needed to pass this ID to my action to do some further operations in the plugin. This is how I did

I have taken reference from  here  and here.

  1. Download the managed solution of Ribbon Workbench from here and import it to your Dynamics CRM 365 environment: https://www.develop1.net/public/rwb/ribbonworkbench.aspx
  2. Create an unmanaged  solution and add contact entity to it. ( I am taking contact entity as I need to perform action on that, you can select any entity)
  3. Create two JPG images web resource with sizes as 16×16 and 32×32 for your ribbon button. You can take the desired image and rescale it online.
  4. Create a javascript web resource and below code to it: 
    function GetRecordInformation(item)
{
    var selectedItem = item[0];
   alert("You have Select Record with Id=" + selectedItem.Id + "\nName=" 
	+ selectedItem.Name + "\nEntity Type Code=" + selectedItem.TypeCode.toString() + "\nEntity=" + selectedItem.TypeName);
}
  5. Publish all your customization and open ribbon workbench tool from your solution area and select the solution that you have created and click ok:1.png
  6. Now drag and drop a button to the home grid view:1.png
  7. I have named this button as “SELECT” from the button properties you will get once you add and select the button on bottom right side of the ribbon workbench also select the Image for you button by providing the web resources we created in step 3 :1
  8. Now that out button is ready, we need to add a command and enable rule to it. to do this from the solution component area click on commands and click on + button and then from the right side click on add “Action”  and then click on “Javascript action”:1.png
  9. Add your javascript resource by searching in the lookup, if you dont find the script( i faced the issue). Simply add $webresource:WebResourceName for me its $webresource:new_SelectRecord  
  10. In the next box – add the function name i.e for me its GetRecordInformation
  11. Then click on Add parameter and select SelectedControlSelectedItemReferences Parameter. It should look like below:

    1

  12. The final step is to add an enable rule to this command. To do this – from the solution component area click on Enable Rules and click on + button. On your right side you will be presented with below, Make sure you keep the information as it is:1
  13. We are done , now click on Publish from the ribbon. wait for it to completed as it might take some time. Once done navigate to your dynamics CRM and the main entity home view, you should see the button:1.png
  14. Select a record and click on the button and Bammmm! if everything goes right you will get the record information.1

You can do the same thing on a form subgrid, all you have to do is place the button on a form grid instead of home view.

I needed to further processing with the data so I called an action and passed the record id described here : http://sacconsulting.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-to-call-global-action-from.html

I hope this has been helpful!

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CRM WebApi/Javascript

Make All fields Mandatory/Optional On Form Using Javascript

By Rawish Kumar Prajapati on

This should be a very quick blog on JavaScript helper which will let you make all fields on the form mandatory or optional. This requirement is hypothetical; I have not received any till now.

I am going to be calling below function on OnLoad event of the form based on a field value but you can very well call is on OnSave of record, or OnChange event of field.

For Dynamics CRM below v9:

function SetRequiredLevel()    
{
  var attributes = Xrm.Page.data.entity.attributes.get();
    for (var i in attributes) {
        attributes[i].setRequiredLevel("required");
    }
}

For Dynamics CRM v9 or above use below and make sure pass the context as first parameter ( checkbox) on the form editor while calling the function.

function SetRequiredLevel(executionContext)    
{
  var context = executionContext.getFormContext();
  var attributes =  context.data.entity.attributes.get();
    for (var i in attributes) {
        attributes[i].setRequiredLevel("required");
    }
}

1

 

1. If you need to check some value you can do that i.e.

If ( fieldAValue = 1)

{
//the above code goes here//

}

2. If you have to make fields optional rather then mandatory , do this:
setRequiredLevel(“none“);

I hope this helps!!

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