Biz-Forward.com

Last post

2011-09-16T14:48:00.003+03:00

This is the last post here. From now on you can reach us at www.biz-forward.com . Thanks for understanding.

2011-05-31T02:28:00.001+03:00

proud to present MCC Award: http://ping.fm/vbyRY

2011-03-10T23:57:00.001+02:00

3D SoccerBall Model for WPF: http://ping.fm/WlGDd

2011-03-10T23:56:00.001+02:00

Media Player (Video & Audio) Controls for WPF: _http://ping.fm/jCBem

2011-02-16T23:47:00.001+02:00

Am proud to present www.Croitoriu.NET - up & running!

BIZ-FORWARD.COM

2011-02-05T03:03:00.004+02:00

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: we moved to www.Biz-Forward.com . Meet us there.

2011-01-31T18:50:00.001+02:00

Dare to be GREAT! http://www.bizforward.cws-international.com/2011/01/31/dare-to-be-great/

2011-01-30T02:30:00.001+02:00

Contest: http://www.bizforward.cws-international.com/contests/ Good luck :)

2011-01-30T02:27:00.001+02:00

Important! you can be one of us! Join the best team... one click away! http://www.bizforward.cws-international.com/we-recruit/

Website launched

2011-01-29T11:41:00.002+02:00

Our website just launched. Please check it out: http://biz-forward.com . Thanks

Format date fields in CRM

2011-01-29T10:50:00.002+02:00

Special thanks to Andriy a33ik Butenko for this post.

// Formats the date into a certain format
Date.prototype.Format = function(format)
{
var d = this;
var f = "";
f = f + format.replace( /dd|mm|yyyy|MM|hh|ss|ms|APM|\s|\/|\-|,|\./ig ,
function match()
{
switch(arguments[0])
{
case "dd":
var dd = d.getDate();
return (dd <>
case "mm":
var mm = d.getMonth() + 1;
return (mm <>
case "yyyy": return d.getFullYear();
case "hh":
var hh = d.getHours();
return (hh <>
case "MM":
var MM = d.getMinutes();
return (MM <>
case "ss":
var ss = d.getSeconds();
return (ss <>
case "ms": return d.getMilliseconds();
case "APM":
var apm = d.getHours();
return (apm <>
default: return arguments[0];
}
});

return f;
}

// Formats the date to CRM format
Date.prototype.toCRMFormat = function()
{
var d = this;
var f = d.Format("yyyy-mm-ddThh:MM:ss+" + (-d.getTimezoneOffset()/60) + ":00");

return f;
}

Authors

2011-01-28T23:48:00.018+02:00

Our crew just got bigger. Let's welcome our newest authors. Here's a brief description about each author.

Mirel APOSTOL - Tech Mastermind
- he got his title for a good reason, he's the most skilled developer/architect I met so far. There's no technology he can't master or teach others. But his skills go beyong programming, Mirel being a good manager/leader. He proved himself in each and every project he was a part of. He has a good sense of humour, enthusiasm and he is the man you need on your side, if you want to get your business forward :) Let's all welcome Mirel.

Octavian CUCUTA - Software Developer
- and a very good friend of mine. Tavi is the developer that thinks in general terms and the code he writes can serve more than just the problem it was written for. Design is also one of his skills. Tavi puts passion in every single line of code he writes, he documents his job very well and, to be honest, am glad I can collaborate with him. Let's welcome Tavi.

Walter HAUPTMANN - Business Consultant
- my friend, my neighbour, my colleague, my managing partner @ CWS. Walter started as a developer and now he's a very skilled business analyst, consultant and project manager. He often has innovative ideas and likes to express himself via design, painting being one of his hobbies. Also, he's the funniest man I've met. In my opinion, he should consider a stand-up comedian career :) Let's welcome Walter.

Alina ANDREESCU - Software Developer
- a lovely and funny presence, very smart and skilled .NET developer. She's the type of person that treats all the tasks seriously, making the final products work smooth. Alina is a bit shy, so let's encourage her writing skill :) Let's welcome Alina.

Radu CHIRAN - Business Consultant
- he's the party-animal type. I can't imagine a good party, without him there. He's more of a dancer than human (to quote the famous song). Radu also has the vision of a product manager. He can easily track business goals & needs and analyse them, so coders can make it happen. Also, his sense of humour is one thing you'll surely notice if you get the honor to meet him in person. All my respect for him, let's welcome Radu.

Daniel PINSLER - Software Developer
- and also a very good product support professional who likes to get the job done well. If you got a question with no answer, don't worry, he has all the answers (yes boys & girls, when you have a dilemma, contact Dani). He also loves house music and house events and. Let's welcome Daniel.

Nikolay EFTIMOV - Solutions Architect
- I met Nikolay in a Microsoft vs. Oracle PoC competition. He made a real good impression. He easily masters more than just Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. The final product he worked on for that competition was more than I personally expected. He's a skilled coder & architect and I'm sure there's no task he can't complete. Let's welcome Nikolay.

Ciprian MOCANU - Web Developer
- he's the best friend one can have. He's a very skilled web developer, leading MBE to success daily (he's "the duck behind the operation"). Let's all welcome Ciprian.

Cornel CROITORIU - Senior Software Developer & Founder
- My mission is simple. Here's why I did this: "Because I strongly believe that a good business solution is a must for every business, no matter the stage. This blog will help both developers & consultants achieve their goals, making the final product exactly what the customer wanted."

And a song I hope from all my heart that this blog will be one day, thanks to all of you - the community. Welcome to the new Biz-Forward.com!

Cornel

Areas of interest

2011-01-28T23:48:00.015+02:00

These are the areas we will cover in our posts:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Microsoft Dynamics AX
Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft Office
Microsoft SQL Server
C#
WPF
WCF
Silverlight
ASP
HTML
JavaScript
.NET Framework
Windows 7
Windows Mobile
Windows Phone 7
Visual Studio 2010
Microsoft Surface
Project Management
Product Management
PR
Marketing

Rebranding

2011-01-28T20:34:00.002+02:00

Our blog will "suffer" some minor adjustments. It won't be just a CRM blog from now on, but a Microsoft Business Solutions blog, with topics about Dynamics CRM, NAV, AX, SharePoint, Office, .NET (C#, WPF, WCF, Silverlight, asp), HTML & JavaScript and much more. Stay tuned, we are gonna move your business process forward, for our new name/brand is Biz Forward.

Change attachment file limit

2011-01-27T16:25:00.003+02:00

More details about this issue can be found here: http://rahulsalunkhe.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/increasing-the-crm-4-0-attachment-size-limit . This should work under CRM 2011 as well.

CRM Usage Report

2011-01-26T23:04:00.003+02:00

A very nice thread about this issue, written by David Jennaway - MVP, can be found here.

Generate a new Guid in JavaScript

2011-01-26T16:28:00.001+02:00

As easy as that :)

// Generate new Guid
function Hexa4()
{
return (((1+Math.random())*0x10000)|0).toString(16).substring(1);
}
function GenerateGuid()
{
return (Hexa4()+Hexa4()+"-"+Hexa4()+"-"+Hexa4()+"-"+Hexa4()+"-"+Hexa4()+Hexa4()+Hexa4()).toUpperCase();
}

// USE
var guid = GenerateGuid();
alert(guid);

Create a custom filtered lookup view in runtime - CRM 2011

2011-01-26T15:58:00.005+02:00

Starting CRM 2011 you can filter a certain lookup view based on related entities or other system/custom views. But sometimes this is not enough. For example, if you wanna make a custom filtered view, that uses several filters, you can use the following approach.

Starting scenario (all of the completed lookup fields will be used as filters):

// *** ALL IN 1 CODE ***
// Structs
var FilterBy = MakeStruct("SchemaName Operator Value");
var ViewColumn = MakeStruct("SchemaName Width");

// Advanced Filtered Lookup
function AdvancedFilteredLookup(lookupSchemaName, viewId, entityName, primaryKeyName, primaryFieldName, viewDisplayName, filterBy, orderBy, viewColumns)
{
var fetchXml = "<fetch version='1.0' output-format='xml-platform' mapping='logical' distinct='false'>" +
"<entity name='" + entityName + "'>" +
"<attribute name='" + primaryFieldName + "' />" +
"<order attribute='" + orderBy + "' descending='false' />" +
"<filter type='and'>" +
"<filter type='and'>";
for(var i=0; i< filterBy.length; i++)
fetchXml += "<condition attribute='" + filterBy[i].SchemaName + "' operator='" + filterBy[i].Operator + "' value='" + filterBy[i].Value + "' />";
fetchXml += "</filter></filter></entity></fetch>";

var layoutXml = "<grid name='resultset' " +
"object='1' " +
"jump='name' " +
"select='1' " +
"icon='1' " +
"preview='1'>" +
"<row name='result' " +
"id='" + primaryKeyName + "'>";
for(var i=0; i< viewColumns.length; i++)
layoutXml += "<cell name='" + viewColumns[i].SchemaName + "' width='" + viewColumns[i].Width.toString() + "' />";
layoutXml += "</row></grid>";

try {
var lookupControl = Xrm.Page.ui.controls.get(lookupSchemaName);
lookupControl.addCustomView(viewId, entityName, viewDisplayName, fetchXml, layoutXml, true);
}
catch(err) {
}
}

// USE - we gonna create a custom filtered lookup view for the new_productid lookup field
// Note: this function should be called on the OnChange() event of all the filter-fields (for example: new_type1id)
function FilterProducts()
{
try {
// Parameters
var customViewId = "{FD140AAF-4DF4-11DD-BD17-0019B9312238}"; // new id
var customViewName = "Type Filtered Products";
var lookupFieldName = "new_productid";
var entityName = "product";
var primaryKeyName = "productid";
var primaryFieldName = "name";
var orderBy = "name";

// Generate Filters
var type1id = crmForm.all.item("nov_type1id").DataValue != null ? crmForm.all.item("nov_type1id").DataValue[0].id : null;
var type2id = crmForm.all.item("nov_type2id").DataValue != null ? crmForm.all.item("nov_type2id").DataValue[0].id : null;
var type3id = crmForm.all.item("nov_type3id").DataValue != null ? crmForm.all.item("nov_type3id").DataValue[0].id : null;
var type4id = crmForm.all.item("nov_type4id").DataValue != null ? crmForm.all.item("nov_type4id").DataValue[0].id : null;
var clientneedid = crmForm.all.item("nov_clientneedid").DataValue != null ? crmForm.all.item("nov_clientneedid").DataValue[0].id : null;
var vendorid = crmForm.all.item("nov_vendorid").DataValue != null ? crmForm.all.item("nov_vendorid").DataValue[0].id : null;
var filters = new Array();
var index = 0;
if(type1id != null)
filters[index++] = new FilterBy("new_type1id", LogicalOperator.Eq, type1id);
if(type2id != null)
filters[index++] = new FilterBy("new_type2id", LogicalOperator.Eq, type2id);
if(type3id != null)
filters[index++] = new FilterBy("new_type3id", LogicalOperator.Eq, type3id);
if(type4id != null)
filters[index++] = new FilterBy("new_type4id", LogicalOperator.Eq, type4id);
if(clientneedid != null)
filters[index++] = new FilterBy("new_clientneedid", LogicalOperator.Eq, clientneedid);
if(vendorid != null)
filters[index++] = new FilterBy("nov_vendorid", LogicalOperator.Eq, vendorid);

// View Columns
var viewColumns = [new ViewColumn("name", 200), new ViewColumn("productnumber", 100), new ViewColumn("new_type1id", 100), new ViewColumn("new_type2id", 100), new ViewColumn("new_type3id", 100), new ViewColumn("new_type4id", 100), new ViewColumn("new_clientneedid", 100), new ViewColumn("nov_vendorid", 100)];

// Create Dynamics View
AdvancedFilteredLookup(lookupFieldName, customViewId, entityName, primaryKeyName, primaryFieldName, customViewName, filters, orderBy, viewColumns);

// Clear Previous Product Value
crmForm.all.item(lookupFieldName).DataValue = null;
}
catch(err) {
}
}

And now, the custom filtered lookup view for the new_productid lookup field will look like this:

Hope you'll find this article useful.

P.S.: In my opinion, filtering a lookup this way is a lot more efficient than altering the lookupsingle.aspx file (the unsupported method used in CRM 4.0) ;)

Creating records in CRM 2011 using JavaScript

2011-01-26T15:31:00.011+02:00

Using the CRM Web Service, you can create new entity records, just using JavaScript. The following code demonstrates this:

// Make Struct
function MakeStruct(names) {
var names = names.split(' ');
var count = names.length;
function constructor() {
for (var i = 0; i < count; i++) {
this[names[i]] = arguments[i];
}
}
return constructor;
}

// CRM Field Struct
var CRMField = MakeStruct("SchemaName Value");

// Call Crm Service
function CallCrmService(soapBody, method)
{
try {
var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", '/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx', false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/' + method);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
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\'>" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() + "<soap:Body>" + soapBody + "</soap:Body></soap:Envelope>";
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);

var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
var errorCount = resultXml.selectNodes('//error').length;

if (errorCount != 0) {
var msg = resultXml.selectSingleNode('//description').nodeTypedValue;
alert(msg);

return null;
}

return resultXml;
}
catch(err) {
}

return null;
}

// Create Record
function CreateRecord(entityName, fields)
{
try {
var resultArray = new Array();
var attributesList = '';

for(var i = 0; i < fields.length; i++)
attributesList += "<" + fields[i].SchemaName + ">" + fields[i].Value + "</"+fields[i].SchemaName+">";
}

var xml = "<Create xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices'><entity xsi:type='"+entityName+"'>" + attributesList + "</entity></Create>";
var resultXml = CallCrmService(xml, 'Create');

if (resultXml) {
var newid = resultXml.selectSingleNode('//CreateResult').nodeTypedValue;
return newid;
}
}
catch(err) {
}

return null;
}

// USE
// Create new Contact
function CreateContact()
{
var fields = [new CRMField('firstname', 'Cornel'), new CRMField('lastname, 'Croitoriu')];
return CreateRecord('contact', fields); // return new contact id
}

// Create new Annotation
function CreateAnnotation(parentEntityName, parentEntityId, title, text)
{
var fields = [new CRMField('objecttypecode', parentEntityName), new CRMField('objectid', parentEntityId), new CRMField('subject', title), new CRMField('notetext', text), new CRMField('isdocument', false), new CRMField("mimetype", "text/html")];
return CreateRecord('annotation', fields); // return new note id
}

// Example
CreateAnnotation('opportunity', 'FD140AAF-4DF4-11DD-BD17-0019B9312238', 'dynamic generated note', 'text goes here...');

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online Global Availability

2011-01-26T10:05:00.002+02:00

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 goes international: 40 countries, 41 languages. Click here for more details.

Set a lookup value in CRM 2011

2011-01-26T09:38:00.001+02:00

// Sets the lookup value for a certain field
function SetLookupValue(fieldName, id, name, entityType) {
if(fieldName != null) {
var lookupValue = new Array();
lookupValue[0] = new Object();
lookupValue[0].id = id;
lookupValue[0].name = name;
lookupValue[0].entityType = entityType;

Xrm.Page.getAttribute(fieldName).setValue(lookupValue);
}
}

// USE
SetLookupValue("new_blogid", "{FD140AAF-4DF4-11DD-BD17-0019B9312238}", "CRM Stuff", "new_blog");

JavaScript structures

2011-01-26T09:30:00.007+02:00

Here's a brief example of how to create structures in JavaScript. We'll use this function a lot from now on in our code.

// Make Struct
function MakeStruct(names) {
var names = names.split(' ');
var count = names.length;
function constructor() {
for (var i = 0; i < count; i++) {
this[names[i]] = arguments[i];
}
}
return constructor;
}

// Use
// Declaring the struct
var Person = MakeStruct("ID FirstName LastName Email");
// Instance
var person1 = new Person(21, "Cornel", "Croitoriu", "cscmediadesign@yahoo.com");

Hope you'll find this useful ;)

CRM Stuff - 4 years together

2011-01-25T19:07:00.004+02:00

CRM Stuff has reached its 4th anniversary. I'd like to thank the community for all the support, comments, ideas, suggestions and thoughts.

Best of luck,
Cornel
CRM Stuff

CRM 2011 Custom Form Button

2011-01-25T16:27:00.011+02:00

Using some of the basic DOM vs JavaScript capabilities, you can use the following code to dynamically generate a custom button for your CRM Form in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (scroll to the end of this post to see an example of how to use it). The button will look just like the ones in the toolbar.
All you need is a random CRM field (the type doesn't matter) to host the button (the original field content will be hidden). Also, you'll need a custom function to pass for the onclick event.
Note: the image you use for the button must be placed inside the %programfiles%\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\CRMWeb\_imgs\ico folder.

The final output looks like this:

And... here's the code masterpiece :)...

// CODE

// Create Dynamic Button for CRM 5
function CreateButtonCRM5(fieldName, buttonText, buttonWidth, iconName, clickEvent)
{
functiontocall=clickEvent;
crmForm.all.item(fieldName + "_c").style.display = "none";

var li = document.createElement("LI");
li.setAttribute('id', fieldName + 'LI');
li.setAttribute('className', 'ms-crm-Menu');
li.setAttribute('title', buttonText);
li.setAttribute('onclick', functiontocall);
li.setAttribute('onmousedown', push_custom_button);
li.setAttribute('onmouseup', release_custom_button);
li.style.width=buttonWidth;
li.style.cursor="hand";
li.style.textAlign="center";
li.style.overflow="hidden";

var span = document.createElement("span");
span.setAttribute('className', 'ms-crm-Menu-Label');
span.setAttribute('id', fieldName + 'Span');
span.style.cursor = "hand";
li.appendChild(span);
li.onmouseover = function() { span.setAttribute('className', 'ms-crm-Menu-Label-Hovered'); }
li.onmouseout = function() { span.setAttribute('className', 'ms-crm-Menu-Label'); }

var a = document.createElement("a");
a.setAttribute('id', fieldName + 'A');
a.setAttribute('className', 'ms-crm-Menu-Label');
a.onclick = function() { return false; }
a.setAttribute('target', '_self');
a.setAttribute('href', 'javascript:onclick();');
a.style.cursor = "hand";
span.appendChild(a);

var img = document.createElement("img");
img.setAttribute('id', fieldName + 'Img');
img.setAttribute('className', 'ms-crm-Menu-ButtonFirst');
img.setAttribute('src', '/_imgs/ico/' + iconName);
img.style.cursor = "hand";

var span2 = document.createElement("span");
span2.setAttribute('id', fieldName + 'Span2');
span2.setAttribute('className', 'ms-crm-MenuItem-TextRTL');
span2.innerText = buttonText;
span2.style.cursor = "hand";
a.appendChild(img);
a.appendChild(span2);

removeChildNodes(crmForm.all.item(fieldName + "_d"));
crmForm.all.item(fieldName + "_d").appendChild(li);
}

function push_custom_button()
{
window.event.srcElement.style.marginLeft="1px";
window.event.srcElement.style.marginTop="1px";
}

function release_custom_button()
{
window.event.srcElement.style.marginLeft="0px";
window.event.srcElement.style.marginTop="0px";
}

// USE
function CustomClickFunction()
{
alert("your code goes here...");
}

// Create the button, using the new_custombutton field as a container
CreateButtonCRM5('new_custombutton', 'Custom Button','100 px', '16_cancel.png', CustomClickFunction);

BONUS:
For the developers out there who are still using CRM 4.0, you can use the following function to generate a custom button, CRM styled, based on the same principles as previous article/function.

// Create Dynamic Button for CRM 4
function CreateButtonCRM4(fieldName, buttonText, buttonWidth, clickEvent)
{
functiontocall=clickEvent;
crmForm.all.item(fieldName + "_c").style.display = "none";

crmForm.all.item(fieldName).DataValue = buttonText;
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.borderRight="#3366cc 1px solid";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.paddingRight="5px";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.borderTop="#3366cc 1px solid";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.paddingLeft="5px";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.fontSize="11px";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.backgroundImage="url(/_imgs/btn_rest.gif)";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.borderLeft="#3366cc 1px solid";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.width=buttonWidth;
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.cursor="hand";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.lineHeight="18px";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.borderBottom="#3366cc 1px solid";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.backgroundRepeat="repeat-x";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.fontFamily="Tahoma";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.height="20px";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.backgroundColor="#cee7ff";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.textAlign="center";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).style.overflow="hidden";
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).attachEvent("onmousedown",push_custom_button);
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).attachEvent("onmouseup",release_custom_button);
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).attachEvent("onclick",functiontocall);
crmForm.all.item(fieldName).contentEditable= false;
}

and the output:

Marketing List History

2010-09-29T11:35:00.011+03:00

Greetings guys,

Last week I worked on a very strange requirement to implement some kind of a marketing list auditing mechanism. The customer wants to be able to track which user added particular contact in a given marketing list.
Since the list <–> contact relationship is many-to-many and therefore the relations are stored in a third table (called ListMemberBase in this case), there is no event available to trigger a workflow or do something out of the box. Technically nor the list is updated neither the contact. Since I didn’t have much time to do this I decided to use database trigger to achieve the goal. Yes it is unsupported but it works very fast and nice so I decided to share it.
I first created a custom field of type ntext called Marketing List History (new_marketinglisthistory) on the Contact Entity. Added this to the contact form.
Then created the following trigger:

USE [XXX_MSCRM]
GO
/****** Object: Trigger [dbo].[trg_ListHistory] Script Date: 09/28/2010 17:09:44 ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE TRIGGER [dbo].[trg_ListHistory]
ON [dbo].[ListMemberBase]
AFTER INSERT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
if (select EntityType from inserted) = 2
begin
if (select New_MarketingListHistory from Contact, inserted where Contact.contactid=inserted.entityid) is null
begin
UPDATE Contact
SET New_MarketingListHistory = (select l.createdbyname+' --> '+listname from listmember l inner join list m on l.listid=m.listid where l.ListMemberId=inserted.ListMemberId)
FROM inserted
WHERE Contact.contactid = inserted.entityid
end
else
begin
UPDATE Contact
SET New_MarketingListHistory = (select l.createdbyname+' --> '+listname + char(13) from listmember l inner join list m on l.listid=m.listid where l.ListMemberId=inserted.ListMemberId) + (select New_MarketingListHistory from Contact where Contact.contactid=inserted.entityid)
FROM inserted
WHERE Contact.contactid = inserted.entityid
end
end
END

Done! Here is the result:

The last addition in a given marketing list goes on top of the history.
You can also put this column in the marketing list view – all members to look like this:

Regards!
Rinshwind

MS CRM 3.0: Set email default font

2010-09-23T02:09:00.003+03:00

Hello again,

I've been working recently on a way to set the default font within the CRM 3.0 email message edit field. The default font is Tahoma 10, however, a different font was needed (in this code, Arial). From the 3 specified font families, Internet Explorer will use the first one available on the system. As those 3 fonts are rather mundane, it's unlikely they will not be available. Nonetheless, should you decide to use a special font, make sure it's available on each system the code will run on.

My method uses the "subject" field in order to determine if the form is used to view an email or to edit a new email / a reply email / a forwarded email. It was enough to achieve my goal on this task. The thing about IFrames is that you're not able to determine exactly when they've finished loading. I have attempted to use the onLoad event of the IFrame, however that lead to nothing viable.

Thus, it came down to the same old workaround of using a timer to make a check against the readyState of the IFrame object.

The amount of time set on the timers is really up to you - it was enough for my objectives, you might need a quicker / slower time between checks. If the IFrame is not yet loaded, the method sets another timer to make another call attempt later. That, off course, only if the email is in edit mode (the "subject" field is editable).

Please note that this is not tested on CRM 4.0. I am not aware if the IFrame structure is different than that used in 3.0, therefore I cannot claim it might work on 4.0 as well. ;-)

Cheers!

Here is the code (in my case, it was placed within the onLoad code of the Email entity):

---------------------
function forceFontFormat(parentNode, fontFamily, fontSizeInPoints, fontSizeInIndex)
{
   if(parentNode)
   {
   try
   {
   var tagName = '';
   if(parentNode.tagName)
   tagName = parentNode.tagName.toLowerCase();
   switch (tagName)
   {
   case 'div':
   case 'p':
   case 'span':
   parentNode.style.fontFamily = fontFamily;
   parentNode.style.fontSize = fontSizeInPoints + 'pt';
   break;
   case 'font':
   parentNode.setAttribute('face', fontFamily);
   parentNode.setAttribute('size', fontSizeInIndex);
   break;
   }
   }
   catch (err) { }
   if((parentNode.childNodes) && (parentNode.childNodes.length > 0))
   {
   for(var i = 0; i < parentNode.childNodes.length; i++)
   {
   forceFontFormat(parentNode.childNodes[i], fontFamily, fontSizeInPoints, fontSizeInIndex);
   }
   }
   }
}

function forceDefaultCrm30EmailFontFamily()
{
   try
   {
   var isEditable = false;
   try
   {
   var emailSubject = document.getElementById("subject");
   isEditable = emailSubject.isContentEditable;
   }
   catch (secondErr) {}
   if ( isEditable == true)
   {
   var iframe = document.getElementById("descriptionIFrame");
   var forceFont = false;
   try
   {
   if(iframe.contentWindow.document.readyState == "complete")
   forceFont = true;
   }
   catch (thirdErr)
   {
   forceFont = false;
   }
   if(forceFont == true)
   {
   forceFontFormat(iframe.contentWindow.document.body, 'Arial', '10', '2');
   }
   else
   {
   setTimeout(forceDefaultCrm30EmailFontFamily, 1000);
   }
   }
   }
   catch (firstErr)
   {
   /*alert("CRM Development\n\nThis warning does not affect your work, please ignore it.\nThank you!\n\n\nError message (see below):\n\n" + err.description);*/
   }
}

// Method call
setTimeout(forceDefaultCrm30EmailFontFamily, 1000);

Another way of loading certain CRM Views into an IFRAME on the main form

2010-09-15T15:36:00.004+03:00

Since every CRM View has its own GUID and can be launched using the Advanced Find out-of-the-box functionality, you can follow several easy steps to load what view you want (with whatever additional filters you want) in a certain IFRAME available on the crmForm.
Here's the scenario: you wanna display your active contacts (My Active Contacts view) in a separate TAB on your account entity form.
- find out the id and objecttypecode of your view;
- create a new TAB and IFRAME on the form of the account entity;
- dynamically set the IFRAME URL as following: http://[crm_server_name]/[ORGANIZATION_NAME]/AdvancedFind/AdvFind.aspx?EntityCode=[CRM_VIEW_ENTITY_CODE]&QueryId=[CRM_VIEW_ID]&ViewType=1039&AutoRun=True (for our scenario, it would be something like http://CRMSERVER/MyOrganization/AdvancedFind/AdvFind.aspx?EntityCode=2&QueryId={FC3A5B78-1AA4-10C4-1234-12C45B78F01A}&AutoRun=True )
Warning: you must type "AutoRun=True" using this casing. lower/upper case won't trigger the Advanced Find to auto run (and that because the parsing of that parameter is as it is).

There you go - your custom filtered view available anywhere you want on any form :)

CRM 3.0: Simple button next to a given field

2010-04-25T19:53:00.000+03:00

Hello!

The code below generates a simple button next to a given input field (let's say, for instance, the Subject field on a task record). As simple as that.

This is how a standard button is displayed by CRM. The basic magnifying glass on a lookup type field is an image from the standard images CRM comes with (so no, it's not a real button, like those on a Windows Forms application). If you would like that sort of a "button", you'd have to replace the code from the "// Create a new button" line down to the "// Place the button inside the second table TD" line. So, instead of a button INPUT element, you'd create an image field, with onMouseOver and onMouseOut events defined, so it would behave like a "real" button. ;-)

The code and the call:

function attachCRMbutton(currentfieldName)

{
    try
   {
        // Get the parent DIV of the given field
        var parentObject = document.getElementById(currentfieldName).parentNode;
        // Create a holding table
        var myTable = document.createElement("Table");
        // The table should fill the entire surrounding DIV element
        myTable.setAttribute('width', '100%');
        // Add one row to our table
        var myRow = myTable.insertRow(0);
        // Create the TD elements
        var originalChildNodesArea = myRow.insertCell(0);
        var buttonArea = myRow.insertCell(1);
        // For this example, a width of 75 pixels is enough to enclose the "Open address"
        buttonArea.style.width = "75";
        // Place all the original child nodes inside the first table TD
        for(var i = 0; i < parentObject.childNodes.length; i++)
       {
            var myChild = parentObject.childNodes[i];
            originalChildNodesArea.appendChild(myChild);
        }
        // Attach the table to the DIV element
        parentObject.appendChild(myTable);
        // Create a new button
        var myButton = document.createElement('input');
        // Set the open action
        function launchURL()
        {
            window.open('http://crmstuff.blogspot.com');
            return true;
        }
        // Set the CRM-like attributes
       myButton.setAttribute('id', 'linkButton_' + currentfieldName);
        myButton.setAttribute('class', 'txt');
       myButton.setAttribute('type', 'button');
       myButton.setAttribute('maxLength', '50');
        myButton.setAttribute('value', 'Open address');
       myButton.setAttribute('req', '0');
        myButton.attachEvent('onclick', launchURL);
        // Place the button inside the second table TD
        buttonArea.appendChild(myButton);
        // Done
    }
    catch (e) {}
}

// Method call
attachCRMbutton('subject');

Good luck and good hunting!

MS CRM 3.0 "Expected '}'" and "Object expected" errors

2009-12-31T14:37:00.004+02:00

Hello, there :-)

Have you ever encountered this situation? You write some decent, valid JS code, throw it inside a CRM field event box, Save & Close x2, publish, test, BAM!-error?

Well, provided your code is actually correct (no logical, typing or access errors), you should check the next thing. In CRM 3.0 at least (not having a 4.0 box around atm., feel free to test if you're kind enough) if you load a piece of code having its last line using a line comment, you're in for trouble. I was lucky to find that out while debugging a whole page and noticed that the line comment I was using was extended to the rest of the CRM JS code (due to CRM placing the CATCH(e){} part of the TRY{} block right on the same line with the last line of my code). That was causing havoc to the entire page.

So, remember this hint: never leave the last line of code having a line comment ( "//" ) or you're in for trouble :D

Cheers!

CRM 4.0 Server - Hardcore Installing

2009-12-18T14:13:00.008+02:00

There are moments when installing the Microsoft CRM 4.0 Server can be a real pain, if your Organization doesn't offer you full "trust" in its AD (Active Directory). After some digging, finally found a working solution (start to end :P):

step 1: Find a nice Active Directory Admin to manually create 5 groups for you in the Organization Node, with full privileges for the username that you will install the CRM 4 Server with:
PrivUserGroup
PrivReportingGroup
ReportingGroup
SQLAccessGroup
UserGroup

step 2: Create a custom precreateconfig.xml file that will look like this (ask the same friendly guy from first step to assist you with this):
<crmsetup><server><groups autogroupmanagementoff="true"><privusergroup>CN=PrivUserGroup,OU=Company Name,OU=Company Name,DC=<domain>,DC=<domain_extension></privusergroup> <sqlaccessgroup>CN=SQLAccessGroup,OU=Company Name,OU=Company Name, DC=<domain>,DC=<domain_extension></sqlaccessgroup> <usergroup>CN=UserGroup,OU=Company Name,OU=Company Name,DC=<domain>,DC=<domain_extension></usergroup> <reportinggroup>CN=ReportingGroup,OU=Company Name,OU=Company Name, DC=<domain>,DC=<domain_extension></reportinggroup> <privreportinggroup>CN=PrivReportingGroup,OU=Company Name,OU=Company Name, DC=<domain>,DC=<domain_extension></privreportinggroup> </groups></server></crmsetup>

step 3: Go Start > Run > cmd (Command Prompt) and type:
<Drive:>\CRM 4 Kit\Server\i386\SetupServer.exe /config <Drive:>\Path_to_your_creation\precreateconfig.xml

step 4: Pray for no further random errors while enjoying your progress bars @ Setup Screen:
step 5: After setup is completed successfully, ask the same kind AD Admin to re-add the CRM Administrator (the one you installed with) in the PrivUserGroup (with Full Privileges). See step 1 for details...
step 6: Go http://<hostname>:<port>/ and enjoy your CRM (now you will most likely have the right to finally use the product you <paid> for :)
step 7: ???
step 8: Profit!

For a detailed article about 90% of this issue, you can study this MSDN KB article.

Also, if your setup failed and cannot be uninstalled/repaired, while experimenting OTHER ways of installing than the one described above, I recommend you study this MSDN KB article as well. You gotta try this one once if you wanna train your fingers in deleting keys in RegEdit @ light speed...

Cheers and may the patience be with you :)

WSDL Error: "Schema item 'element' named 'string' from namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices'. [...]"

2009-12-16T18:36:00.007+02:00

Hey,

Have you ever encountered the following error?
"Schema item 'element' named 'string' from namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices'. The global element 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/WebServices:string' has already been declared."

That's what I got when I update my webservice references. Totally nagging and a real pain. That error prevented me from being able to access all the custom fields I created on the CRM entities.
Silly as it might sound, the sole answer to this problem was to take a deep breath (no, no Skype chat), backup the WSDL file and perform some orcish style surgery.

My troubling line was this:
<s:element name="SecurityPrincipal" nillable="true" type="s2:SecurityPrincipal">
<s:element name="string" nillable="true" type="s:string">
<s:element name="TargetFieldType" type="tns:TargetFieldType">

Make sure you have a backup to the original WSDL file, then nuke (a.k.a. "remove") the red-highlighted line and save the changes to the WSDL file (in my case, it was the WSDL file corresponding to the CRM SDK service). Unless there are other errors, you will be able to build your project and your customizations will be available within Visual Studio.

Good luck and happy coding afterwards!
Cheers!

How to extract Email attachments IDs (CRM 3.0)

2009-12-02T12:17:00.003+02:00

Howdy,

At some point, I was requested by a manager to extend the functionality of the email entity (multiplying the number of messages sent) and I came across the attachment side. The following function is my solution to the occurring issue:

// Author: Octavian Cucuta ( octavian.cucuta [ AT ] gmail.com )
// Release: 1.0.0.1 ( 2nd of December 2009 ) for MS CRM 3.0
// * Gets the IDs of the uploaded attachments, as a string constant with IDs separated by pipes '|' characters
function GetEmailAttachmentsIDs()
{
// Returning results as a string, but locally storing data into an array, for a more practical approach
var result = Array();
// Encasing it all within a TRY{}CATCH{} block, to prevent unwanted errors
try
{
// Get table containers
var myTables = document.getElementsByTagName("table");
// Since MS did not specify a unique ID or name for the table,
// checking which one has the correct 'oname' tag.
// Tip: on email, the table we need is the 48th
for(var i = 0; i < myTables.length; i++)
{
if(myTables[i].oname == "1001")
{
// Get attachment IDs
var index = 0;
for(var j = 0; j < myTables[i].rows.length; j++)
{
result[index] = "";
result[index++] = myTables[i].rows[j].oid;
}
// Cancelling the processing loop here
break;
}
}
}
catch (err)
{
// In case something went wrong, instead of providing a partial set of attachments, return none
result = Array();
}

// Format output as a single string constant, separated by pipes
return result.join('|');
}

// Usage: place this function inside the needed event code body, then use the following call
var ids = GetEmailAttachmentsIDs();

JavaScript code reuse in CRM

2008-10-20T15:58:00.008+03:00

In most of the cases, you don't want to copy-paste your custom methods in your CRM events source code each time you need them.

So, here's an easy approach on javascript code reuse in CRM.

First of all, make sure you have these 2 files: LargeNumber.js and StringsExtended.js located in a custom folder - named CRMStuff - that is also located in the root folder of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server application (the relative paths to the files should be "/crmstuff/LargeNumbers.js" and "/crmstuff/StringsExtended.js"). As you can see, these 2 files contain custom methods.

Click here to download the source code that allows you to load your *.js files at runtime.

Welcome Tavi

2008-09-08T13:03:00.004+03:00

Let's give a big welcome to our newest author - Mr. Octavian Cucuta on CRM Stuff blog. He promises a lot :P

Large Integer division remainder

2008-09-08T10:21:00.018+03:00

Recently, I had to obtain the remainder of a (seriously) large integer division (32 digits long divided by another shorter integer; base 10) and found that JavaScript reliably supports operations only on 15-digit long integers. Thus, this what I came up with:

// Gets the remainder from the division operation for LARGE numbers
// Support: positive integers; first parameter must not be 0
function GetRemainder(x, y) {
if ((y != 0) && (x.slice(0, 1) != "-") && (y.slice(0, 1) != "-"))
{
var nr = x;

// Removing the potential first '+' character
if (nr.slice(0, 1) == "+") {nr = nr.slice(1);}
if (y.slice(0, 1) == "+") {y = y.slice(1);}

// Removing leading blank and tab characters on both numbers
while ( (nr.charCodeAt(0) == 32) || (nr.charCodeAt(0) == 9) ){
nr = nr.slice(1);
}
while ( (y.charCodeAt(0) == 32) || (y.charCodeAt(0) == 9) ){
y = y.slice(1);
}

var len = nr.length;

// Checking if any non-digit characters are embedded into the input string
var i = 0;
for (i = 0; i < len; i++)
if (!((nr.charCodeAt(i) >= 48) && (nr.charCodeAt(i) <= 57)) ) {
return -1;
}

var number = parseInt(y,10);
var remainder = 0;
var ignore = 0;
var k = '';

while (ignore < len) {
if (remainder == 0) {
var w1 = y+' ';
var w2 = w1.length-1;
k = nr.slice(ignore, ignore+w2);

ignore += w2;
remainder = parseInt(remainder+k, 10) % number;
} else {
k = nr.slice(ignore, ignore+1);
ignore += 1;
remainder = parseInt(remainder+k, 10) % number;
}
}

return remainder;
}

return -1;
}

Usage:

document.write(GetRemainder("12345678901234567890123456789012", "123"))

will output 27.

OnChange Event

2008-09-05T16:48:00.003+03:00

When starting to work with CRM, one of the first things you learn is how to put some script on the onChange event. It's easy to do this and it really works.
Let's say you want to fire that script at the first moment your page is loaded.
In CRM 3.0 you could do that writing a single line :
crmForm.all.yourfield.FireOnChange();
When starting to work with CRM 4.0 I tried to use the same code but it didn't work anymore. I was sooooo disappointed and I hardly found out the solution. That's why i thought of sharing it with you.
The code for firing a script put on the onchange event for CRM 4.0 is:
yourfield_onchange0();

I hope this helps. Happy coding! :)

Random Custom Serial Number Generator

2008-09-05T15:27:00.002+03:00

A brief example on how to generate random serial numbers with JavaScript. Enjoy!

// Symbols Array (A-Z, 0-9)
var Symbols = new Array();

// Gets the ascii code for a certain character
function GetAsciiBySymbol(letter)
{
var code = letter.charCodeAt(0);
return code;
}

// Populates a certain array with the A-Z, 0-9 symbols
function PopulateArray(array) {
var Position = 0;

// Letters
for(i=GetAsciiBySymbol('A'); i<=GetAsciiBySymbol('Z'); i++) {
array[Position] = String.fromCharCode(i);
Position++;
}

// Numbers
for(i=GetAsciiBySymbol('0'); i<=GetAsciiBySymbol('9'); i++) {
array[Position] = String.fromCharCode(i);
Position++;
}

}

// Gets the array symbol by a certain index
function GetSymbol(index) {
return Symbols[index];
}

// Generates a new Serial Number
function GenerateSerial(serialLength, separatorSymbol, separatorPositions) {
var serial = "";
var Offset = 0;

for(i=0; i
var rnd = Math.floor(Math.random()*Symbols.length);
serial += GetSymbol(rnd);
}

if(SeparatorPositionsOk(separatorPositions,serialLength)) {
for(i=0; i
var position = separatorPositions[i];
serial = serial.substring(0,position + Offset) + separatorSymbol + serial.substring(position + Offset, serial.length); Offset++;
}
}

return serial;
}

// Checks if a certain array contains only items less than a maximum value
function SeparatorPositionsOk(array, maxValue) {
for(i=0; i maxValue) {
return false;
}
}

return true;
}

// Populate Symbols
PopulateArray(Symbols);

// Example 1 - Format: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
var SepPos = new Array();
SepPos[0] = 5;
SepPos[1] = 10;
SepPos[2] = 15;
SepPos[3] = 20;
var NewSerial = GenerateSerial(25, "-",SepPos);
alert("Serial Number: " + NewSerial);

// Example 2 - Format: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
SepPos = new Array();
SepPos[0] = 8;
SepPos[1] = 12;
SepPos[2] = 16;
SepPos[3] = 20;
SepPos[4] = 24;
NewSerial = GenerateSerial(32, "-",SepPos);
alert("Serial Number: " + NewSerial);

// Example 3 - Format: XXX-XXXXXXX
SepPos = new Array();
SepPos[0] = 3;
NewSerial = GenerateSerial(10, "-",SepPos);
alert("Serial Number: " + NewSerial);

Replace Chars in String - prototype example

2008-09-05T10:15:00.003+03:00

An elegant way to replace certain chars from a string with new ones:

// Custom method for replacing certain chars from a string with new ones
function ReplaceChars(oldValue,newValue) {
var newText = this.split(oldValue);
newText = newText.join(newValue);
return newText;
}

// Attach the custom method to string object
String.prototype.Replace = ReplaceChars;

// Usage
var myString = "Hello World!";
alert(myString.Replace("o","0")); // will output "Hell0 W0rld!"

An easier way to hide or show a certain field in CRM

2008-09-05T10:09:00.004+03:00

Simply use the function below:

// Shows or hides a certain field
function HandleField(field, display) {
document.getElementById(field+"_c").style.display = display;
document.getElementById(field+"_d").style.display = display;
}

/* Calling */
HandleField("fieldid", "inline"); // show inline
HandleField("fieldid", "block"); // show block
HandleField("fieldid", "none"); // hide

Create a button on your form

2008-02-27T11:46:00.004+02:00

This is an example on how to create a button on the form, based on a former idea of Cornel. First of all we need to create a nvarchar attribute and put it on the form where we want our button. I assume that everybody knows how to create an attribute and put in on the form, so i won't talk about this.
In this example my attribute's schema name is new_button. Here is the code:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// This is how we call the button, what we see
crmForm.all.new_button.DataValue = "Ok";
// We could align it a bit
crmForm.all.new_button.style.textAlign = "center";
crmForm.all.new_button.vAlign = "middle";
//we make the mouse look as a hand when we're moving over
crmForm.all.new_button.style.cursor = "hand";
crmForm.all.new_button.style.backgroundColor = "#CADFFC";
crmForm.all.new_button.style.color = "#FF0000";
crmForm.all.new_button.style.borderColor = "#330066";
crmForm.all.new_button.style.fontWeight = "bold";
crmForm.all.new_button.contentEditable = false;
//we attach some events in order to make it look nice :)
crmForm.all.new_button.attachEvent("onmousedown",color1);
crmForm.all.new_button.attachEvent("onmouseup",color2);
crmForm.all.new_button.attachEvent("onmouseover",color3);
crmForm.all.new_button.attachEvent("onmouseleave",color4);
function color3() {
crmForm.all.new_button.style.backgroundColor = "#6699FF";
}
function color4() {
crmForm.all.new_button.style.backgroundColor = "CADFFC";
}
function color1() {
crmForm.all.new_button.style.color = "000099";
}
function color2() {
crmForm.all.new_button.style.color = "FF0000";
}
//here we attach what we want our button do
crmForm.all.new_button.attachEvent("onclick",someFunction);
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Here is how the button looks like:

I didn't define here the "someFunction", i leave it up to you. First time when i used such a button was to add product to a quote without click-ing on "New Quote Product", calling a Web Service...

Welcome Alex

2008-02-18T10:15:00.004+02:00

Welcome Mr. Alexandru Radu on CRM Stuff blog. Alex is a CRM Project Manager, Consultant, Trainer and also a MCP, with lots and lots of CRM experience.

Welcome Adi

2008-02-14T09:24:00.004+02:00

Let's give a warm welcome to our newest author - Mr. Adrian Toderut on CRM Stuff blog. He's a very good consultant with a lot of experience in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Back...

2008-02-05T09:22:00.000+02:00

Well, like I said, I'm back in business and I promise that asap I'll post a few useful ideas. I'd like to think that 2008 will be the year of CRM in Romania and not only, as MS Dynamics CRM Titan will replace, step by step, CRM 3.0. Stay tuned...

P.S. Thanks Microsoft for the MCP in Business Solutions, looks nice :)

Nofollow - free

2008-02-01T12:36:00.000+02:00

Blogger by default, and other blogging software such as WordPress, automatically adds the "nofollow" microformat extension to all links from user generated content. User generated content is defined as comments or external sources such as linkbacks and trackbacks.

I support the people of the blogging community who have chosen to remove NoFollow for blog comments and linkbacks/trackbacks and I highly recommend others to do so.

Removing the "nofollow" attribute will help people who are giving you comments to increase their website/blog PR (Page Rank). I currently set the lower limit to 1 for my blog, so feel free to comment, 1 comment/user will help you raise your PR :)

If you want to learn more about this feature, try the following links:

Click here for blogspot/blogger

Click here for WordPress

Exams...

2008-01-10T09:39:00.000+02:00

Considering the fact that the examining session at the college has begun for me, I'll suspend the posting around here for a while (until february 2008). I promise to be back with new useful features asap. Good luck!

World without Romania

2008-01-06T23:32:00.000+02:00

And here are some relevant images (I'd like to think) about my country:

***

Introducing...

2008-01-04T21:38:00.000+02:00

I'd like to introduce Andrei Gabur's Blog. It's an interesting blog about philosophy and history. Give it a look when you've got the time :)

Small Business Loan

2008-01-01T16:07:00.000+02:00

If you are seeking money in the form of an unsecured small business or personal loan, you have located a useful source to assist with your financing needs. America One is what you're looking for. In the past year alone, they’ve helped their clients receive millions in approvals.By using this great service - Small Business Loans, you benefit from extensive knowledge of today's most active lending sources. Their specialty product is a signature loan that can be used for any purpose, with no collateral required. Approval is based upon your current credit standing.

Why use America One?

First and foremost when you borrow money, you want to be sure you are applying with a company you can trust. At America One Funding, they have been providing consumers and small business owners’ fair and equal access to unsecured financing nationwide since 1999. It seems these days that almost every financial website claims to be the biggest and best, but in their case it is a fact. They are the largest unsecured loan consulting and placement firm in the nation for seven consecutive years, assisting over 500,000 applicants per year.

While they are proud of their growth, they also work hard to maintain the entrepreneurial grassroots approach to financing that has led to their success. When you work with America One, you will receive superior and accessible service from a highly trained unsecured financing expert. You will find them compassionate to your unique situation, but also willing to speak to you in realistic terms about your loan options. They will never tell you what you want to hear, just to get your business. In addition, unlike many other banks and finance companies, they are exclusively dedicated to unsecured financing, which leads to higher approval rates and better overall customer satisfaction.

At America One, the business philosophy can be summed up by one simple question; why risk your valuable assets to borrow money if you don’t have to? When you allow them to help you, your unsecured loan request will have best possible chance of being approved for the amount of money you need, and at rate and term you can afford. It only takes a few minutes to pre-qualify and you can have money in hand as fast as a few days.

The professional staff is available for a free consultation. Start by clicking the service most suitable for you, right after you visit Small Business Loan website.

Holiday Wishes

2007-12-23T12:48:00.000+02:00

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you all!

Click below to view your Christmas Card:

If you can't view the greeting card, try installing the Adobe Flash Player 9 first.

21 and counting :)

2007-12-21T09:44:00.000+02:00

It seems that I'm getting older everyday :) 21 years already passed away... Free champagne and candy for everyone :)

***

Sincerely,

Microsoft CRM Google Maps integration tool

2007-12-14T12:22:00.000+02:00

I'm proud to present a very useful tool - MSCRM Google Maps - developed by Wolter Kreun, a friend of mine, a tool that managed to bring together two strenghts: Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Google Maps.
You can get a free sample from www.crmmaps.com and also see the latest news about it.
The beta version of the MSCRM Google Maps is available in 5 different languages: Russian (thanks to Evgeniy Yurevich), Spanish (thanks to Geraldo Luiz Yoshizawa), French (thanks to Samy Barmada), German (thanks to Jaksch Michael) and Romanian (thanks to Cornel Croitoriu).

Here are some sample movies:

1. Showing an map from the account entity
2. Showing one or more custom entities
3. Showing alle contacts in one map

We hope you'll find this tool useful and use the full version in your projects.

Generating tooltips on certain events

2007-12-02T10:42:00.000+02:00

A tooltip is a small box of explanatory text (usually on yellow background) that appears when the mouse pointer is held over a button or other interface element.
In Microsoft Dynamics CRM we can define constraints (masks) on certain fields. It is desired that the user is well informed about the text’s format, in real time, when triggering the onmousemove event on a certain field.
In this tutorial, we show you a function that generates tooltips on CRM’s forms, triggered by mouse events, such as: onclick, ondblclick, onmouseover, onmousedown and especially, onmousemove.

The links for this tutorial are:
English version --> click here
Romanian version --> click here

Here are some prints (examples) of different types and styles of tooltips made with the function presented in this tutorial:

Example 1:
Account Entity - Account Name - onmousemove event

Example 2:
Account Entity - Primary Contact - onmousemove event

Example 3:
Account Entity - Body - ondblclick event

Example 4:
Account Entity - Account Number - onmousemove event (default Windows style)

We hope you found this solution useful :) If you find, by any chance, any mistakes in the tutorial, please let us know. Thank you.

How to retrieve the ID of a parent entity

2007-11-27T21:37:00.000+02:00

I saw this topic several times in the Microsoft CRM Developer Community and I decided to share this line of code with you :)

Let's take a simple example. We want to retrieve the Quote's ID (guid) when we open the Quote Details form (pressing the New Quote Product on the Quote entity). All we have to do is add the following code on the OnLoad() Event of the child entity (Quote Detail in our case):

var MyOpenerID = opener.document.crmForm.ObjectId;
alert(MyOpenerID);

In the same way, we can also take other values (fields) from the parent entity. Feel free to test ;)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Exam - MB2-423

2007-11-21T12:32:00.000+02:00

Done... Complete... 95% passing score... Thanks for the support everyone, especially EVO Software and Thomas Davin :)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Exam

2007-11-18T17:59:00.001+02:00

This week, on the 21st of November, I'll sustain my first CRM Exam, CRM-30-423 - Microsoft Business Solutions - CRM 3.0 Applications. Wish me luck all :)

Using the "onmousemove" event

2007-11-17T23:39:00.000+02:00

The "onmousemove" event can help you make sure that your script runs as well as your cursor on the form :) I'll give you a brief example of its usage. We want to trap the cursor's coordinates as it moves in a certain entity's form in CRM.

Add the following code on the OnLoad() event of a form you want:

document.onmousemove = function() {
window.status = event.clientX + "x"+event.clientY;
}

Of course, you may attach the "onmousemove" event to the crmForm too, using:

crmForm.onmousemove = function() {
window.status = event.clientX + "x"+event.clientY;
}

But this way, your status will update only if your cursor moves inside the crmForm, not in the entire window like in our first example.

Using the "onkeyup" event

2007-11-10T11:20:00.000+02:00

Let's add some interactivity to our customizations :) For example, we have 4 fields: Amount (Schema Name amount, Type float(2)), Discount
(Schema Name discount, Type float(2)), Tax (Schema Name tax, Type float(2)) and Total Amount (Schema Name totalamount, Type float(2)) and we
want to calculate in real time the Total Amount based on the Amount, Discount and Tax.

First let's consider the following formulas:
Tax = 1.19 * Amount
Discount - between 1 and 100 (percentage of Amount)
Total Amount = (100 - Discount)/100 * Amount + Tax

Second, we create the function that calculates the Total Amount on the basis of the other 3 and we type the following code on the OnLoad() event of a form which contains our fields:

function updateTotalAmount() {
var amount = crmForm.all.amount.DataValue;
var discount = crmForm.all.discount.DataValue;
var tax = crmForm.all.tax.DataValue;
var total;
tax = 0.19 * amount; //we assume that the tax represents 19% of the amount
total = (100 - discount) / 100 * amount + tax;
crmForm.all.tax.DataValue = tax;
crmForm.all.totalamount.DataValue = total;
}

And now, we attach an "onkeyup" event to the amount, discount and tax fields. The event will call our function, like this:

crmForm.all.amount.attachEvent("onkeyup",updateTotalAmount);
crmForm.all.tax.attachEvent("onkeyup",updateTotalAmount);
crmForm.all.discount.attachEvent("onkeyup",updateTotalAmount);

Now, we may test the interactivity of our form. Type a value for the Amount and Discount fields and you'll see, in real time, how the Total Amount field updates.

Here's a printscreen of our example:

How to read / write files using JavaScript

2007-11-04T15:27:00.000+02:00

To read and write files from JavaScript, we will use an ActiveX Object from the Scripting.FileSystemObject library, which knows how to handle files. The second parameter of the OpenTextFile function represents what we want the object to do with the file (read = 1, write = 2, append = 8).

And here are the scripts:

1. Reading from file

function ReadFromFile(sText){
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var s = fso.OpenTextFile("C:\\example.txt", 1, true);
row = s.ReadLine(); //also we can use s.ReadAll() to read all the lines;
alert(row);
s.Close();
}

2. Writing to file

function WriteToFile(sText){
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var s = fso.OpenTextFile("C:\\example.txt", 8, true); //if we use 2 instead of 8, the file will be overwritten;
s.WriteLine("new line added");
s.Close();
}

Though, to make this scripts work in Internet Explorer, you must go to Tools/Internet Options/Security, add your page to Trusted sites, then go to Custom level... and look for Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for scripting. Enable it and restart the Internet Explorer.

Coloring Activities (Tutorial)

2007-10-30T20:31:00.000+02:00

Activities are central when working with sales in Microsoft CRM. Whether you need to contact a customer, send a quote, or run a campaign, it is all about activities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Downloading and reading this tutorial you will learn, step by step, a simple interface method of coloring activities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 on certain conditions.

Let’s take, for example, the Due Date until when an activity must be executed (closed) and, depending on its status, we will color it in red if it is open and overdue (the current date is greater than the due date) or in black if it is closed or open and not overdue (the due date is greater than the current date).

The links for this tutorial are:
English version --> click here
Romanian version --> click here

We hope you found this solution useful :) If you find, by any chance, any mistakes in the tutorial, please let us know. Thank you.

Events in JavaScript

2007-10-27T17:26:00.000+03:00

Events are the beating heart of any JavaScript application. Without events there are no scripts. Take a look at any web page with JavaScript in it: in nearly all cases there will be an event that triggers the script. The reason is very simple. JavaScript is meant to add interactivity to your pages: the user does something and the page reacts.

Therefore JavaScript needs a way of detecting user actions so that it knows when to react. It also needs to know which functions to execute, functions that do something that you, the web developer, have judged likely to increase the appeal of your pages. These pages describe the best way to write such scripts. It isn’t easy, but it is very satisfying work.

When the user does something an event takes place. There are also some events that aren’t directly caused by the user: the load event that fires when a page has been loaded, for instance.

There are various types of events, such as:
1. Interface Events: onfocus/onblur, oncontextmenu, onload/onunload, onscroll, onresize;
2. Mouse Events: onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown/onmouseup, onmouseenter/onmouseleave, onmouseover/onmouseout, onmousemove, onmousewheel;
3. Form Events: onchange, onreset, onselect, onsubmit;
4. Keyboard Events: onkeypress, onkeydown/onkeyup;
5. Miscellaneous Events: onabort, onerror, onerrorupdate, ontimeerror, onsubtreemodified, onactivate/ondeactivate, onbeforeactivate/onbeforedeactivate, onbeforeprint/onafterprint, onbeforeupdate/onafterupdate, onbeforecut, onbeforecopy, onbeforepaste, oncut, oncopy, onpaste, onpropertychange, onreadystatechange, onresizestart/onresizeend, oncontrolselect, onselectstart, onselectionchange, onbounce, onfocusin/onfocusout, onbeforeeditfocus, onlosecapture, oncellchange, ondrag, ondragenter/ondragleave, ondragover, ondragstart/ondragend, ondrop, onmove, onmovestart/onmoveend, onlayoutcomplete, ondataavailable, ondatasetchange, ondatasetcomplete, onfilterchange, onrowenter, onrowexit, onrowsdelete, onrowsinserted, onstart/onfinish, onhelp, onbeforeunload.

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the syntax for using an event is:

crmForm.all.schema_name.attachEvent('event_name',func);
function func() {
//code
}

or

crmForm.all.schema_name.onevent = function() {
//code
}

For example, if you want to display the label for a certain field in CRM when you click the field, all you have to write is one of the following codes on the OnLoad() event:

1. crmForm.all.schema_name.attachEvent('onclick',showLabel);
function showLabel() {
alert(crmForm.all.schema_name_c.innerHTML);
}

2. crmForm.all.new_camp.onclick = function() {
alert(crmForm.all.new_camp_c.innerHTML);
}

Enjoy testing the other events. I’m sure you’ll find them very useful ;)

About Microsoft Dynamics CRM (brief description)

2007-10-21T17:54:00.000+03:00

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Customer Relationship Management software package developed by Microsoft. It is a part of the Microsoft Dynamics family of business tools.

The current version of Dynamics is 3.0, released on December, 2005. The most notable updates over the version 1.2 (version 2 was skipped entirely) are the ease of creating customizations to CRM, the switch from using Crystal Reports to Microsoft SQL Reporting Services to run reports, the ability to run on Windows Vista and Outlook 2007, and support for SQL 2005 and Exchange 2007.

There are different versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 available: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Professional, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Small Business Edition and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Professional Edition for Service Providers.

Microsoft CRM also supports integration with Windows Mobile devices via the Microsoft CRM Mobile Client.

Click here for Microsoft Dynamics Official Website