HTML Content Editor in CRM4

It is often required to format and validate HTML contents in CRM 4. Here is a quick way of integrating a JavaScript WYSIWYG Editor. You can find many open source as well as 3^rd part JavaScript WYSIWYG Editors. The editor I have used in my post is from TinyMCE – Javascript WYSIWYG Editor.

TinyMCE is a platform independent web based JavaScript HTML WYSIWYG editor control released as Open Source under LGPL by Moxiecode Systems AB. It has the ability to convert HTML TEXTAREA fields or other HTML elements to editor instances. TinyMCE is very easy to integrate into other Content Management Systems

So here is a step by step process to integrate this editor to CRM4.

Step One:

Create an ASPX page with only one HTML TEXTAREA control and a Submit Button. TextArea control will hold the content editor and button will move the generated HTML to crmForm Controls.

<asp:TextBox ID=”Content” runat=”server” TextMode=”MultiLine”></asp:TextBox>

    <div>

        <asp:Button ID=”btnSubmit” runat=”server” Text=”Submit”

            onclick=”btnSubmit_Click” OnClientClick=”javascript:OnSubmit();” />

        </div>

    </form>

 And copy the script as provided below:

This Script can be found at http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/examples/full.php#

<script src=”<your installation path>/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js”></script>

<script>

tinyMCE.init({

                // General options

                mode : “textareas”,

                theme : “advanced”,

                plugins : “safari,spellchecker,pagebreak,style,layer,table,save,advhr,advimage,advlink,emotions,iespell,inlinepopups,insertdatetime,preview,media,searchreplace,print,contextmenu,paste,directionality,fullscreen,noneditable,visualchars,nonbreaking,xhtmlxtras,template,imagemanager,filemanager”,

 

                // Theme options

                theme_advanced_buttons1 : “save,newdocument,|,bold,italic,underline,strikethrough,|,justifyleft,justifycenter,justifyright,justifyfull,|,styleselect,formatselect,fontselect,fontsizeselect”,

                theme_advanced_buttons2 : “cut,copy,paste,pastetext,pasteword,|,search,replace,|,bullist,numlist,|,outdent,indent,blockquote,|,undo,redo,|,link,unlink,anchor,image,cleanup,help,code,|,insertdate,inserttime,preview,|,forecolor,backcolor”,

                theme_advanced_buttons3 : “tablecontrols,|,hr,removeformat,visualaid,|,sub,sup,|,charmap,emotions,iespell,media,advhr,|,print,|,ltr,rtl,|,fullscreen”,

                theme_advanced_buttons4 : “insertlayer,moveforward,movebackward,absolute,|,styleprops,spellchecker,|,cite,abbr,acronym,del,ins,attribs,|,visualchars,nonbreaking,template,blockquote,pagebreak,|,insertfile,insertimage”,

                theme_advanced_toolbar_location : “top”,

                theme_advanced_toolbar_align : “left”,

                theme_advanced_statusbar_location : “bottom”,

                theme_advanced_resizing : true,

 

                // Example content CSS (should be your site CSS)

                content_css : “css/example.css”,

 

                // Drop lists for link/image/media/template dialogs

                template_external_list_url : “js/template_list.js”,

                external_link_list_url : “js/link_list.js”,

                external_image_list_url : “js/image_list.js”,

                media_external_list_url : “js/media_list.js”,

 

                // Replace values for the template plugin

                template_replace_values : {

                                username : “Some User”,

                                staffid : “991234”

                }

});

</script>

 

 

Step Two:

Write two JavaScript functions to handle Onload and button submit events:

Onload will load the generated HTML to Editor and On Submit will submit form and load Generated HTML back to crmForm.

function OnSubmit()

{   

    document.myform.submit();   

    window.parent.document.forms[0].all.end_content.DataValue = document.getElementById(‘content’).value;

}

 

function OnLoad()

{

    document.getElementById(‘content’).value = window.parent.document.forms[0].all.new_content.DataValue;

}

 

Step Three:

Place this page at ISV/ folder and use an IFRAME at the form where you want this editor to be visible. Set the IFRAME src to this aspx form and you all set to go.

 

 

 

Generated HTML in crmForm control.

 

 

Let me know in case you need any assistance or suggestions.

Event on Many to Many Relationship (N:N) in CRM 4

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 does not expose any event when records are associated through N:N relationship. So if you want to perform some function when a record is associated to another record in N:N relationship, CRM simply excuses and you have to look into hacks and unsupported solutions.

Hack 1:

There is a cool hack by Aaron at http://consulting.ascentium.com/blog/crm/Post533.aspx.

Aaron has come up with a solution to expose the Disassociate and Associate event using a SQL script. This is unsupported customization and Microsoft is not supporting these changes.

Hack 2:

Create a flag at the master entity named IsDirty and place that attribute at a hidden tab.

At onload event simply mark this attribute as true.

crmForm.all.oa_isdirty.DataValue = !crmForm.all.oa_isdirty.DataValue;

Now you can have an attribute that prompts user every time to save the form and you can plan a workflow or plugin that executes on update of this event.

This is a supported customization and can easily be upgragable.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 does not expose any event when records are associated through N:N relationship. So if you want to perform some function when a record is associated to another record in N:N relationship, CRM simply excuses and you have to look into hacks and unsupported solutions.

Hack 1:

There is a cool hack by Aaron at http://consulting.ascentium.com/blog/crm/Post533.aspx.

Aaron has come up with a solution to expose the Disassociate and Associate event using a SQL script. This is unsupported customization and Microsoft is not supporting these changes.

Hack 2:

Create a flag at the master entity named IsDirty and place that attribute at a hidden tab.

 

  At onload event simply mark this attribute as true.

crmForm.all.new_isdirty.DataValue = !crmForm.all.new_isdirty.DataValue;

Now you can have an attribute that prompts user every time to save the form and you can plan a workflow or plugin that executes on update of this event.

This is a supported customization and can easily upgraded.

Synchronous Matchcode Generation – Duplicate Detection in Dynamics CRM 4

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 provides a Duplicate Detection feature to protect the quality of your data. Duplicate Detection rules can be defined for different record types, including custom entities, and can be defined across record types as well.

In background a matchcode service is running and creating/updating matchcode for new/existing records. This matchcode will be matched to detect duplicates. Matchcode service runs asynchronously after 5 minutes and create/updates matchcode. So any record that is inserted within 5 minutes of time will not be detected. This happens only when you insert record within less than 5 minutes of time or before generation of matchcode. This results in no warning message for duplicate records even though duplicate record exists according to duplicate rules.

There is no way to persist matchcodes synchronously when records are created/updated through the UI, without writing extra code. So here are few recommendations to do so.

1. A workaround is to Import data (Tools->Import), and choose the option to prevent creation of duplicate records. This will create the matchcodes for all imported records synchronously.
2. You can force the creation of a matchcode at the time of record create/update by including the PersistInSyncOptionalParameter in the Create/Update request and setting its value to ‘True’. A code snippet that includes the optional parameter in a CreateRequest is as follows:
   CreateRequest request = new CreateRequest();
   request.OptionalParameters = new OptionalParameter[] { new PersistInSyncOptionalParameter (true) };
   
3. You can write a plugin for this at Create and Update message. Beware to silent your plugin by setting Context to null.

if (context.Depth <= 1)
                {
                    if ((message.ToLower() == “create”))
                    {
                        DynamicEntity entity = (DynamicEntity)context.InputParameters.Properties[ParameterName.Target];

                        TargetCreateDynamic createdynamic = new TargetCreateDynamic();
                        createdynamic.Entity = entity;                      

                        CreateRequest request = new CreateRequest();
                        request.Target = createdynamic;
                        request.OptionalParameters = new OptionalParameter[] { new PersistInSyncOptionalParameter(true) };

                        CreateResponse response = (CreateResponse)service.Execute(request);
                    }
                }
                context = null;