Mitch Milam's Dynamics CRM and xRM Discussions

My current project developed a requirement to display the Contact information on a tab on the Opportunity Entity.  Pretty simple, I thought, just create a new tab, throw on an iFrame and put a reference to one of the CRM pages that will display the contact for me.

Pretty simple, on paper.  Execution turned it into something quite different that took me much longer that I would have hoped.  Anyway, here is the solution:

1. Create a new tab and insert an iFrame.

2. Set the URL field to: 

http://server/_forms/readonly/readonly.aspx?obTypeCode=1&id=

Which will make the form look like this: 

3. In the Form's OnLoad Event, place the following code:

if (crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue[0].id != null)
{
var ContactURL = "http://crm/_forms/readonly/readonly.aspx?objTypeCode=2&id="
crmForm.all.IFRAME_ContactInfo.src = ContactURL + crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue[0].id;
}


This code will add the GUID or Unique ID to the URL for your iFrame so that when you click on the Contact Info tab, you see the contact information for the Contact associated with the Opportunity.

It took me longer than usual because the information in the SDK was incorrect.  Thanks to Matt Whittemann for instructions to get around that issue and to Ronald Lemmen for information on how to display the read-only form.

Revision: 3/31/2007:

When you define the iFrame properties, you need to uncheck the Restrict cross-frame scripting in order for this to work properly.

References: 

Dynamics CRM 3.0 SDK: Client Programming, iFrame Support

Dynamics CRM 3.0 SDK: Client Programming, URL Addressable Forms

Dynamics CRM 3.0 SDK: Client Programming, Lookup Field Types

CRM newsgroup post

New Example of Javascript OnChange Code For CRM 3.0

I encountered an interesting issue this morning that required interesting solution.

I had to change an attribute type from NVARCHAR to NTEXT due to some data import issues ( I'm assuming ).  When I added the Field back to the Form, it automatically occupied two cells in the Form ( the section was two-column ).

Now personally, I was a bit irritated with CRM taking license with my Form design. Especially when I could only control the number of lines high the Field would be.

So instead of getting mad, I got even, and corrected the issue by doing the following:

1. Export the Entity.
2. Open in WordPad.
3. Find the FormXML section and locate the field in question.
4. Change colspan="2" to colspan="1"
   ( colspan is HTML-speak for: how many table columns does
     this cell occupy )
5. Save the file
6. Import the Entity
7. Publish the Entity

And there you have it. 

Since the sky didn't open up and start bleeding or anything, I'm assuming this is a supported action.  Your mileage my vary.