Disabling all fields on a form...dynamically

There have been a number of times where I have had clients request that when certain fields are set one way or another they would actually like to disable the entire form. Or they want to disable the entire form except for a status field, or something like that. For some clients this was a HUGE pain in the neck because every field would have to be done manually. And whenever a new field was added if the script wasn't updated then that new field would be updateable while everything else would stay locked down.

Well, I found this code posted by Michael Höhne from Stunnware and it was exactly what I've been trying to do.


for (var index in crmForm.all) {
var control = crmForm.all[index];
if (control.req && (control.Disabled != null)) {
control.Disabled = true;
}
}

That will disable them all. Pretty sweet. Then if they want to leave a status field or something enabled just manually enable them afterwards:

crmForm.all.new_status.Disabled = true;

And you're all set.

David Fronk
Dynamic Methods Inc.

Sending Multiple Emails with Attachments

I've received multiple requests on how to add attachments to "canned" emails that you send out. Typically this is requested for the Quick Campaign. While you cannot add an attachment to Quick Campaign emails there is another way to accomplish our goal.

Workflow gives you the ability to send emails and it also allows you to send emails with attachments out of CRM. In workflow you can choose as a step the "Send Email" option and the "Set Properties". You'll see the "Attachment" tab and you can add multiple attachments to the email. Set the workflow to be triggered "On Demand" and you can then send out your emails with their attachments where you like. It is unfortunately only 250 at a time but that's better than none.

David Fronk
Dynamic Methods Inc.

Microsoft CRM Accelerators Released

Just announced Thursday during the CRMUG Workshop: Using the CRM Platform for Building Complex Business Applications - three new Accelerators have been released for users of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
According to Reuben Krippner, Senior Product Manager - Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the "CRM Accelerators are a range of add-on solutions developed for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 customers and partners. Each accelerator is available at no cost and will showcase how the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 platform can be configured and extended to broaden marketing, sales and service capabilities."
Available now are accelerators for:• Notifications• Event Management• Enterprise Search
Five other accelerators are scheduled to be released prior to year-end.
Each accelerator available for download may consist of the following:• Customizations (entities, forms, views)• Workflow definitions• Business Intelligence elements such as custom reports (.RDL's)• Functional code samples (strictly adhering to SDK guidelines)• Documentation for installing, operating, localizing and extending the solution• An automated installerEach accelerator will be fully supported as per any other customization for Microsoft Dynamics CRM that follows SDK guidelines. Additionally, all samples are supplied with full source-code so they can be extended further to meet specific customer requirements. You can download the accelerators and supporting resources now here. Also available are discussion threads and feedback channels.

David Fronk
Dynamic Methods Inc.

CRM Accelerators Update

Events Management is now available for download. For those of you without a PartnerSource log in try the following link:

http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators

I don't have any more dates for you, so we'll all just have to keep our eyes open to see when the rest get posted.

David Fronk
Dynamic Methods Inc.

Max size of an NTEXT field?

I actually have a client who wanted to test the limits of CRM NTEXT fields this week. Typically at about 5,000 characters most people think that's enough. However, this client had the need for more. All documentation from Microsoft states that 5,000 characters is the limit but my client wanted to see what would happen if he went over it. So, he attempted 100,000 and the system took it. We then tested putting in 100,000 characters of text and the field took them all and saved them to the database. We didn't feel like we needed to go higher than 100,000 characters, so I haven't found the "actual" limit of NTEXT fields, just know that they will take a lot.

Now, the downside to doing this is that your database now has to store a column that can handle 100,000 characters so it eats up the space in that table really fast. So, I don't recommend doing this on more than one field per CRM entity. Not that people really do duplicate checking on NTEXT fields, but there would be no way for you to duplicate check against this large NTEXT field. But since most NTEXT fields start at 1,000 characters you can't use out of the box duplicate checker on those fields anyway.

Anyway the point is that Microsoft built something that can handle some really big stuff, it's not recommended but still, pretty sweet if you really need it.

David Fronk
Dynamic Methods Inc.