// Start a new instance of Microsoft Word

var MsWord = new ActiveXObject(“Word.Application”);

// Create a new document

MsWord.Documents.Add();

//Carriage Return

MsWord.Selection.TypeParagraph();

//Report Name

MsWord.Selection.TypeText(crmForm.all.new_name.value);

//Carriage Return
MsWord.Selection.TypeParagraph();
//Carriage Return
MsWord.Selection.TypeParagraph();

//Memo field from CRM containing paragraphs of text

MsWord.Selection.TypeText(crmForm.all.new_body.value);

//Show Microsoft Word

MsWord.Visible = true;

To create a new document using a Microsoft Word Template do this:

msWord.Documents.Add(“http://myserver:5555/documentTemplate.dotx”);

To add text to a specific Microsoft Word form field first create a Word template and add a field to it using the developer toolbar then use this code:
msWord.ActiveDocument.FormFields(“Text1″).Result = crmForm.all.new_name.value;

Obviously you can take this much further, in my application I use a AJAX call to a web service to get related CRM records.  I also lock all the fields so their content can’t be modified by the user.  What the user can do is add content to the document which may include HTML content.  The need to generate a report but then add custom content was the genesis for this feature.

Here’s a article about creating fields in Microsoft Word.  Click Here

Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 only allows a single form for each entity it is often necessary to show or hide certain form elements like buttons, iFrames and tabs based on the role of the currently logged in user.

Calling the CrmService of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 allow us to determine who the currently logged in user is and what roles they have been assigned.  I have attempted to keep this example straightforward the only code that has nothing to do with getting the current user and their role are the the two line turning off a tab in the event the user doesn’t have the role of “Manager”.

    crmForm.all.tab2Tab.style.visibility = “hidden”;

    crmForm.all.tab2Tab.style.position = “absolute”;

Everything else is specific to calling the CrmService getting the current user and finding their user roles in the XML DOM that the CrmService returns.

//Based on the role of the user logged in, hide the named tab on the entity form 

if 

} 

(currentUserHasRole(‘Manager’)) {else 

crmForm.all.tab2Tab.style.visibility = 

crmForm.all.tab2Tab.style.position = 

} 

{“hidden”;“absolute”;function 

UserHasRole(roleName) {}function 

xmlhttp.open( 

xmlhttp.setRequestHeader( 

xmlhttp.setRequestHeader( 

soapXml += GenerateAuthenticationHeader(); 

soapXml += soapBody; 

soapXml += 

xmlhttp.send(soapXml); 

xmlDoc = 

xmlDoc.async = 

xmlDoc.loadXML(xmlhttp.responseXML.xml); 

} 

} 

} 

getUserId() {try {var xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject(“Msxml2.XMLHTTP”);“POST”, “../../mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx”, false);“Content-Type”, “text/xml; charset=utf-8″);“SOAPAction”, “http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute”);var soapBody = “<soap:Body>” + “<Execute xmlns=’http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices’>” + “<Request xsi:type=’WhoAmIRequest’ />” + “</Execute></soap:Body>”;var soapXml = “<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’>”;“</soap:Envelope>”;new ActiveXObject(“Microsoft.XMLDOM”);false;var userid = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName(“UserId”)[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;return userid;catch (e) {return null;function 

command.SetParameter( 

} 

} 

} 

} 

getUserRoles(userId) {try {var command = new RemoteCommand(“UserManager”, “GetUserRoles”);“userIds”, “<guid>” + userId + “</guid>”);var oResult = command.Execute();if (oResult.Success) {return oResult.ReturnValue;catch (e) {return null;function 

result = getUserRoles(userId); 

oXml.resolveExternals = 

oXml.async = 

oXml.loadXML(result); 

roleNode = oXml.selectSingleNode( 

hasRole = 

} 

} 

} 

} 

userHasRole(userId, roleName) {var hasRole = false;if (result != null) {var oXml = new ActiveXObject(“Microsoft.XMLDOM”);false;false;“/roles/role[name='" + roleName + "']“);if (roleNode != null) {if (roleNode.selectSingleNode(“roleid[@checked='true']“) != null) {true;return hasRole;function 

userId = getUserId(); 

} 

currentUserHasRole(roleName) {return userHasRole(userId, roleName); 

For more information see….

WhoAmI Message (CrmService)

CrmService Messages

The red highlighted Javascript tag below shows you where you would typically place your JavaScript or JavaScript function call but this isn’t the best place for the JavaScript.  I have seen huge JavaScript routines embedded in to the tag whci makes debugging and readability a painful exercise.  Even if you call a JavaScript function and leave the tag nice and cleas as shown here that Javascript function has to be maintained outside of the CRM Model.

<Entities>
        <Entity name=”new_customentity”>
          <ToolBar ValidForCreate=”0″ ValidForUpdate=”1″>
            <ToolBarSpacer></ToolBarSpacer>
            <Button Icon=”/_imgs/ico_18_debug.gif” JavaScript=” DuplicateRecord (10016);”>
              <Titles>
                <Title LCID=”1033″ Text=”Duplicate Record” />
              </Titles>
              <ToolTips>
                <ToolTip LCID=”1033″ Text=”Copies a record based on this open record.” />
              </ToolTips>
            </Button>
            <ToolBarSpacer />
          </ToolBar>
        </Entity>
      </Entities> 

The solution is pretty simple.

If we change the structure of our JavaScript function a bit we can simply place it in a Entity’s form OnLoad Event.  The key syntax is simply  MyFunction = function() .

Here is a working example of a function I wrote which calls a web service to copy the  current open record and create a new one based on it,

The CRM Form OnLoad Event JavaScript

DuplicateRecord = function() {

The ISV Config  XML Tag

Conclusion

I like this approach because now all our JavaScript is still maintained within the CRM Entity’s and for a number of good reasons that’s where a Microsoft Dynamics CRM  application should store the JavaScript.  Because its with the entity it will get exported with your model and other customizations.

Specifies a field  that displays one check box or two radio buttons. The Boolean field type is one display option for bit type attributes. The other option is list. The list option uses the Picklist field type.

Note   Changing the formatting options of a bit attribute is done on the form, not in the attribute definition like other attributes. Changing the formatting option from a check box or two radio buttons to a list will change the way that you access the values in the form, potentially breaking your code.

The following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to set a field of type Boolean.

Customer

A Customer field represents a type of Lookup where either an account or contact is a valid type of record.

The following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to use a Customer field type.

var customer = new Array();
customer = null;

// This gets the lookup for the attribute customerid on the Opportunity form.
customer = crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue;

// If there is data in the field, show it in a series of alerts.
if (customer[0] != null)
{
   // The name of the customer.
   alert(customer[0].name);

   // The GUID of the customer.
   alert(customer [0].id);

   // The entity type name of the customer.
   alert(customer[0].typename);
}

DateTime

A DateTime field can be formatted to show both the date and time, or the date only. The following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to use a field of type DateTime.

var oDate;
var oToday;

oDate =  crmForm.all.scheduledend.DataValue;
if (oDate == null) {
    oDate = new Date();
}

oToday = new Date();
oDate = oToday;
oDate = oDate.setHours(17,0,0);

if (oDate.TimeVisible)
{
   alert("The time is visible.");
}
else
{
   alert("Only the date is visible; the time is hidden.");
}

crmForm.all.scheduledend.DataValue = oDate;

Duration

Duration fields are presented as a picklist giving the user a selection of time options from 1 minute to 3 days. But the actual value of a duration field is an integer. If a user types an integer into the field or your code sets the value of the integer representing minutes, the field will convert that value into a more user-friendly unit of measurement. For example, 420 will be displayed as 7 hours.

The following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to use a field of type Duration.

var oField = crmForm.all.SOME_EMAILBODY_FIELD_ID;

alert(The field's HTML is: " + oField.DataValue);

Float

The following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to use a field of type Float.

var oField = crmForm.all.SOME_FLOAT_FIELD_ID;

var iValue = 1976.1102;

// Set the precision of the value.
var oNumber = new Number(iValue);
iValue = oNumber.toPrecision(oField.Precision);

if (iValue < oField.Min)
{
   iValue = oField.Min;
}
else if (iResponse > oField.Max)
{
   iValue = oField.Max;
}

oField.DataValue = iValue;

Integer

The following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to use a field of type Integer.

var oField = crmForm.all.SOME_INTEGER_FIELD_ID;

var iValue = 1000;

if (iValue < oField.Min)
{
   iValue = oField.Min;
}
else if (iValue > oField.Max)
{
   iValue = oField.Max;
}

oField.DataValue = iValue;

var lookupItem = new Array;

// This gets the lookup for the attribute primarycontactid on the Account form.
lookupItem = crmForm.all.primarycontactid.DataValue;

// If there is data in the field, show it in a series of alerts.
if (lookupItem[0] != null)
{
   // The text value of the lookup.
   alert(lookupItem[0].name);

   // The GUID of the lookup.
   alert(lookupItem[0].id);

   // The entity type name.
   alert(lookupItem[0].typename);

}

//Create an array to set as the DataValue for the lookup control.
var lookupData = new Array();
//Create an Object add to the array.
   var lookupItem= new Object();
//Set the id, typename, and name properties to the object.
   lookupItem.id = '{1AAC1363-01A1-DB11-8432-0003FF9CE217}';
   lookupItem.typename = 'account';
   lookupItem.name = 'A Bike Store';
// Add the object to the array.
   lookupData[0] = lookupItem;
// Set the value of the lookup field to the value of the array.
   crmForm.all.parentaccountid.DataValue = lookupData;

Memo

Memo represents a multiline text box using the ntext attribute type. The following properties are available:

Example

This field is used in the same manner as a String Type.

var lookupItem = new Array;
lookupItem = null;

// This gets the lookup for the attribute regardingobjectid on the Task form.
lookupItem = crmForm.all.ownerid.DataValue;

// If there is data in the field, show it in a series of alerts.
if (lookupItem[0] != null)
{
   // The text value of the lookup.
   alert(lookupItem[0].name);

   // The GUID of the lookup.
   alert(lookupItem[0].id);

   // The entity type name.
   alert(lookupItem[0].typename);
}

PartyList

A type of Lookup that allows for multiple references to records of multiple types of entities to be set in a single field. A PartyList is typically found on e-mail activities to represent the To, Bcc and cc fields. A PartyList is defined by using the following attributes:

The following properties are available:

Picklist

A picklist contains several options. Each option has the following attributes:

The following properties and methods are available:

Remarks

All the valid picklist options are defined in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Metadata. When a record is saved with an invalid picklist option selected the field will be set to the default value and the invalid data will be lost.

There are two supported methods for retrieving the current selection for a picklist field as shown here.

The following returns the text value of the selected picklist item.

crmForm.all.(picklistitem).SelectedText

The following returns the index of the selected picklist item.

crmForm.all.(picklistitem).DataValue

Example

The following code example shows how to use a field of type Picklist. Note that when you add an option to a Picklist, the option must already exist in the set of possible options.

var oField = crmForm.all.SOME_PICKLIST_FIELD_ID;

// Capture the fourth option
var oOption = oField.Options[4];

// Show how many options are available
alert("Original length :"+ oField.Options.length);

// Set the field to the first option by value
oField.DataValue = 1;

// Show the text for the first option
alert(oField.SelectedText);

// Remove the fourth option
oField.DeleteOption(4);

// show the new length
alert("New length :"+ oField.Options.length);

// Restore the fourth option
oField.AddOption(oOption.Text, oOption.DataValue);

// Show the restored length
alert("Restored length :"+ oField.Options.length); 

Regarding

A Regarding field represents a Lookup where the linked record can be any record type that can be presented in the field.

The following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to use a field of type Regarding.

var lookupItem = new Array;
lookupItem = null;

// This gets the lookup for the attribute regardingobjectid on the Task form.
lookupItem = crmForm.all.regardingobjectid.DataValue;

// If there is data in the field, show it in a series of alerts.
if (lookupItem[0] != null)
{
   // The text value of the lookup.
   alert(lookupItem[0].name);

   // The GUID of the lookup.
   alert(lookupItem[0].id);

   // The entity type name.
   alert(lookupItem[0].typename);
} 

StringThe following properties are available:

Example

The following code example shows how to use a field of type String.

var oField = crmForm.all.SOME_STRING_FIELD_ID;

var sValue = "String that might be too long.";

if (sValue.length > oField.MaxLength)
{
   sValue = sValue.substr(0, oField.MaxLength); 
}

oField.DataValue = sValue;

http://icons.mysitemyway.com/

I,m not sure I belive them so I will do some further research. I’m aware that these limitations existed with SQL Server 2000 but with 2005, 2008 they should not imo.

Overview of Microsoft CRM 4.0 integrated with SSRS 2008

Setup CRM Data Connector for SSRS 2008 Scaled Out Deployment

The CRM Data Connector acts as a IFD authentication service for SSRS.  The setup wizard is straight forward but there are two potential snags

The first snag is that the Data Connector setup can’t automatically handle a Scaled Out deployment which you almost certainly will be using.  To work around this you must run the Data Connector from the command prompt and specify the install-config.xml file and path.  The Data Connector install-config.xml file tells the setup program where the instances of SSRS are located.  Were you to run the setup program without specifying the install-config.xml file you would get the following error:

Error message in the Environmental Diagnostic wizard when you try to install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services: “Unable to validate SQL Server Reporting Services Report Server installation”

Here are the instruction for modifying the install-config.xml and running setup from the command line.

1.     Copy all the files in the SrsDataConnector folder on the installation CD to a folder on drive C. For example, copy the files to the following folder:

C:\SrsDataConnector

Note The SrsDataConnector folder is located in the following folder on the installation CD:

drive:\Server\i386

The drive placeholder represents the CD drive.

2.     Locate the folder in which you copied the installation files. Right-click the Install-config.xml file, and then open the file in Notepad.

3.     Add the following information to the Install-config.xml file:

The reportserverurl tags

The URL for the server that is running SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services

For example, if the server that is running Reporting Services has a named instance of Titan, the reportserverurl tags resemble the following example.

<reportserverurl>http://servername/Reportserver$Titan</reportserverurl>

If the server that is running SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services has a named instance, modify the instancename tags.

For example, if the server that is running Reporting Services has a named instance of Titan, the instancename tags resemble the following example.

<instancename>Titan</instancename>

After you complete steps 3 and 4, click Save on the File menu, and then close the Install-config.xml file.

Open a Command Prompt window, and then locate the folder in which you copied the installation files in step 1.

At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

C:\SrsDataConnector> SetupSrsDataConnector /CONFIG path of the folder that contains the Install-config.xml file\install-config.xml

The second item to note is that it’s important to choose the “Update installation files”, when the setup wizard first runs.  In my experience the process will fail if you don’t choose this option.

For further information visit Microsoft

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947060

Map SSRS2008 Web Service URL to work with a named instance

When you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 together with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services all on the same server, you may receive the following error message:

“The specified path is not a metabase path.” Platform Error: System.Exception: Action Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.RSConfigAction failed. —> System.ArgumentException: The specified path is not a metabase path.

This issue occurs when the path of Reporting Services does not exist on the server.

To work around this issue, create a Web site that runs on the same port and the same URL that the Reporting Services server is using. In SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, IIS is not used for accessing reports. However, if Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is installed on the same server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 must find a Web site that has the same URL to bypass the error. To verify the URL of Reporting Services, follow these steps:

1.     Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server 2008, click Configuration Tools, and then click Reporting Services Configuration Manager.

2.     Click connect to connect to your report server instance.

3.     Click the Web service URL, and see what the report server Web service URL is. For example, the URL may be http://SQLServername:8181/ReportServer.

In Windows Server 2008, follow these steps:

1.     Click Start, click Run, and then type inetmgr.

2.     Expand the server name, right-click Sites, and then click Add Website.

3.     Enter a name for the site, and then select a physical path.

4.     Enter the port number of the report server Web service. For example, enter 8181.

5.     Click OK.

In Windows Server 2003, follow these steps:

1.     Click Start, click Run, and then type inetmgr.

2.     Expand the server name, right-click Web Sites, click New, and then click Web Site.

3.     Enter a description for the site, and then click Next.

4.     Enter the port number of the report server Web service. For example, enter 8181, and then click Next.

5.     Enter a path for the Web site, and then click Next.

6.     On the Permissions page, click Next.

7.     Click Finish.

Configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Deployment manager

1.     Configure the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Application to point to the new SQL Server and SQL Server Reporting Services. To do this, follow these steps:

2.     On the computer that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and then click Deployment Manager.

3.     Click Organizations.

4.     Right-click the organization that you moved to the new computer that is running SQL Server, and then click Disable.

5.     Right-click the organization that you disabled, and then click Edit Organization.

6.     Type the new name of the SQL Server and the new URL for the SQL Server Reporting Services server.
Note This step publishes the reports that are in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to the new computer that is running SQL Server Reporting Services server that you specify.

7.     Click Next two times, and then click Apply.

Right-click the organization that you disabled in step 4c, click Enable, and then click Yes.

Use embedded data-sources

Microsoft CRM 4.0 does not support shared data-sources which is basically the default for SSRS2008.  Be sure to change any shared data-sources to embedded data-sources as follows:

1.     Open the report in Report Designer.

2.     On the Data tab, click the lookup button to the right of the Dataset list.

3.     Click the lookup button to the right of the Data Source list.

4.     Click to clear the Use shared data source reference check box.

5.     Click Edit to the right of the Connection box.

6.     In the Server name box, type the server name. Then, select the authentication method and the correct database name.

7.     Click OK two times.

8.     On the File menu, click Save as.

9.     Save the report on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server, and then add the report.

Rollup 2 is required if you are using stored procedures in your reports

When you attempt to run a report from CRM 4.0 you likely will receive the following error:

“Query execution failed for data set dsNorthwind”.

There are two possible solutions for this.  Either apply the hotfix found in the link below or apply Rollup 2 for Microsoft CRM 4.0.  Since Rollup 2 for Microsoft CRM 4.0 includes the aforementioned hotfix I recommend this approach.  Also to get the hotfix files separate from Rollup 2 you will have to contact Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956852

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957053

Best of luck!

The standard Microsoft CRM 4.0 help menu’s offer a lot more than help, they offer upgrade information, links to partners and solution providers and many other options that might not be suitable for many ISV’s or partners creating custom CRM 4.0 applications.  Since Microsoft doesn’t provide an option to remove these menus’s I came up with the following solutions.  Please consider  this is an unsupported modification.

There are two main areas that the help menu’s are presented to the user, the 1st is in the main CRM work area (shown below).

CRM Main Page

To remove or alter this menu we must alter one of the CRM 4.0 base pages, bar_Top.aspx, the default location is  \Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\CRMWeb\_root\.   Take note your CRMWeb folder might be installed elswhere depending on your virtual directory structure.
Since we will be overloading the menu’s we need to place the new code in a location that executes after the menu elements have been rendered.  I recommend just after the closing body tag.

The JavaScript to hide a menu is very simple:
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_helpUpdates’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;

The code above will hide the Update Help menu.  I recommend not making dramatic edits to the base CRM pages, a better approach is to use a global JavaScript file and include it in to the base page bar_Top.aspx.

So far all we have done is remove a menu from the main CRM page, each entity edit page contains it’s own help menu’s.  Most of the edit pages can be found at \Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\CRMWeb\sfa\  within the SFA folder the subfolders are named after the standard entity’s for example the Accounts entity’s path is \\dev1\c$\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\CRMWeb\SFA\accts and the pages are almost always named edit.aspx.   We can use the same code as before and again I recommend placing the include after the closing body tag.
The good new is you don’t have to handle all your custom entity pages  one by one, by editing the edit.aspx page located at \Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\CRMWeb\UserDefined\  all your custom entity pages  will be taken care of.
You might be wondering if there is a centtral place that you could place your code to handle all the standard entity pages but I haven’t found such a location that works consitantly across the board.

The other menu ID’s are found here in the completed script:
<script language=”JavaScript”>
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_about’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_helpUpdates’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_crmLive’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_helpOn’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_troubleShoot’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_helpContent’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;
var helpMenu = document.getElementById(‘mnu_adminGuide’);
helpMenu.style.display = ‘none’;
</script>

Good luck!
Brenden