Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Scripting Cookbook

Over 50 recipes to extend system customization in Dynamics CRM 2011 through client-side scripting

Overview

• Learn the basics of client-side customization and delve deeper into advanced topics at your own pace
• Understand the basic customization model supported by the product.
• A practical approach to learning customization driven by task-based recipes for understanding and extending your Dynamics CRM scripting solutions.

In Detail

With the increased adoption of Dynamics CRM 2011, more people are faced with various tasks including administering and customizing the environment. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Customer Relationship Management software package from Microsoft. It offers solutions to help companies with Sales, Customer Services, and Marketing. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is increasingly being used by businesses of all kinds and all sizes to reach audiences in new ways. Microsoft Dynamics CRM scripting extends system customization through the use of client-side scripting. It builds on the standard customization options offered by Dynamics CRM.

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Scripting Cookbook” walks the reader through the process of customizing an environment, from the most basic topics such as working with specific fields and types, working with the forms, and then moves on to the more advanced topics of scripting and debugging your scripts, designing new form and ribbon elements, and using additional well known public scripting libraries, as well as integrating external data sources into your environment.

The first chapters of this book cover the basics of using the wizard-driven customization approach, packaging your customization into solutions, and adding basic scripts to interact with all the form elements. Further down the road we start introducing concepts around debugging your scripts, working with ribbon elements and navigation, taking advantage of other public scripting libraries and integrating them into your solutions, as well as light ways to bring social information in front of your users.

Later chapters will assume knowledge of some of the most basic customizations presented at the beginning of the book. After completing the recipes in “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Scripting Cookbook”, you will have gained a new perspective on how far can you take the customization in Dynamics CRM. The additional details presented around using other public scripting libraries and integrating other data sources into your environment should serve as a start into investigating additional sources

What you will learn from this book

• Learn how to work with the various field and data types in Dynamics CRM 2011.
• Quickly get up to speed with packaging your solutions and adding customization scripts to a solution package.
• Drill down and focus on page elements, and take advantage of the page model to insert additional visual elements.
• Master the creation of custom scripts, as well as take advantage of public scripting libraries in the context of a Dynamics CRM 2011 solution.
• Manipulate the ribbon and the user interface to present additional information and graphical clues to help users in identifying special records based on business rules.
• Take advantage of other social aspects by bringing details from external sources in front of the user.
• Extend the scripting customizations and simplify your scripts by using prebuilt scripting libraries that are publicly available.
• Work with data within your environment and from external sources.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Overview of Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization
Chapter 2: Scripting Form Fields
Chapter 3: Field Validation
Chapter 4: Rules and Events
Chapter 5: Error Handling
Chapter 6: Debugging
Chapter 7: Extended UI Manipulation
Chapter 8: Working with Ribbon Elements
Chapter 9: Extending CRM Using Community JavaScript Libraries
Chapter 10: Light Social Media Integration