CRM 2011 Connections - How to filter Connection Roles?

I’m not going to explain the uses of Connections within CRM 2011, I think we are all aware of their benefits by now.

This post is to share my opinion of the default behavior of the Connection entity form, whereby the "As this role" look up field displays all the Connection Roles defined, where in comparison I with many others believe it should by default filter to only those for the specific Entity.

Example Solution

You could potentially create some Views, but you could end up with quite a few, depending on the number of entities you are using Connections with.

In this case I prefer to use a Custom Lookup, the main benefits are that the user doesn't have to select the view, as these are defaulted to what we set them too and eliminates room for error.

For the purpose of this example, the following code filters the look up based on which Roles are applicable to the connecting from entity type.

2. function filterConnectionRoles() {
3.   try {
4.     // Identify Connecting From Entity
5.     var connectfromEntity = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("record1id").getValue()[0].typename;
6.  
7.     // Construct oData query to retrieve list of associated Connection Roles
8.     var oDataEndpoint = Xrm.Page.context.getServerUrl() + "/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc";
9.     var oDataQuery = oDataEndpoint + "/ConnectionRoleObjectTypeCodeSet?$filter=AssociatedObjectTypeCode eq '"
10.         + connectfromEntity + "'&select=ConnectionRoleId";
11.  
12.     // Execute oData Query
13.     $.ajax({
14.       type: "GET",
15.       contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
16.       datatype: "json",
17.       url: oDataQuery,
18.       beforeSend: function (XMLHttpRequest) {
19.         XMLHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
20.       },
21.       success: function (data, textStatus, XmlHttpRequest) {
22.         if (data != null) {
23.  
24.           // Build the condition values
25.           var conditionValues = "";
26.           for (var i = 0; i < data.d.results.length; i++) {
27.             conditionValues += "<value>" + data.d.results[i].ConnectionRoleId.Id + "</value>";
28.           }
29.  
30.           if (conditionValues.length > 0) {
31.             // Construct Fetch Query
32.             var viewId = "{E3319041-5017-4353-A578-AEC2CCF28DA8}";
33.             var viewDisplayName = "Connection Roles";
34.             var fetch = "<fetch version='1.0' output-format='xml-platform' mapping='logical' distinct='false'>" +
35.                             "<entity name='connectionrole'>" +
36.                                 "<attribute name='name' />" +
37.                                 "<attribute name='connectionroleid' />" +
38.                                 "<order attribute='name' descending='false' />" +
39.                                 "<filter type='and'>" +
40.                                     "<condition attribute='connectionroleid' operator='in' >" +
41.                                     conditionValues +
42.                                     "</condition>" +
43.                                 "</filter>" +
44.                             "</entity>" +
45.                         "</fetch>";
46.  
47.             // Construct Grid Layout
48.             var grid = "<grid name='resultset' object='3231' jump='name' select='1' icon='1' preview='1'>" +
49.                 " <row name='result' id='connectionroleid'>" +
50.                     " <cell name='name' width='200' />" +
51.                 " </row>" +
52.             "</grid>";
53.  
54.             // Add Custom Lookup View
55.             $("#record2roleid").attr("disableViewPicker", "0");
56.             Xrm.Page.getControl("record2roleid").addCustomView(viewId, "connectionrole", viewDisplayName, fetch, grid, true);
57.             $("#record2roleid").attr("disableViewPicker", "1");
58.           }
59.         }
60.       },
61.       error: function (XmlHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
62.         alert('oData Error: ' + oDataQuery);
63.       }
64.     });
65.   }
66.   catch (ex) {
67.     alert(ex);
68.   }
69. }

How to Open a new Form & Set Field Values?

Here's a short post demonstrating how you can use JScript to open a new CRM form window, and set the field values in CRM 2011.

There are two methods to achieve this. Both involve using JavaScript, however selecting the best approach depends on what you want to do with the window once opened?

Method A - Xrm.Utility.openEntityForm 

This uses the Xrm utility helper object provided as part of the CRM platform. Under the hood, it is using the same call as method 2 to launch the new window. But the benefits are that it eliminates the need of creating and encoding the URL to the entity type you want to open.

Disadvantages are that you get no handle to the newly opened window.

Method B - window.open 

This is the standard JavaScript method of launching a new window. All you old school developers should be familiar with this one :) 
The disadvantage with this approach is that you have to construct the correct URL in order to launch the correct CRM Form. 

The benefit with this method is that you can obtain a handle to the new window and perform the actions you JavaScript junkies are accustomed too.

Example Solutions

The following are examples of both methods using the Contact entity for demonstration purposes:

3. function openNewForm_MethodA()
4. {
5.     var params = {};
6.     
7.     //Set Parent Customer Lookup Field
8.     params["parentcustomerid"] = "EA27A654-79EA-400B-9DE6-84C8E11394B4";
9.     params["parentcustomeridname"] = "My Account Name";
10.     params["parentcustomeridtype"] = "account";
11.     
12.     //Set Standard Text Fields
13.     params["firstname"] = "John";
14.     params["lastname"] = "Smith";
15.     params["mobilephone"] = "1234567890";
16.     params["emailaddress1"] = "mail@domain.com";
17.         
18.     //Open new Window/CRM Form
19.     Xrm.Utility.openEntityForm("contact", null, params);
20. }
21.  
22. function openNewForm_MethodB()
23. {
24.     //Set Parent Customer Lookup Field
25.     var extraqs = "parentcustomerid={EA27A654-79EA-400B-9DE6-84C8E11394B4}";
26.     extraqs += "&parentcustomeridname=My Account Name";
27.     extraqs += "&parentcustomeridtype=account";
28.     
29.     //Set Standard Text Fields
30.     extraqs += "&firstname=John";
31.     extraqs += "&lastname=Smith";
32.     extraqs += "&mobilephone=1234567890";
33.     extraqs += "&emailaddress1=mail@domain.com";
34.  
35.     //Set Features & Open new Window/CRM Form
36.     var features = "location=no,menubar=no,status=no,toolbar=no";
37.     var newWindow = window.open("/main.aspx?etn=contact&pagetype=entityrecord&extraqs=" +
38.     encodeURIComponent(extraqs), "_blank", features, false);
39.     
40.     //Optionally - you can interact with the Window e.g. Resize it etc...
41.     newWindow.resizeTo(528, 500);
42. }

CRM 2011 - PluginType' entity doesn't contain attribute with Name = 'customworkflowactivityinfo'.

Thought I'd share a quick post, regarding an error you may get when trying to import a solution into a CRM 2011 organization.

PluginType' entity doesn't contain attribute with Name = 'customworkflowactivityinfo'.

The issue is caused by a version difference between the source and destination CRM servers. 

Solution

1. Check that the destination CRM server has the same or greater Update Rollup installed. If not then update the destination server. Update 10 or greater is required if you had imported this organization from a CRM 4.0 system.

2. Using Deployment Manager verify that the Organization you are attempting to import the solutions into has the correct version, if not then use the Update process.

This should resolve the issue.