Getting XSD Schema for CRM Entities

The CRM Metadata Browser can be used to see and document various CRM entities. Another similar thing available is the ability to get the XSD schema for the CRM entities. As you drill into an entity from the metadata browser, you can simply change the directory in the URL or just type it in as follows:

http://yourcrmserver/sdk/xsd/entity.aspx?entity=account

Of course, just change the entity listed at the end with any valid entity schema name.

Thanks to Ryan Farley for posting the info.

I'm using this as I'm adding the XSD to Word 2003 templates, these will be used server side to population CRM data into them and store them in an SharePoint library. I'll post more on this over the next few weeks.

CRM3 – IFrame prompting for credentials

I had a problem today where new CRM IFrame customisations on various entities were prompting for additional security. The IFrame’s source pages were part of the same CRM site and only used integrated windows authentication in IIS snap-in console. Another symptom was that the pages IE security zone was “Unknown Zone (Mixed)”. Searching the news groups I could see other user have had this issue and that the IFrame has the security="restricted" attribute, this forces IE to re-authenticate the IFrame page for windows security even thought Windows Authentication is being used.

The solution was to un-tick the default setting “restrict cross-frame scripting” in each of the CRM IFrame customizations, this resolved the issue and I once again had happy users, phew!

According to the Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 book (page 455) this setting also does the following:
· Restricts JavaScript and VBScript from executing on the IFrame page
· All hyper links will open in a new browser window

References:
IFrame attributes used with Microsoft CRM
IFrame Security Attribute

CRM Javascript

Michael Höhne a CRM MVP has collated a list of handy JavaScript snippets that are frequently requested in the Microsoft CRM newsgroups.

The folloing snippets are listed (as of 2-Mar-2007)

• Replacing the content of an IFRAME
• Adding additional values to duration fields
• Changing the title of a CRM form
• Changing the Link of a Ticker Symbol from MSN Money to Yahoo Finances
• Counting the number of backslashes in a string
• Changing the label of a field at runtime
• Changing the color of a single option in a picklist
• Opening a new window without the IE menu and status bars
• Disabling a form at runtime
• Automatically changing the value of a text field to capitals
• Getting notified when the user selects a another tab on a form
• The current record id
• The current object type code
• Initializing a date field with the current date
• Changing the URL of an IFRAME at runtime
• Displaying a picture in a CRM form, using a text field to store the data source
• Changing the default lookup type
• Calculating a date field based upon the selection of a picklist
• Creating a new email when double-clicking a standard text field
• Resetting a field value if validation fails
• Inserting line breaks in a text area control
• Hiding an entire row of a CRM form

http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/data/More%20JavaScript%20code.htm

CRM3 problem with Import Customization in Internet Explorer 7.0

I’ve not been able to load customisation into the new self-contained virtual CRM3 environment, all the latest patches were applied and the CRM Rollup.

When importing cusomisations the MSCRM shows this dialog box and keeps showing it no matter how long you wait for it.

After nearly losing my sanity after a day of no joy I’ve finally found this article, it’s caused by using a combination of CRM3 and IE7 .

http://ayazahmad.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/problem-with-import-customization-in-internet-explorer-70/

You can log a call to get the hot fix if you really need to use IE7 with CRM3. In my virtual Windows 2003 environment I un-installed IE7 which resolved the issue.