Add Reply Button onto Custom Activity in Dynamic CRM 2011

Zhen Yuwang, 11 August 2012

In this blog, I would like to discuss how to add a “Reply” button onto a Custom Activity “Contact Us” in Dynamic CRM 2011.

That button should have similar behaviours with the “Reply” button in Email Activity.

Assume our “Contact Us” entity looks like this:

First of all, we need to export a solution with this activity and its application ribbon. Extract it and open the “customizations.xml” file in a XML editor, such as Visual Studio 2010. Find Out the “RibbonDiffXml” part of entity “mag_contactus”. Add 2 “CustomAction” and 1 “CommandDefinition” like this:

<CustomActions>

  <CustomAction Id="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Form.ReplyGroup.CustomAction" Location="Mscrm.Form.mag_contactus.MainTab.Groups._children" Sequence="1">

    <CommandUIDefinition>

      <Group Id="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Form.ReplyGroup" Command="Mscrm.Enabled" Sequence="1" Title="$Resources:Ribbon.Form.email.RespondTitle" Image32by32Popup="/_imgs/ribbon/replymail_32.png" Template="Mscrm.Templates.Flexible2">

        <Controls Id="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.MainTab.Respond.Controls">

          <Button Id="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Reply" Command="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Reply" Sequence="10" Alt="$Resources:Ribbon.Form.email.MainTab.Actions.Reply" LabelText="$Resources:Ribbon.Form.email.MainTab.Actions.Reply" Image16by16="/_imgs/ribbon/replymail_16.png" Image32by32="/_imgs/ribbon/replymail_32.png" TemplateAlias="o1" ToolTipTitle="$Resources:Mscrm_Form_email_MainTab_Actions_Reply_ToolTipTitle" ToolTipDescription="$Resources:Mscrm_Form_email_MainTab_Actions_Reply_ToolTipDescription" />

        </Controls>

      </Group>

    </CommandUIDefinition>

  </CustomAction>

  <CustomAction Id="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Form.ReplyGroup.MaxSize.CustomAction" Location="Mscrm.Form.mag_contactus.MainTab.Scaling._children" Sequence="1">

    <CommandUIDefinition>

      <MaxSize Id="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Form.ReplyGroup.MaxSize" GroupId="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Form.ReplyGroup" Sequence="1" Size="LargeMedium" />

    </CommandUIDefinition>

  </CustomAction>

</CustomActions>

 

<CommandDefinitions>

  <CommandDefinition Id="Mag.ZhenyuDev.mag_contactus.Reply">

    <EnableRules />

    <DisplayRules />

    <Actions>

      <JavaScriptFunction FunctionName="ZhenyuDev.reply" Library="$webresource:mag_/js/zhenyudev.ribbon.js">

        <CrmParameter Value="PrimaryEntityTypeCode" />

        <CrmParameter Value="FirstPrimaryItemId" />

      </JavaScriptFunction>

    </Actions>

  </CommandDefinition>

These xml codes add a new group and a new button into “Contact Us” Ribbon. Fire the JavaScript when clicking.

Save xml file and compress back to a .zip file. Import back and publish. That button should appear in the ribbon.

Then Create a JavaScript with name “/js/zhenyudev.ribbon.js”. Add it into form libraries of “Contact Us” Activities.  It will open a new window for Email Activity with all parameters needed. Code snippet is here:

ZhenyuDev.reply = function (contactUsEtc, contactUsId) {

    // Gets the current Users Server URL

    var serverUrl = ZhenyuDev.getServerUrl();

    //remove curly braces from the id

    contactUsId = contactUsId.replace("{", "");

    contactUsId = contactUsId.replace("}", "");

 

    var params, code;

    var customer = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("mag_customerid").getValue();

    if (customer != null) {

        var cid = customer[0].id;

        //remove curly braces from the id

        cid = cid.replace("{", "");

        cid = cid.replace("}", "");

 

        // Set "To" field in Email

        params = "%26partyid%3d%257b" + cid;

        params += "%257d%26partyname%3d";

        // Get Entity Type Code by name

        code = ZhenyuDev.GetObjectTypeCode(customer[0].entityType)

        params += "%26partytype%3d" + code;

    }

 

    var urlToPop = serverUrl + "/main.aspx?etn=email&extraqs=%3f_CreateFromId%3d%257b" +

                contactUsId + "%257d%26_CreateFromType%3d" +

                contactUsEtc + "%26etn%3dmag_contactus" + params + "&pagetype=entityrecord";

 

    window.open(urlToPop);

}

Because the subject and description field of Email are slightly different from “Contact Us” Activity. We need another method and put it onLoad Event of Email Activity.

Moreover, several hidden fields are put onto Email form and mapped in the relationship between Email and Contact Us.

Those hidden fields will be prefill by parameter in Url and by mapping. Then “ZhenyuDev.prefillEmailFields” will get all those value and restructure  the description of Email.

// Prefill subject and description fields, if this email is created from Contact Us

ZhenyuDev.prefillEmailFields = function () {

    var contactUs = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("mag_contactusid").getValue();

    var isCreateForm = Xrm.Page.ui.getFormType() == 1;

 

    if (contactUs != null && isCreateForm) {

        // get value for subject field

        var subject = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("subject").getValue();

        if (subject == null) { subject = ""; }

        // get values for description field

        var contactUsFrom = "", contactUsReceived = "", contactUsMessage = "", contactUsTo = "";

 

        var emailTo = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("to").getValue();

        if (emailTo != null) {

            contactUsFrom = emailTo[0].name;

        }

        var emailFrom = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("from").getValue();

        if (emailFrom != null) {

            contactUsTo = emailFrom[0].name;

        }

        contactUsReceived = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("mag_contactusreceived").getValue();

        contactUsReceived = contactUsReceived.format("M/dd/yyyy h:mm tt");

        var emailMessage = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("mag_message").getValue();

        if (emailMessage != null) {

            contactUsMessage = emailMessage;

        }

 

        // set up subject filed

        Xrm.Page.getAttribute("subject").setValue("RE: " + subject);

        // set up description filed

        var description = "<font face=\"Tahoma, Verdana, Arial\" size=\"2\">";

        description += "<br/>";

        description += "------------------- Original Message -------------------";

        description += "<br/>";

        description += "<b>From: </b>" + contactUsFrom;

        description += "<br/>";

        description += "<b>Received: </b>" + contactUsReceived;

        description += "<br/>";

        description += "<b>To: </b>" + contactUsTo;

        description += "<br/>";

        description += "<b>Subject: </b>" + subject;

        description += "<br/>";

        description += "<br/>";

        description += contactUsMessage;

        description += "</font>";

        Xrm.Page.getAttribute("description").setValue(description);

    }

}

Finally, it works. After clicking our “Reply” button, a new Email will show with these fields in it:

Owner -> From, Customer -> To, Subject -> “RE: ” + Subject, Regarding -> Regarding and a “reply” style Description field.