Dynamics CRM Tools

Bulk Export Solution: There also a tool for that

2012-02-11T12:23:00.001+01:00

If you have a lot of unmanaged solution in your deployments and need to backup/export them, it can be boring to export them one by one.

Makarand developed a tool to bulk export unmanaged solutions to help you!

The tool is available on CodePlex : http://crmsolutionbulkexpo.codeplex.com/discussions

New tool : Documentation generator

2012-01-27T12:21:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,

What is more awful than writing documentation about entities and attributes used in a project? Can’t see…

I love the tool from Sonoma Partners to generate documentation but it has some limitations:

Only OnPremise deployments are supported
It generates only Excel document
It is a command line utility (I do love UI…)

So, today, I released my own document generator. It can generate Excel or Word document and provide some options to select what you want to see in the generated documentation. Read the documentation on CodePlex for more information about options.

As usual, CodePlex link, don’t foget to rate it if you like it, you can support me by making a donation on PayPal.

Please prefer CodePlex discussion to ask question, report bug

How to colorize grid rows…

2012-01-26T17:51:00.001+01:00

Since early days of Dynamics CRM, I’m thinking that Microsoft should provide a way to add conditional colorization for entities grid views. It was possible to do so in CRM 4.0 by modifying some system files but it had two limitations:

This was not supported
This was not usable in CRM online or if you did not have access to the server file system

In CRM 2011, I found a way to add color to entities grids using the ribbon, even if there are still two limitations:

This is still not supported (as I browse and change DOM as you will see below) but does not required access to the filesystem
Ribbon element that helps me to colorize the grid view can’t be hidden and it is useful just to add color, it should then not be visible…

As a reminder, the following procedure is not supported but you can use it at your own risk.

Three elements are required:

Ribbon button

This button is added in the HomePageGrid of an entity (but could also be added to SubGrid). It has an Enable rule that perform the grid colorization and returns always false to be deactivated. This is the last remaining difficulty, the SDK doesn’t allow to use a customRule to manage DisplayRule, so we can just deactivate the button.

<RibbonDiffXml>
    <CustomActions>
      <CustomAction 
        Id="McTools.HomePageGrid.contact.Colorization" 
        Location="Mscrm.HomepageGrid.contact.MainTab.Actions.Controls._children" 
        Sequence="10">
        <CommandUIDefinition>
          <Button 
            Command="ColorizeView.Command" 
            CommandType="General" 
            Id="McTools.HomePageGrid.contact.Colorization.Button" 
            Image32by32="/_imgs/Ribbon/Actions_32.png" 
            LabelText="Colorize" 
            Sequence="10" 
            TemplateAlias="o1" />
        </CommandUIDefinition>
      </CustomAction>
    </CustomActions>
    <Templates>
      <RibbonTemplates Id="Mscrm.Templates" />
    </Templates>
    <CommandDefinitions>
      <CommandDefinition Id="ColorizeView.Command">
        <EnableRules>
          <EnableRule Id="ColorizeRule" />
        </EnableRules>
        <DisplayRules />
        <Actions />
      </CommandDefinition>
    </CommandDefinitions>
    <RuleDefinitions>
      <TabDisplayRules />
      <DisplayRules>
        <DisplayRule Id="testRule">
          <CrmClientTypeRule 
            Default="false" 
            InvertResult="false" 
            Type="Outlook" />
        </DisplayRule>
      </DisplayRules>
      <EnableRules>
        <EnableRule Id="ColorizeRule">
          <CustomRule 
            Default="true" 
            InvertResult="false" 
            FunctionName="load" 
            Library="$webresource:mctools_/ColorView/jQuery_1_7_1.js" />
          <CustomRule 
            Default="false" 
            InvertResult="false" 
            FunctionName="load" 
            Library="$webresource:mctools_/ColorView/Scripts.js">
            <CrmParameter Value="SelectedControlAllItemReferences" />
            <CrmParameter Value="SelectedControl" />
          </CustomRule>
        </EnableRule>
      </EnableRules>
    </RuleDefinitions>
    <LocLabels />
</RibbonDiffXml>

jQuery library

Download the latest version from jQuery web site and add a new function to permit load of this script file from ribbon. jQuery will help us writing faster code…

function load() {
    // Do nothing
}

A custom library

The custom library has a unique function with two parameters:

A list of entityReference that contains the grid elements displayed
The grid control itself

In this script, I want to colorize male contact in blue and female contact in pink.

I need to retrieve the index of the column that contains the attribute gendercode

var index = $("#gridBodyTable").find("col[name=gendercode]").index();

Then for each entityReference, retrieve the grid row that corresponds to the record

for(var i=0;i<items.length;i++)
{
    var id = items[i].Id;
            
    $(grid._element).find("tr[oid='" + id + "']").each(function()
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Check the value of gendercode

if(theTr.find("td:nth-child(" + (index/1 + 1/1) + ")")[0].innerText.indexOf("Homme") >= 0)
{
    // ...
}

Apply color

theTr.find("td").css("background-color","lightblue");

Final Script

function load(items, grid)
{
    try
    {
        if(items)
        {
            var index = $("#gridBodyTable").find("col[name=gendercode]").index();
        
            for(var i=0;i<items.length;i++)
            {
                var id = items[i].Id;
            
                $(grid._element).find("tr[oid='" + id + "']").each(function()
                {
                    var theTr = $(this);
                    
                    if(theTr.find("td:nth-child(" + (index/1 + 1/1) + ")")[0].innerText.indexOf("Homme") >= 0)
                    {
                        theTr.find("td").css("background-color","lightblue");
                    }
                    else if(theTr.find("td:nth-child(" + (index/1 + 1/1) + ")")[0].innerText.indexOf("Femme") >= 0)
                    {
                        theTr.find("td").css("background-color","pink");
                    }
                });
            }
        }
    }
    catch(e)
    {
    alert(e.description);
    }
}

Screenshot

New tool ? No… New assembly!

2012-01-21T18:26:00.001+01:00

As some of you might have noticed, new versions of my tools are using an assembly called McTools.Xrm.Connection.

This assembly is one of mine… I just extracted connection specific classes from my tools project and created this assembly.

I was wondering if I should make it public… it is, now… That should helps developers to create application without thinking about how to connect to CRM Online, OnPremise or IFD… This assembly should do it for you…

I wrote a small documentation on CodePlex to help you include this assembly in your projects.
You can access this assembly, its documentation and source code on CodePlex : http://connectioncontrol.codeplex.com

Just one more thing: Use this assembly in any project you want. If your project will be publicly released, you should indicates that you used this assembly (in an “about” form or anywhere else).

Thanks!
Hope this helps!

CRM 2011 Ribbon: Using other controls than just Group and Button : ColorPicker!

2011-12-23T09:15:00.001+01:00

Hi,

As you might know, I developed some tools for ribbon usage (even if some of them are not really usable right now). Yesterday, I tried to use a ColorPicker control to check the behavior of my ribbon editor and found some inconstancy in the SDK.

Anyway, I wanted to try a ColorPicker control and try it in real life scenario (or something useful for your/my customers).

Here is the scenario: I want to be able to flag an account with a color (just like Outlook categories for email, appointment, etc.). For this, I will add a color picker on the ribbon and update the color of the form header (thanks to customer effective for this part: Changing the form header and footer colors).

The final look I expect:

What I need:

A solution with an image for my button, a script for changing header color, jQuery library to ease the write of scripts. The entity account is here since I apply the ColorPicker to this entity.

Script content:

function ApplyColorToHeader(commandProperties)
{
    var filter = "";

    if(commandProperties.Color != "#FFFFFF")
    {
        filter = "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(startColorstr=" + commandProperties.Color + ",endColorstr=#f6f8fa);";
    }
    
    $(".ms-crm-Form-HeaderContainer").css("filter", filter);
}

RibbonDiffXml:

<RibbonDiffXml>
    <CustomActions>
        <CustomAction 
            Id="ColorPicker.CustomAction" 
            Location="Mscrm.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.Controls._children" 
            Sequence="100">
            <CommandUIDefinition>
                <FlyoutAnchor 
                    Id="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.Flyout" 
                    Sequence="130" 
                    Alt="Color this form" 
                    LabelText="Color this form" 
                    Command="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.Command" 
                    PopulateDynamically="false" 
                    PopulateOnlyOnce="true" 
                    TemplateAlias="o1" 
                    Image32by32="$webresource:mctools_/ColorPicker/Icon32.png" 
                    ToolTipTitle="Color this form" 
                    ToolTipDescription="Apply a color to this form header">
                    <Menu Id="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.Menu">
                        <MenuSection 
                            Id="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.Menu.MenuSection" 
                            Title="Choose a color">
                            <Controls Id="Ribbon.ListItem.Workflow.Controls.CPFlyout.Menu.MenuSection.Controls">
                                <ColorPicker 
                                    Id="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.Menu.MenuSection.ColorPicker" 
                                    Command="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.CommandPicker">
                                    <Colors>
                                        <Color Title="Red" DisplayColor="#FF0000" Color="#FF0000" />
                                        <Color Title="Green" DisplayColor="#00FF00" Color="#00FF00" />
                                        <Color Title="Blue" DisplayColor="#0000FF" Color="#0000FF" />
                                        <Color Title="Cancel Color" DisplayColor="#FFFFFF" Color="#FFFFFF" />
                                    </Colors>
                                </ColorPicker>
                            </Controls>
                        </MenuSection>
                    </Menu>
                </FlyoutAnchor>
            </CommandUIDefinition>
        </CustomAction>
    </CustomActions>
    <Templates>
        <RibbonTemplates Id="Mscrm.Templates">
        </RibbonTemplates>
    </Templates>
    <CommandDefinitions>
        <CommandDefinition Id="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.Command">
            <EnableRules />
            <DisplayRules />
            <Actions />
        </CommandDefinition>
        <CommandDefinition Id="McTools.Form.account.MainTab.Actions.ColorPicker.CommandPicker">
            <EnableRules />
            <DisplayRules />
            <Actions>
                <JavaScriptFunction 
                    Library="$webresource:mctools_/ColorPicker/jQuery_1_7_1.js" 
                    FunctionName="load" />
                <JavaScriptFunction 
                    Library="$webresource:mctools_/ColorPicker/Scripts.js" 
                    FunctionName="ApplyColorToHeader">
                    <CrmParameter Value="CommandProperties" />
                </JavaScriptFunction>
            </Actions>
        </CommandDefinition>
    </CommandDefinitions>
    <RuleDefinitions>
        <TabDisplayRules />
        <DisplayRules />
        <EnableRules />
    </RuleDefinitions>
    <LocLabels />
</RibbonDiffXml>

Some explanations:

The ribbonDiffXml is made of a FlyoutAnchor that inclues the ColorPicker.

Then, we need two CommandDefinition items:

One for the FlyoutAnchor
One for the ColorPicker

The ColorPicker’s CommandDefinition calls the JavaScript function “ApplyColorToHeader” passing Crm parameter “CommandProperties”. This JavaScript object contains the property “Color” that contains the value of the attribute “Color” of the clicked Color item.

Result:

After having clicked on Green color

To switch back to the normal form color, I can click on the white color

The original color is back!

Next steps:

To finish the scenario, it would be necessary to store the selected color in a hidden field. Then, in OnLoad event, the header should also be changed with the color selected.

The path to fame: New version of CRM 2011 SDK

2011-12-02T12:15:00.001+01:00

Microsoft just released a new version of CRM 2011 SDK!

If you look deeply into it to gather information about the SiteMap, you could find my name somewhere

Look the page here

Tool update: CrmDiagTool2011 with access to remote CRM servers

2011-11-28T17:55:00.001+01:00

Hi CRM community!

Last Friday and today, with my colleague Nicolas, we released a new version of CrmDiagTool 2011.

This version has not the capability to connect to remove CRM servers to manage Trace and DevErrors flag. This should save you time, removing the need to connect with a remote desktop to CRM servers…

This feature is not available for the Troubleshooting report.

If you missed the previous update, you can now save your trace profile to reuse it quickly.

Enjoy! (on codeplex, as usual)

New tool : Solution Import for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

2011-11-09T14:02:00.001+01:00

Hi,

Today, I released a little tool to ease the import of solution in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

It displays a simple UI where you can :

change import settings
Drag & drop a solution file (Zip)
Define a path containing the extraction of a solution file

I hope this will help you a bit...

As usual, the tool is on CodePlex

Enjoy!

New version of CrmDiagTool 2011 and publication on CodePlex

2011-11-05T17:05:00.001+01:00

Hi CRM community!

After having migrated the original CrmDiagTool 4 to Dynamics CRM 2011 and having recieved a lot of comments regarding new features, download location, etc. I felt that it was a good idea to make this tool public.

To avoid publishing "secret parts of code" from the original tool, I wrote new classes to have a fresh new project. This new project is opened to all CRM developers who would like to improve the CrmDiagTool.

So, the project is available on CodePlex

What else could I say? I hope many of you will have good ideas and time to spend on this project to make the ultimate diagnostic tool for our favorite CRM software!

Tools update: CodePlex and PayPal links

2011-10-23T17:24:00.001+02:00

Today, I have updated all my tools for CRM 2011 in order to add links to some CodePlex pages related to the tools. It will allow you to rate, comment and sumbit bugs more easly, simply by clicking on the corresponding buttons.

I also added a link to my PayPal account, if some of you want to support my work by making a donation.

You will also notice a new icon…

I really wish you will review my tools to make them more visible to the community, wether you like them or not.

Thanks to all of you for taking time for these reviews!

Tool Update : Searchable Property Updater for CRM 2011 (1.1.919.75)

2011-10-20T20:43:00.001+02:00

One of my fellow MVP asked me for the possibility to display if an attribute is displayed on at least one entity form. This will ease the decision to make an attribute valid for advanced find.

I thought it was difficult because of the need to export a solution to get the xml of an entity forms.

But it can be achieved a lot more easily! Entity forms, in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, are just like any other entity, so you can simply retrieve the forms with a simple QueryExpression (or QueryByAttribute, in my case).

The code sample:

QueryByAttribute qba = new QueryByAttribute("systemform");
qba.Attributes.AddRange("objecttypecode", "type");
qba.Values.AddRange(entityLogicalName, 2);
qba.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet(true);

EntityCollection ec = oService.RetrieveMultiple(qba);

So, this new version is much more useful since you can see easily if an attribute is used on a form, and you can also check only attributes used in at least one form by pressing a single button.

As usual, you can download, review, discuss or log issue for this tool one codeplex

Updated tools for customized IFD deployments

2011-10-05T13:43:00.001+02:00

Hi,

Many of you reported errors when connection to there IFD deployments with customized Discovery Service Url (different from disco.servername.domain.extension).

I just updated all my tools to support these customized url.

Enjoy them!

NB: RibbonEditor has not been updated right now.

New tool: Role Updater for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

2011-09-26T20:04:00.001+02:00

Two weeks ago, one of my customer ask for some new entities in its CRM application. This was too easy… Well, my customer has also plenty of security roles and I had to update each of them regarding this new entity… boring!

So, you know what? I wrote a tool to update multiple roles in a single operation: The role updater.

How it works:

Just click on “Load Roles and privileges” to display all master roles and list of all privileges.
Check the roles that need to be updated
Check the privileges to add or remove:
- If privilege addition, select the access level associated with the checked privileges. Then click on button “Add Privilege(s)”
- If privilege removal, just click on button “Remove Privilege(s)”

As usual, the tool is available on codeplex

Do not hesitate to comment, review and track issue on codeplex

Many charts leads to too many views : the (simple) solution

2011-09-05T13:48:00.001+02:00

I do like all new visualization stuffs that come with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011! Of course, I’m talking about Charts and Dashboards. This is really a nice way to display key figures related to our customers data and objectives

Nevertheless, I faced more than one time a counter part of this easy way to display charts: I have now too many system views and the users can’t bear having to display twenty views where only two or three of them are not designed for charts.

Here comes another new feature: the ability to deactivate system views. The good point here is that even a deactivated view can be used in dashboards. It has still to be active when designing the chart or the dashboard but when it’s done, you can deactivate the view.

New tool (alpha) : Ribbon Editor

2011-07-14T10:23:00.001+02:00

Ribbons… such a beautiful new feature of Dynamics CRM 2011 but so hard to manage. We all know how to add a button to an existing group but doing more is complex due to all ribbon components, rules and actions available…

So, I’ll try to help you by releasing a new tool: the ribbon editor.

This is not a wizard, you still need to know how a ribbon behaves but you shouldn’t need to learn all ribbon possibilities anymore…

I help you… I now need your help! There are so many possibilities that I can’t test and validate every ribbon possibilities. That’s the reason of the “alpha” release. So please try this tool and provide feedback on codeplex.

The more people try this tool the more bug will be identified and corrected!

The codeplex page where you can find the tool is located here : http://ribboneditor.codeplex.com

CRM 2011: Overriding lookup onclick event

2011-07-14T10:04:00.001+02:00

I know that some of you can’t wait to know how to override lookup control onclick event. Indeed, Microsoft has heavily used htc file for their controls behavior and it’s more difficult to change these behaviors than it was in Dynamics CRM 4.0…

So, here is the solution:

var element = document.getElementById("lookup_attribute_logicalname");
element.onshowdialog = function (event) {
    var url = "http://you_custom_page_url" ;

    var result = window.showModalDialog(url);
    event.oLookupItems = { items: result };
};

The object returned from the page should be an array of Lookup items, like the following (example for an account):

var lookupItems = new Array();
lookupItems[0] = new Object();
lookupItems[0].id = "{...}"
lookupItems[0].name = "My account";
lookupItems[0].type = 1;
lookupItems[0].entityType = "account";
        
window.returnValue = lookupItems;

To be honest, I’m not the one who found this solution. All the credit goes to my colleague Nicolas.

MVP: Year 2!

2011-07-03T16:05:00.001+02:00

The news came Friday: I was renewed for the Microsoft MVP Award! One more year!

Thank you all for helping me to improve my tools and thus make life easier for developers and customizers on Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Some remarks on my CRM 2011 tools

2011-07-01T08:31:00.001+02:00

Hi,

Some of you may have noticed that I update frequently the tools on codeplex projects… It’s just because I don’t have the possibility to test them against all type of deployments (regarding connections) or all usage possibilities (for example, all different combination of SiteMaps, all views configuration, etc.). I receive some issue by email from my fellow MVP’s and update the tools…

So, if one tool you used crashes or don’t work as expected, please start by visiting the codeplex project page to be sure you have the latest version. I try to maintain version number to ease this check.

If the last version still gets error, please feel free to create an issue on the codeplex project Issue Tracker page.

If you need extra features, create a new discussion thread.

Last but not least, if this tool is useful to you, rate it on the codeplex project page

PS: I have no more tools on my mind right now so don’t expect anything new if coming weeks…

PS2: I’m a liar… I have a tool in development since a long time, a ribbon editor but ribbons are so complicated that I really can’t release it as a beta/stable product… This tool is kind of a wizard to update ribbons but you will still need to know how a ribbon works… So, question: are you interested if I release this tool as an alpha product on codeplex, meaning this can crashes from everywhere?

New tool: SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

2011-06-28T19:12:00.001+02:00

With the last version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can organize your customizations through solutions and this is really a nice feature. But some specific actions are taking really more time than with previous versions…

This is exactly the problem when you want to edit the SiteMap. You have to add the SiteMap to a solution (maybe create one before), export the solution, extract the solution, update the Xml, zip the files, import the solution (should I need to continue with import wizard steps…? )

So, today, I release my new tool, the SiteMap Editor. It works like the IsvConfigManager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to edit the SiteMap.

Features

Connections to OnPremise, Online and Claim based deployments
TreeView display of SiteMap
Add SiteMap component with mouse usage
Add default SiteMap component if you removed one
Cut/Copy/Paste of SiteMap component
Display Xml of SiteMap component
Add SiteMap component from Xml
Reset SiteMap to default system one
Import back the SiteMap to CRM server

Screenshot

Download

As usual the application is available on codeplex.

New tool: JavaScript Web Resource Manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

2011-06-22T23:32:00.001+02:00

I didn’t find a way to provide you a JavaScript editor as flexible as the one I created for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 since the scripts are now in two parts in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: web resource and script call from forms…

Anyway, this new tool allows you to update JavaScript web resources with the following features:

Export scripts web resources from CRM server
Save scripts web resources to disk
Load scripts files from disk
Edit scripts with default text editor or Visual Studio
Edit web resource properties
Save scripts to CRM server
Publish scripts to CRM server

It should help you avoid multiple clicks as soon as you want to update a JavaScript web resource…

As usual with my tools for CRM 2011, it is published on codeplex

Just a small reminder : a Paypal donation button is just on the right part of this blog

But it’s up to you…

Screenshot

New tool: Ribbon Browser

2011-06-15T12:15:00.001+02:00

Hi,

I've not been really active these last weeks but I was on holiday (I love New York !) and I’m busy to buy a new appartment, so that’s not easy…

Anyway, today is a new day and I’m releasing a new tool: Ribbon Browser.

This is basically the same program that is provided in the SDK as a sample (exportribbon) but with a graphical user interface.

It will be helpful to retrieve Id’s and other attributes of ribbon controls when you want to update the system ribbon.

You will be able to:

Display system entity ribbon definition
Display custom entity ribbon definition
Display Ribbon control attributes
Display Ribbon control XML
Save ribbon in XML file

The tool is released on codeplex

Screenshot

How to: Which action raised OnSave event

2011-04-29T16:00:00.001+02:00

A while ago, I wrote a post about the way to know which action raised the onSave event in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, here.

Here is the same code for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:

// The execution context must be passed as the first parameter
// This can be done by ticking the checkbox in the function call 
// window in the onSave event
function CheckSaveEvent(executionObj)
{
    // If action is Save as closed (=58)
    if(executionObj.getEventArgs().getSaveMode() == 58)
    {
        // Do some code logic
    }
}

The check that must be ticked is the one in the below screenshot (This is the window that is displayed when adding script on the onSave event).

New tool: CrmDiagTool 2011

2011-04-20T13:01:00.001+02:00

UPDATE: A new version is available on CodePlex

Hello CRM community!
Two months ago, Philippe Brissaud from Microsoft Canada asked me to help him migrate the well known CrmDiagTool 4 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. I guess you know what I answered him: of course I help!
Today, Philippe and I are proud to release this new version of CrmDiagTool.
We focused on Server diagnostics and removed features related to reporting services and email router.
The features are the following:

Enable/Disable tracing
Zip content of Trace directory
Open Trace directory
Generate diagnostic file in text or html format with components selection
Enable/Disable DevErrors

Some screenshots:

Regarding source code: As the previous version had not its source code released, this version does not too.
Download link:

How to: Change existing ribbon element properties

2011-04-19T10:10:00.001+02:00

Today, I will try to explain you how to change properties of existing ribbon elements. For this example, I will change the label and icon of the button “New opportunity” in the main grid ribbon of the entity “Opportunity”.

The standard ribbon for the opportunity looks like the below one:

And the result I expect:

To obtain this result, follow the below procedure:

1 - If it is not already done, download the SDK (click here).

2 - Open the SDK folder “samplecode \ cs \ client \ ribbon \ exportribbonxml \ exportedribbonxml”. Then open the Xml file corresponding to the entity (here opportunity.xml). In our case, the button “Nouveau” (or “New” in english), is the one we need to retrieve:

<Button Id="Mscrm.HomepageGrid.opportunity.NewRecord" ToolTipTitle="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.MainTab.New" ToolTipDescription="$Resources(EntityDisplayName):Ribbon.Tooltip.New" Command="Mscrm.NewRecordFromGrid" Sequence="10" LabelText="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.MainTab.New" Alt="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.MainTab.New" Image16by16="/_imgs/ribbon/NewRecord_16.png" Image32by32="/_imgs/ribbon/newrecord32.png" TemplateAlias="o1" />

3 - Create a new solution with the opportunity entity included and export it.

4 - Add a CustomAction with the correct location in the CustomActions node of the customizations.xml file contained in the exported solution archive. Only two attributes are required:

An identifier of your choice
A location (the location of the existing button): You will find the correct location in the parent node of the existing Xml button (in the opportunity.xml file). It is the attribute “Id” of the parent node. The location will be the concatenation of this id and the term “._children”.

5 – Add the Xml of the existing button

6 – Change the properties of the button (here, highlighted in yellow)

<RibbonDiffXml>
    <CustomActions>
        <CustomAction Id="MSCRMTools.HomepageGrid.opportunity.MainTab.Management.Controls" 
            Location="Mscrm.HomepageGrid.opportunity.MainTab.Management.Controls._children">
            <CommandUIDefinition>
                <Button Alt="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.MainTab.New" 
                Command="Mscrm.NewRecordFromGrid" 
                CommandType="General" 
                Id="Mscrm.HomepageGrid.opportunity.NewRecord" 
                Image16by16="/_imgs/ribbon/NewRecord_16.png" 
                Image32by32="/_imgs/FormEntity/ico_fhe_3.png" 
                LabelText="Nouvelle" 
                Sequence="10" 
                TemplateAlias="o1" 
                ToolTipDescription="$Resources(EntityDisplayName):Ribbon.Tooltip.New" 
                ToolTipTitle="$Resources:Ribbon.HomepageGrid.MainTab.New" />
            </CommandUIDefinition>
        </CustomAction>
    </CustomActions>
    <Templates>
        <RibbonTemplates Id="Mscrm.Templates" />    
    </Templates>
    <CommandDefinitions />
    <RuleDefinitions>
        <TabDisplayRules />
        <DisplayRules />
        <EnableRules />
    </RuleDefinitions>
    <LocLabels />
</RibbonDiffXml>

7 – Import back the solution, that’s it!

Visual Studio 2010 templates for Plugins and Custom workflow activities

2011-04-15T13:26:00.001+02:00

Found on Popo69’s blog, visual studio 2010 templates for plugins and custom workflow activities.

Always helpful!

http://pogo69.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/crm-2011-visual-studio-plugin-templates/