Twitter Greasemonkey Following Script

Today Twitter rolled out some changes to the user interface on the “Following” and “Followers” sections of their website.

The following code is a Firefox Greasemonkey script for the new UI that identifies on the "Following" section, whether Twitter users you follow are following you in return.

For example, in the screen capture below it's easy to see that @lancearmstrong isn't following me yet.



Click here to install the script (on Firefox with the Greasemonkey add-on installed), or save the code below as a text file named "twitterfriendsfollowing.user.js", and then drag the file onto your Firefox browser.

Update: Twitter updated the class name 'direct-message-able' to 'direct-messageable', which has been changed in the code below and downloadable script (above).

// ==UserScript==

// @name           Twitter Friends Following

// @namespace      greasemonkey.hubkey.com

// @description    Identifies whether Twitter users you follow are following you in return.

// @include        http://twitter.com/*following*

// @include        https://twitter.com/*following*

// @include        http://twitter.com/*friends*

// @include        https://twitter.com/*friends*

// ==/UserScript==

twitter_friends_following = {

    count: 0,

    identify: function() {

        var afollowers = document.getElementsByClassName('direct-messageable');

        for (var i = 0; i < afollowers.length; i++) {

            var avcard = afollowers[i].getElementsByClassName('about vcard');

            if (avcard.length != 1)

                continue;

            var node = document.createElement('span');

            node.setAttribute('class', 'is-following');

            node.innerHTML = '<i></i><strong>Following</strong>';

            avcard[0].appendChild(node);

        }

        try {

            twitter_friends_following.count = document.getElementsByClassName('direct-messageable').length;

        } catch (e) {

            twitter_friends_following.count = 0;

        }

    },

    monitor: function() {

        if (document.getElementsByClassName('direct-messageable').length != twitter_friends_following.count)

            twitter_friends_following.identify();

        setTimeout(twitter_friends_following.monitor, 200);

    }

};

setTimeout(twitter_friends_following.monitor, 200);

NAICS Code Lookup - SIC Code Finder for Dynamics CRM 4.0

We've been getting quite a few similar requests from our Microsoft Dynamics CRM clients, many of whom have expressed at an interest in improving the entry of NAICS and SIC codes for business users.

The solution we developed with was to generate custom entities that use picklists to simplify finding the correct codes. It works well - each custom entity contains all the current codes and is easily updatable when new codes are released. The entities write the codes or industry descriptions back to the parent entity (e.g. leads and accounts) for use in reporting and are of great help in developing targeted marketing lists. Each entity uses dependent picklists to narrow the code selection from macro sector to the full category code, making even the most specific ID easy to find. The picker is activated by the user double-clicking the code or code description. You can see the NACIS code lookup entity in action below. If you’d like to install this for your CRM organization, you can purchase the HK-NCP 2009 add-on directly from our web store (contact HubKey if you'd like more information). Alternatively, you could give it a bash yourself - comments section open below for anyone who gets stuck!

Rounding to the nearest 1000 in C#

Working on that demo app, this came up - I wanted a number rounded to the nearest 1000. This is easy enough in Excel - the ROUND function takes negative values, so that =ROUND(2009,-3) will give you 2000. The Math.Round function in System.dll doesn't offer this functionality however - you have to implement that yourself. Here's an example of one way to do this:

using System;

static class Program

{

    static void Main(string[] args)

    {

        double d = (double)new Random().Next();

        // round to the nearest 1000

        Console.WriteLine("{0} rounded to the nearest thousand is {1}", d, Round(d, -3));

        // round to the nearest 100 etc

        Console.WriteLine("{0} rounded to the nearest hundred is {1}", d, Round(d, -2));

    }

    static double Round(double value, int digits)

    {

        if ((digits < -15) || (digits > 15))

            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("digits", "Rounding digits must be between -15 and 15, inclusive.");

        if (digits >= 0)

            return Math.Round(value, digits);

        double n = Math.Pow(10, -digits);

        return Math.Round(value / n, 0) * n;

    }

    static decimal Round(decimal d, int decimals)

    {

        if ((decimals < -28) || (decimals > 28))

            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("decimals", "Rounding decimals must be between -28 and 28, inclusive.");

        if (decimals >= 0)

            return decimal.Round(d, decimals);

        decimal n = (decimal)Math.Pow(10, -decimals);

        return decimal.Round(d / n, 0) * n;

    }

}

SharePoint API: A Client-side Object Model - Demo Application

Back in November we released HubKey's Client-side API for SharePoint. This API wraps many of SharePoint Server 2007's Web Services (Lists Web Service, Webs Web Service, etc.) to provide a familiar object model that can be used on remote client machines without having to process XML requests and responses.

We've recently made a few updates and have included a demonstration application which is shown running in the screen capture below. This demo app creates a new list on a remote test site with a quick launch link, creates a "test person" list scoped content type, adds a number of randomly generated people records, and then adds a new default view with a custom query returning people below age 65. This list data is then browsable and editable by a DataGridView hosted in a Windows form. In addition, paging is demonstrated by using the SPListItemCollectionPosition object.

You can download a demo copy of the API - click here for details.

MS Dynamics CRM 4.0 Record Counter / Page Count Addon

One feature commonly requested by users of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a total of the number of records in a view or advanced find.

Out-of-the-box, MS CRM 4.0 displays both a count of the number of records selected on the page, and the total number of records on the page, both of which are visible in the status bar at the bottom of the results grid for the view. A count of the number of records in total is missing however, as is the total number of pages available.

HubKey's new Record Count Add-on for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 meets this feature request by including both the current page number, the total pages, and the total records in the status bar along side the record selection count.



This add-on is simple to install, can be configured to exclude certain entities, and supports configurable multiple user interface languages. The totals are calculated for quick and advanced finds, lookup views, and both private and public views.

A demonstration of the installation and use of the add-in is shown in the screen capture below:



To download a free trial version of the software and get a 30 day license key, click here.

To purchase a full retail server license key for $350 (per CRM organization), please use HubKey's application web store on this page or contact us at HubKey for more information.

Copy and Paste CRM Picklist Values - Part III

Following on from Part II which went over setting up a Visual Studio project to customize the out-of-the-box edit attribute form in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, here's the last installment in this series - the code you'll need to make it work.

Open the editAll.aspx file you created in Step II and paste in the following markup:

(By the way if the carriage returns don't paste when you copy this into Visual Studio, copy and paste into and out of WordPad or MS Word first).

<%@ Assembly Name="HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=PUBLICKEYGOESHERE" %>

<%@ Page language="c#" Inherits="HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes.EditAllPage"    %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="frm" Namespace="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Forms" Assembly="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.Application" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="cnt" Namespace="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Controls" Assembly="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.Application" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="ui" Namespace="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.UI" Assembly="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.UI" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="loc" Namespace="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Controls.Localization" Assembly="Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.Application" %>

<html>

<head>

    <cnt:AppHeader runat="server" id="crmHeader"/>

</head>

<body>

<frm:DialogForm id="crmForm" runat="server">

    <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" style="table-layout: fixed;">

        <col width="100"><col>

            <tr>

                <td class="ms-crm-Field-Required"><label for="txtLabel"><%=HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes.Globals.LOCID_EDIT_ALL_VALUE_LABEL_PAIRS%><img src="/_imgs/frm_required.gif" alt="<loc:Text Encoding='HtmlAttribute' ResourceId='Forms.Required.AltTag' runat='server'/>"/></label></td>

                <td><ui:TextArea id="txtLabel" Height="270px" runat="server"/></td>

            </tr>

    </table>

</frm:DialogForm>

</body>

</html>

You'll also need to make a change to the manageAttribute.aspx page. At the top of the page, add the following markup to register an "hk" tag prefix:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="hk" Namespace="HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes" Assembly="HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=PUBLICKEYGOESHERE" %>

Next, search for the following element id: "ledtPicklistValues". Insert a new table row / table data cell above the tr container for this element and paste in a new element:

<hk:AppListEditAll id="appListEditAll" runat="server"/>

The enclosing table markup should now look like the following:

<table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

<tr class="param">

<td><hk:AppListEditAll id="appListEditAll" runat="server"/></td>

</tr>

<tr class="param">

<td><app:AppListEdit id="ledtPicklistValues" runat="server"/></td>

</tr>

</table>

The code in the EditAll.cs file is as follows:

using System;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.IO;

using System.Globalization;

using Microsoft.Crm;

using Microsoft.Crm.Application.Controls;

using Microsoft.Crm.Application.Forms;

using Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.UI;

namespace HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes

{

    public static class Globals

    {

        public static readonly string LOCID_EDIT_ALL_BUTTON_TEXT;

        public static readonly string LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_TITLE;

        public static readonly string LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_DESC;

        public static readonly string LOCID_EDIT_ALL_VALUE_LABEL_PAIRS;

        public static readonly string LOCID_EDIT_ONLY_ONE_DEFAULT_ALLOWED;

        public static readonly string EDIT_ALL_JS_PATH;

        public static readonly string LOCID_NUMBER_RANGE_VALUE_MASK;

        public static readonly string LOCID_VALUE_NOT_UNIQUE;

        public static readonly char DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR;

        static Globals()

        {

            //TODO: Localize as needed.

            DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR = '*';

            LOCID_EDIT_ALL_BUTTON_TEXT = "Edit All";

            LOCID_EDIT_ALL_VALUE_LABEL_PAIRS = "Value / Label Pairs";

            LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_TITLE = "Modify List Values";

            LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_DESC = "Modify all the values and labels in this picklist. Place each value / label pair on a new line separated by a carriage return. Separate values and labels with a tab. ";

            LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_DESC += "If you don't include a value on each line (just the label) a value will be automatically created and incremented. ";

            LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_DESC += "*** Warning: if any records use values that you are modifying, you must update those records to use the modified value before you do so here. ***";

            LOCID_EDIT_ONLY_ONE_DEFAULT_ALLOWED = "Only one value can be default. (Value = '{0}').";

            LOCID_NUMBER_RANGE_VALUE_MASK = "You must enter a whole number between {0} and {1}. (Value = '{2}').";

            LOCID_VALUE_NOT_UNIQUE = "Option values must be unique. The value {0} is already being used by option '{1}'.";

            EDIT_ALL_JS_PATH = "/_static/tools/systemcustomization/attributes/scripts/editall.js";

#if (DEBUG)

            EDIT_ALL_JS_PATH += "?" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

#endif

        }

    }

    public partial class EditAllPage : AppPage

    {

        protected TextArea txtLabel;

        protected override void ConfigureForm()

        {

            DialogForm currentForm = base.CurrentForm as DialogForm;

            currentForm.DialogTitle = Globals.LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_TITLE;

            currentForm.DialogDescription = Globals.LOCID_EDIT_ALL_DIALOG_DESC;

        }

        protected override void ConfigurePage()

        {

            base.CurrentHeader.SetScriptFile(Globals.EDIT_ALL_JS_PATH);

            base.CurrentHeader.SetResource("LOCID_NUMBER_RANGE_VALUE_MASK", Globals.LOCID_NUMBER_RANGE_VALUE_MASK);

            base.CurrentHeader.SetResource("LOCID_VALUE_NOT_UNIQUE", Globals.LOCID_VALUE_NOT_UNIQUE);

            base.CurrentHeader.SetResource("LOCID_EDIT_ONLY_ONE_DEFAULT_ALLOWED", Globals.LOCID_EDIT_ONLY_ONE_DEFAULT_ALLOWED);

            base.CurrentHeader.SetResource("DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR", Globals.DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR.ToString());

        }

    }

    public class AppListEditAll : CrmUIControl

    {

        AppListEdit _listEdit;

        public AppListEditAll() { }

        protected override void ConfigureHeader()

        {

            base.ConfigureHeader();

            CrmUIControlBase.CurrentHeader.SetScriptFile(Globals.EDIT_ALL_JS_PATH);

            CrmUIControlBase.CurrentHeader.SetClientVar("_minValueForCustomPicklists", 1);

            CrmUIControlBase.CurrentHeader.SetClientVar("_maxValueForPicklists", 2147483646);

            CrmUIControlBase.CurrentHeader.SetClientVar("_minValueForSystemPicklists", 200000);

            CrmUIControlBase.CurrentHeader.SetResource("DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR", Globals.DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR.ToString());

            _listEdit = this.Page.FindControl("ledtPicklistValues") as AppListEdit;

            if (_listEdit != null)

            {

                this.Disabled = _listEdit.Disabled;

                this.ReadOnly = _listEdit.ReadOnly;

            }

        }

        protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter output)

        {

            TextWriter innerWriter = output.InnerWriter;

            innerWriter.Write("<div id=\"{0}\" {1}>", CrmEncodeDecode.CrmHtmlAttributeEncode(this.ID), (this.ReadOnly || this.Disabled) ? "disabled" : string.Empty);

            innerWriter.Write("<table width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"><tr><td>");

            innerWriter.Write("<tr class=\"listEdit_vspacer\"><td></td></tr>");

            innerWriter.Write("<table width=\"100%\" style=\"table-layout:fixed;\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">");

            innerWriter.Write("<tr height=\"100%\"><td></td>");

            innerWriter.Write("<td class=\"listEdit_hspacer\"></td>");

            innerWriter.Write("<td class=\"listEdit_buttons\">");

            innerWriter.Write("<table width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">");

            this.RenderButton(output, "btnEditAll", (this.Disabled || this.ReadOnly)? "": "editAll();", Globals.LOCID_EDIT_ALL_BUTTON_TEXT);

            innerWriter.Write("</table></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></div>");

        }

        private void RenderButton(HtmlTextWriter output, string id, string onClick, string text)

        {

            TextWriter innerWriter = output.InnerWriter;

            innerWriter.Write("<tr><td nowrap style=\"padding-right:5px;\">");

            id = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "{0}_{1}", CrmEncodeDecode.CrmHtmlAttributeEncode(this.ID), CrmEncodeDecode.CrmHtmlAttributeEncode(id));

            Button button = new Button(id, string.Empty, onClick, false, "listEdit_button");

            button.InnerHtml = "<span class=\"autoellipsis\">" + text + "</span>";

            button.Text = text;

            button.Width = 205;

            button.RenderControl(output);

        }

    }

}

The last piece is the client side script - editAll.js. Paste the following code into that file:

var _nDefault, _aHiddenValues, _aSystemValues, _iMin, _iMax, _nMax;

function cancel()

{

    window.close();

}

function applychanges()

{

    var oResult = new Object();

    try

    {

        oResult.sText = serializeValues(txtLabel.DataValue)

        window.returnValue = oResult;

        window.close();

    }

    catch (e)

    {

    }

}

function alertAndThrow(sMessage)

{

    alert(sMessage);

    throw new Error(101, sMessage);

}

function appendValues(oXmlDoc, oValues, aValues, bEditable)

{

    var sMessage;

    var iDefault = 0;

    var aDupVals = new Array();

    var aLabels = new Array();

    oValues.setAttribute("default", -2147483648);

    for (var i = 0; i < aValues.length; i+=2)

    {

        var oValue = oXmlDoc.createElement("value");

        var n;

        if (bEditable)

        {

            var s = Trim(aValues[i]);

            if (s.charAt(0) == DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR)

            {

                s = s.substr(1);

                if (++iDefault > 1)

                    alertAndThrow(formatString(LOCID_EDIT_ONLY_ONE_DEFAULT_ALLOWED, s));

            }

            n = LocStringToInt(s);

            if (isNaN(n) || n > _iMax || (n < _iMin && !_aSystemValues.contains(n)))

                alertAndThrow(formatString(LOCID_NUMBER_RANGE_VALUE_MASK, AddFormatting(_iMin, 0), AddFormatting(_iMax, 0), s));

            if (iDefault == 1)

            {

                oValues.setAttribute("default", n);

                iDefault++;

            }

        }

        else

            n = Number(aValues[i]);

        var j = i + 1;

        var sLabel = (j >= aValues.length ? "" : Trim(aValues[j]));

        if (sLabel != "")

        {

            if (bEditable)

                _nMax = Math.max(_nMax, n);

            aDupVals.push(n);

            aLabels.push(sLabel);

            oValue.setAttribute("value", n);

            oValue.setAttribute("label", sLabel);

            oValue.setAttribute("editable", bEditable? "1" : "0");

            oValues.appendChild(oValue);

        }

    }

    var iDup = aDupVals.indexOfDuplicate();

    if (iDup > -1)

        alertAndThrow(formatString(LOCID_VALUE_NOT_UNIQUE, aDupVals[iDup], aLabels[iDup]));

}

function serializeValues(sXml)

{

    var oXmlDoc = CreateXmlDocument();

    var oValues = oXmlDoc.createElement("values");

    var rRegEx = /[\n|\t]/;

    var aValues = _aHiddenValues.join("").split(rRegEx);

    _nMax = 0;

    oXmlDoc.documentElement = oValues;

    appendValues(oXmlDoc, oValues, aValues, false);

    aValues = getTabbedValues(sXml);

    appendValues(oXmlDoc, oValues, aValues, true);

    if (++_nMax > _iMin)

        oValues.setAttribute("next", _nMax);

    else

        oValues.setAttribute("next", _iMin);

    return oValues.xml;

}

function getTabbedValues(sXml)

{

    var aValues = new Array();

    if (sXml == null)

        return aValues;

    var aLines = sXml.split(/\n/);

    var iVal = _iMin - 1;

    var iUserVal = iVal;

    for (var i = 0; i < aLines.length; i++)

    {

        var label = Trim(aLines[i]);

        var bDefault = false;

        if (label.charAt(0) == DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR)

        {

            label = label.substr(1);

            bDefault = true;

        }

        var aPairs = label.split(/\t/);

        if (aPairs != null && aPairs.length > 1)

        {

            iVal = LocStringToInt(aPairs[0]);

            label = aPairs[1];

            iUserVal = Math.max(iVal, iUserVal);

        }

        else

            iVal = Math.max(++iUserVal, ++iVal);

        aValues.push((bDefault ? DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR : "") + iVal);

        aValues.push(label);

    }

    return aValues;

}

function deserializeValues(oDataXml)

{

    var oValuesNode = oDataXml.documentElement;

    var iValueNode, oValueNode, oValueNodeList;

    var oValue, aTarget, oAttributes;

    var aValues = new Array();

    _aHiddenValues = new Array();

    _aSystemValues = new Array();

    oValueNodeList = oValuesNode.selectNodes("value");

    var oDefault = oValuesNode.attributes.getNamedItem("default");

    if (!IsNull(oDefault))

        _nDefault = Number(oDefault.value);

    for (iValueNode = 0; iValueNode < oValueNodeList.length; iValueNode++)

    {

        oValueNode = oValueNodeList.item(iValueNode);

        oAttributes = oValueNode.attributes;

        target = (oAttributes.getNamedItem("editable").value == '1' ? aValues : _aHiddenValues);

        var n = Number(oAttributes.getNamedItem("value").value);

        if (target == aValues && n < _iMin)

            _aSystemValues.push(n);

        if (target == aValues && n == _nDefault)

            target.push(DEFAULT_ITEM_CHAR);            

        target.push(n);

        target.push("\t");

        target.push(oAttributes.getNamedItem("label").value);

        target.push("\n");

    }

    var result = aValues.join("");

    return result;

}

function editAllWindowOnLoad()

{

    if (typeof(txtLabel) != "undefined")

    {

        Array.prototype.indexOfDuplicate = function() {

            var n = this.length;

            for (var i=0; i<n; i++)

                for (var j=i+1; j<n; j++)

                    if (this[i]==this[j]) return i;

            return -1;

        }

        Array.prototype.contains = function( value ) {

                var n = this.length;

                for (var i=0; i<n; i++)

                    if (this[i]==value) return true;

                return false;

        }

        var oArgs = window.dialogArguments;

        txtLabel.DataValue = oArgs.sText;

        _iMin = oArgs._iMin;

        _iMax = oArgs._iMax;

        _aHiddenValues = oArgs._aHiddenValues;

        _aSystemValues = new Array();

        for(var i=0; i<oArgs._aSystemValues.length; i++)

            _aSystemValues.push(oArgs._aSystemValues[i]);

        txtLabel.attachEvent('onkeydown', txtLabelOnKeyDown);

        txtLabel.SetFocus();

    }

}

function txtLabelOnKeyDown()

{

    if (event.keyCode == 9)

    {

        if (event.srcElement)

        {

            event.srcElement.selection = document.selection.createRange();

            event.srcElement.selection.text = "\t";

        }

        return false;

    }

    else

    {

        return true;

    }

}

window.attachEvent('onload', editAllWindowOnLoad);

function editAll()

{

    var oArgs, oResult;

    var oXmlDoc = CreateXmlDocument(false);

    oArgs = new Object();

    oXmlDoc.loadXML(ledtPicklistValues.DataXml);

    _iMin = ((_bIsCustomAttribute + "").toLowerCase() == "true" ? _minValueForCustomPicklists: _minValueForSystemPicklists);

    oArgs.sText = deserializeValues(oXmlDoc);

    oArgs._iMin = _iMin;

    oArgs._iMax = _maxValueForPicklists;

    oArgs._aHiddenValues = _aHiddenValues;

    oArgs._aSystemValues = _aSystemValues;

    oResult = openStdDlg(prependOrgName("/tools/systemcustomization/attributes/editAll.aspx"), oArgs, 500, 450);

    if (oResult == null)

    {

        return;

    }

    try

    {

        ledtPicklistValues.DataXml = oResult.sText;

    }

    catch(e)

    {

    }

}

The only thing left to do is find the public key token for your assembly. There are various ways to do this, but if you build your assembly now, the post-build events you copied in earlier will publish the assembly to the GAC. If you browse to the GAC folder after you build the solution with windows explorer and find the published assembly, (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\assembly\HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes), you'll see the public key token there (you can copy this by viewing the properties of the assembly).

Back in Visual Studio there are two places you'll need to paste in the key token. Do a search and replace in all files for PUBLICKEYGOESHERE and replace that string with the token string.

Build the assembly once more to automatically copy these changes to the right file locations, and you should now see a functioning "Edit All" button on the edit attribute form when you choose picklist as the type from the dropdown. If the build fails because of the the post-build events, try building it one more time (there may be a locked file).

To back out the changes you've made, replace the modified manageAttribute.aspx page with the original page that you copied. Remove the assembly, editAll.js file, and editAll.aspx page from the file locations specified in the post-build events.

Hopefully this helps to save some time for your entity customizing users. If you have any questions or comments, please post them here.

Copy and Paste CRM Picklist Values - Part II

In Part I, I posted a screen capture demonstrating customization of the out-of-the-box edit attribute form in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. A custom "Edit All" button is displayed when a picklist type is selected which enables the editing of multiple picklist value / label pairs at once. The allows copying and pasting of lists from other data sources when setting up picklists - which can be a time saver - especially when setting up many, or large, picklists.

In this post I'm going to go over setting up the project that you'll need in order to enable this customization. I'm going to assume familiarity with Visual Studio 20005, C#, ASP.NET, and JavaScript. If you're not comfortable with these technologies, I would recommend either using existing workarounds, for example the online XML generator mentioned here, or hiring a CRM consulting firm like HubKey to assist you.

To begin, on your CRM development machine, in Visual Studio, create a new C# class library project and call it AttributesPicklistEditAll. You'll need to add references to the following four Microsoft Dynamics CRM DLLs from your server root folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server) - all paths below will be relative to this root:

\Tools\Microsoft.Crm.dll
\CRMWeb\bin\Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.Application.dll
\CRMWeb\bin\Microsoft.Crm.Application.Components.UI.dll
\CRMWeb\bin\Microsoft.Crm.Application.Pages.dll

Add a fifth reference to System.Web. (You won't be needing the reference to System.Xml or System.Data).

We're going to be making a change to the default manageAttribute.aspx page so that a new Edit All button is rendered for picklist types. Make a backup of that file, which is in the following location:

\CRMWeb\Tools\SystemCustomization\Attributes\manageAttribute.aspx

and then add the file as an existing item to your project in Visual Studio.

Once you've added it in Visual Studio, copy it and rename the copy to editAll.aspx
This will be the popup dialog that opens when the Edit All button is clicked. Open the renamed file (editAll.aspx) and remove all of the text.

Rename the default project file class1.cs to EditAll.cs

Add a new item to your project - a JScript file called editAll.js

In the project properties / signing tab, make sure that the assembly to be generated is signed by a strong name key file (e.g. key(.snk)). On the application tab, change the assembly name and default namespace to HubKey.Crm.Web.Tools.SystemCustomization.Attributes

On the project properties / build events tab add the following post-build event commands (assuming here that your server root is "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server") - these commands reset IIS, make a copy of your original manageAttribute.aspx if you haven't already done so, copy (overwriting) the aspx pages and js file to the necessary locations, and then copy the assembly to the GAC:

call iisreset

if not exist "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server\CRMWeb\Tools\SystemCustomization\Attributes\manageAttribute.aspx.orig" copy "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server\CRMWeb\Tools\SystemCustomization\Attributes\manageAttribute.aspx" "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server\CRMWeb\Tools\SystemCustomization\Attributes\manageAttribute.aspx.orig"

xcopy "$(ProjectDir)*.aspx" "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server\CRMWeb\Tools\SystemCustomization\Attributes" /D /I /Y
xcopy "$(ProjectDir)*.js" "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server\CRMWeb\_static\Tools\SystemCustomization\attributes\scripts" /D /I /Y

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /U "$(TargetPath)"
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /F /I "$(TargetPath)"

You should end up with a solution window that looks like the following:



In Part III I'll go over the code that you'll need to support this project.

Copy and Paste CRM Picklist Values - Part I

The web based GUI for MS CRM 4.0 offers essentially the same user interface to edit picklist attribute values as version 3. There's a tidy web form with all the buttons you'd expect in order to manage individual values (add, edit, delete, etc.), but if you want to add a range of values, say copy and paste them from an Excel spreadsheet, you'll be forced either to add them one-at-a-time, or to use one of the tools out there to generate xml to paste into the right place in your entity definition.

There is a very nice web based tool to help you do just that, but unfortunately anyone creating new entities or customizing existing ones will have to be comfortable manually editing those xml entity files - not something everyone may be happy to do.

The screen capture below demonstrates an alternative: customizing the edit attribute form to add an "edit all" button that allows multiple picklist value / label pairs to be edited and copied at once. In this example, I'm setting up an entity to manage NAICS codes. Rather than having to enter the 20 economic sector codes one-by-one, I can simply copy and paste the value / labels pairs from a spreadsheet.

In follow up posts to this one, I'll go over the details of how to set this up. This will involve creating a new aspx page and writing code to do the behind the scenes work.