Sonoma Partners Microsoft CRM Blog

How to download the sample code for our Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 book

We received a few requests about how someone can download the oodles and oodles of sample code from our Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 book. Unlike our Working with.. book, the Progamming book does not include a CD. I assumed (incorrectly) that you could just download the code from the book's Microsoft Press website listing: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/12790.aspx. However you might notice that there is no link to the downloads!

Well, Microsoft Press doesn't make this easy to find but you can download the sample code here: http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/companion/9780735625945/

This download URL is tucked away (some might say hidden!) on page xxiii of the Introduction.

Adding color indicators to an entity record

Yesterday, I mentioned a demo that I was preparing for a prospect. Another one of their stated requirements was:

If we wanted to flag a field could that record be in red? Such as customers past due and etc?

This was an easy demo request to accommodate, because I know that we included a nearly identical sample in our upcoming Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 book! The book example actually adds a color indicator on an opportunity record that updates depending on its rating (hot, warm, cold) so I tweaked book's example code for the prospect. I added two custom attributes to the account entity:

• Notification (nvarchar)
• Payment Status (picklist)

Then I added this code to the form onLoad event for the account record, and to the onChange event for the payment status field.

UpdateDisplayBar();

function UpdateDisplayBar()

{

  var notificationDisplay = document.getElementById("new_notification_d");

  var displayColor = "#EAF3FF";

  switch (crmForm.all.new_paymentstatus.DataValue)

  {

    case "1":

      displayColor = "green";

      break;

    case "2":

      displayColor = "red";

      break;

  }

  var displayBar = "<div style='background=" + displayColor + "'>&nbsp;</div>";

  notificationDisplay.innerHTML = displayBar;

}

Now when you open an account record and update its payment status field, you'll see a color indicator on the first tab (next to the Payment Status field). Green indicates they are "OK", and red indicates "Overdue". No color indicates that neither value has been selected. This is a sample example, but it gives a flavor of what's possible within the user interface!

Two more books about Microsoft Dynamics CRM coming!

Some wiseguy called our office the other day to ask why we have not blogged in a while? Well the answer is pretty simple, we've been running like crazy to try and keep up with all of the demand for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. In addition, I have personally been trying to devote all of my free writing time to two new projects. These projects are two new books that Microsoft engaged us to write about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step Publish Date Sep. 2008 Target audience: End users of Microsoft CRM who want to learn more about the core sales, marketing and customer service functionality in a  step-by-step fashion.		Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Publish Date Oct. 2008 Target audience: Developers who want to learn the nitty gritty details of writing custom code and extending the Microsoft CRM platform.

As you can imagine, writing two new books is a massive amount of effort...way more than Jim and I could handle by ourselves. Therefore, we recruited some additional Microsoft CRM experts to help write each of these titles. Kara O'Brien and Brendan Landers (both from Sonoma Partners) are helping us with the Step by Step book. Corey O'Brien and Brad Bosak (also both from Sonoma Partners) are writing the Programming title with us. In addition, Phil Richardson from Microsoft graciously agreed to write two chapters in the Programming book.

As you can see from the links above, there aren't a lot of public details about these books yet but we plan to post more information as we get further into the writing process!