Microsoft Dynamics CRM : New Entity creation

The standard arhitecture of the CRM has a long list of entities. But some users want to have more entities !

I will show you the easier way to create a new entity.

Change the default Prefix

To begin, i change an important option for the editor of CRM solution, the prefix. Before each new field or entity, it appears “new_” by default, but you can change this value :

In the customization, click on “Publishers”.

Open the default publisher of the CRM :

Change the Prefix and save. In this example, I replace “new_” by “jav_” for Javista.

  

Create a new entity

To create a new entity, go the customization panel : (Settings / Customize the System)

Click on “New” in the Entiity part.
My new entity named “Request” will be place on Areas Sales and Marketing. I let all the default configuration for a new entity. I activated the Businnes process flows. Note : All the option with a small “star” on the side are not changeable after the activation.


  I allow the quick creation and I keep all the default option.
In the Primary field section, i change the value “Name” to “Subject”.
Click on “Save” when you finish your entity global configuration.

Modify the default Form

When you create a new entity, all the forms and views are created by default. You have to modify the form, add new fields, create new relationship with other entities, etc…
To begin, i modified the default form “Information”. Just double click on the form. The form is empty… You can :

• Add new field
• Add new section / Tab
• Add Subgrid : Relation with an other Entity
• Add Business Rules
• Add Javascript
• Etc….

I will describe all the functionnalities in an other post.

You can add new fields, click on “New Field” :
I want to create a new lookup field with the entity contact. In fact, on a contact, I want to see a list of request. So I choose a lookup type of field with the entity Contact.I add two fields  on my form: “Description” and “Contact”. I click on “Save” and “Publish”.

Change the view

I change my main form and I create new fields, i need to update my views.
Double click on a view in the list :

To add new columns (Permit to add field value in your view). Select the column and click on “OK” :

Once you finish to add your column, click on “Save and Close” and “Publish” :
We customize a new form and a view, let’s see now how it appears in the CRM.

Example

In the navigation bar, select Sales / Request :

Just create a new request (Click on “New”), complete the subject and select a contact (Here Darth Vader) :
Click on “Save”. Open now the contact form of “Darth Vader”. To see the request list :

Click on “Request”, we can see the new request record ! :)
 

We saw how to create a new simple entity. We modified a form and a view, we created few fields.

In a next post, I will explain how to

• Create a new form and all the functionnalities
• Create a new view and explain the functionnalities
• Create a system Charts
• Etc…

Hope this post helps you ! :)