Timeline for Microsoft Dynamics CRM › artifact › 20151001 › xrm...2015/10/01 · If you would...

Copyright ©2016 xRM Consultancy Limited

Timeline for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

A beautiful and intuitive way to view activity or

record history for CRM entities

Version 2.3


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Contents Why a timeline? ............................................................................................................................................ 3

What does the timeline do? ......................................................................................................................... 3

Default entities displayed on the timeline ............................................................................................ 3

Download ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

Browser Support ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Installation .................................................................................................................................................... 4

Upgrading – important information ......................................................................................................... 4

Import the Timeline solution .................................................................................................................... 4

Assign your users a Timeline security role to view the Timeline .............................................................. 5

Configure your forms to display the Timeline .......................................................................................... 6

Other optional Parameters ................................................................................................................... 8

Show Email and Phone Call records only .......................................................................................... 8

Display on a Dashboard .................................................................................................................... 9

Position the Timeline navigation bar at the top ............................................................................. 10

Show the Timeline navigation bar without the detail panes .......................................................... 11

Configure Timeline Entities ..................................................................................................................... 11

Understanding how it all ties together ............................................................................................... 11

Setting up a new Entity ....................................................................................................................... 12

Create a new Timeline Entity Record .............................................................................................. 13

Create the Timeline Entity Link records .......................................................................................... 15

Set up a Dashboard Timeline – note currently only supported on CRM 2013 ............................... 18

Support ....................................................................................................................................................... 21


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Why a timeline?

We think grids are a dull way to view and interpret activity or time-based data.

Interactions with your clients are time based so we thought lets display this information in a way that

users intuitively understand and provides context to the future and historical activities for the relevant

entity.

What does the timeline do? The Timeline presents the future and historical activities for entities such as Account, Contact or

Opportunity (free/evaluation version) or any other entity and Dashboards (paid version) in a visually

pleasing way. It is very intuitive to use and even supports mobile devices (really this means tablets only

as on phone displays everything is a bit cramped!). The evaluation version randomly adds “Evaluation

version” entries on the timeline.

Default entities displayed on the timeline

Appointment

Campaign Response

Case

E-mail

Fax

Letter

Opportunity

Order

Phone Call

Service Activity

Task

The above entities are configured by default. You can edit the configuration of these or add new ones to

suit your needs (paid version only).

We welcome your feedback – [email protected].

Download Timeline from xRM Consultancy is currently available from http://www.xrmconsultancy.com/timeline-

for-microsoft-crm/.

If you would like us to extend the capability of the timeline please get in touch –

[email protected].

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.xrmconsultancy.com/timeline-for-microsoft-crm/




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Browser Support All browsers supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013+ Online are supported by the Timeline (If you

run into problems with IE8 or IE9 and get an error message saying IE7 is not supported, it may be

because you are running the browser in IE7 compatibility mode. Here are directions on how to change

the compatibility mode).

Installation

Upgrading – important information If you are upgrading from a Version 1.x Timeline solution you will need to follow the instructions below

for importing – you need to accept the End User License Agreement and Assign your users a Timeline

Security role before the Timeline will display for your existing configurations.

Import the Timeline solution 1. Download the managed solution from http://www.xrmconsultancy.com/timeline-for-microsoft-

crm/.

2. As a user with the System Administration role navigate to Settings > Customization > Solutions

and choose Import from the gird menu.

3. Locate your downloaded solution zip file and follow the instructions in the import wizard.

4. Publish All Customizations.

5. Open the Timeline Solution from the Solutions grid and click the button to Accept Terms and

Conditions – you must do this step to use the Timeline solution (new for Version 2)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1196-internet-explorer-compatibility-view-turn-off.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1196-internet-explorer-compatibility-view-turn-off.html




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6. After a short while the page will refresh and provide a link to the Timeline Configuration record

– during this process the default Timeline Entity and Timeline Entity Link records are set up

7. If you want to only use the free/evaluation version with limited entity support you do not need

to open the configuration record. If you have a license key to allow you to add custom entities

open the Timeline Configuration record from the link shown above and enter your License Key

in the Licensing Section

Assign your users a Timeline security role to view the Timeline Two security roles are included in the Timeline solution:

1. Timeline Reader – view the Timeline

2. Timeline Writer – view the Timeline and edit Timeline Entities, Timeline Entity Links and

TimeLine Configuration records

A user must have one of these roles to view the Timeline, other the following message will be displayed

on the Timeline:


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Configure your forms to display the Timeline To display the Timeline you will need to modify your existing forms (or create a new one). We haven’t

included any preconfigured forms as you (not us!) know where is best to place the Timeline for your

users. Don’t worry it is easy to do if you don’t know how – we show you how to set it up for the Account

entity below, but the process is the same for any other entity.

1. As a User with Customization privileges navigate to an open an Account Record

2. From the … (more commands) menu item choose Form Editor or the Customize tab (classic

forms) choose Form to open the form editor.

3. From the ribbon select Insert > One Column tab

4. Position the Tab where you want it on the form – under the Summary tab works well.

With the Tab selected in the form area select from the ribbon Insert > Web Resource

Search for the Timeline.html web resource and configure the settings on the General and

Formatting tabs as below. We recommend that Timeline occupies at least 20 rows in CRM 2013

forms (24 in CRM 2011) for optimal viewing. This can be too big for smaller laptop screens so

test with your users to find the best size for your organization. The Timeline will scale

appropriately.


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5. Save and Publish your form

6. Refresh the Account Record and you should see the timeline with activities shown like the

example below (if there are any activities set regarding your account!)


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Other optional Parameters

By specifying Custom Parameters you can modify the behaviour of the Timeline on the form:

Show only specified entities when the Timeline loads (user can still manually check other

available entities)

Display the Timeline on a Dashboard

Position the Timeline navigation bar at the top

Show the Timeline navigation bar without the detail panes

Use the following examples to help you configure the Timeline display for your needs. Combine multiple

parameters by separating with a | (pipe) character.

Show Email and Phone Call records only

IncludeEntities=email;phonecall

Separate the entity logical name by a ;

When the Timeline loads only email and phone call records will be shown on the Timeline. A user can

enable other available entities by clicking on the Settings icon in the top right corner of the Timeline

(see below):


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Display on a Dashboard

dashboard=myOpenOpportunities

myOpenOpportunities is matched with any Entity Link records where the Entity Logical Name has been

specified as ‘myOpenOpportunities’. See how to configure a Dashboard Timeline on page 18.


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Position the Timeline navigation bar at the top

If you would like to position the timeline navigation bar above the record detail you can add the

parameter “timelineposition=top” as part of the setup configuration.


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Show the Timeline navigation bar without the detail panes

If you would like to show only the timeline navigation you can add the parameter

“timelineposition=full” as part of the setup configuration. Clicking on any item in the timeline will then

open that record.

Tip – scrolling the Timeline using the scroll-wheel

To move along the Timeline navigation bar using your scroll-wheel hold down the SHIFT key while

scrolling

Configure Timeline Entities With the paid version of Timeline you can display the Timeline on entities other than Account, Contact

and Opportunity and also display the Timeline on a Dashboard. Any entity with a date field can be used

to display records in the Timeline.

It is straight-forward to set up but it does need some technical expertise – you should be comfortable

with HTML and extracting the FetchXML from an Advanced Find query. This guide walks you step by step

through what you need to do.

Understanding how it all ties together

It is worth understanding how the configuration ties together before getting into the configuration

details. There are 3 components to making the Timeline display on your forms:


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1. The Timeline.html web resource you place on your entity form – see the yellow coloured line on

the image below: –––––

2. The Timeline Entity record that holds the configuration for displaying the selected record on the

Timeline –––––

3. The Timeline Entity Link records which determine which related entity records should be shown

on the Timeline navigation bar –––––

On loading of the Timeline.html web resource the related TimeLine Entity Link records are determined

(automatically from the entity you are viewing) and the FetchXML queries contained in these records

are run. They return the records to display in the Timeline navigation bar – if there is more than one

related TimeLine Entity Link the results are concatenated together and duplicates are removed so that

only one unique record is referenced on the Timeline navigation bar. The selected item on the Timeline

navigation bar then references the appropriate Timeline Entity configuration record which determines

how the information for the record is displayed.

Setting up a new Entity

As described above there are at least two records for each entity you wish to display:

1) Timeline Entity record, and

2) Timeline Entity Links record.

The example below shows how to set up a custom activity ‘SMS’ (download our SMS solution

http://www.xrmconsultancy.com/what-we-do/smstext-messaging-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm/) for

display in the Account and Contact Timelines.

http://www.xrmconsultancy.com/what-we-do/smstext-messaging-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm/


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Create a new Timeline Entity Record

Navigate to the Timeline Entity records in Settings > Timeline > Timeline Entities

Create a new record and complete the fields:

Field Value Notes

Name SMS The name of the Timeline Entity Record.

Entity Logical Name xrmc_sms You can find this in Settings > Customization > Customize the System > Components > Entities > [your entity] > Name field from the General tab.

Headline Field subject The text to be displayed in the Timeline navigation bar and headline for the selected record. Add multiple fields by separating with a comma e.g. subject,createdon

Start Date Field actualend The field name to be used that will determine the position on the timeline. For Activity entities (including custom activity entities) this should be ‘actualend’.

End Date Field The field name to be used for showing the duration of the record on the timeline navigation bar – shown as a blue line along the bottom of the navigation bar. The line becomes darker when the record is selected.

Max Records The maximum number of CRM records to show in the Timeline. Default is 50.

Limit to Last X days The number of days prior to today you wish to show records on the Timeline.

Small Icon /WebResources/xrmc_SMSIcon16x16 URL to the icon (16px square) you want to display on the Timeline navigation for the current type of entity record.

Hide Status Yes Hides the status from displaying under the headline on the timeline detail pane.

HTML to determine the display of the Selected Timeline Record:

HTML <div class="summaryinfo"> <div class="openentity">


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<a id="recordURL" href='#' title="Open full record"></a> </div> <p id="to" class="xRMC-Attribute xRMC-PartyList"> <span>To:</span> </p> <p id="from" class="xRMC-Attribute xRMC-PartyList"> <span>From:</span> </p> <p id="regardingobjectid" class="xRMC-Attribute xRMC-Reference"> <span>Regarding:</span> </p> </div> <p> <span>Message:</span> </p> <div class="innerwrapper"> <p id="description" class="XRMC-Attribute"> </p> </div>

HTML Notes: You can insert your own HTML and inline styles in the HTML field. To display data from a CRM field the HTML element that is to contain the data must have an id attribute with the field’s logic name as the value. For example for the To field: <p id="to" class="xRMC-Attribute xRMC-PartyList"> <span>To:</span> </p> The CSS class attribute needs to contain the class “xRMC-Attribute” at a minimum. Additional CSS attributes should be applied for certain types of fields: PartyList: xRMC-PartyList Regarding/Lookup: xRMC-Reference Date: xRMC-Date Activity Date: xRMC-ActivityDate (For standard MS CRM Activity types so that it knows to look for actual end / scheduled end etc.) Optionset, Currency, Number: xRMC-FormattedValue - Can be attached to optionsets / currencies / numbers to display in the correct format. Opportunity date: xRMC-OpportunityDate - Used on opportunities to pull in estimated / actual dates depending on status Opportunity value: xRMC-OpportunityValue - Used on opportunities to pull in estimated / actual revenue depending on status URLs: xRMC-Url - used to make a URL clickable Hide if null of blank: xRMC-AutoHide - Can be attached to a div in conjunction with a "for" attribute to hide a complete section. For example: <div class="xRMC-AutoHide" for="currentsituation"> <p><span>Current Situation:</span></p> <div class="innerwrapper" id="currentsituation"> <p id="currentsituation" class="xRMC-Attribute"></p> </div> </div>


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This div will automatically hide if the attribute "currentsituation" is null or blank.

Query for obtaining the selected record details:

Query <fetch version="1.0" output-format="xml-platform" mapping="logical" distinct="false"> <entity name="xrmc_sms"> <attribute name="to" /> <attribute name="regardingobjectid" /> <attribute name="activityid" /> <attribute name="description" /> <attribute name="from" /> <filter type="and"> <condition attribute="activityid" operator="eq" value="{0}" /> </filter> </entity> </fetch>

Query Notes: You need to include all the attributes you wish to display on the Timeline selected record in your query i.e. all those referenced in the HTML above. You need to include a reference to the id of the record (activityid in the example above). Do not include more than you need as this could affect performance (i.e. do not use the all-attributes parameter) The "{0}" is replaced at run-time with the relevant record ID.

Create the Timeline Entity Link records

From within the Timeline Entity record form scroll to the Timeline Entity Link sub-grid and create a new

records to find SMS records that meet the following 3 queries:

1. Display SMS’s on the Account record Timeline where the Account is set Regarding

2. Display SMS’s on the Account record where Contact belonging to the Account is a To recipient

or set as the Regarding record (ie. A member of a PartyList)

3. Display SMS’s on the Contact record Timeline where the Contact is the To recipient or set as the

Regarding record (ie. A member of a PartyList)

1. Display SMS’s on the Account record where the Account is set Regarding

Field Value Notes

Name SMS by Regarding Account The name of the Timeline Entity Link Record – describe the query you are making.

Timeline Entity SMS The Timeline Entity record this query relates to.


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Logical Entity Name account You can find this in Settings > Customization > Customize the System > Components > Entities > [your entity] > Name field from the General tab This field is used when the Timeline is placed on the corresponding entity form – in this case the Account form.

Query <fetch version="1.0" output-format="xml-platform" mapping="logical" distinct="false"> <entity name="xrmc_sms"> <attribute name="subject" /> <attribute name="statuscode" /> <attribute name="regardingobjectid" /> <attribute name="activityid" /> <attribute name="scheduledstart" /> <attribute name="actualstart" /> <attribute name="actualend" /> <attribute name="activitytypecode" /> <attribute name="statecode" /> <order attribute="actualend" descending="true" /> <order attribute="actualstart" descending="true" /> <filter type="and"> <condition attribute="regardingobjectid" operator="eq" value="{0}" /> </filter> </entity> </fetch>

Query Notes: To ensure optimum performance it is better to only include attributes that you need. The "{0}" is replaced at run-time with the relevant record ID.

2. Display SMS’s on the Account record where Contact belonging to the Account is a To recipient or set

as the Regarding record (ie. A member of a PartyList)

Field Value Notes

Name SMS by Account’s Contacts The name of the Timeline Entity Link Record – describe the query you are making.


Logical Entity Name account You can find this in Settings > Customization > Customize the System > Components > Entities > [your entity] > Name field from the General tab This field is used when the Timeline is placed on the corresponding entity form – in this case the Account form.


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Query <fetch version="1.0" output-format="xml-platform" mapping="logical" distinct="false"> <entity name="xrmc_sms"> <attribute name="subject" /> <attribute name="statuscode" /> <attribute name="regardingobjectid" /> <attribute name="activityid" /> <attribute name="scheduledstart" /> <attribute name="actualstart" /> <attribute name="actualend" /> <attribute name="activitytypecode" /> <attribute name="statecode" /> <order attribute="actualend" descending="true" /> <order attribute="actualstart" descending="true" /> <link-entity name="activityparty" from="activityid" to="activityid" alias="ag"> <link-entity name="contact" from="contactid" to="partyid" alias="ah"> <filter type="and"> <condition attribute="parentcustomerid" operator="eq" value="{0}" /> </filter> </link-entity> </link-entity> </entity> </fetch>

Query Notes: To ensure optimum performance it is better to only include attributes that you need. The "{0}" is replaced at run-time with the relevant record ID.

3. Display SMS’s on the Contact record Timeline where the Contact is the To recipient or set as the

Regarding record (ie. A member of a PartyList)

Field Value Notes

Name SMS by Contact (To recipient or set Regarding)

The name of the Timeline Entity Link Record – describe the query you are making.


Logical Entity Name contact You can find this in Settings > Customization > Customize the System > Components > Entities > [your entity] > Name field from the General tab This field is used when the Timeline is placed on the corresponding entity form – in this case the Account form.

Query <fetch version="1.0" output-format="xml-platform" mapping="logical" distinct="false"> <entity name="xrmc_sms"> <attribute name="subject" /> <attribute name="statuscode" />


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<attribute name="regardingobjectid" /> <attribute name="activityid" /> <attribute name="scheduledstart" /> <attribute name="actualstart" /> <attribute name="actualend" /> <attribute name="activitytypecode" /> <attribute name="statecode" /> <order attribute="actualend" descending="true" /> <order attribute="actualstart" descending="true" /> <link-entity name="activityparty" from="activityid" to="activityid" alias="al"> <link-entity name="contact" from="contactid" to="partyid" alias="am"> <filter type="and"> <condition attribute="contactid" operator="eq" value="{0}" /> </filter> </link-entity> </link-entity> </entity> </fetch>

Query Notes: Do not include more attributes than you need as this will affect performance. The "{0}" is replaced at run-time with the relevant record ID.

Once you have added the Timeline HTML webresource(s) to your Account and Contact forms test your

configuration.

Set up a Dashboard Timeline – note currently only supported on CRM 2013

To create a Dashboard Timeline you need to create on or more Entity Link records which have the same

unique Logical Entity Name value. In the example below we are going to create a Dashboard which

shows a user their open Opportunities.

1. Navigate to the Opportunity Timeline Entity record (from the Timeline configuration page or

from and Advanced Find)

2. Create a new Timeline Entity Link

Name: Dashboard: My Open Opportunities

Logical Entity Name: myOpenOpportunities

3. Open an Advanced Find and select the Opportunities entity and select the Saved View ‘My Open

Opportunities’

4. Click on Edit Columns and add the Status Reason Column


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5. Click the Download Fetch XML, open the file in Notepad and copy the XML to the clipboard

6. Go back to your ‘My Open Opportunities’ Timeline Entity Link record and paste the XML into the

Query field

7. Save and close the record

8. Navigate to the Dashboards and create a new Dashboard


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9. Add a Web Resource to the Dashboard pane with the following parameters

10. Adjust the size to suit your needs. We recommend make it full width and increase the height by

selecting the Increase Height option 2 times.

11. Save and close your Dashboard

12. You My Opportunities Timeline should be displayed


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Support Please contact [email protected] with any questions.


Timeline for Microsoft Dynamics CRM › artifact › 20151001 › xrm...2015/10/01 · If you would...

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Transcript of Timeline for Microsoft Dynamics CRM › artifact › 20151001 › xrm...2015/10/01 · If you would...