Option for a “Quick Create” of CRM Records

Today’s post comes from CRM MVP Jim Steger who is a developer, blogger, and writer for Sonoma Partners.

Back in the early Microsoft CRM days (remember those?), you had the option to ‘Quick Create’ a lead, contact or account. This was a native form that only included the required (and maybe the recommended fields, but can’t remember anymore!). This concept comes up from time to time with our customers who are sometimes need a simple and fast way to get records entered into the system.

Of course, we could custom develop a Web page for them, but another alternative could be to use the Mobile Express feature. As you know Mobile Express comes standard with your CRM installation assuming you are at least on UR6 or above, but can also be downloaded separately for those on UR5 or earlier. Mobile Express allows for a separate form configuration natively that can be customized specifically for mobile form entry. Now just take the resulting edit form URL, pop it into an ISV.Config button/menu, and viola a simple data entry form!

The URL would typically look like: https://[your specified domain]/[Organization]/m/ef.aspx?etn=[entity].

You can then specify the link either directly in the ISV.Config as a button or menu item, or even open using JavaScript to provide even more control of the resulting window. An example of each approach would resemble the following:

<Root>
  <MenuBar>
    <CustomMenus>
      <Menu>
        <Titles>
          <Title LCID="1033" Text="Quick Create Record" />
        </Titles>
        <MenuItem Url="https://[domain]/[org]/m/ef.aspx?etn=account">
          <Titles>
            <Title LCID="1033" Text="Account" />
          </Titles>
        </MenuItem>
        <MenuItem JavaScript="window.open('https://[domain]/[org]/m/ef.aspx?etn=account','','scrolling=yes,toolbar=no,status=yes,resizable=yes,menubar=no,location=no,height=400,width=300');">
          <Titles>
            <Title LCID="1033" Text="Account w/JS" />
          </Titles>
        </MenuItem>
      </Menu>
    </CustomMenus>
  </MenuBar>
</Root>

So, even if you aren’t exposing the Mobile Express Web pages to the Internet (i.e. your mobile device), you could leverage this approach as a simple and supported way for your users to get data into CRM via an alternative form interface

Cheers,

Jim Steger

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