Microsoft CRM
Customization Series
How To: Adding a custom field to Microsoft CRM v1.2 Contact object
By Frank Lee,
Workopia, Inc.
Microsoft CRM v1.2 allows easy addition of custom fields to capture important data. The following step by step example with screen shots shows how to perform this.
-
Determine
the custom field requirement. For
this example, we will create a drop down picklist to track Contact’s
Education Level: High school, College - Bachelors, College – Masters,
College – PhD
Note: It is always a good idea to test this out in a demo or test environment first. Once the custom field is created, it cannot be deleted from the Schema Manager unless you roll back to a previous system image - so test it out first.
-
Launch
Microsoft CRM Deployment Manager (located on the CRM Server) >> Schema Manager >> Contact
>> Attributes
-
Action
>> New >> Schema Field
-
Enter
Field properties; be sure to select the proper Type – “Picklist” for our
example. Then click the “OK” button
-
Select
(Highlight) Deployment Manager object; Action >> All Tasks >>
Publish Customization
-
Select
the “Contact” object; click “Next” button
-
Click
“Add” button to select the Microsoft CRM Server to publish this customization
to; click “Finish” button
-
Receive
the following status messages; be sure that you received the “Publish completed
successfully” message; click “OK” button
-
Login
to Microsoft CRM Web client with a user that has “System Administrator”
security role privilege >> Home Page >> Settings >>
System Customization >> Contacts
-
From
the Common Tasks, click “Customize Form”; click “Details” tab; click
anywhere in the “Professional Information” section – notice the green border
highlight
-
From
the Common Tasks on the right, click on “Add Fields”; locate and select
the new custom field from the selection; click “OK” button
-
Select
(Highlight) “EducationLevel” field and click “Change Properties” from
Common Tasks
-
Select
“Values” tab; click on Add button to add the picklist values: High school,
College - Bachelors, College – Masters, College – PhD; Select “NULL VALUE”
as the Default Value; click “OK” button
-
Save
and Close the Contact Form to keep the Picklist field and values
-
Repeat
steps 5 to 8 to publish the Contact object customization
-
From
the command prompt on your Microsoft CRM server, type “iisreset” to
restart the Microsoft CRM Web Server
- Your Microsoft CRM Contact object should now able to capture the Education Level via a picklist. Enjoy.
Frank Lee is the President of Workopia, Inc. - Microsoft CRM certified specialist serving small to medium businesses. Frank has been actively involved with Microsoft CRM implementations since Microsoft CRM v1.0 Beta.
