Default Customer Lookup to Contact in CRM 2011

51 Replies

There has been a slight change in the way you default the Customer Lookup field to Contact in CRM 2011 compared with CRM 4.

Use the following code to set the Customer Lookup to Contact instead of Account and set the default view.


document.getElementById("customerid").setAttribute("defaulttype", "2");
Xrm.Page.getControl("customerid").setDefaultView("a2d479c5-53e3-4c69-addd-802327e67a0d");

The first line sets the default entity type to Contact for the Customer Lookup dialog.

The second line sets the Customer Lookup dialog’s view to the ‘Contacts Lookup View’ using its guid value. If you do not use this line of code it will default to the ‘My Active Contacts View’ or whatever you have selected as the default Contact view.

51 thoughts on “Default Customer Lookup to Contact in CRM 2011”

Janet Thomas March 10, 2011 at 11:56 am

That is quite useful. But is there a way to limit this lookup so they cannot select an Account -i.e. remove it entirely? We want all Opps to only be associated to contacts. If I use the create new opp from within the Account Opportunity associated view, it defaults to the account and the lookup default is Account. I know that I could use a new custom link to Contacts and not use the vanilla Potential Customer but we are several weeks (and 20K Opps) down the road so I’d rather not have to convert to a new field. We use Outlook client and convert emails to Opps too and that is mapped to Potential Customer so another reason why I don’t want to change fields.

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1. Rhett Clinton Post authorMarch 10, 2011 at 12:30 pm
  
  You can try the following
  
  document.getElementById("parentcustomerid").setAttribute("lookuptypes", "2");
  document.getElementById("parentcustomerid").setAttribute("lookuptypenames", "contact:2");
  document.getElementById("parentcustomerid").setAttribute("lookuptypeIcons", "/_imgs/ico_16_2.gif");
  document.getElementById("parentcustomerid").setAttribute("defaulttype", "2");
  
  or if using jQuery
  
  $("#parentcustomerid").attr("lookuptypes", "2");
  $("#parentcustomerid").attr("lookuptypenames", "contact:2");
  $("#parentcustomerid").attr("lookuptypeIcons", "/_imgs/ico_16_2.gif");
  $("#parentcustomerid").attr("defaulttype", "2");
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Ram May 12, 2011 at 4:00 pm
    
    Hi Rhett,
    Is it possible to clear all the public views listed in potential customer lookup [for both Contact/Account] ?
    I want only the custom view to be available for the end-user.
  2. Rhett Clinton Post authorMay 16, 2011 at 5:43 pm
    
    My first thought would be to check out the options on the field’s change properties dialog for the potential customer field.
  3. Janet Thomas September 17, 2011 at 8:13 am
    
    Rhett -Many thanks. I should have posted a long time ago that this worked a treat
  4. chai April 11, 2014 at 3:16 pm
    
    Hi Rhett
    how this can be achieved in CRM2013?
  5. ak May 22, 2015 at 7:32 am
    
    Hi, This code is not working for crm 2015 online update 1
Rhett Clinton Post authorJune 22, 2011 at 9:03 pm

Do you get an error? Maybe if you copied and pasted then the double quotes may have got messed up. I just set them using " in my blog post html so hopefully it should resolve it self if that was the problem. You can of course just update your version by replacing the quote characters manually and see if that works.

Cheers,
Rhett

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gynette August 16, 2011 at 9:43 am

How do you get the Guid value?

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Ian August 18, 2011 at 2:53 pm

love it, excellent piece of work.
Do you know if its possible to perform the same thing, but on a sub grid?

i.e. dynamically change the view used in the form’s subgrid

cheers
ian

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorAugust 18, 2011 at 3:33 pm
  
  Without testing this, the closest I can find to help you is here http://mscrmking.blogspot.com/2011/06/crm-2011-how-to-filter-add-existing.html
  
  Reply ↓
Pingback: A Configuration Data Framework for CRM 2011 « Gareth Tucker's Microsoft CRM Blog
Jamie October 5, 2011 at 5:22 pm

I am new to javascripting in CRM2011, where would I put this code to make these changes, specifically to add this to the opportunity entity?

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorOctober 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
  
  Hi Jamie, you could place this in the onload event of your client side code.
  
  Cheers,
  Rhett
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Jamie October 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm
    
    Rhett,
    
    Thanks for the reply. That is what I thought but I was receiving the following error message:
    
    ‘document.getElementById(…)’ is null or not an object.
  2. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorOctober 6, 2011 at 12:25 pm
    
    Jamie, without investigating your solution in great detail I think you might find an example here which should help you on how to implement it.
    
    Cheers,
    Rhett
  3. Steve October 24, 2011 at 9:23 pm
    
    On which object do I place this client side code? i have tried it on a case OnLoad event but I just get a form error. Where is the ‘Customer Lookup’ form so I can add it to its onload event?
    
    Thanks,
  4. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorOctober 25, 2011 at 3:05 pm
    
    This code is for CRM 2011, and should be placed in the onload event script. In the code, ‘customerid’ is the Customer Lookup field and the guid ‘a2d479c5-53e3-4c69-addd-802327e67a0d’ is the desired Contact View id.
    
    I hope this helps, cheers
    Rhett
  5. Guido November 15, 2011 at 7:24 pm
    
    Hi Rhett
    i cant’ find the form owner of the onload event.
    
    for example i want it to use to select a Contact (instead of an Account) in the Regardinf of an Appontment.
    
    which onload event i have to use? not the one of the Appointment, i suppose.
    thanks!
  6. Damian April 13, 2012 at 6:30 pm
    
    Hi Rhett,
    I am a newbie and am having issues with this. Similar to the comment made by Steve – “On which object do I place this client side code? i have tried it on a case OnLoad event but I just get a form error. Where is the ‘Customer Lookup’ form so I can add it to its onload event?”
    
    The error I get is “The value off the property ‘setContact’ is null or undefined, not a Function object.” I am trying to apply this code to the Case entity form via the client in the solution section. It would seem this would have to be applied on a Customer Lookup form which seems to me to be the actual onLoad event, but I can’t find this form anywhere in the solution. Do I need to be doing this via Visual Studio?
  7. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorApril 19, 2012 at 4:57 pm
    
    Hi Damian,
    
    You need to create an onload function in a js web resource and then attach that to your Case form onload event. Inside the onload function you can call this code. This code alters the default view that the Lookup field will load in the custom dialog when you click the Lookup field button.
    
    I hope that helps.
    
    Rhett
  8. Damian April 23, 2012 at 7:08 pm
    
    Hi Rhett,
    This is what I’ve been doing but to no avail. Here are my steps, I’m not sure if i’m just missing something very basic or if it has something to do with my CRM environment. I’m running CRM 2011 On-premise with rollup 6.
    
    1. Created Jscript web resource file called new_Employee (this particular org is for HR, renamed contact entity to employee)
    2. Added following code to .js web resource
    function setLookupEmployee()
    {
    document.getElementById(“customerid”).setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “2″);
    Xrm.Page.getControl(“customerid”).setDefaultView(“00000000-0000-0000-00AA-000010001004”);
    }
    I have also tried this without the second line of code to see if it defaults to the default view but get the same error.
    
    3. Added web resource to Case entity form as available library
    4. Added setLookupEmployee to Form onLoad event.
    5. Published All Customizations
    
    When I open a new case record i get an error: “There was an error with this field’s customized event.
    Field: window
    Event: onload
    Error: The value of the property ‘setLookupEmployee’ is null or undefined, not a function object.”
    
    Not sure what I’m doing wrong. There MS error log show a line about an invalid character as below but I don’t know what exactly this is referring to:
    
    1.0
    
    Invalid character
    3
    /%7B634708046070000000%7D/WebResources/new_Employee
    /userdefined/edit.aspx?etc=112&pagemode=iframe&preloadcache=1335207843180
    
    Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/5.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; InfoPath.3; Tablet PC 2.0; MS-RTC LM 8)
    en-us
    en-us
    en-us
    1280×800
    Web
    2012-04-23T12:04:03
    
    1033
    1033
    1033
    1033
    {EA55B557-0972-E111-8D30-0050569F003E}
    {6E5F5E0F-0C72-E111-8D30-0050569F003E}
    5.0.9690.1992
  9. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorApril 23, 2012 at 7:51 pm
    
    Try replacing the quotes in the code by typing them again as they may have got messed up if you copy/pasted that line of code, they could be the invalid characters.
  10. Damian April 23, 2012 at 9:25 pm
    
    That was it, works beautifully now. I retyped the quotes, I guess as you say they didn’t copy over as they appeared. I mentioned this to one of my colleagues in passing and she laughed at me saying “Ah yes, the dreaded quotes”. I guess this is a common rookie mistake when copying code from a web page.
    
    Thank you so much for your help.
Chris October 6, 2011 at 12:41 pm

It works perfectly !!!
thanks for that.
Chris

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Atul November 14, 2011 at 9:50 am

Hi Rhett,

I am using following code to freeze lookup

document.getElementById(“parentcustomerid”).setAttribute(“lookuptypes”, “2”);
document.getElementById(“parentcustomerid”).setAttribute(“lookuptypenames”, “contact:2”);
document.getElementById(“parentcustomerid”).setAttribute(“lookuptypeIcons”, “/_imgs/ico_16_2.gif”);
document.getElementById(“parentcustomerid”).setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “2”);

it works fine, but the script after this code is not working.
as i’m trying to freeze “Regarding” field of any activity,and after that i’m setting some value for that field,that time it not sets the field value.

Regards,
Atul

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorNovember 14, 2011 at 1:02 pm
  
  Hi Atul,
  
  You mention this code works but the code after this doesn’t. what is the code which is not working?
  
  Cheers,
  Rhett
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Atul November 17, 2011 at 7:36 am
    
    Hi Rhett,
    
    I am using this code on “onload” event of my form.
    E.g
    On Contact form OnLoad event i’m freezing Account lookup only to Account.
    after that i am doing onchange event on another field. but it doesn’t fires that onchange event. if i removes this code then it works.
    
    Regards,
    Atul
2. ak May 22, 2015 at 7:34 am
  
  Hi, This is code is not working for crm 2015 online update 1.
  
  Reply ↓
Michał November 18, 2011 at 1:44 pm

Hello Rhett,
I have issue with this code:

function form_onLoad()
{
hideContactOnCustomeridField();
}

function hideContactOnCustomeridField()
{
document.getElementById(“customerid”).setAttribute(“lookuptypes”, “1”);
document.getElementById(“customerid”).setAttribute(“lookuptypenames”, “account:1”);
document.getElementById(“customerid”).setAttribute(“lookuptypeIcons”, “/_imgs/ico_16_1.gif”);
document.getElementById(“customerid”).setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “1”);
}

It is run on opportunity. When I am creating new opportunity everything is ok (I can fill/change customer field only to account), but after saving when I try to change customerid field to other account, customerid field is empty (is not filled) and old value is removed.

Best regards,
Michał

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Brenda December 19, 2011 at 5:58 pm

Thanks for the info on this. However, I put the code in the onload event and get a generic error when I click on the lookup button on the Case entity.

Here’s what I put in the Onload event on the Case entity – working with CRM 2011 – Online. Grabbed the default view guid from the address bar when I clicked on the lookup (without the event enabled). I also put the code in Visual Studio to verify quotes – all looks good.

I’m guessing it’s having a hard time with the guid. I did try using the guid mentioned in this blog, but got the same results.

function setLookupContact()
{
document.getElementById(“customerid”).setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “2”);
Xrm.Page.getControl(“customerid”).setDefaultView(“%7bA9AF0AB8-861D-4CFA-92A5-C6281FED7FAB%7d”);
}

Your help is appreciated.

Brenda

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorJanuary 3, 2012 at 12:12 pm
  
  Hi Brenda,
  
  Remove the %7b and %7d from the guid as this is actually the encoded { and }.
  
  Cheers,
  Rhett
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Brenda January 3, 2012 at 4:59 pm
    
    Hi Rhett,
    
    Thanks – I finally figured it out. Haven’t been able to set the default view however, but at least the lookup defaults to Contacts. Fortunately the users want the system defaulted view so I’m good.
    
    Thanks.
    
    Brenda
  2. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorJanuary 4, 2012 at 10:41 am
    
    Hi Brenda, I think if you had removed those characters I mentioned and if you had the right view guid (which you can get by opening one in the customisations area of CRM and viewing the address bar, which I think you already did..) then it should work.
    
    Cheers,
    Rhett
Jeremy January 5, 2012 at 7:06 pm

Rhett,

I am using this code to set the “to” field on a phone call to default to Contacts. It works just fine on the initial lookup click. But if you I open the advanced find, change the picklist from contacts to accounts and then click back on contacts the advanced find stays on account records.

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorJanuary 5, 2012 at 10:19 pm
  
  It sounds like you might need to execute the code in the onchange event aswell.
  
  Cheers,
  Rhett
  
  Reply ↓
2. Jason Heiser (@breaker119) May 31, 2013 at 9:00 pm
  
  Jeremy, did you change the element ID or anything from the code snippet? All I did was add “function setLookupContact()” and braces. I can’t even get the initial lookup to default to Contacts. It’s still defaulting to Accounts.
  
  Reply ↓
Surendra Iyer February 22, 2012 at 2:10 pm

Rhet,
I am using this code to set the “to” field on a Email Activity to default to Contacts and User. It works just fine on the initial lookup click. when a person decides to change from the new default lookup (say Contacts) to another lookup (User) then back to the original (Contacts). Then there is an error of “This object does’t support this property or method”.
Below is my javaScript, which is in the Onload
crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“lookuptypes”, “2,8”); //only show contact and System User
crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“lookuptypeIcons”, “/_imgs/ico_16_2.gif :/_imgs/ico_16_8.gif”); // set Icons
crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “2”); // set Default.

Please help me How I can get rid of this error

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skfd February 23, 2012 at 1:41 pm

Can this approach be applied to default lookups like products on opportunity product? This code did nothing in onChange:
Xrm.Page.getControl(“productid”).setDefaultView(’68C9758D-155E-E111-8C0E-0800277B32DC’);

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorFebruary 23, 2012 at 5:38 pm
  
  You need to obtain the view id that you want to display, I am not sure of any reason why this view will not default for you if you have a valid view id.
  
  There is a issue with Connections entity where by the defautt view is set internally upon clicking the Lookup button which prevents the default view from being set and this may apply elsewhere though I have not come across other scenarios like this.
  
  Regards,
  Rhett
  
  Reply ↓
  1. skfd February 27, 2012 at 3:56 pm
    
    Here’s what I tried.
    I copied Id of custom Products view and added following code, which did nothing.
    “””
    $(“#productid”).attr(“disableViewPicker”, “0”);
    Xrm.Page.getControl(“productid”).setDefaultView(‘A066D18A-8A4A-44EE-B78E-9A870DC799DD’);
    “””
    Ended up building View with addCustomView() in js code, but that’s no big deal.
  2. Joakim August 2, 2012 at 1:07 pm
    
    Hi Rhett,
    Do you know if there is a way to set the default view in Connections?
    I have also tried addCustomView with no luck 😦
    Regards,
    Joakim
Surendra Iyer February 27, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Thanks Rhett,

The Code below works in MSCRM 2011 for setting default contact and user in the party list.

crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“lookuptypes”, “2,8”); //show contact and user
crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“lookuptypeIcons”, “/_imgs/ico_16_2.gif :/_imgs/ico_16_8.gif”);//set the icons
crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “2”);
Xrm.Page.getControl(“to”).setDefaultView(“00000000-0000-0000-00AA-000010001003”);

Regards
Surendra Iyer

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Ben March 20, 2012 at 4:48 pm

Thanks Rhett for the post, and thanks Srendra Iyer for posting that working multi-entity lookup code!

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CRM 2011 developer November 6, 2012 at 5:08 pm

I did
crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“lookuptypes”, “2″); //show contact and user
crmForm.all.to.setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “2″);

and the default view is My Active Contact, but the filter won’t be triggered to show only my active contacts,it shows all contacts. How to trigger the filter?

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorNovember 8, 2012 at 10:56 pm
  
  You need to use Xrm.Page.getControl(“”).setDefaultView(“a2d479c5-53e3-4c69-addd-802327e67a0d”); and specify the guid that corresponds to the view you want to use.
  
  Reply ↓
Rohit December 17, 2012 at 10:29 am

I have two entities “Template” and “Products”.. I want to create a lookup in template entity for grouping products.. I have crated a lookup field in template form but it is selecting only one product, how can I enable lookup to allow multiple product selection???

Please help

Reply ↓
1. Rhett Clinton MVP Post authorDecember 20, 2012 at 3:01 pm
  
  You will have to add a MAny to Many relationship I think to achieve your desired outcome.
  
  Cheers,
  Rhett
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Rohit December 20, 2012 at 5:36 pm
    
    thanks for replying… I have done it, but I have an another question..
    
    How can I retrieve all the “products” related to a “template”, as a “template” can have multiple “products”.
    
    It is like an “Account” can be related to multiple “Opportunities”. I want to retrieve all the “Opportunity” related to an “Account” entity.
    
    “Product” and “Template” are custom entity I created.
    
    Is there any way achieving the task using C#?.
    
    Any help will be appreciated… thanks.
    
    Rohit
Pingback: CRM 2011 – Good list of Javascript articles | Roman's Blog
Muahmmad Sohail March 13, 2014 at 2:57 pm

this code is not running for CRM 2013 plz how we change or update it for CRM 2013
as in CRM 2013 DOM ahs been changed.
document.getElementById(“customerid”).setAttribute(“defaulttype”, “2”);
Xrm.Page.getControl(“customerid”).setDefaultView(“a2d479c5-53e3-4c69-addd-802327e67a0d”);
plz update it for CRM 2013

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