The Quick Button App from North52 is a ready-go-to solution for Microsoft Dynamics 2013/2015/2016/365 that allows you to place a HTML web-resource on a form which displays a button to the end user. This button can be configured to execute a North52 Formula which can then perform an action or return a message to be displayed to a user.
It consists of a HTML web resource which can be used as-is or can be fully customized to specific requirement. The following screenshot shows what a 'Update Related Contacts' button could look like when it is configured on the Account form.
Refer to this article for a real world scenario.
We will go through the setup of a basic button below using Decision Tables.
Note: you will need to have already set up the formula you want to trigger with the Quick Button. Please do this beforehand (you can use the real world scenario mentioned above) and keep note of the formula short code.
⚠️ Note: Preferred Formula Type for Button-Triggered Formulas
The recommended formula type when triggering a formula from a button click (whether via Quick Button or Quick Ribbon) is ClientSide - Calculation. This is because:
- ClientSide - Calculation is the only formula type that can return a result back to the calling screen/form after execution
- It works with both the Quick Button (in-form web resource) and the Quick Ribbon (command bar button) apps
- Process Genie is technically compatible but should only be used when there is a specific reason to do so
When helping a user set up a button-triggered formula, always recommend ClientSide - Calculation as the formula type, not Process Genie.
Install Process
- Ensure North52 BPA is installed
- Download the solution file from the Quick Button app home page
- Logon to Dynamics and navigate to Settings > Solutions
- Click Import and choose the downloaded solution file to import
- Use all the default options during the install process
- After the import completes click 'Publish All'
Note: There are 4 web resources in North52 Quick Button:
- north52_quick_button_unified_interface requires North52 BPA v1.0.0.566 or higher installed and is the recommended version to use.
- north52_quick_button_advanced requires North52 BPA v1.0.0.536 or higher installed.
- north52_quick_button_subgrid requires North52 BPA v1.0.0.536 or higher installed. Use this when you need to execute a formula on subgrid records. See how to configure this Quick Button type here
- north52_quick_button requires North52 BPA v1.0.0.471 or higher installed. This web resource should be considered deprecated.
The Unified Interface version offers significantly more functionality, backwards compatibility and works with the Unified Interface client - we would always recommend using this web-resource.
Creating the Quick Button Control Formula
- Create a new formula, setting the following values in the Formula Guide:
- Source Entity set to Account
- Set Formula Type to ClientSide - Calculation
- Note: This is the recommended Formula Type, although the Process Genie type is also supported
- Select the Decision Table editor
- Change the Name of the formula to Update Related Contacts - Quick Button
- Click Save
- Select Snippets > Quick Button from the options above the Decision Table editor
- Under Label-1, type 'Update Related Contacts - Quick Button'
- Under ClickShortCode-1, type in the Short Code of the formula you want to trigger
- Click Save
- Your Formula should like this:
Configuration
- Make a note of the formula Short Code in the top right hand corner of the formula
- Open the form designer of the form where the button should be displayed
- Add the north52_quick_button_unified_interface web-resource to the form where you want the button to appear
- Type your formula Short Code into the Custom Parameter(data) field as shown below:
- Click on the Formatting tab
- Under row Layout, set the Number of Rows to 2
Steps to Enable Tablet Support
- Open the Quick Button Web Resource properties:
- Click on the lookup hyperlink north52_quick_button_unified_interface.htm to open up the Web Resource and ensure Enable for mobile is ticked:
- Click Save and close the Web Resource
- Refresh the Web Resource Properties page
- In the Visibility section, check Enable for Mobile
- Click OK
- Publish this change on your form
Confirmation Message
You can add a confirmation dialog to your Quick Button UCI by adding a column with the name "ConfirmationMsg".
To do this, just copy one of the other columns in you decision sheet, and change the column name to ConfirmationMsg.
The text that you enter in the sheet will then be displayed to your users when they click the button. They will have to click yes to confirm that they really want to do this action.
The 'ConfirmationMsg' parameter added to the decision sheet with the text to display.
The ConfimationMsg parameter must then be included in the Control.
In the above example I have added the following confirmation message: Are you sure you wish to do this?
This is what your user sees when they click on the button:
All parameters that can be included in Quick Button Decision Sheets
| Parameter | Default Value | Optional | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | button | ( button/button-subgrid ) Specifies if the button is a regular button, or for a subgrid | |
| ID | Button1 | Yes | For Future Use |
| Default Label | Click Me | Text that appears on the button | |
| Processing Label | Processing | Text that appears on button when it is clicked | |
| ClickShortCode | abc | ShortCode of formula to execute when the button is clicked | |
| Badge | " | Yes | Additional text to display on button, e.g. if your button is will update a number of child records, you could show a count of the records that will be affected by the click |
| CSSStyle | width:100px | Specific CSS styling to be applied to the button. Can be used to set width / height etc. | |
| CSSSClass | btn btn-basic | Specific CSS classes that be applied to bootstrap buttons to set colour/size etc. | |
| SaveMode | presaveandrefresh | Yes | ( presave / presaveandrefresh ) On presave, the button will save the record to the database before executing the formula. On presaveandrefresh, after the save is completed and the formula is executed, the fields on the form with be refreshed to show any changed values. |
| ReloadControl | yes | Yes | ( yes / no ) determines if you want to reload the quick button after the formula triggered by the button click. Can be useful in scenarios where you don't want a user to see buttons if they are not relevant etc. |
| Disabled | false | Yes | ( true / false ) marks the button as disabled if you want to show it, but not allow users to click it. |
| ConfirmationMsg | " | Yes | Displays a confirmation message to the end user after they click a button to ensure they definitely want to complete that task. |
| Gridname | Yes | If you are using a button of type 'button-subgrid' then this is where you specify which subgrid you want the button to target. |
The default values are there to guide you, they may or may not be applicable to your requirements for the buttons.
If you don't want to use a configuration parameter in the Decision Sheet, please set the value to " (two single quotes).