Dynamics 365 Outlook App Fixes: Lead Form Layout | Business Rule | JavaScript Function

Every time we do a CRM implementation or migration, there is always a chance we'll run into errors or roadblocks.

In this blog, we will go over two issues we encountered using Dynamics 365 Outlook App for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales 8.2 and how we overcame them:

• Modify a Lead Form Layout
• Add a Business Rule and a JavaScript Function

Sounds pretty simple right?

Main steps include making the modifications on the quick creation forms, create the JavaScript libraries, create the business rule, save, publish and done!

Figuring these steps out took a significant amount of time and effort, because none of these changes were reflected in the Outlook App. So hopefully this will save you a headache!

Let's get into the troubleshoot! 

Issue #1: Modify Lead Form Layout in quick creation form.

Even after making the updates, saving them and published them, these were still not shown in the Outlook app. Neither in the cloud version nor the desktop app.

So why did this NOT work?

Step 1: Removing the Outlook App whether from the Cloud or Desktop version.

Step 2: Adding the Outlook app again from Dynamics 365. Settings > Dynamics 365 App for Outlook.

It will take a couple of minutes but eventually the status will change to “Added to Outlook”. I thought that somehow this would help to refresh things, but Naa!

What worked:

After submitted a ticket with Microsoft. They pointed it out there is a peculiar button in the default solution that is called “Prepare Client Customizations” on which, if you click on it and wait no more than ten minutes, changes all of the sudden start to happen! Really? I do not want to dive into details about this bizarre button; all I know is that strangely this is not available in version 9.0. aha!… a temporary patch perhaps? Weird!

However, not everything was happiness yet, there was another issue with the Lookup. The attribute for some reason was not filtering any record at all; therefore, this was showing all active and inactive records at the same time! Boomer! I tried to modify the views in the lookup attribute from the quick form, but unfortunately, nothing happened.

Finally, after doing some research I found that something similar happens in the mobile app when you do not have the custom entity enabled for being used in mobile devices. Guess what? After having done that and publish, the filter was on and we were rolling!

Issue #2. Adding a JavaScript and a Business Rule functions. They were working fine in the web client, but not in the Outlook app.

Tip: If you want a business rule to work on the quick creation forms, make sure to use the scope as Entity. Therefore, it will work on the Outlook App as well.

Now what actually worked?

Step 1: After implementing the first step and re-add the app from Dynamics 365, everything worked like a charm.

Step 2: JavaScript basic function for this blog purposes:

Step 3: Business rule assigning the default value as “Active” on the prospect type attribute:

By doing these steps, you will be able to overcome the following roadblocks such as Modify Lead Form Layout, adding a Business Rule and a JavaScript Function. This way, you should be able to track business role of a client in your Dynamics 365 CRM version 8.2 using Dynamics 365 Outlook App.

We anticipate that these issues will be addressed in Microsoft Dynamics 365 version 9.0. But if they do not, you now know what do. So Enjoy!

If you need additional assistance with this issues, or if you'd like to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, contact us by filling out the form below.