Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 – Filtered Lookups

In CRM 4.0, creating a “Filtered Lookup” was… well… kind of a pain. It required quite a bit of JavaScript on the Form in order for the filter to work correctly and if you needed to make additional modifications later on… You get the picture!

In CRM 2011, the filtered lookups are simple, and you don’t have to know JavaScript to create them.

Example 1: I would like the “Out of the box” Primary Contact lookup on the Account, to ONLY show the contacts that are related to that particular Account. (Very Common request)

Step 1: Access the Account form (From your Solution or Main Customization Area)

 

Step 2: Open the Form and “Double Click” the Primary Contact field to access the Attribute Properties, then scroll to the bottom of the Field Properties window to adjust the properties of the Lookup!

 

In addition to being able to filter on Related Records, you can create Filtered views and have the Lookup use it as the default!

Example 2: In CRM, I have multiple “Account Types“. The Account Type field is a Picklist (Option Set) with the following choices: Hospital and Surgery Center. I would like to add an additional Lookup field on the Account form that looks up all Accounts with the “Account Type” of “Surgery Center“.

Step 1: Create the View that filters all Accounts where the Account Type = Surgery Center

 

Step 2: Create a new Lookup field on the Account Form. (Account to Account)

1. Access the Account form (Customization Area)
2. New to CRM 2011 – Create the Lookup directly from the Form!
   – At the bottom of the Account form, click “New” to create a new Field.

    

   

3. Add your display name and choose the Field “Type” of Lookup.

    

   

4. After the field has been created, add the field to the form using the new “Drag and Drop” functionality.

    

   

5. Double click the field to open its properties

    

   

6. Change the “Default View” to your new View!

As always, make sure to publish your changes to make them available to the users!

Hope you find this helpful – and don’t be afraid to reach out to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM experts at PowerObjects!

Happy CRM’ing