CRM 2011 – Create Ribbon Popup buttons on entity ribbon

Dynamics CRM 2011 allows us to export a solution as managed or unmanaged solution. This solution is having the customization.xml file which contains all or selected portions of the customizations and configurations for your system. In this post I have described what to change in customization.xml file to have Ribbon popup button as shown in below screen shot.



1. Create a Solution or use an existing one.
2. Select components.



3. Add entity for which you want to edit the ribbon, in this example I have added “Flight Route” entity (a custom entity).
4. Export the solution with unmanaged option.
5. Unzip all files and open customizations.xml in visual studio.
6. Once you open it you could find RibbonDiffxml tag underneath an Entity node. In below screen shot I have highlighted the RibbonDiffXml of “Flight Route” entity.

Once you expand this element, you could see below xml

<RibbonDiffXml>
    <CustomActions />
   <Templates>
    <RibbonTemplates Id="Mscrm.Templates"></RibbonTemplates>   
   </Templates>
   <CommandDefinitions />
   <RuleDefinitions>
  <TabDisplayRules />
  <DisplayRules />
  <EnableRules />
  </RuleDefinitions>
  <LocLabels />
</RibbonDiffXml>

In above screen shot I have highlighted 3 important elements of RibbonDiffXml xml. You need to replace those empty nodes with below xml.

Replace CustomActions with below xml content. In this example I have specified a publisher of solution with prefix as “acm”. My custom entity is acm_filightroute and a group name is “Airport”.

You need to replace these values with yours via find and replace feature of visual studio. Also change the label text and tool tip values  as per your need.

<CustomActions>

<CustomAction Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.CustomAction" Location="Mscrm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Groups._children" Sequence="10">

<CommandUIDefinition>

<Group Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport" 

Command="Mscrm.Enabled" 

Template="Mscrm.Templates.Flexible2" 

Sequence="100" 

Title="$LocLabels:acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.TitleText" 

Description="$LocLabels:acm.Form. acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.DescriptionText">

<Controls Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.Controls">

<SplitButton Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.AirportPopUp" 

ToolTipTitle="Airport Popup Menu" 

ToolTipDescription="Popup Menu for Airport Entity" 

Command="Mscrm.Enabled" 

Sequence="20" 

LabelText="Airport PopUp Menu" 

Alt="Airport PopUp Menu" 

TemplateAlias="o1">

<Menu Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.AirportPopUp.Menu">

<MenuSection Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.AirportPopUp.MenuSection" 

Sequence="10" 

DisplayMode="Menu16">

<Controls Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.AirportPopUp.Controls">

<Button Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport" 

Command="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport.Command" 

Sequence="20" 

ToolTipTitle="$LocLabels:acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport.LabelText" 

LabelText="$LocLabels:acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport.LabelText" 

ToolTipDescription="$LocLabels:acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport.Description" 

TemplateAlias="o1" Image16by16="$webresource:acm_/Images/sample_iconsTIcon16x16png" Image32by32="$webresource:acm_/Images/sample_iconsTIcon32x32png" />

<Button Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog" Command="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog.Command" Sequence="20" ToolTipTitle="$LocLabels:acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog.LabelText" LabelText="$LocLabels:acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog.LabelText" ToolTipDescription="$LocLabels:acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog.Description" TemplateAlias="o1" Image16by16="$webresource:acm_/Images/sample_iconsTIcon16x16png" Image32by32="$webresource:acm_/Images/sample_iconsTIcon32x32png" />

</Controls>

</MenuSection>

</Menu>

</SplitButton>

</Controls>

</Group>

</CommandUIDefinition>

</CustomAction>

<CustomAction Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.MaxSize.CustomAction" Location="Mscrm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Scaling._children" Sequence="10">

<CommandDefinitions>

<CommandUIDefinition>

<MaxSize Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.MaxSize" GroupId="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport" Sequence="10" Size="LargeMedium" />

</CommandUIDefinition>

</CustomAction>

<CustomAction Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.Scale.Popup.CustomAction" Location="Mscrm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Scaling._children" Sequence="10">

<CommandUIDefinition>

<Scale Id="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.Scale.Popup" GroupId="acm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport" Sequence="300" Size="Popup" />

</CommandUIDefinition>

</CustomAction>

</CustomActions>

Below is a command definition tag. Replace the prefix and other values here as well.

<CommandDefinition Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport.Command">

<EnableRules />

<DisplayRules />

<Actions>

<JavaScriptFunction FunctionName="CreateAirport" Library="$webresource:acm_/javascripts/LaunchNewEntry.js" />

</Actions>

</CommandDefinition>

<CommandDefinition Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog.Command">

<EnableRules />

<DisplayRules />

<Actions>

<JavaScriptFunction FunctionName="LaunchModalDialog" Library="$webresource:acm_/javascripts/LaunchModalDialog.js">

<StringParameter Value="{e1e36d96-ced2-4ede-85e8-455e3cf4daaf}" />

<StringParameter Value="acm_flightroute" />

<CrmParameter Value="FirstPrimaryItemId" />

</JavaScriptFunction>

</Actions>

</CommandDefinition>

</CommandDefinitions>

Apply the same procedure to below xml too.

<LocLabels>

<LocLabel Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport.Description">

<Titles>

<Title languagecode="1033" description="Insert New Airport Description" />

</Titles>

</LocLabel>

<LocLabel Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.InsertNewAirport.LabelText">

<Titles>

<Title languagecode="1033" description="Insert New Airport" />

</Titles>

</LocLabel>

<LocLabel Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog.Description">

<Titles>

<Title languagecode="1033" description="Show Dialog Description" />

</Titles>

</LocLabel>

<LocLabel Id="acmacm.Form.acm_flightroute.MainTab.Airport.ShowDialog.LabelText">

<Titles>

<Title languagecode="1033" description="Show Dialog" />

</Titles>

</LocLabel>

</LocLabels>

7. Save Customization.xml.
8. Create a Zip file of all extracted files (in Step 5) including the updated customization.xml.



9. Import this newly created zip file back to CRM server.
10. Open entity form on which you have implemented popup button.
11. In my case I can see “Airport Popup Menu” in Airport group with Dropdown as shown below.



12. On click Dropdown button you can see two buttons.