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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Inline Lookup Controls

Post Author: Joe D365 |

Are you excited about the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013? We are! Check out our page on Dynamics CRM 2013 resources for the latest news, information and updates regarding the update.

In today's blog, we'll focus on just one of the many exciting new features of CRM 2013—inline lookup controls.

Inline lookup controls are best illustrated via an example. The screenshot below shows the Primary Contact lookup field on the Accounts record. When you hover over the primary contact field, the search icon becomes visible. When you select the search icon, the primary contact lookup control section shows up. The inline rendering is consistent with the overall UI behavior of CRM 2013.

There are three ways to select the primary contact record:

1. Select from the associated contact records that are listed in the inline rendering. There is a limit of 10 records that are automatically rendered.

2. Look up more records. To do this, select the "look up more records" option, which will bring up the window shown below. (This is similar to the window rendered in CRM 2011 when selecting a lookup record.) You can search and select an existing contact record or create a new contact record by selecting the New button on the window.

3. Create a new contact by selecting the + New button. This is a new feature in CRM 2013. When you select this button, it renders a "quick create" form for a contact. You can quickly create a contact using this new form and select it as the primary contact for the account. This will be a huge time saver!

inline lookup control img1

As mentioned earlier, when you select the search option for the primary contact, a few of existing contact records are rendered for selection. The default information shown for these records includes name, email and phone number.

The fields that are displayed by default are based on the view selected for the lookup display. In this case, the Contacts Lookup View is the default view, but you can change the fields that are displayed by selecting a different view.

One thing to keep in mind is the + New option is not available for all the inline lookup controls. For example, the Owner inline lookup control rendering does not have the + New option to create a user with the quick create form. However, you can click Look Up More Records to select among existing users or create a new one.

Dynamics CRM 2013 inline lookup controls are just one of many new great features to look forward to. For more information, you can reference several other blogs on the CRM 2013 release:

Happy CRM'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

9 comments on “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Inline Lookup Controls”

  1. Question for you: when I try to change default view on my field, there is no option to do this (there is no Related Records Filtering or Additional Properties section). Any idea why this is and how to rectify this?

  2. On Case entity, on Customer lookup we can choose Account or Contact record.But we have to display only Contact records. We set default view of lookup to Contact using java-script. But while selecting value in lookup, it shows 10 records of account entity. Will you please tell How to change entity[from where top 10 records get displayed] to contact or How to disable this functionality.

    1. I would really like to be able to do this as well. Except in our case we only want to see the accounts and not the contacts.

      1. Add your own lookup specifically to Account, that way the user can only select Accounts. Hide the Customer field on the form. Then use a live workflow to set the Customer field to the same value as your new_Account field when it's changed.

  3. Hello there! I am attempting to modify the Contact Lookup View to show different information than the default above (email and phone number.) One of the fields I am adding is pulling information from the Company entity, not the Contact entity, and this field is not displaying when I first click on the Primary Contact magnifying glass. However, it does show up when I click on 'Look Up More Records'. Any idea why that might be? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

  4. Is it possible to disable this inline lookup feature, such that clicking the lookup field will open the lookup window immediately?

  5. Hello. I saw that the lookup control is associated with the Mscrm.InlineLookupControlView class (javascript).
    Can this control be used on a custom html form in pure Javascript? Like...out of it's normal context?

    I have a custom javascript form made in a CRM solution, and I kind of need that field's functionality.

  6. Hi Joe
    In CRM 2013, I have a form with a lookup. When I open the lookup, I use the Look up more records option and then create a new record.
    In the Form OnLoad event, I want to access the opener form (entity) in order to map some fields.
    How can I access this information?
    Thanks,

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