Until Microsoft Dynamics 5.0 to comes out the only way to get a HTML or Rich Text editor capability in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is to roll your own or use a third party application. I have had tremendous success using the TinyMCE editor. click here to download The editor has a plethora of features available including everything from spell check to word count and is available in a number of build format and examples including; jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, .Net and JSP. I prefer to use the jQuery build for my Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 implementations.
Below I have included a code sample you can use in your custom iFrame. Accessing the raw HTML source during the CRM onSave event was a little bit tricky, here’s the code for that.
crmForm.all.IFRAME_Accomplishment.contentWindow.tinymce.getInstanceById('elm1').getBody().innerHTML
You can either make a call to the CRM SDK and save this value to the database or use javascript and simply copy to a hidden nText field located directly on the form next to the iFrame. All we have to do is save and load the raw HTML and the HTML editor does the rest.
I use a FetchXML function to load the raw HTML…
$('#elm1').val(GetContacts());
The GetContacts function simply uses FetchXML to retrieve the value of a nText attribute I have added to the Contacts entity.
Here’s a page that instantiates a HTML editor in a iFrame for use in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
<head>
<title>Full featured Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 tinyMCE example using jQuery plugin by ExtremeCRM.net</title>
<!-- Load jQuery -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
google.load("jquery", "1");
</script>
<!-- Load TinyMCE -->
//****** REMEMBER TO CHANGE THIS PATH TO THE PROPER ISV LOCATION *******//
<script type="text/javascript" src="../jscripts/tiny_mce/jquery.tinymce.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$().ready(function() {
$('textarea.tinymce').tinymce({
// Location of TinyMCE script
//****** REMEMBER TO CHANGE THIS PATH TO THE PROPER ISV LOCATION *******//
script_url : '../jscripts/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js',
// General options
theme : "advanced",
plugins : "pagebreak,style,layer,table,save,advhr,advimage,advlink,emotions,iespell,inlinepopups,insertdatetime,preview,media,searchreplace,print,contextmenu,paste,directionality,fullscreen,noneditable,visualchars,nonbreaking,xhtmlxtras,template,advlist",
// Theme options
theme_advanced_buttons1 : "save,newdocument,|,bold,italic,underline,strikethrough,|,justifyleft,justifycenter,justifyright,justifyfull,styleselect,formatselect,fontselect,fontsizeselect",
theme_advanced_buttons2 : "cut,copy,paste,pastetext,pasteword,|,search,replace,|,bullist,numlist,|,outdent,indent,blockquote,|,undo,redo,|,link,unlink,anchor,image,cleanup,help,code,|,insertdate,inserttime,preview,|,forecolor,backcolor",
theme_advanced_buttons3 : "tablecontrols,|,hr,removeformat,visualaid,|,sub,sup,|,charmap,emotions,iespell,media,advhr,|,print,|,ltr,rtl,|,fullscreen",
theme_advanced_buttons4 : "insertlayer,moveforward,movebackward,absolute,|,styleprops,|,cite,abbr,acronym,del,ins,attribs,|,visualchars,nonbreaking,template,pagebreak",
theme_advanced_toolbar_location : "top",
theme_advanced_toolbar_align : "left",
theme_advanced_statusbar_location : "bottom",
theme_advanced_resizing : true,
// Example content CSS (should be your site CSS)
//****** REMEMBER TO CHANGE THIS PATH TO THE PROPER ISV LOCATION *******//
content_css : "css/content.css",
// Drop lists for link/image/media/template dialogs
template_external_list_url : "lists/template_list.js",
external_link_list_url : "lists/link_list.js",
external_image_list_url : "lists/image_list.js",
media_external_list_url : "lists/media_list.js",
// Replace values for the template plugin
template_replace_values : {
username : "Some User",
staffid : "991234"
}
});
//Here we load the input textbox named elm1. This input text box will be overloaded by the tinyMCE editor at runtime.
//See the GetContacts function below.
$('#elm1').val(GetContacts());
});
</script>
<!-- /TinyMCE -->
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<h3>Full featured example using jQuery plugin</h3>
<p>
This example shows how TinyMCE can be used from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 using jQuery. The jQuery plugin will also attach it's self to various jQuery methods to make it more easy to get/set editor contents etc.
</p>
<!-- Gets replaced with TinyMCE, remember HTML in a textarea should be encoded -->
<div>
<textarea id="elm1" name="elm1" rows="15" cols="80" style="width: 80%">
<p>
This is some example text that you can edit inside the <strong>TinyMCE editor</strong>.
</p>
<p>
ExtremeCRM provides developers coding examples, insights, concepts and options for developing customizations for Microsoft CRM 4.0. The primary contributor, Brenden Smith is a Microsoft MCP and Microsoft CRM 4.0 Lead developer for a federal agency in Washing D.C. If you would like to be a contributor for extremeCRM.net
</p>
</textarea>
</div>
<!-- Some integration calls -->
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="$('#elm1').tinymce().show();">[Show]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="$('#elm1').tinymce().hide();">[Hide]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="$('#elm1').tinymce().execCommand('Bold');">[Bold]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="alert($('#elm1').html());">[Get contents]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="alert($('#elm1').tinymce().selection.getContent());">[Get selected HTML]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="alert($('#elm1').tinymce().selection.getContent({format : 'text'}));">[Get selected text]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="alert($('#elm1').tinymce().selection.getNode().nodeName);">[Get selected element]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="$('#elm1').tinymce().execCommand('mceInsertContent',false,'<b>Hello world!!</b>');">[Insert HTML]</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onmousedown="$('#elm1').tinymce().execCommand('mceReplaceContent',false,'<b>{$selection}</b>');">[Replace selection]</a>
<br />
<input type="submit" name="save" value="Submit" />
<input type="reset" name="reset" value="Reset" />
</div>
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
if (document.location.protocol == 'file:') {
alert("The examples might not work properly on the local file system due to security settings in your browser. Please use a real webserver.");
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
