Adding my first custom button in CRM 2011

Suppose we want to add a button next to “Save & Close” button in Account Entity’s form.

To do that we need to define a CustomAction child element to CustomActions element within RibbonDiffXml.

Export the solution containing the account entity.

Attributes for CustomAction are

ID– Give it any unique id.

Location– For defining location we first need to find out the id for Save group within the MainTab of the form and then append _children to it.

_children needs to be defined to add a custom button to an existing group.

Open the accountribbon.xml file within

.. sdk\samplecode\cs\client\ribbon\exportribbonxml\exportedribbonxml\

There we can find the following info.

<Groups Id=”Mscrm.Form.account.MainTab.Groups“>

<Group Id=”Mscrm.Form.account.MainTab.Save“ Command=”Mscrm.Enabled“ Sequence=”10“ Title=”$Resources:Ribbon.Form.MainTab.Save“ Image32by32Popup=”/_imgs/ribbon/save32.png“ Template=”Mscrm.Templates.Flexible2“>

<Controls Id=”Mscrm.Form.account.MainTab.Save.Controls“>

<Button Id=”Mscrm.Form.account.SaveAsComplete“ ToolTipTitle=”$Resources:Ribbon.Form.MainTab.Save.SaveAsComplete“ ToolTipDescription=”$Resources(EntityDisplayName):Ribbon.Tooltip.SaveAsComplete“ Command=”Mscrm.SavePrimaryActivityAsComplete“ Sequence=”10“ LabelText=”$Resources:Ribbon.Form.MainTab.Save.SaveAsComplete“ Alt=”$Resources:Ribbon.Form.MainTab.Save.SaveAsComplete“ Image16by16=”/_imgs/ribbon/SaveAsCompleted_16.png“ Image32by32=”/_imgs/ribbon/SaveAsCompleted_32.png“ TemplateAlias=”o1“
/>

Sequence : For sequence first find out the sequence defined for Save & Close button.

<Button Id=”Mscrm.Form.account.SaveAndClose“ ToolTipTitle=”$Resources:Mscrm_Form_Other_MainTab_Save_SaveAndClose_ToolTipTitle“ ToolTipDescription=”$Resources(EntityDisplayName):Ribbon.Tooltip.SaveAndClose“ Command=”Mscrm.SaveAndClosePrimary“
Sequence=”30″
LabelText=”$Resources:Ribbon.Form.MainTab.Save.SaveAndClose“ Alt=”$Resources:Ribbon.Form.MainTab.Save.SaveAndClose“ Image16by16=”/_imgs/ribbon/saveandclose16.png“ Image32by32=”/_imgs/ribbon/saveandclose32.png“ TemplateAlias=”o1“
/>

So now our CustomAction should look like this

<CustomAction Id=”CA_MyFirstButton“ Location=”Mscrm.Form.account.MainTab.Save.Controls._children“ Sequence=”31“>

Now we next need to define CommandUIDefinition and Button child element to our CustomAction

<CommandUIDefinition>

<Button
Id=“B_MyFirstButton”

LabelText=“My First Button”

ToolTipTitle=“My First Button Tool Tip Title”

ToolTipDescription=“My First Button Tool Tip Description”

TemplateAlias=“o1”

Image16by16=“/_imgs/ribbon/saveandclose16.png”

Image32by32=“/_imgs/ribbon/saveandclose32.png”

/>

</CommandUIDefinition>

Here we are using the existing icon of Save and Close button.

Save the file, zip it as a part of the solution and import and publish it.

Final definition should look something like this. 

<RibbonDiffXml>
<CustomActions>
<CustomAction
 Id="CA_MyFirstButton"
 Location="Mscrm.Form.account.MainTab.Save.Controls._children"
 Sequence="31">
<CommandUIDefinition>
<Button
 Id="B_MyFirstButton"
 LabelText="My First Button"
 ToolTipTitle="My First Button Tool Tip Title"
 ToolTipDescription="My First Button Tool Tip Description"
 TemplateAlias="o1"
 Image16by16="/_imgs/ribbon/saveandclose16.png"
 Image32by32="/_imgs/ribbon/saveandclose32.png"/>
</CommandUIDefinition>
</CustomAction>
</CustomActions>
<Templates>
<RibbonTemplates
 Id="Mscrm.Templates"/>
</Templates>
<CommandDefinitions/>
<RuleDefinitions>
<TabDisplayRules/>
<DisplayRules/>
<EnableRules/>
</RuleDefinitions>
<LocLabels/>
</RibbonDiffXml>

Hope it helps !