In this article, we cover to how to hide buttons as well as how to show buttons that are hidden, in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement. To achieve this object, we will use an example with practical requirements. To implement what is in this article, the user must have a System Administrator security role in Dynamics 365.
Working with Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics 365
If you do not already have the Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics 365, go and download it: Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics 365. The Ribbon Workbench comes as a Microsoft Dynamics 365 managed solution. Therefore, after downloading it, you have to import it in your Dynamics 365 instance by going to: Settings >> Solutions >> Import. After successfully following the import dialogue to the end and successfully importing the solution, refresh the page and you will able to see the Ribbon Workbench button in the Solutions area of Dynamics 365:
Application Example: Hide Buttons
Below we will provide an example of practical client requirements and show step by step how the Ribbon Workbench for Dynamics can help us address these requirements.
Requirements
A national, provincial /state or city level education board that has a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement implementation that keeps track of all the schools and students in its jurisdiction. Each student in the system must be linked to a school and under no circumstance can a user of the system be able to create a student record that is not associated to a school record. This prevents the problem of creating of orphan student records in the system i.e. student records without an associated school record.
Implication of the Requirements
To implement these requirements, we will have to restrict the places where users can access the Student (logical name: contact ) entity’s New button and be able to create new student records. Student records should only be created in relation to a School (logical name: account) record i.e. from the School records’ Students sub-grids as shown in the image below.
- The Student’s sub-grid on Schools’ form
- The Student’s sub-grid on Schools’ related entities menu
Therefore, after implementing the instructions provided under the sub-section “Implementation of the requirements” and section “Other Settings”, users will only be able to create student records from the from the Student entity’s sub-grids on the School records. Hence as a corollary, users will no longer be able to create Student records from:
- Quick Create menu
- Advanced Find
- Student entity’s Home Command Bar
- Student entity’s Form Command Bar
Implementation of the requirements
- To Go to Settings >> Solutions, and create a new solution. Add the entities whose ribbons you wish to edit. In our example, we will be adding the Student (logical name: contact ) entity only to the new solution. Exclude all entity assets but include the entity’s metadata. Save and Publish All Customizations.
- Under Settings >> Solutions, click on the Ribbon Workbench button to launch the Dynamics 365 Ribbon Workbench. Select the solution created in part 1 and click OK.
- After opening the solution in Ribbon Workbench, it will look like the image below. Ensure you are editing the intended entity (A in the image below). In our case, we intend to edit the ribbons for the Student (logical name: contact ) entity. On the Student (logical name: contact ) entity, we intend to hide all the New buttons except on the Student’s sub-grids (B in the image below).
- To hide a button, right click on it and select “Hide”. After hiding all the Student (logical name: contact) entity New buttons, except on the Student’s sub-grid (highlighted in green in the image above), the solution in Ribbon Workbench will look like the image below:
- Click Publish. After the publishing process is done, the only place you will be able to see the New button, in your Dynamics instance, for the Student (logical name: contact) entity is on the sub-grids, as per the requirements above.
Application Example: Show Hidden Buttons
Months or years later, the requirements may change and the client may want to us to reverse the work done in the previous section and show the the hidden New buttons. To accomplish that:
- To Go to Settings >> Solutions, and create a new solution. Add the entities whose ribbons you wish to edit. In our example, we will be adding the Student (logical name: contact ) only to the new solution. Exclude all entity assets but include the entity’s metadata. Save and Publish All Customizations.
- Under Settings >> Solutions, click on the Ribbon Workbench button to launch the Dynamics 365 Ribbon Workbench. Select the solution created in part 1 and click OK.
- After opening the solution in Workbench, it will look like the image below. Ensure you are editing the intended entity (A in the image below). In our case, we intend to edit the ribbons for the Student (logical name: contact ) entity. On the Student (logical name: contact ) entity, we intend to make visible the hidden buttons. In contrast to the “Application Example: Hide Button” section, the next time we load an entity in Ribbon Workbench, the hidden buttons are no longer shown command bars section (B in the image below) but are shown under the Hidden Actions section (C in the image below). To make visible these hidden buttons, right click on each button (C in the image below) and select “Un-hide”.
- Click Publish. After the publishing process is done, the “New” buttons that were previously hidden will become visible in your Dynamics 365 instance.
Other Settings
- To fully ensure that there no orphan Student records are created, make sure the Student entity’s School field is set to Required and the field is added to all Student entity’s forms.
- Quick Create: To stop users from creating the Student records from the Quick Create menu, remove the Quick Create option from the entity:
- Go to Settings >> Solutions
- Open the solution containing the entity
- In the solution, click on the entity. Remove the “Allow quick create” option.
- Save and publish the solution