This is an old question but since it's coming up in my searches for this problem I wanted to add my solution.
We use Dynamics CRM 2013. To my knowledge, later versions of 2011 also support this technique.
The form that is displayed when an entity is opened is determined by a few things - the default form, the security roles and fallback settings for a form and the last form used by the current user for that entity. We had a similar problem to the asker where we wanted a different account form displayed based on the value of a form. We were also tired of the constant reload/refresh that javascript techniques are subject to.
I found some blog posts (in particular this one: http://gonzaloruizcrm.blogspot.com/2014/11/avoiding-form-reload-when-switching-crm.html) which mentioned that it is possible to write a plugin to the Retrieve of the entity that allows you to read out the value (LastViewedFormXml) from UserEntityUISettings that stores which form was last used. If it's not the form you want, you can write in the desired value. This avoids the javascript form refreshing.
I had to modify some code from the samples I found to get it to work, but I'm happy with the results. You need to generate an entity class using CrmSvcUtil and include it in the project. You can get your form guids from the url of the form editor.
using System;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Linq;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Description;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Messages;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client;
namespace CRM.Plugin.AccountFormSwitcher
{
public class Plugin : IPlugin
{
public enum accountType
{
Customer = 100000000,
Vendor = 100000001,
Partner = 100000002,
Other = 100000003
}
public const string CustomerAccountFormId = "00000000-E53C-4DF4-BC99-93856EDD168C";
public const string VendorAccountFormId = "00000000-E49E-4197-AB5E-F353EF0E806E";
public const string PartnerAccountFormId = "00000000-B8C6-4E2B-B84E-729AA11ABE61";
public const string GenericAccountFormId = "00000000-8F42-454E-8E2A-F8196B0419AF";
public const string AccountTypeAttributeName = "cf_accounttype";
public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
{
if (serviceProvider == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("serviceProvider");
}
// Obtain the execution context from the service provider.
IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));
ITracingService tracingService = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));
IOrganizationServiceFactory serviceFactory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
IOrganizationService service = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);
var pluginContext = (IPluginExecutionContext)context;
if (pluginContext.Stage == 20) //pre-operation stage
{
var columns = (ColumnSet)pluginContext.InputParameters["ColumnSet"];
if (!columns.Columns.Contains(AccountTypeAttributeName))
columns.AddColumn(AccountTypeAttributeName);
}
else if (pluginContext.Stage == 40) //post-operation stage
{
EntityReference currentEntity = (EntityReference)context.InputParameters["Target"];
if (currentEntity == null)
return;
var query = new QueryExpression(Account.EntityLogicalName);
query.Criteria.AddCondition("accountid", ConditionOperator.Equal, currentEntity.Id);
query.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet(AccountTypeAttributeName);
var accounts = service.RetrieveMultiple(query).Entities;
Account currentAccount = (Account)accounts[0];
SetForm(currentAccount, service, context.UserId);
}
}
private void SetForm(Account account, IOrganizationService service, Guid userId)
{
var query = new QueryExpression(UserEntityUISettings.EntityLogicalName);
query.Criteria.AddCondition("ownerid", ConditionOperator.Equal, userId);
query.Criteria.AddCondition("objecttypecode", ConditionOperator.Equal, Account.EntityTypeCode);
query.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet("lastviewedformxml");
var settings = service.RetrieveMultiple(query).Entities;
// Some users such as SYSTEM have no UserEntityUISettings, so skip.
if (settings == null || settings.Count != 1 || account.cf_AccountType == null) return;
var setting = settings[0].ToEntity<UserEntityUISettings>();
string formToUse;
switch ((accountType)account.cf_AccountType.Value)
{
case accountType.Customer:
formToUse = String.Format("<MRUForm><Form Type=\"Main\" Id=\"{0}\" /></MRUForm>", CustomerAccountFormId);
break;
case accountType.Vendor:
formToUse = String.Format("<MRUForm><Form Type=\"Main\" Id=\"{0}\" /></MRUForm>", VendorAccountFormId);
break;
case accountType.Partner:
formToUse = String.Format("<MRUForm><Form Type=\"Main\" Id=\"{0}\" /></MRUForm>", PartnerAccountFormId);
break;
case accountType.Other:
formToUse = String.Format("<MRUForm><Form Type=\"Main\" Id=\"{0}\" /></MRUForm>", GenericAccountFormId);
break;
default:
formToUse = String.Format("<MRUForm><Form Type=\"Main\" Id=\"{0}\" /></MRUForm>", GenericAccountFormId);
return;
}
// Only update if the last viewed form is not the one required for the given opportunity type
if (!formToUse.Equals(setting.LastViewedFormXml, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
{
var s = new UserEntityUISettings { Id = setting.Id, LastViewedFormXml = formToUse };
service.Update(s);
}
}
}
}
And to address the asker's issue with it only consulting the UserEntityUISettings once, I'm not sure why that's happening. But why not use javascript to change the form when the triggering attribute is changed? That what I do and I haven't ran into any problems with the plugin not displaying the desired for.
