Creating and managing dialogs
A dialog differs from a workflow through the fact that it is an interactive process, where user input is required. The addition of dialogs offers new possibilities with Dynamics CRM 2011.
Getting ready
We will be using the same solution package we created earlier.
How to do it...
Adding a dialog is done by performing the following steps:
- Open the existing solution package, and navigate to Processes.
- In the Processes view, click on New to add a new process.
- On the Process: New window, select Dialog this time.
- Keep New blank process selected and click on OK.
- The dialog configuration window allows us configure the dialog details. A dialog can be started as either an on-demand process, or as a child of another process. This allows us to create smaller dialogs, and chain them together as required to achieve our final result. We will mark this dialog as an on-demand process, so we can see the very basic functionality available.
- To capture user interaction, we will first add a page to the dialog, and then a Prompt and Response on that page.
- Click on Set Properties to define the prompt and available answers.
- Click on Save and Close to finish defining this step.
- In the process builder, add a new Update step that will fill in the captured details within the form field.
- Click on Set Properties to define which value gets assigned to what field. We are being presented with the standard Contact form. Click into the First Name field, and from the Form Assistant, select New contact first name under Local Values in the Look for drop-down list, and Response Text. Click on Add and then OK.
- Save and Close this form. Save the dialog and activate it.
- To test this newly created dialog, create a new Contact record, and from the ribbon, click on the Start Dialog button.
- From the selection window that opens up, select the dialog we created earlier.
- Click on OK and answer the prompt question.
- Click on Next. When the dialog finishes, an end of dialog window is displayed. Click on Finish.
- Once the dialog completes execution, you will see the value captured during the dialog populated into the contact's first name field.
How it works...
For demonstration purposes we have only captured the contact's first name and populated the first name field. More steps can be added to a dialog to capture additional information and guide a system user in capturing all required details through a dialog rather than by using a free form. This way a "script" can be created for the user to capture information in a specific order, thus enforcing a clean, repeatable process in dealing with customers in a Call Centre scenario.