Best Practices for Forms in Microsoft Dynamics 365

Multiple Forms

If you’re familiar with using multiple forms in Dynamics, then you know that you can create different forms and assign security roles so that different users see a different form for a specific entity.  This can get rather complicated depending on how many forms you are using and if you are using a layered security approach where a user may have multiple security roles that are applied to different forms.

In the past, it was best practice to try to stick to one form per entity and only use multiple forms when absolutely necessary. However, once the Portal and new UI was introduced, this thought process changed.

Portal Forms

When you’re setting up your Portal forms, you select the Dynamics form that you would like to present to the user for the Portal page. You can even lock it down to a specific tab on the form as well. You could use the standard Dynamics main form, but anytime you make a change to that form for your internal users, you need to make sure that the same change should be made for your Portal users as well. We have found that it is best to create separate forms for your portal.

When you select a form to use on the Portal, you can also specify a specific tab. If you don’t specify a tab then it will show all of the contents on the form for all tabs. There are two different approaches to consider when setting up forms for Portal use. You could set up multiple, separate forms for each Portal form within each entity, or you can set up one Portal form and create different tabs for each Portal form. Before you make this decision, draw out your ultimate design to see which would work better for your organization. Depending on how many Portal forms you have, changing your mind later could result in a lot of rework and possible Portal downtime.

UI Forms

When using the UI, you don’t need separate forms. The system will use the correct Main form or Quick Create form as needed. The UI form will be the same as the web form. While you don’t need to create separate forms, you can create separate forms. If you’ve worked with Model-driven Apps, then you know that you can create different Apps within the UI for different users. With the new, April 2019 release, you can even force your users directly to the UI. Within the configuration for the UI, when you add entities you have the ability to only add certain forms for each entity.

If you’re fully embracing model-driven apps, then you know that you could have a separate app for each division of your business. Within each app, you only need to add the components you want. This will certainly enhance user-adoption by only presenting them with what they need to do their job. Sometimes giving them too much can be overwhelming, especially at first.

If you aren’t using the UI yet, you should really start setting this up in your organization.  As of October 2020, Microsoft will be deprecating the web app.

This blog is part of a 12 part series focusing on Dynamics Best Practices.

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Please contact us today if you have questions about Best Practices or if you would like assistance in setting up and testing any of the new form functionality and UI functionality in Dynamics.

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Solutions.