Please note: GroupCalendar v5.58 or higher is required. The feature is available for all activity types. 

GroupCalendar for MS Dynamics CRM 2011 provides the possibility to define a specific color for each scheduled service activity and appointment (click here to download the latest GroupCalendar version).

After activating this functionality in the CRM settings, GroupCalendar offers you the possibility to choose a color when scheduling a service activity or an appointment from a drop-down-menu within the service activity-/appointment-entity.

After you have selected the color, saved the service activity/appointment and refreshed GroupCalendar, the scheduled service activity/appointment is displayed in the previously picked color in all GroupCalendar views. 

How to activate the color-coding-functionality for appointments and service-activities?

 
To activate color-coding-functionality, you have to add an attribute to the main form of the service activity-/appointment-entity. The attribute is called ptm_colorcode2011 with the display name Color. It is predefined with 12 colors, but you have the possibility to add additional colors.

Please follow the simple steps below to activate the functionality.

Please note: The example below describes how to activate the color-coding-functionality for the appointment-entity.

In order to add this functionality to the service activity entity, follow the same procedure (steps 1-7) with the exception that you have to select Service Activity instead of Appointment within the customize the system-area in the CRM settings.

1. Open your CRM and go to Settings (1). Then click on Customization (2) and click on Customize the System (3)

2. Thereafter, a new CRM window opens. Within this window, click on Entities and you will get a list of all entities in your CRM system.

3. Now select the entity Appointment and double-click on it. Please note: If you would like to activate the color-coding-functionality for service activities, you have to select Service Activity instead of Appointment.

4. The settings of the appointment-entity opens. Click on Forms within the treeview on the left. 

5. Afterwards, you get a list of the forms of the appointment-entity. Double-click on the main-form of the entity. 

6. Here, you can customize the main form of this entity. To add the color-coding-functionality, click on the color-field within the menu on the right (1) and drag and drop it into a free space. (2)

7. Now save and close the window and the color-drop-down-menu will appear from now on within the appointment entity when scheduling an appointment. 

Please note: As already mentioned - in order to add this functionality to the service activity entity, follow the same procedure as above described in steps 1 to 7 with one exception. Instead of selecting Appointment, please select Service Activity within the Customize the System-area.

How to add additional colors? 

You always have the possibility to add further colors. Before you start the color adding process, it is important that you know the hex code of the color you would like to add.

There are several free online color picker tools which help you to find out about the hex code of a specific color (e.g. http://www.colorpicker.com/).

In the following example, we would like to add a light grey color with the hex code #E0E0E0. In the steps below, we describe how to add this color to the color drop-down-menu within the appointment-entity.

Please note: The procedure is the same for every color you want to add. Also, it is the same procedure for adding a new color to the color drop-down-menu within the service activity entity instead of the appointment entity (simply select Service Activity in step 2 and ServiceAppointmentColorCode in step 8).

1. Start in the Settings-area of your CRM system, click on Customizations within the menu on the left and then select Customize the System. 

2. Afterwards, click on Entities within the menu on the left and double-click on the Appointment-entity.

Please note: If you would like to add a color to the color drop-down-menu within the service activity entitiy, you have to select Service Activity within this step.

3. Now click on Fields in the treeview on the left (1) and double-click on the field ptm_colorcode2011. (2)

4a. A new window opens. Within this window, click on the [Add]-button (green plus) in the Options-area (1) and type in the label of the color. In our example, we type in light grey (2). It is important that you remember the value of the color which is defined by your CRM system. In our example, the value is 100.000.000 (3).

4b. After you have saved and closed the window, you have to publish the customization. To do so, please click on the [Publish all Customizations]-button. 

5. Now go back to the settings of your CRM system (1) and click on MSCRM-ADDONS.com Products. (2)

6. Afterwards, double-click on GroupCalendar within the product list. 

7. A new window will open. Within this window, click on MSCRM-ADDONS.com Settingskeys within the menu on the left.

8. Then, double-click on AppointmentColorCode.

Please note: If you would like to add the color to the color drop-down-menu within the service activity entity, you have to select ServiceAppointmentColorCode instead within this step.

9. A new window opens. Within this window, add your color within the KeyValue-area (1). To do so, you have to type in ‘;’ followed by the value of the color defined by CRM (In our example the value is 100.000.000. Please make sure that you tye in the vaule without '.': we, e.g., type in 100000000). Followed by ‘|’ and by the hex color code (In our example the hex code (2) is #E0E0E0). 

10. Click on the [Save and Close]-button. Now, you have to close and open the browser again or to perform an IISRESET to refresh all new settings. Afterwards, you can select the added color (in our case light grey) when scheduling a new appointment from the color drop-down-menu in the appointment-entity. The appointment will be displayed in that color.

Figure 20: Scheduled appointment with newly added color

That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.