[CRM4] Searches and Views

Searches are fundamental in any CRM. Dynamics CRM provides different ways to search records from any entity. The most powerful search is the Advanced Find , which allows normal users to create custom queries and save them as new views, so that they can reuse them:

Why do some attributes not show up?  Only searchable attributes are showed up in Advanced Find

Looking at CRM Metadata a bit deeply, this “Searchable” property is translated to “ValidForAdvancedFind” property in AttributeMetadata.

However, Advanced Find isn’t the most common option, since users normally need to search records quicker, without set any query. In this case, Dynamics CRM offers Quick Find views.

Where are the Quick Find views and when do we use them in Dynamics CRM? When we use the “Search for records” options from any entity, actually we are calling to the Quick Find Active view, which replaces the current view (in our example, Active Printer view would be replaced by Quick Find Active Printers view)

Which attributes  are used by “Search for records”? Those were configured in the  Quick Find View for the corresponding entity ( ‘Printer’ in this example)