Breathing some life in the CRM Service Calendar

Scenario 1:                      The Problem

For the current project which is a kind of booking system, the CRM Service calendar functionality will be quite central. Of course we want not just the functionality, the system should also have a nice look in order for the users to feel more comfortable using the system in the end.
The CRM Calendar Out of the Box does leave a whole lot to wish for… It is pale and quite uninteresting, just look at the screenshot below.

Scenario 1:                      The Investigation

Got lucky on Google and found some relevant information to start my experimenting:

Within the website directory for CRM (e.g. c:\inetpub\wwwroot), locate the \SM\Gantt\Style directory. Within that directory, locate the file GanttControl.css. Towards the bottom of the file, you will find an entry for each Status Reason that is added to the Service Activity entity. They will look something like this:

div.ganttBlockServiceActivityStatus8

{

border: 1px solid #A5DE63;

FILTER: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(gradientType=0,startColorStr=#E7F6D6,endColorStr=#A5DE63);

}

As Status Reasons are added, an additional section like the one above is added to the file, with the # at the end of the first line corresponding to the integer value of the status reason. All you need to do to change the color is find the corresponding HEX code of the color you want to use and replace the startColorStr and endColorStr values in the corresponding block of code. Note, leave the # and replace the six characters after. A good location to find the corresponding HEX codes is here:

http://html-color-codes.com/ . This is what you'll find:

Simply use the corresponding code for the color you'd like. The result is a much more visually appealing Service Calendar:

Scenario 1:                      The Solution

I tried a couple of things: You can either have the fields single color (the line above the marked one)

Or if you wish to add some 3D effects, you can use the marked gradient effect on any of the settings.

I will now exaggerate a bit just to show that your imagination is the limit:

Good luck with the colouring of your calendar :O)

P.S. One thing that is not mentioned anywhere on the web is the fact that no matter how many changes you make in the GanttControl.css file NOTHING will happen (and you may give up cursing CRM again) until you close the browser and delete the Temporary Files in the browser since windows and IE are so helpful with caching things for us….

Alexander Berggren

CRM Rookie Of The Year