Custom dropdown example with data from external CRM
I've been looking for several hours now on this forum, on the videos, on other internet sources, but haven't been able to get a pinpoint answer. I am a newbe on Umbraco, although we have already created a couple of sites without much problem, integrating Umbraco to other systems through SurfaceControllers. We are using Umbraco 6.2.5 (as framework 4.5 has not yet been approved by IT, so Umbraco 7 is not yet an aoption).
We are now faced with a new kind of challenge. We need to generate sort of a "register here for the event" kind of document type, where 1 of the fields (the first one) must be a dropdown with a list of the active events in our CRM. This way, the content editors can create different pages for different events, thus registering the users of the site to the correct event in CRM (the registation in fact goes to CRM, not the Umbraco DB).
As to what I've found and read so far, this should be accomplished by a custom control which maps to a custom datatype in umbraco, so that we can fill in the values of the dropdown with the active campaigns and/or events that come from CRM (of course, without retyping them in Umbraco, thus reusing the data from CRM).
Can anyone point me to a good example of how to create the custom dropdown and then wire it up in Umbraco? Or if anyone can suggest an alternative solution to this approach, that would be equally great.
- User Control: You can create a .net user control in visual studio. This user control should fill the drop down field dynamically. If the CRM has a WebAPI, the data can be accessed via a WebAPI. Otherwise, the data on the database of the CRM should be accessed directly. For implementing in umbraco you must create a new macro, choose the new user control for this and insert the macro in your view/template. http://www.nibble.be/?p=12 ;
- Javascript/Ajax: If the CRM has a WebAPI you can simply fill the drop down field in your view/template via an ajax call with jQuery get method: http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/ajax_get.asp ;
thank you for your response Soren. However I am trying to create the dropdown for use in the Umbraco backoffice, so that when the content creators create a new page for the new campaign, a list of active campaigns appears in the Umbraco backoffice, and so the created content page is "attached" to that specific campaign. I do not want to show a campaign of listo of campaigns from CRM in the frontend (I mean, for the end users). Any ideas?
Which version are you using? Umbraco 6 or 7. If you using V7 you can create a custom property editor with AngularJS. There is a lot of stuff on this forum and other sites in the internet about development of custom property editors in V7.
Thank you Soren. Any good pointer to a tutorial/example of how to create such a dropdown? I have looked at the videos, but cannot seem to find one that helps me out.
Excelent Soren, thank you SO much for your help. The solution worked liked a charm. I was able to create a custom control (a dropdownlist) and bind it to an external datasource (Dynamics CRM). I then used the custom control as a custom datatype in the Umbraco BackOffice and....voila!!!!
Can you see the little green tick on the left side, close to the gravatar picture. You can mark the question as solved by clicking the green tick on the post that gives you the answer to your issue.
Custom dropdown example with data from external CRM
I've been looking for several hours now on this forum, on the videos, on other internet sources, but haven't been able to get a pinpoint answer. I am a newbe on Umbraco, although we have already created a couple of sites without much problem, integrating Umbraco to other systems through SurfaceControllers. We are using Umbraco 6.2.5 (as framework 4.5 has not yet been approved by IT, so Umbraco 7 is not yet an aoption).
We are now faced with a new kind of challenge. We need to generate sort of a "register here for the event" kind of document type, where 1 of the fields (the first one) must be a dropdown with a list of the active events in our CRM. This way, the content editors can create different pages for different events, thus registering the users of the site to the correct event in CRM (the registation in fact goes to CRM, not the Umbraco DB).
As to what I've found and read so far, this should be accomplished by a custom control which maps to a custom datatype in umbraco, so that we can fill in the values of the dropdown with the active campaigns and/or events that come from CRM (of course, without retyping them in Umbraco, thus reusing the data from CRM).
Can anyone point me to a good example of how to create the custom dropdown and then wire it up in Umbraco? Or if anyone can suggest an alternative solution to this approach, that would be equally great.
Thanks in advance.
Ariel
Hi Ariel,
there are different ways:
- User Control:
You can create a .net user control in visual studio. This user control should fill the drop down field dynamically. If the CRM has a WebAPI, the data can be accessed via a WebAPI. Otherwise, the data on the database of the CRM should be accessed directly. For implementing in umbraco you must create a new macro, choose the new user control for this and insert the macro in your view/template. http://www.nibble.be/?p=12 ;
- Javascript/Ajax:
If the CRM has a WebAPI you can simply fill the drop down field in your view/template via an ajax call with jQuery get method: http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/ajax_get.asp ;
I hope this is a good starting point for you?
Best,
Sören
thank you for your response Soren. However I am trying to create the dropdown for use in the Umbraco backoffice, so that when the content creators create a new page for the new campaign, a list of active campaigns appears in the Umbraco backoffice, and so the created content page is "attached" to that specific campaign. I do not want to show a campaign of listo of campaigns from CRM in the frontend (I mean, for the end users). Any ideas?
Thanks ,Ariel
Hi Ariel,
Which version are you using? Umbraco 6 or 7. If you using V7 you can create a custom property editor with AngularJS. There is a lot of stuff on this forum and other sites in the internet about development of custom property editors in V7.
Here a few links:
https://our.umbraco.org/documentation/Extending-Umbraco/Property-Editors/creating-tutorial1-v7
https://github.com/umbraco/AngularWorkbook
http://creativewebspecialist.co.uk/2013/08/23/how-i-built-my-first-property-editor-for-umbraco-belle/
http://www.nibble.be/?p=434
http://umbraco.github.io/Belle/#/tutorials/CreatingAPropertyEditor
This should a good starting point for you. If you have specific questions feel free ans ask again :)
Best,
Sören
Soren. thanks again for your reply. We are using Umbraco 6.2.5 as it is a requirement to use .Net Framewrok 4.0.
Will look into the links you sent and see if something works out.
Isn't there by any chance an example of how to populate a dropdown for the backend?
Best regards, Ariel
Hi Arie,
Angularjs only works in V7. In V6 you can create a .net usercontrol. This usercontrol you can add as datatype with usercontrolwrapper.
Best
sören
Thank you Soren. Any good pointer to a tutorial/example of how to create such a dropdown? I have looked at the videos, but cannot seem to find one that helps me out.
Best regards, Ariel
Hi Ariel,
here two links for you:
http://www.nibble.be/?p=97
http://www.nibble.be/?p=101
Hope this helps?
Best,
Sören
Excelent Soren, thank you SO much for your help. The solution worked liked a charm. I was able to create a custom control (a dropdownlist) and bind it to an external datasource (Dynamics CRM). I then used the custom control as a custom datatype in the Umbraco BackOffice and....voila!!!!
Thank you VERY MUCH for your helpo and guidance.
Best regards, Ariel
Hi Ariel, please can you mark the topic as solved that others can easy find the solution?
Best,
Sören
Gladly, but can't fin the way to mark "solved".
Hi Ariel,
Can you see the little green tick on the left side, close to the gravatar picture. You can mark the question as solved by clicking the green tick on the post that gives you the answer to your issue.
Hope this helps,
/Dennis
thanks (ONCE AGAIN) for the tip.
Best regards, Ariel
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