How to access controls from a console

Question

I tried to execute the following command from the console.

var subject = Xrm.Page.ui.controls.get("subject");

That's the exact syntax I'm using in the web resource that I'm plugging in to CRM. However, I only got an error message saying that "unable to get property 'controls' of undefined or null reference".

I do understand the message. What I want to know is two-fold.

1. What syntax will work from the console (F12) to refer to the stuff on the screen?
2. Why doesn't it work the way I did? Where doesn ui come from?

I've checked that I can refer to both Xrm and Crm.Page but apparently ui is null (it's listed when I print out the contents of Page but sett to null).

Answer 1

In addition to what @Daryl said, I can add that I use different syntax. For some reason, I don't get his to work either. Might have to do with different browser version or something. Instead try to execute this, if you still can't get it to work (although I must admit that his is shorter = better).

Xrm.Page.getAttribute("lastname").getValue();

The lastname parts is tested a minute ago on creation of an instance of entity Contact. I just put in a breakpoint inside a script that is executed onchange and while broken-pointed, I entered the command above to the console.

If neither approach works for you, you've got some weird problem with your CRM or browser.