CRM 2013/2015/2016 subgrid popout, retain fetchxml query

Question

I have a subgrid on my form which I assign a dynamically generated fetchxml query using javascript. When the user clicks on the subgrid's "pop out" button, the query is lost and it displays the default view for that entity.

The user needs to be able to perform multi selection and bulk editing. As far as I know this is not possible for subgrids in CRM 2013 upwards. Is there a way to retain the query when it is popped out?

Answer 1

There's no supported way to interact with a popped out grid. If you started digging into the client side application code, you might be able to find a hook to the new window, but doing so would be unsupported, liable to break, and I wouldn't recommend it.

I was going to suggest hiding that pop-out button on your entity's sub-grid altogether before re-reading that your users need to use the popped out grid for bulk edit.

In that case your best option will be to do ditch the JS and move to a RetrieveMultiple plugin against the sub-entity. RetrieveMultiple plugins should be generally avoided, but from what it sounds like in your case, it's your only option.

And, just to be thorough, are you positive you need dynamic fetch for the sub-grid? Is there any way you could come up with a view that would get close enough to your requirement, even if it's not perfect?

Update: Based on the additional information you provided in your comment, I can only think of two options:

1. Implement a custom grid--or modify one of the free ones out there--that allows multi-select and bulk edit

2. Your custom web app takes the user's criteria, creates a personal view (entity: userquery) for the user and saves it to the database, then your JS on the form sets the grid to that view.

   You can do that liks this:

   document.getElementById("someGridId").control.SetParameter("viewtype", "4230"); // 4230 is the objecttypecode for userquery
   document.getElementById("someGridId").control.SetParameter("viewid", "{11310965-0306-E611-80E5-3863BB36DD08}");
   

   Doing this actually does make the popped out grid load the personal view, but in my tests just now the grid gets upset if you try to refresh it.

   This approach has obvious downsides: 1) You have to come up with a way to clean up the personal views that get generated 2) the grid might break on refresh 3) it's unsupported and liable to break on an update.

   Still worth considering, I suppose.