Microsoft released the latest Spring ’18 release in March 2018 and with it brought out some very useful new features. #D365 #CRM
One of them is MultiselectOption Set. This has been a long awaited and did present an issue when compring to other CRM system. Prior to this, to achieve same behaviour, either lookup type field had to be implemented or some clever web resource in conjuction with lookup field for better presentation.
Now there is a MultiSelect Option set to take care of this:
Let’s have a walk through this new field type and look at exciting things that can be done with it.
Below, the field has been added on the form and it is very easy to select all of the options in one go or select the ones that are needed as in my case.
Biggest Advantage comes from User Perspective by using MultiSelect Option Set.
- Easy to use. No need to go through lookup window and records
- No subgrid involved and acts like as any other field on the form
- Much simpler to use with Advanced Find. MultiSelect and ‘Equals’ mean that a record includes the multiple options in the field (see Advanced Find example below)
- Similarly, reporting is much simpler with field showing the values and no related tables to resolve in the reports.
- Options can be displayed in Views.
Advanced Find Examples using MultiSelect Option Set
Using the above record we can run Advanced Find on it.
Example 1: Search for records that have A,B,C selected for the field
As it can be seen, this search did not produce any results. Advnaced Find will only show results that have these three values set. However, there is a ‘Contains’ option in drop down. Selecting that option would have shown the record edited earlier because Advanced Find will match any one of the values present in MultiSelect Option Set.
Example 2: Search for records that have A,C selected for the field
Above search brings up the record that was edited earlier with that field.
Conclusion
As it can be seen it is a very useful feature to have.
- Makes it easy to place on form and use compared to having a sub grid for MultiSelect.
- Users can run more intutive Advanced Find queries.
- Reporting becomes easier for users. It’s a field that will display the chosen values.
- Views become more useful. The field can be placed as a column and all values being shown in the view. Filters and criteria can be set for this field in the views.
I feel this a very useful feature and one that will be used quite often. I can say this from experience. Having set up this feature on other CRM system for users, I can definitely see the power of it. No doubt that is one the reasons that Dynamics developers have been requesting for this for a while now.
It’s here and now and time to make best use of it.
Let me have your thoughts. Looking forward to any comments on this feature….good or bad…
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