The documentation was created for version 1.1 and is currently outdated

Visual Ribbon Editor

Overview / How it works:

The Visual Ribbon Editor works by connecting to the CRM server and creating a new "Ribbon Editor" un-managed solution that includes the entity you want to customize.  It then exports this solution and extracts the ribbon customizations.  Since the solution only contains the current unmanaged custom changes to the button, it will also retrieve the full ribbon XML from the server and use all of this information to render the ribbon on the screen.  You can then edit the ribbon (add buttons and groups, etc.)  and then save the changes back to the CRM server.  When saving, it will re-package the same "Ribbon Editor" solution and import it back into CRM.

Editor Interface

The Visual Ribbon Editor UI consists of 3 main sections

  1. A toolbar at the top of the window. This toolbar provides the following controls
    • Connection - Edit CRM connection info (server url, username, password, etc)
    • Open Ribbon - Shows a dialog that lets you select which entity ribbon to edit (or pick the "Application Ribbon")
    • Save - Saves the current ribbon back to CRM.
    • Ribbon Type - picklist to select which type of ribbon to edit (Form ribbon, Mainpage ribbon, or Sub-Grid ribbon)
    • New Button  - Click this to add a new button to the selected group
    • New Group - Click this to add a new group to the selected tab
    • Delete - Click to delete the currently selected button or group.  Note: only custom buttons and groups can be deleted
    • Hide - Click to hide a system button
    • Un-Hide  -  If you hide system buttons using the "Hide" action, then you can un-hide hidden buttons using this dialog.
    • View XML - view the current RibbonDiffXML  (note: this xml is read-only, changes made to this XML do not affect the ribbon being edited) 
  2. The Ribbon Preview.  This Shows the current ribbon being edited. 
    1. Click on the tabs to change the current Tab.
    2. Click on a button to select it.
    3. Click on the name of a group (the text below the buttons) to select the group.
  3. The Details section
    1. When editing a button or group, this section allows you to make various changes to the group or button.

 

Editing a Button

Use the "Details" tab to make the following changes to a button:

Use the Action tab to define what happens when the user clicks the custom button:

 

Use the EnableRules and DisplayRules tabs to define when the button is enabled or visible.

 

Editing Groups

To edit a group, click on the name of the group on the ribbon (click on the text)

Unlike buttons, groups only have the one "Details" tab:

The following properties can be change on a custom group:

 

Saving

After you are done making changes to the ribbon, click the "Save" button to save the changes back to CRM.  These changes will be included in the current un-managed solution on the server.  If you want to include these changes in your own solution that you export from CRM, simply just include the same entity (or application ribbon) in your own solution. As long as both solutions are un-managed, then they will contain the same ribbon customizations.

 

After saving is completed, you can view the changes in CRM: