The first release of FetchXML Builder for XrmToolBox in 2018 contains a major face-lift.
New year – new design! After more than three years since first release, the time has come to use all the feedback from issues on GitHub, comments on Twitter, and collected statistics to improve the UI. This article describes some of the major changes introduced with the first release of 2018.
Welcome
The very first thing you will see is the welcome screen, shown the first time you start a new version of FetchXML Builder. The welcome screen will contain release notes with highlights of what’s new.
White
The next thing you notice is the “lighter UI“.No more dull gray panels bringing back memories of 2001.Extra toolbars for different actions and options can be expanded and collapsed by clicking the small plus / minus sign to the right.
Result View
When you execute a query, you realize the results view is not popped up as a blocking modal dialog, but instead inline, next to the Query Builder panel.
Docking
Click and drag the result view header tab, and you discover the possibility to dock the view just the way you like it – or even pop it out as a floating window!
Windows
In the View menu you can see all the different windows you can open to represent the query being composed using the Query Builder.As you can see, some options that were previously available as “Save as…” features, are now presented in separate windows in the docking layout of FetchXML Builder.All these windows can be docked more or less freely within the tool, to allow you to create your own perfected query building experience.
FetchXML Editor
The editor for FetchXML is now inline with the Query Builder, so you can build your query and simultaneously see the resulting FetchXML evolve in the editor.This is also the place to go when you get a FetchXML query from some other source: Press Ctrl+E to open the editor, paste the FetchXML, click OK.
Multiple result views
By using the new setting Always open results in new window it is possible to compare results of different queries without having to copy/paste results to Excel or other tricks to store previous results.
Layout examples
A couple of examples of window layout in FetchXML Builder.
FXB on Twitter
Remember to follow @FetchXMLBuilder on Twitter for all the latest news!
More information
- XrmToolBox: http://www.xrmtoolbox.com/
- FetchXML Builder: http://fxb.xrmtoolbox.com/
Really love the capabilities of the new version; great work!
Is it possible to save the result view?
Hi Martin,
If you open a view from CRM you can alter it and then simply save it back to CRM with the updated query using the menu options in FetchXML Builder.
If you want to save the results of a query, you can copy all cells in the result view by using CTLR+A, CTRL+C and then start Excel and paste it in there.
Jonas
Hi Jonas, thanks for the tool FetchXML Builder, really made my life simpler, as I am a total newbie to Dynamics CRM.
Following up on your previous answer on copy-pasting to Excel, it works, but I am struggling with something..
The Result View in FetchXML Builder has got interesting links. For example if I click on an opportunity ID from the Result View, it opens the opportunity in Dynamics.
However when I paste in Excel, I lose these hyperlinks information, all becomes plain text. I did make sure to paste “keeping source formatting”.
Is there a way that CTRL+C would keep the hyperlinks?
Hi Pierre, glad to be able to improve your life ????
Unfortunately it does not seem to be possible, at least not without some extensive changes to the DataGridView control used to display the results.
Feel free to submit a suggestion by using menu “Help – Feedback for FetchXML Builder” in XrmToolBox, and we’ll see if I or anyone else could come up with something!
Does Fetch XML Builder bring in the option set?
That doesn’t seem to work for me.
Any Advise?
Not sure I follow what you mean – could you please submit an issue at https://github.com/rappen/FetchXMLBuilder/issues and perhaps provide a screenshot or other clarifying information?
Thanks!
Jonas