How to add Calendar Control to a View in Dynamics 365 CE

How to add Calendar Control to a View in Dynamics 365 CE
In June 2020, Microsoft replaced the original Calendar Control with the Calendar Control V2. Learn more about the new control here!

The Calendar Control has to be my most favorite control available in the unified interface, hands down. At Reenhanced, we have implemented this control for nearly every customer. Why? Because it’s just that darn useful! Talk about increasing user adoption – this control is a huge win! If you don’t have this in your Dynamics 365 system yet, you should.

Adding a calendar control to a system view can be a huge win for user adoption!

The calendar control, and all other controls that are available in the unified interface, can all be defined at the Web, Phone and Tablet levels, allowing you to tailor user experience based on the device used. Definitions of the clients are fairly straight-forward, but let’s briefly review what each of these options means to you as the system administrator/customizer:

  • Web: selecting the Web client for a control means users will see this control when they access Dynamics 365 from any web browser.
  • Phone: Make the control available on any mobile device running Dynamics 365 for Phones.
  • Tablet: Make the control available on any tablet device running Dynamics 365 for Tablets.

An ideal place to start implementing this view is in Activities, but it can be used on any date field. Let’s walk through an example to show you how to add a calendar control to the Open Activities system view.

Here is what the view currently looks like in my Dynamics 365 environment. We will use the Calendar control to make this list display as a calendar view.

Standard system view for Open Activities in Dynamics 365

To add a Calendar Control to my view, I’m going to open the Solution Explorer, expand Entities, expand Activities and select the View:

Add view controls from the classic solution designer.

In my classic view designer, click the Custom Controls button (highlighted below):

Use the Custom Controls option in the Common Tasks box of the view designer.

Click Add Control…

Add Control to this view

Select Calendar Control then click the Add button:

Adding Calendar Control to our view.

Back at the Custom Controls box for this view, we have to define where this control should run. In this example, I want to use it regardless of access type. Below, I have to set Start Date & Description on my control. This is how the system knows when to display which Activity on which date and the text that appears on my calendar. Here, I have set Start Date to be my Scheduled Start and Description is my Subject field. When you have finished, click OK.

Select where this control should run and map Start Date & Description.
TIP! Take this a step further and increase the user adoption even more. Add color to an Option Set (perhaps Appointment type?) – layer that on top of the Calendar Control and your entries will be color coded. Imagine how much more simplified the user experience can be! Need help with this? Email me at [email protected] and I can point you in the right direction.

Once you have saved and published your changes, your Calendar control will change your view display.

Welcome to the new version of the Open Activities view in Dynamics 365:

More Information & Help

Do you have questions about how to apply calendar controls or other controls your Dynamics 365 system? Feel free to reach out to reenhanced! Fill out our Contact Form with details about what you’re working on, or email me directly at [email protected]. You can also consult the official Microsoft documentation about this control.

Heidi Neuhauser
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Heidi is a Partner at Reenhanced. She is a Microsoft MVP for Business Applications and is passionate about user adoption, out-of-the-box configuration tools, Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.
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