CRM 2013 – How to add reports to the sitemap
A customer wanted to add reports to the sitemap.
Actually this is wrong the customer said they wanted to add a reports button, I knew it was a change to the sitemap.
What is the sitemap?
I think of things from a CRM 2011 perspective because I have done most customization in CRM 2011 environments and that’s how it should be structured
When I say Sitemap this is the left hand menu in CRM 2011
This page Change application navigation using the SiteMap
in CRM 2013 it draws the left hand menu up on the top but the underlying setup is still exactly the same (picture borrowed from Gareth Tucker’s great CRM blog
Above is the main menu and then if you click one like sales you then get another menu below
Sitemaps are a bit of an odd
Microsoft believe CRM Developers should modify the sitemap by editing XML files, this is tricky and prone to syntax errors.
This page has good detailed instructions –Change application navigation using the SiteMap if you wish to try it by hand
I don’t know any CRM Developer who has manually edited an XML file in versions of CRM 2011 and above.
The reason Microsoft can do this is because the CRM community have some fantastic CRM developers who have created Site Map editors. There are probably a few to choose from but my Site map editor of choice is
XrmToolbox for Dynamics CRM 2011/2013/2015
Not only does it have the sitemap editor but it has lots of CRM tools, if you haven’t downloaded it then I would recommend you do it NOW!
How to Add reports
Adding reports couldn’t be easier with the Site map tool (I sound like a salesman)
Open up the XRMToolBox
Connect to your CRM instance
Open SiteMap Editor
You get the screen below
To understand what is what, it’s best to have CRM open and you can get a feel to how the names and groupings.
Find the area you want to add the report button
Right click and select – Add SubArea
Give it a name and select the reports entity
Not to be confused with Ribbon editing, which is where you edit the ribbon on an individual record e.g. Contact ribbon, account ribbon
If you are going to edit the ribbon (also XML editing) then I would recommend you use the Ribbon Workbench written by Scott Durow
You can download it here
Filed under: CRM 2013

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