Create Email Activity from Template using Javascript

Here is a nice piece of code to create an email from a specified email template using Javascript and also set the Email to field. Its slightly unrefined but good to go and a great starting point. It is great functionality if you choose to add a menu button to an entity in the ISV.config or similar and loads almost instantly.

//
// Create Email From template with the specified customer and regarding entity
//
CreateEmailFromTemplate = function(Customer, TemplateId, EntityId, EntityTypeName) {
// Generate an email activity from the specified template
//
var xml = "" +
"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" +
"&lt;soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"<a href="//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\&quot;">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\</a>" xmlns:xsi=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\</a>" xmlns:xsd=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\</a>"&gt;" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
" &lt;soap:Body&gt;" +
" &lt;Execute xmlns=\"<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\</a>"&gt;" +
" &lt;Request xsi:type='InstantiateTemplateRequest' ReturnDynamicEntities='false' &gt;"+
" &lt;TemplateId&gt;" + TemplateId + "&lt;/TemplateId&gt;"+
" &lt;ObjectType&gt;" + EntityTypeName + "&lt;/ObjectType&gt;"+
" &lt;ObjectId&gt;" + EntityId + "&lt;/ObjectId&gt;"+
" &lt;/Request&gt;"+
" &lt;/Execute&gt;" +
" &lt;/soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Envelope&gt;";
var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", "<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute</a>");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
var entityNode = resultXml.selectSingleNode("//BusinessEntityCollection/BusinessEntities/BusinessEntity");
if(entityNode == null)
{
alert("Could not create email from template.");
return;
}
// Get the email details
var emailBody = entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:description");
var subject = entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:subject");
//
// Create email activity in CRM
//
var emailXml = "&lt;?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?&gt;" +
"&lt;soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"<a href="//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\&quot;">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\</a>" xmlns:xsi=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\</a>" xmlns:xsd=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\</a>"&gt;" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
"&lt;soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;Create xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices'&gt;" +
"&lt;entity xsi:type='email'&gt;" +
"&lt;description&gt;" + emailBody.text + "&lt;/description&gt;" +
"&lt;subject&gt;" + subject.text + "&lt;/subject&gt;" +
"&lt;regardingobjectid type='" + EntityTypeName + "'&gt;" + EntityId + "&lt;/regardingobjectid&gt;";
if(Customer != null)
emailXml = emailXml + "&lt;to&gt;&lt;activityparty&gt;&lt;partyid type='" + Customer[0].typename + "'&gt;" + Customer[0].id + "&lt;/partyid&gt;&lt;/activityparty&gt;&lt;/to&gt;";
emailXml = emailXml + "&lt;/entity&gt;" +
"&lt;/Create&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Envelope&gt;";
xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", "<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Create&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Create</a>");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(emailXml);
var resultEmailXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
// Check for errors.
var errorCount = resultEmailXml.selectNodes('//error').length;
if (errorCount &gt; 0)
{
alert("Could not create email due to error. ");
return;
}
var createNode = resultEmailXml.selectSingleNode("//CreateResult");
if(createNode == null)
{
alert("Could not create email.");
return;
}
// Display the email activity to the user.
var emailId = createNode.text;
window.open('/activities/email/edit.aspx?id={' + emailId + '}');
} // CreateEmailFromTemplate

You can use this function to retrieve a template id by specifying a template name/title.

//
// Retrieve the template's id value given the specified template name/title
//
GetTemplateIdByName = function(Name)
{
var id = null;
var xml = "" +
"&lt;?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?&gt;" +
"&lt;soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"<a href="//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\&quot;">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\</a>" xmlns:xsi=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\</a>" xmlns:xsd=\"<a href="//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\&quot;">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\</a>"&gt;" +
GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +
" &lt;soap:Body&gt;" +
" &lt;RetrieveMultiple xmlns=\"<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices\</a>"&gt;" +
" &lt;query xmlns:q1=\"<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query\&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query\</a>" xsi:type=\"q1:QueryExpression\"&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:EntityName&gt;template&lt;/q1:EntityName&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:ColumnSet xsi:type=\"q1:ColumnSet\"&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Attributes&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Attribute&gt;templateid&lt;/q1:Attribute&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Attributes&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:ColumnSet&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Criteria&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:FilterOperator&gt;And&lt;/q1:FilterOperator&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Conditions&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Condition&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:AttributeName&gt;title&lt;/q1:AttributeName&gt;" +
" &lt;q1:Operator&gt;Equal&lt;/q1:Operator&gt;" +
"&lt;q1:Values&gt;" +
"&lt;q1:Value xsi:type='xsd:string'&gt;" + Name + "&lt;/q1:Value&gt;" +
"&lt;/q1:Values&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Condition&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Conditions&gt;" +
" &lt;/q1:Criteria&gt;" +
" &lt;/query&gt;" +
" &lt;/RetrieveMultiple&gt;" +
" &lt;/soap:Body&gt;" +
"&lt;/soap:Envelope&gt;";
var xmlHttpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
xmlHttpRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", "<a href="//schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple&quot;">http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/RetrieveMultiple</a>");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
xmlHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
xmlHttpRequest.send(xml);
var resultXml = xmlHttpRequest.responseXML;
var entityNode = resultXml.selectSingleNode("//RetrieveMultipleResult/BusinessEntities/BusinessEntity");
if(entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:templateid") != null)
id = entityNode.selectSingleNode("q1:templateid").text;
return id;
} // GetTemplateIdByName

The following code provides an example of a function that can be called to execute the above functionality. The example assumes you have placed all of the code from this article in the Case's onload event. You can then call the ShowCaseEmailTemplate() function from an ISV.config button or wherever you choose to decide you need it.

//
// Creates and displays an email for a Case
//
ShowCaseEmailTemplate = function()
{
var templateId = GetTemplateIdByName("MyEmailTemplate");
if(templateId != null &amp;&amp; crmForm.ObjectId != null &amp;&amp; crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue != null)
CreateEmailFromTemplate(crmForm.all.customerid.DataValue, templateId, crmForm.ObjectId, "incident");
} // ShowCaseEmailTemplate