drop down list for countries

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Posted on by sn1b

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Hello,

I'm trying to figure out the best path to implement a drop-down list with in mind the fact that we migrated a huge database of contacts where the country text field is already populated.

- all ready to use scripts / solutions found on the web seems only to work with crm 2011

What I see I can do is:

- or I create a country entity, but it will the be a lookup field. Anyway, I saw that it is possible to convert a lookup field into a drop-down list

- or to create a new drop-down list that will replace the default 'address1_country' text field on my form.

Then, to populate this new field:

- I extract contacts to an excel spreadsheet and copy/paste country name into the new created country field

- there is also a way to use workflows to auto-populate a new field with the content of a existing one but it seems out of my skills so far

Thank you if you could give me advices, what would be the best way to do it.

Best regards

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Nizar JLASSI on at

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RE: drop down list for countries

U R Welcome :)

Nizar JLASSI

Dymamics CRM Trainer and Senior Consultant
Email : n.jlassi@gmail.com

Blog : http://mscrm-njl.blogspot.fr/
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Nizar JLASSI on at

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RE: drop down list for countries

Hello,

If most of your contacts are in your country I advise you to use a Global OptionSet that you can attach to any entity you want. Why ?

- Because, You can define your country as a Default Value for new contacts.

- Because, You can sort your coutries list A to Z and when you select your field on your contact form and you push a letter you find a top list of coutries qith name begins by this letter.

- Because, You can also put your frequently used countries on top of your OptionSet.

- Now you need to create a new OptionSet field on every entity that need to use this Global Option Set.

- Because, If your CRM is Multi-Language you can localize the countries names like this (United States of America (in English) > Etats Unis d'Amérique (in French)).

But if you are in a Mono-Language CRM and you have many contacts from many countries, in this case, I advise you to use a custom entity Country. Why ?

- Because you can add additional information like ISO Code 3, ISO Code 2, Continent (Africa, Europe ...) useful for reporting and any other operation.

- Because, you can use it as a lookup in any entity you want to use. And the lookup component allows you to keep history values alredy used and allows you also to filter countries by pushing a letter. It allow you the autocomplete of your country name if you put write Tuni and click on tab key the lookup knows that it's Tunisia and select it .

Now, if your choice is taken :

In the form, you have to hide standard country fields and to put the new one (Lookup or OptionSet).

For the former records you can export all of these records with the for re-import option checked in a excel file, open it and put manually the name of the country for lookup choice or the country id (the value of the OptionSet entry if your choice is the OptionSet). And reimport it.

I hope that you can make a choice now :)

Nizar JLASSI

Dymamics CRM Trainer and Senior Consultant
Email : n.jlassi@gmail.com

Blog : http://mscrm-njl.blogspot.fr/
sn1b 2,190 on at

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RE: drop down list for countries

Hello,

Any idea on how I could implement a drop-down list rather than a text field for countries? We migrated contacts so the country list is already populated.

Thank you for any advice