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I'm currently trying to setup a way of registering Fixed Assets in CRM 2011 On Premises (RU 15). I've created a bunch of entities and it's starting to look good. The bit I'm a little stuck with at the moment is the best way of converting my assets into entities.
I currently have an "asset" entity that contains things such as the make, model and type of asset. For instance a Dell E5500 Laptop. My question is around how best to record the details of the asset. For instance I would want to record the CPU, RAM, Screen Size, HDD, MAC addresses and so-on of the laptop. But if the asset were a TV instead, I wouldn't need most of the fields that were suitable for the Laptop asset type.
I could turn the "asset" entity into a super entity that contains dozens of fields and then organise them on the form in sections using script to show and hide the relevant bits. But that seems extremely wasteful, and it will be a bit of a nightmare to manage if I need the same field to appear in several different sections (such as Screen Size needing to be in both the Laptop and TV sections).
The alternative is that I create a separate entity for each asset type. This will allow me to collect exactly the information I need for the type of asset that I'm adding. The downside of this is that I'm not sure how to set it up on my main "asset" form so that it shows me a 'sub form' if you like where I can enter the details of my new asset. A subgrid would probably be OK for looking at assets that have already been added to the system, but I don't think it'll work for adding new ones.
Having to go into the laptop entity, enter some details, and then go into the asset entity and enter some details and then tie the two records together is going to unwieldy and prone to errors, hence my desire to try and get everything on one form.
I appreciate some custom code is likely to be needed, and I'm quite prepared to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in, I'm just not sure of the best way to organise things so that I don't either paint myself into a corner, or end up with a system that's so awkward to use that it will be ignored.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.
Phil.
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Hi! It sounds like you have a good understanding of the options. The most common approach is to add all attributes to the order product entity but if this results in >100 attributes create a N:1 relationship to multiple sub-product entities. If this approach isn't going to work (and it sounds like you have explored them already) you'll need to use a custom solution such as http://acquire.cincom.com
I don't recommend developing your own solution because the product attribute functionality in CRM2015 will likely fit your needs.
Hope this helps,
Scott
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