Unified Client Form Properties ‘Cheat Sheet’

I've recently got back from talking about the Unified Client at D365UG in Dublin. It was an awesome week with lots of exciting information about PowerApps and the Common Data Model for Applications. Whilst partaking in the local hospitality (with a pint of Guinness) I was discussing the Dynamics 365 form designer with fellow MVP Leon Tribe and about how there are so many options available but with many of them being legacy and having no effect in the Unified Client. I promised to publish my 'cheat-sheet' of the options and their applicability, so here you are Leon!

Each of the properties are listed as being applicable to the Web UI Only, UCI Only, or for both.

 

Availability

Notes

Field Properties - Official Documentation on Field Properties

Composite Name

Web Only

 I'm not a fan of the composite fields - so I really don't miss them.

Composite Address

Web Only

 

Display Label on the form

Both

 

Field is read-only

Both

 

Turn off automatic resolution in field

Web Only

UCI doesn't auto-resolve fields when tabbing away

Disable most recently used items for this field

UCI Only

See notes below

Visible by default

Both

Fields can be shown/hidden using business rules/JavaScript

Available on phone

UCI Only

Web UI does not render on mobile

Default Lookup View

Both

Web - Default is only used in the popup dialog

Lookup View Selector Filtering

Both

Lookup view always included in filtered list in UCI

Lookup View Columns

Both

Web UI only shows 3 columns inline

UCI shows 2 columns until expand arrow selected

Display Search box in Lookup dialog

Web Only

UCI doesn't show lookup dialog

Inline View Search match highlighting

UCI Only

 See notes below

Only show records where...

Both

 

Tabs - Official Documentation on Tab Properties

Show the label of this tab on the Form

Web Only

Tabs always have labels on the UCI since they are really actual tabs!

Expand this tab by default

Web Only

Tabs do not collapse in the UCI

Visible by Default

Both

UCI and Web both allow dynamic show/hide of tabs using JavaScript

Tab Layout

Both

Tabs can have multiple columns in the UCI and Web UI

Tab Column Width

Both

Tab column width can be controlled in both the UCI and Web UI

Tab Columns

Both

 

Sections - Official Documentation on Section Properties

Section Columns

Both

Multi-Columned Sections will wrap in UCI with the space available. See below.

Available on Phone

UCI Only Web UI is not rendered on the phone.

Field Label Alignment

Web Only

UCI - Labels are always centred

Field Label Position

Web Only

UCI - Labels will move to above the fields automatically when space is limited

Field Label Width

Web Only

Field Label width is a constant in the UCI

Show the label of this section on the Form

Both

 

Show a line at top of the section

No effect

V9 Web and UCI Sections have boxes around them

Sub Grid - Official Documentation on Sub Grid Properties

Display Search Box

Both

 

Display label on the Form

No effect

 

Panel header colour

Web Only

 

Show Chart Only

Web Only

 

Display Chart Selection

No effect

 

Display Index

Both

 

Automatically expand to use available space

Both

Sub-grids will expand in height until they reach the maximum records set and then start to page.

Header/Footer

Header Layout

Both

UCI will show a single row with overflow

Footer Layout

Both

UCI will show on a single line with overflow

 

Recently used records

The recently used records list in lookups are interesting since they are only shown in the UCI. They are especially useful for lookups like 'Regarding'.

Search Lookup Result Highlighting

The UCI has an awesome feature of highlighting your search term in the in-line lookup control. One of the advantages of the UCI is that it works across all devices and so does not show a pop-up dialog like the Web UI does.

Lookup Columns

In the Web UI, you can only see up to 3 columns in the in-line lookup control – where the UCI shows 2 until you click the expand arrow, where all the view columns are shown.

Tab & Section Columns

The UCI allows full control over the columns in a section, however, unlike the Web UI it is responsive and will wrap the fields and sections underneath each other.

Let's look at an example where we have a form design as shown below:

When resizing the UCI to various form factors, the tab will dynamically re-arrange it's self as follows:

Full width - all the columns and sections are shown as they are laid out in the form designer:

Narrower – wrapping section columns underneath each other:

Narrowest – wrapping sections underneath each other:

The Web UI will simply truncate the fields. This difference is one of the most important aspects of the UCI.

Header/Footers

The headers and footers in the UCI render very differently to the Web UI, where the fields that do not fit are added to the overflow flyout much the same as the Command Bar.

Header overflow flyout:

The fields that don't fit in the single header row are shown in the popup flyout:

 

Footer Overflow flyout:

The fields that don't fit into the footer single row are shown as a popup flyout.

Well, that's it. Overall the UCI honours most properties in the form designer where applicable and it does a great job of being responsive enough to show on both mobile and desktop form factors.

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