After a recent solution migration from test to production, I started to encounter a strange issue that appeared to be at random. When navigating to an Account and then navigating away from it without making any changes, Users would receive a message saying changes have not been saved. This comes up as we do not have the auto-save functionality turned on.
I was able to find a record where this was occurring and sure enough even without me making any changes, this message appeared and in the bottom right of the page near the save icon I found the message that there were unsaved changes. My first instinct was to look at JavaScript that might be making changes on a load of the form. Unfortunately, no fields were being updated via JavaScript.
Digging deeper I opened up Developer Tools in my browser and created a small script that searched through all of the fields on the form and searched for which one was throwing the dirty field notification. The culprit, websiteurl. I had previously used this field when the company was using CRM 2011, but it was not deemed necessary for business. I removed it until the company upgraded to CRM 2016 where we recently decided that we wanted to collect that data once again. Beginning in CRM 2013, the single line of text field type with format URL added the protocol requirement so if you added a value into the Website field without a protocol, CRM would prepend the value with HTTP:// for you. All of the records with a value in this field were prior to the CRM change, therefore, when we added the Website field back to the form, CRM wanted to update all of our www. values with HTTP://www.
This is a rare case in that many companies are using the auto-save functionality and will only show itself if this feature is turned off. The few scenarios where this might occur are ones like ours where the field is removed from the form and put back on between a period of CRM2011 and CRM2013 or if records are being added through an ETL tool without the HTTP://.
SCOTT FLORANCE | Business Software Consultant
Scott Florance is one of the CRM Consultants at KTL, and has proven his value as a member of the team since September 2013. Whether implementing a new CRM organization or adding to existing configurations, Scott has engaged clients with a positive and enthusiastic demeanor to help them meet their organizational needs. With six plus years of experience, Scott is familiar with CRM as both a power user and administrator. Scott received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida. He is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist for Dynamics CRM, as well as a Certified Scribe Technician.
