Create, design, and edit forms

This topic applies to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises). For the Power Apps version of this topic, see: Create and design model-driven app forms

With Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises), forms provide the user interface that people use to interact with the data they need to do their work. It's important that the forms people use are designed to allow them to find or enter the information they need efficiently.

In the default solution or an unmanaged solution, you can create new forms or edit existing forms for all entities that allow form customization. In an unmanaged solution, you can edit the managed properties for an unmanaged custom entity that was created for the solution. If you’re viewing a managed solution, you can’t create new forms or edit existing forms for entities. However, if the managed properties for an entity in the managed solution are set to allow customization, you can add or edit forms to that entity.

Type of forms

There are several types of forms:

Form type Description More information
Main Used in these Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises): the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement web application, Dynamics 365 for Outlook, and Dynamics 365 for tablets.

These forms provide the main user interface for interacting with entity data.
Design considerations for main forms
Quick Create Used in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises), the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement web application, Dynamics 365 for Outlook, and Dynamics 365 for tablets.

For updated entities, these forms provide a basic form optimized for creating new records.
Create and edit quick create forms
Quick View Used in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises), the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement web application, Dynamics 365 for Outlook, and Dynamics 365 for tablets.

For updated entities, these forms appear within the main form to display additional data for a record that is referenced by a lookup field in the form.
Create and edit quick view forms
Card Used in views for Unified Interface apps. Card forms are designed to present information in a compact format that is suitable for mobile devices. Create a card form

While each form type has specific needs, when working with forms you use the Form Editor. More information: Work with the form editor

Updated versus classic entities

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) provides many options for designing forms. With Unified Interface, most entities were updated to better suit the responsive interface. Updated entities as well as your own custom entities include support for the Dynamics 365 for tablets client, business process flows, and business rules. When you use these entities, you can design once and deploy to all clients.

There are still a number of entities, referred to here as classic entities, that retain the appearance and capabilities from earlier versions. These entities are used less often. They are listed here:

Address

Article

Article Comment

Bulk Delete Operation

Connection

Discount

Discount List

Document Location

Email Attachment

Follow

Goal

Goal Metric

Import Source File

Invoice Product

Order Product

Price List

Queue Item

Quote Product

Rollup Field

Rollup Query

Saved View

Service

Service Activity

SharePoint Site

Site

Territory

Unit

Unit Group

See also

Assign form order
Control access to forms
How main forms appear in different clients
Add form navigation for related entities
Work with the form editor