Is it possible to customize a CRM 2011 (online) entity view?

Question

CRM 2011 online. I have a requirement to color code entries that appear in an entity view. On a form for entity A is a field that is a lookup to entity B. Entity B has > 1 views defined for it. The lookup field on form A defines what view of entity B appears when the lookup button is pressed. I have been asked if the view that appears can show the records such that the entries are color coded based on a column value of the view e.g. if a record in the view has a value of X for a particular column, show that record with a green background, else show with a red. The view in question is a "public" view and is unmanaged and customizable.

In effect what I am asking is if it's possible to manipulate the display of that view somehow? If not, is the only other option to override the clicking of the lookup on the form for entity A and display my own custom view window?

What I have found in my searching is this which seems to suggest that I can export a view and manipulate the XML to incorporate some kind of conditional formatting. However, all it tells me is that the value is a string. Anyone have any experience there?

Answer 1

You are going to make it harder on yourself by having unmanaged code in your solution.

That being said, you can easily do this sort of thing in an iFrame or Silverlight control.

A quick google brought up some examples on how to do this.