Binding to Custom Entities in CRM

[walkerlaron]

Before this approach was deprecated, we used to run code such as below using the generated proxy service to interact with dynamics CRM from our web app.

using (OrganizationService organizationService = new OrganizationService(MicrosoftCrmUtility.CreateConnection(
LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.OrganizationName, LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.Username, LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.Password)))
{

using (LAOrganizationServiceContext serviceContext = new LAOrganizationServiceContext(organizationService))
{
var query = from user in serviceContext.la_directorySet
where user.la_PrimaryEmail.Equals(emailAddress) || user.la_SecondaryEmail.Equals(emailAddress)
select user;

return query.FirstOrDefault();
}
}

This would allow for us to use our generated proxy class and query against custom entities. Since this is no longer supported, I’ve been looking for new code samples.  Now, I have this code sample working, but I’m not sure how to get access to custom objects.  Any pointers?

CrmServiceClient conn = new CrmServiceClient(connectionString);
IOrganizationService _orgService;
_orgService = (IOrganizationService)conn.OrganizationWebProxyClient != null ? (IOrganizationService)conn.OrganizationWebProxyClient : (IOrganizationService)conn.OrganizationServiceProxy;

using (OrganizationServiceContext orgSvcContext = new OrganizationServiceContext(_orgService))
{

var query_join = from c in orgSvcContext.CreateQuery("contact")

select new
{
contact_name = c["fullname"],

};
foreach (var c in query_join)
{
System.Console.WriteLine(c.contact_name );
}
}

I was opening it was as easy as passing in the custom object name, but this is not the case.   Our legacy code base leverages a bunch of linq queries, and i would hope to continue this approach to mininize the code changes needed to get back online.

[walkerlaron]

Ok, seems i'm able to get access to the entities if i use the problem names.  however, out biggest challenge now is that we use some of the Generic methods for insert/update etc that were exposed by the legacy organization service.  We have a bunch of calls to methods like this update.

public static void UpdateEntity(this Entity entity)
{
try
{
using (OrganizationService organizationService = new OrganizationService(MicrosoftCrmUtility.CreateConnection(
LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.OrganizationName, LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.Username, LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.Password)))
{
organizationService.Update(entity);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.Data.Add("EntityType", entity.GetType());
ex.Data.Add("Data", "entityName: " + entity.LogicalName + ", Id: " + entity.Id.ToString());
SendException(ex);
}
}

Anyone aware of a port of this function that's currently supported.

[walkerlaron]

okay, seems i was able to get past both of these issues.   Now, we are trying to find the best way to replace our organizationservice references with the new CrmServiceClient approach.  We have over 200 references to this and would like to find a way to do this with mininal syntax changes as possible. 

old code has..

using (OrganizationService organizationService = new OrganizationService(MicrosoftCrmUtility.CreateConnection(
LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.OrganizationName, LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.Username, LAMicrosoftCRMSettings.Default.Password)))
{
organizationService.Update(entity);
}

where as the new code needs...

var connectionString = "AuthType=OAuth;Username{}=;Password{}=;Url={};AppId=51f81489-12ee-4a9e-aaae-a2591f45987d; RedirectUri=app://58145B91-0C36-4500-8554-080854F2AC97;LoginPrompt=Never";

CrmServiceClient conn = new CrmServiceClient(connectionString);
IOrganizationService _orgService;
_orgService = (IOrganizationService)conn.OrganizationWebProxyClient != null ? (IOrganizationService)conn.OrganizationWebProxyClient : (IOrganizationService)conn.OrganizationServiceProxy;

using (OrganizationServiceContext orgSvcContext = new OrganizationServiceContext(_orgService))
{
_orgService.Update(entity);
}

[MattB-MSFT · Accepted solution]

There are a few things going on here.. 

First Entities :
In your example of working,,, your referring to the entity la_directory,  then pointing at contact as not present. 

All strong typed representations are generated using the CrmServiceUtil.exe tool,  so unless you generated the contact entity as code,  no you will not find it.

You have a few options for code gen,  the shipped tool is a command line tool called CrmServiceUtil.exe and is shipped as part the Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreTools nuget packages.  The more popular option, currently, is the XrmToolbox(EarlyBoundGenerator). 

Second thing.. Using the organizationserivcecontext. 

There are 2 options for using OrganizationServiceContext,  you can either use the base object we ship as part of Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client, or you can use the subclass created when you provide an OrganizationServiceContextname to CrmServiceUtil or XrmToolbox(EarlyBoundGenerator). 

In either case,

to create an organizationservicecontext you pass the ServiceClient too it. 

for example :

using(CrmServiceClient conn = new CrmServiceClient(connectionString))
{
   using (OrganizationServiceContext orgSvcContext = new OrganizationServiceContext(conn))
   {
....
   }
}

You can find examples of all of this,

Here: Linq query examples (Microsoft Dataverse) - Power Apps | Microsoft Docs

And here: PowerApps-Samples/cds/orgsvc/C#/QueriesUsingLINQ at master · microsoft/PowerApps-Samples · GitHub