Creating, consuming and using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Service, Using CRM API and CRM SDK to access CRM database via the webservice

Creating, consuming and using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Service, Using CRM API and CRM SDK to access CRM database via the webservice. Custom .NET code to access CRM, create, update (edit), insert, delete, retrieve (return) and retrievemultiple records for system entities and custom entities using both entity objects and dynamic entities. 

This post is a collection of the main methods that you would frequently use in your .NET code (Plugin, Website) that is accessing a dynamics CRM 4.0 system and consuming its CRM services. 

The CrmService Web service provides a set of methods used to perform the most common operations on system and custom entities. 

This collection mainly comes from sevaral pages on MSDN. I just thought it will be useful to have them all together if we need one or more of them. 

The following code shows how to set up the Web service, and how to use the Create and Retrieve methods. 

// Set up the CRM Service.

CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();

token.AuthenticationType = 0; 

token.OrganizationName = "AdventureWorksCycle";

CrmService service = new CrmService();

service.Url = "http://<servername>:<port>/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx";

service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;

service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

// Create an account entity and assign data to some attributes.

account newAccount = new account();

newAccount.name = "Greg Bike Store";

newAccount.accountnumber = "123456";

newAccount.address1_postalcode = "98052";

newAccount.address1_city = "Redmond";

// Call the Create method to create an account.

Guid accountId = service.Create(newAccount);

Guid contactId = new Guid("2B951FBC-1C56-4430-B23B-20A1349068F3");

// Call the Retrieve method to retrieve an existing contact.

ColumnSet myColumnSet = new ColumnSet();

myColumnSet.Attributes = new string[] { "firstname" };

contact myContact = (contact) service.Retrieve ("contact", contactId, myColumnSet)

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The following example demonstrates the use of the Create method. 

// Set up the CRM Service.

CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();

// You can use enums.cs from the SDK\Helpers folder to get the enumeration 

//   for Active Directory authentication.

token.AuthenticationType = 0; 

token.OrganizationName = "AdventureWorksCycle";

CrmService service = new CrmService();

service.Url = "http://<servername>:<port>/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx";

service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;

service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

// Create the contact object.

contact contact = new contact();

// Create the properties for the contact object.

contact.firstname = "Jesper";

contact.lastname = "Aaberg";

contact.address1_line1 = "23 Market St.";

contact.address1_city = "Sammamish";

contact.address1_stateorprovince = "MT";

contact.address1_postalcode = "99999";

contact.donotbulkemail = new CrmBoolean();

contact.donotbulkemail.Value = true;

// Create the contact in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Guid contactGuid = service.Create(contact);

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The following example demonstrates the use of the Retrieve method. 

// Set up the CRM Service.

CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();

// You can use enums.cs from the SDK\Helpers folder to get the enumeration
//   for Active Directory authentication
  

token.AuthenticationType = 0; 
token.OrganizationName = "AdventureWorksCycle";
 
CrmService service = new CrmService();
service.Url = "http://<servername>:<port>/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx";
service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;
service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
 
// Create the column set object that indicates the properties to be retrieved.
ColumnSet cols = new ColumnSet();
 
// Set the properties of the column set.
cols.Attributes = new string [] {"fullname"};
 
// contactGuid is the GUID of the record being retrieved.
Guid contactGuid = new Guid("4D507FFE-ED25-447B-80DE-00AE3EB18B84");
 
// Retrieve the contact.
// The EntityName indicates the EntityType of the object being retrieved.
contact contact = (contact)service.Retrieve(EntityName.contact.ToString(), 
                                             contactGuid, cols);
  
  
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The following example demonstrates the use of the RetrieveMultiple method. 
  
// Set up the CRM Service.
CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();
 

// You can use enums.cs from the SDK\Helpers folder to get the enumeration
//   for Active Directory authentication
  

token.AuthenticationType = 0; 
token.OrganizationName = "AdventureWorksCycle";
 
CrmService service = new CrmService();
service.Url = "http://<servername>:<port>/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx";
service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;
service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
 
// Create the ColumnSet that indicates the properties to be retrieved.
ColumnSet cols = new ColumnSet();
 
// Set the properties of the ColumnSet.
cols.Attributes = new string [] {"fullname", "contactid"};
 
// Create the ConditionExpression.
ConditionExpression condition = new ConditionExpression();
 
// Set the condition for the retrieval to be when the 
//    contact's address' city is Sammamish.
condition.AttributeName = "address1_city";
condition.Operator = ConditionOperator.Like;
condition.Values = new string [] {"Sammamish"};
 
// Create the FilterExpression.
FilterExpression filter = new FilterExpression();
 
// Set the properties of the filter.
filter.FilterOperator = LogicalOperator.And;
filter.Conditions = new ConditionExpression[] {condition};
 
// Create the QueryExpression object.
QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression();
 
// Set the properties of the QueryExpression object.
query.EntityName = EntityName.contact.ToString();
query.ColumnSet = cols;
query.Criteria = filter;
 
// Retrieve the contacts.
BusinessEntityCollection contacts = service.RetrieveMultiple(query);
  
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The following example demonstrates the use of the Update method. 
  
// Set up the CRM Service.
CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();
 

// You can use enums.cs from the SDK\Helpers folder to get the enumeration
//   for Active Directory authentication
  

token.AuthenticationType = 0; 
token.OrganizationName = "AdventureWorksCycle";
 
CrmService service = new CrmService();
service.Url = "http://<servername>:<port>/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx";
service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;
service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
 
// Create the contact object.
contact contact = new contact();
 
// Set the contact object properties to be updated.
contact.address1_line1 = "34 Market St.";
 
// The contactid is a key that references the ID of the contact to be updated.
contact.contactid = new Key();
// The contactid.Value is the GUID of the record to be changed.
contact.contactid.Value = new Guid("4D507FFE-ED25-447B-80DE-00AE3EB18B84");
 
// Update the contact.
service.Update(contact);
  
—————————- 
  
The following example demonstrates the use of the Delete method. 
  
// Set up the CRM Service.
CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();
 

// You can use enums.cs from the SDK\Helpers folder to get the enumeration
//   for Active Directory authentication
  

token.AuthenticationType = 0; 
token.OrganizationName = "AdventureWorksCycle";
 
CrmService service = new CrmService();
service.Url = "http://<servername>:<port>/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx";
service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;
service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
 
// contactGuid is the GUID of the record being deleted.
Guid contactGuid = new Guid("4D507FFE-ED25-447B-80DE-00AE3EB18B84");
 
// Delete the contact.
// The EntityName indicates the EntityType of the object being deleted.
service.Delete(EntityName.contact.ToString(), contactGuid);
  
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For Dynamic Entities: The following sample shows how to create a new entity instance by calling the CreateEntity method followed by the AddObject method. 
  
var contact = crm.CreateEntity("contact");
 
// Set the string properties.
contact.SetPropertyValue("firstname", "Allison");
contact.SetPropertyValue("lastname", "Brown");
contact.SetPropertyValue("emailaddress1", "allison.brown@contoso.com");
 
// Setting an explicit ID value is optional, it can be left unassigned, 
//    but here it is being explicitly assigned.
var id = Guid.NewGuid();
contact.SetPropertyValue("contactid", id);
 
// Pass the entity name of the entity being created as the first parameter.
crm.AddObject("contact", contact);
crm.SaveChanges();
 
// The ID value can be retrieved after you have called the SaveChanges method.
var id2 = contact.GetPropertyValue<Guid>("contactid");
  
  
  
These methods have been collected from MSDN mainly from these two locations:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc151016.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff681571.aspx