Accessing Dynamics 365 REST Endpoint via OData

An alternative way to retrieve, filter, create and modify CRM records is the OData-Endpoint.

To access Dynamics 365 Data via REST you have to call the API:

Example:

GET exampleserver/Orgname/api/data/v8.2/rit_testentitys

As you can see you have to add an ‘s’ to the singular name of your entity.

For non custom entitys this can be different. However, you can find the right name via the XrmToolbox under EntitySetName.

 

Alternatively you can retrieve the EntityDefinitions via OData to get the EntitySetName of any Entity.

With the ‘select’-option you can determine the columns to retrieve. In this case ‘EntitySetName’ and ‘LogicalName’

GET http://exampleserver:5555/Orgname/api/data/v8.2/EntityDefinitions?$select=EntitySetName,LogicalName

To filter the query result, a ‘filter’-parameter is required

http://exampleserver:5555/Orgname/api/data/v8.2/EntityDefinitions?$select=EntitySetName,LogicalName$filter=LogicalName eq 'opportunity'

 

In the response is now only one result.

Following filter operators are supported:

Eq           Equal

Ne          Not equal

Gt           Greater than

Ge          Greater than or equal

Lt            Less than

Le           Less than or equal

And        Logical and

Or           Logical or

 

 

To retrieve Lookup-Information like the FormattedValue and ID add an additional Header to the request:

Prefer: odata.include-annotations="*"

With JavaScript, you can do it like this:

    $.ajax({

        type: "GET",

        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

        datatype: "json",

        url:"http://exampleserver:5555/Orgname/api/data/v8.2/rit_testentitys(5b9ec7f3-1a5e-46e2-9b8c-b2a5f866f5b9)",

        beforeSend: function (request) {

            request.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");

            request.setRequestHeader("Prefer", "odata.include-annotations=\"*\"");

        },

        success: onSuccess,

        error: onError

    });

The response contains all lookup-information in separated attributes:

    _parentcustomerid_value@OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue: "Testcompany",

    _parentcustomerid_value@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty: "parentcustomerid_account",

    _parentcustomerid_value@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname: "account",

    _parentcustomerid_value: "61df8de6-2e11-46af-9b20-4a0345d124d1"

 

To fill a lookup field, you need the ID and EntitySetName of each Record:

PATCH http://exampleserver:5555/Orgname/api/data/v8.2/rit_testentitys/(5b9ec7f3-1a5e-46e2-9b8c-b2a5f866f5b9)

Furthermore, an additional header is required. The X-HTTP-Method-Header specifies the data operation. A List of all available Methods is available at MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/dd541471.aspx

In this case we need the “MERGE” value

HEADER: "X-HTTP-Method", "MERGE"

BODY: destinationLookupFieldsname@odata.bind=/contacts(82aa55d3-9914-430c-affd-4f207d811368)

To clear (disassociate) a lookup field, a delete request is required. Use the $ref keyword to edit the reference

 

DELETE http://exampleserver:5555/Orgname/api/data/v8.2/rit_testentitys/(5b9ec7f3-1a5e-46e2-9b8c-b2a5f866f5b9)/contacts(82aa55d3-9914-430c-affd-4f207d811368)/$ref