How to copy an entity using C# plugin and early bound classes

Hello,

In this post I'm going to explain you how to copy an entity by using plugin written in C#. I'm also demonstrating you the power of CrmSvcUtil which "generates early-bound .NET Framework classes that represent the entity data model used by Microsoft Dynamics CRM" for your Visual Studio project. I'm not going through how to use CrmSvcUtil. If you need help getting started with it please refer Create Early Bound Entity Classes with the Code Generation Tool (CrmSvcUtil.exe).

As an example I'm going to use Contact entity. I'm going to attach my plugin in Delete event / message so that when ever the user deletes the contact my plugin will run and copy that contact.

Some prerequisites are

• You have Visual Studio and know how to create a solution and a project.
• You have plugin registration tool and know how to register a plugin
• You have CrmSvcUtil and know how to generate classes and import them as part of your Visual Studio project.
• You have Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK (which actually includes plugin registration tool and CrmSvcUtil)

So let's get started. I'm writing this post as I'm doing this task so you may want to do some things in different order maybe.

Step 1

Create a new solution (or use existing one) and add new project into it. There are some assemblies you have to add.

• Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk (this can be found inside the SDK)
• Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client
• System.ServiceModel
• System.Runtime.Serialization

Step 2

Generate classes by running CrmSvcUtil.exe from console. You may want to check all available attributes from the link I provided in a beginning. As a reference this is how my command looks like

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK\bin>CrmSvcUtil.exe /url:https://antaumus601.crm4.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc /out:EarlyBoundClasses.cs /username:"myUsername" /password:"myPassword" /namespace:AntaumusCRMSolution

When the .cs file is ready add it to your Visual Studio project.

Step 3

Write the core plugin components (implement IPlugin interface etc.). If you need help with writing plugin please refer Plug-in Development for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Step 4

Now let's write the actual logic.Very important part when using early bound types is OrganizationServiceContext class. Please refer Use the Organization Service Context Class. In this case it will help us to add our new contact easily to CRM but it has a lot of good benefits (for example LINQ providing).

"To instantiate the context class, you must pass the class constructor an object that implements the IOrganizationService interface."

Fortunately we can create IOrganizationService indirectly from IServiceProvider that is passed for Execute method by writing following lines

IOrganizationServiceFactory serviceFactory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));

IOrganizationService service = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(executionContext.UserId);

OrganizationServiceContext orgServiceContext = new OrganizationServiceContext(service);  

So in shortly what happens here is we take IOrganizationServiceFactory from service provider and then use the factory for creating a service. If you want to know more about factories this might be good place to start: Exploring the Factory Design Pattern

Now when everything is settled you can create new entities like this

Contact newContact = new Contact();

And access its properties like this

newContact.FirstName

You can add entity / entities for set OrganizationServiceContext is tracking by using AddObject method. When running SaveChanges() function all changes are  performed for entities that are in the set.

Very simple. I'm not going to explain my whole code here but instead I'll paste it to the end so you can take a look at it by yourself. To keep it very simple I did not copy whole contact in my code, only first name and last name. The approach I'm using in this example may not be the best. If I should really copy the whole contact (and related entities) I might think about using LINQ for sure.

Step 5

Register your plugin in a way you want. I registered it in Post-operation Delete message synchronously and created Pre Entity image. You may have to sign you Visual Studio project first.

Final result

Developing Windows 8 apps using modern web technologies

Hello, this is clearly not Microsoft Dynamics CRM related post but I wanted to share this with you anyway. It's amazing what we can do with modern web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript nowadays. Not that I have much experience... yet, but this lady has. Take a look at her video in which she's talking about possibilities of the modern web techs. We are talking about native, desktop-a-like applications here that are made by using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. No internet connection needed, crazy isn't it.

Import data from Excel to MS Dynamics CRM

Hello, let's take a quick look at how to import data from excel spreadsheet into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM. There are two things you have to do (apart from collecting all data you want to import of course).

1. Download a template

First, you need to download the excel template from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. By doing this you ensure that after you have populated it with your data you are still able to import it back without any problems. Go to the entity's page you want to import (leads, opportunities, accounts, etc.). Then click "Import Data" from the data tab inside the top ribbon and select "Download Template for Import". Please refer the picture below.

Save the template in any place you find suitable. Note that the template is actually XML file, so you don't necessarily need Microsoft Excel in order to populate it.

2. Import the populated template

Now once you have filled all data you are ready to import your file back. To do this go back to the entity's page you want to import and at this time select "Import data" from the same button as earlier. The rest should be self explanatory. Just follow the import wizard.

How to get an entity by its id using javascript

How to get an entity by its id using javascript

Short answer

Click here for a short answer.

Long answer

Step 1

The first step is to get an id of an entity whose information you'd like to return. In most of a cases you have a lookup field where you have some entity selected and you most likely want to return information from that particular entity. Notice that you can't really use only Xrm.Page.getAttribute('lookupfield').getValue() for the lookup field because instead of returning the entity it returns a lookup item which is only a link to the actual entity. However we are using it for getting the id. Why we can use it is because the lookup field's value contains actual entity's name, logical name and more importantly the id. The id in turn can be used on a step 2 when reaching out the entity itself and rest of its data.

To get entity's id from a lookup field use

Xrm.Page.getAttribute('lookupfield').getValue()[0].id;

It returns the id in a following form {FD140AAF-4DF4-11DD-BD17-0019B9312238}. We have to get rid of the braces though in order to use it in a further stage. You can use for example javascript function replace() and replace any braces with nothing. See JavaScript replace Method.

Xrm.Page.getAttribute('lookupfield').getValue()[0].id.replace('{','').replace('}','');

Depending on your needs you can save the id straight into a variable or make a function that returns the id when called. I use the function

function getId(){
return Xrm.Page.getAttribute('lookupfield').getValue()[0].id.replace('{','').replace('}','');
}

Step 2

Now when you know how to get the id from the lookup field let's get the fun started. The key element of the whole process is the XMLHttpRequest object. If you don't know what that is or how to use it please refer The XMLHttpRequest Object. Let's start building our function. Give it a meaningfull name.

function getData(){}

Now we have it. At the end of this tutorial that function will have an access to the entity's data we are looking for. First we have to create a new XMLHttpRequest object.

var request = new XMLHttpRequest();

Next we have to use XMLHttpRequest.open() method to assign some information for a pending request. It takes three different parameters.

1. Method to use to open the connection
2. Url to the data source
3. Whether the request is asynchronous or synchronous.

Before we can use the open() we have to define the url to the data source. Below I briefly show you how to construct the url. For more information about URI Conventions I recommend to check out the OData Protocol URI Conventions. Anyway, the url consists of three parts.

1. Root URI
2. Resource path
3. Query

Root URI is constructed in a same manner in all CRM 2011 systems.

var rootURI = Xrm.Page.context.getServerUrl() + '/xrmservices/2011/organizationdata.svc';

Resource path in turn depends on what type of an entity we are looking for. The name is always in a format like <EntityType>Set. For example in case of an incident it looks like


var resourcePath = '/IncidentSet';

Then comes the query which greatly varies depending on your search conditions. In this tutorial we are searching entities by them ids and thus the query is relatively easy. How to construct more complex queries see the OData Protocol URI Conventions once more. The query in this example looks like following

var query = '(guid\'' + getId() + '\')';

What happens here is we are putting the id that our function returns between (guid' and '). Notice that \' stands for an apostrophe that is counted as a string. You could do this apostrophe adding during the step 1 when we were using replace() functions. I personally prefer the current way though because I might need the id somewhere else in a different format for example.

We are now ready to use XMLHttpRequest.open() method since we have all three parameters available. Our getData() function should look like this.

function getData(){
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
var rootURI = Xrm.Page.context.getServerUrl() + '/xrmservices/2011/organizationdata.svc';
var resourcePath = '/IncidentSet';

var query = '(guid\'' + getPalvelupyyntoId() + '\')';

request.open('GET', rootURI + resourcePath + query, true);

}

Let's finish the XMLHttpRequest by adding two custom HTTP headers, telling what to do when the request is sent and finally sending it. Add these two custom headers that indicates the content type.

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

request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');

Yes we are using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) for returning the data and for that you will need the JSON in JavaScript library. I also recommend to visit JSON website which nicely introduce you to JSON in a case you don't know what it is.

Now let's tell our request object how to act when it is sent. In other words when ever the ready state is changed. For that of course we will use good old onreadystatechange event. You can do this many ways but in this case I prefer using so called anonymous function which has no identifier. I leave the function body empty now for the sake of simplicity. We add the body later on.

request.onreadystatechange = function(){};

Then the final step is to send the request by using send() method.

request.send();

Our getData() function should look like this right now.

function getData(){
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
var rootURI = Xrm.Page.context.getServerUrl() + '/xrmservices/2011/organizationdata.svc';
var resourcePath = '/IncidentSet';

var query = '(guid\'' + getId() + '\')';

request.open('GET', rootURI + resourcePath + query, true); 

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

request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');

request.onreadystatechange = function(){};

request.send();

}

Basically if you would run the code above it would send the request and even run the anonymous function we attached to the event, but of course nothing significant wouldn't happen because the function body is empty. For that we as a final step we are going to add the function body in which you have the access to entity data.

Remember that the function is called every time when the ready state is changed. For that reason we have to make an if statement to check out what is the current state. We don't want to perform any functionalities if any data is not available. See readyState property documentation for more information.

if(this.readyState == 4){}

When all the data has been received (or when the ready state equals four) we have to check the status as well. See status property documentation for more information.

if(this.readyState == 4){
if(this.status == 200){
}
}

Now finally inside the second if statement you can start write your code you want to perform. In example below I'm demonstrating how to parse the data into a variable and then referring an individual datum. 

if(this.readyState == 4){
if(this.status == 200){
var result = JSON.parse(request.responseText).d;
console.log(result.CustomerId.Name); // Printing a value to console 
}
} 

Now when you put all together it should look like this.

Final result

function getId(){
return Xrm.Page.getAttribute('lookupfield').getValue()[0].id.replace('{','').replace('}','');
}

function getData(){
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
var rootURI = Xrm.Page.context.getServerUrl() + '/xrmservices/2011/organizationdata.svc';
var resourcePath = '/IncidentSet';

var query = '(guid\'' + getId() + '\')';

request.open('GET', rootURI + resourcePath + query, true); 

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

request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');

request.onreadystatechange = function(){
if(this.readyState == 4){
if(this.status == 200){
var result = JSON.parse(request.responseText).d;
console.log(result.CustomerId.Name); // Printing a value to console 
}
} 
};
request.send(); 
}

You can do very powerfull functionalities when chaining requests together. It's extremely handy approach for example when creating auto fills for forms. Don't forget to include JSON though. When you parse the result you can use for each loop to loop through all properties of it.

If you have any questions or so leave a comment below. Thank you.

How to hide a tab section in Microsoft CRM 2011 using javascript

How to hide a tab section in Microsoft CRM 2011 using javascript

Short answer

Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get('tab_name').sections.get('section_name').setVisible(false);

Long answer

Sooner or later you end up in a situation where you have to hide or show certain tab sections based on certain conditions. While I was searching a solution I noticed many people use tab and section sequence numbers when referring a certain section. It works as well but may cause problems when someone modifies the form itself. Hence I prefer using tab and section names instead.

As you already may know Xrm.Page object offers a strong way to interact with forms. For more information check out the Xrm.Page Reference. We are interested in Xrm.Page.ui, more specifically Xrm.Page.ui.tabs and Xrm.Page.ui.tabs section Methods and controls.

The first step is to select a tab in which you want to hide or show a section. You can select the tab by using get() method from Xrm.Page.ui.tabs. As you can see you can refer the tab with the name or number. I find myself using the name more ofter since I think it's more secure.

Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get('tab_name');

After you have selected the tab you have to select the section. Sections collection has same methods than the tabs collection. Refer Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.sections Collection. By using get() again you can select a section you'd like. Once again you can either use the name or number when selecting a section.

Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get('tab_name').sections.get('section_name');

Notice that you can also use get() method without any parameter. Method will then return an array including all sections inside the tab. You can then refer a section using normal array element numbering. For example the code below would return the first section inside the tab.

Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get('tab_name').sections.get()[0];

This is extremely handy when you have to loop through all the sections for some reason.

After you have the section selected you have an access to section methods and controls. We are using setVisible() method to change the visibility of the section. Give a boolean value as a parameter.

Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get('tab_name').sections.get('section_name').setVisible(false);

That's it. If you are running into any trouble please leave a comment below.

Thank you!