CRM 2011 and OData: Retrieve Example Using Async and Sync Methods

I've found in my transition from CRM 4 to CRM 2011 the ability to use REST and SOAP to be the two biggest improvements to developers. The benefit of both is essentially making the CRM 2011 UI fluid similiar to AJAX. In fact, this example used an AJAX call.

In this example I have successfully used oData to query the db and return a value which can be used to validate ribbon buttons, data, etc.

At the moment this is only configured to retrieve but we can easily extend to create and update.

retrieveRecord: function (id, odataSetName, successCallback, errorCallback) {
        //GetGlobalContext function exists in ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx so the
        //host HTML page must have a reference to ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx.
        var context = this.GetCrmContext();

        //Retrieve the server url, which differs on-premise from on-line and
        //shouldn't be hard-coded.
        var serverUrl = context.Page.context.getServerUrl();
        //The XRM OData end-point
        var ODATA_ENDPOINT = "/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc";

        //id is required
        if (!id) {
            alert("record id is required.");
            return;
        }
        //odataSetName is required, i.e. "AccountSet"
        if (!odataSetName) {
            alert("odataSetName is required.");
            return;
        }

        if (successCallback != null) {
            //Asynchronous AJAX function to Retrieve a CRM record using OData
            $.ajax({
                type: "GET",
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                datatype: "json",
                url: serverUrl + ODATA_ENDPOINT + "/" + odataSetName + "(guid'" + id + "')",
                beforeSend: function (XMLHttpRequest) {
                    //Specifying this header ensures that the results will be returned as JSON.            
                    XMLHttpRequest.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
                },
                success: function (data, textStatus, XmlHttpRequest) {
                    if (successCallback) {
                        successCallback(data.d, textStatus, XmlHttpRequest);
                    }
                },
                error: function (XmlHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
                    if (errorCallback)
                        errorCallback(XmlHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown);
                    else
                        errorHandler(XmlHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown);
                }
            });
        }
        else {
            var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
            request.open("GET", serverUrl + ODATA_ENDPOINT + "/" + odataSetName + "(guid'" + id + "')", false);
            request.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
            request.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
            request.send();
            var $objJquery = jQuery.parseJSON(request.responseText);
            return $objJquery.d;
        }

    }

 GetCrmContext: function () {

        var params = null;
        var myXrm = null;

        // Get XRM object (if possible)
        try {
            if (typeof (Xrm) != 'undefined' && Xrm != null) {
                myXrm = Xrm;
            }
        }
        catch (ex) {
            // DO NOTHING
        }
        return myXrm;
    }

The method has 4 parameters, 2 of which are required:

1.       The guid of the record. This is found by using the following command:

a.       var _id = Xrm.Page.data.entity.getId();

2.       string of the entity set. i.e. new_AccountSet. As with all javascript, proper capitalization is required.

3.       (optional) success Callback method. If you want to run async, provide a method and be ready to handle the return object.

4.       (optional) failure Callback method. Also, if async, provide a method for failure.

NOTE: If you do not set callback methods, then the method will try to run the query inline. If successful you’ll have to provide it something to set:

                var _id = Xrm.Page.data.entity.getId();

                var objAccount = retrieveRecord(_id, "new_AccountSet", null, null);

If you choose to provide a success method, if might look something like this:

function retrieveEntityCompleted(data, textStatus, XmlHttpRequest) {

    _recordData = data;

}