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