dynamics-web-api

DynamicsWebApi for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web API

DynamicsWebApi is a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web API helper library written in JavaScript. It is compatible with: Dynamics 365 (online), Dynamics 365 (on-premises), Dynamics CRM 2016, Dynamics CRM Online.

Libraries for browsers can be found in dist folder.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
  • DynamicsWebApi as a Dynamics 365 web resource
  • DynamicsWebApi for Node.js
  • Configuration
    • Configuration Parameters
• Request Examples
  • Create a record
  • Update a record
  • Update a single property value
  • Upsert a record
  • Delete a record
    • Delete a single property value
  • Retrieve a record
  • Retrieve multiple records
  • Count
  • Associate
  • Associate for a single-valued navigation property
  • Disassociate
  • Disassociate for a single-valued navigation property
  • Fetch XML Request
  • Execute Web API functions
  • Execute Web API actions
• JavaScript Promises
• JavaScript Callbacks

Getting Started

DynamicsWebApi as a Dynamics 365 web resource

In order to use DynamicsWebApi inside Dynamics 365 you need to download a browser version of the library, it can be found in dist folder.

Upload a script as a JavaScript Web Resource, place on the entity or refer to it in your HTML Web Resource and then initialize the main object:

var dynamicsWebApi = new DynamicsWebApi(); //by default Web API v8.0 used if you do not set a configuration object.

dynamicsWebApi.executeUnboundFunction("WhoAmI").then(function (response) {
    Xrm.Utility.alertDialog('Hello Dynamics 365! My id is: ' + response.UserId);
}).catch(function(error){
    console.log(error.message);
});

DynamicsWebApi for Node.js

DynamicsWebApi can be used as Node.js module to access Dynamics 365 Web API using OAuth.

First of all, install a package from NPM:

npm install dynamics-web-api --save

Then include it in your file:

var DynamicsWebApi = require('dynamics-web-api');

At this moment DynamicsWebApi does not fetch authorization tokens, so you will need to acquire OAuth token in your code and pass it to the DynamicsWebApi. Token can be aquired using ADAL for Node.js or you can write your own functionality, as it is described here.

Here is a sample using adal-node:

var DynamicsWebApi = require('dynamics-web-api');
var AuthenticationContext = require('adal-node').AuthenticationContext;

//the following settings should be taken from Azure for your application
//and stored in app settings file or in global variables

//OAuth Token Endpoint
var authorityUrl = 'https://login.windows.net/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000011/oauth2/token';
//CRM Organization URL
var resource = 'https://myorg.crm.dynamics.com';
//Dynamics 365 Client Id when registered in Azure
var clientId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001';
var username = 'crm-user-name';
var password = 'crm-user-password';

var adalContext = new AuthenticationContext(authorityUrl);

//add a callback as a parameter for your function
function acquireToken(dynamicsWebApiCallback){
    //a callback for adal-node
    function adalCallback(error, token) {
        if (!error){
            //call DynamicsWebApi callback only when a token has been retrieved
            dynamicsWebApiCallback(token);
        }
        else{
            console.log('Token has not been retrieved. Error: ' + error.stack);
        }
    }

    //call a necessary function in adal-node object to get a token
    adalContext.acquireTokenWithUsernamePassword(resource, username, password, clientId, adalCallback);
}

//create DynamicsWebApi object
var dynamicsWebApi = new DynamicsWebApi({ 
    webApiUrl: 'https:/myorg.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v8.2/',
    onTokenRefresh: acquireToken
});

//call any function
dynamicsWebApi.executeUnboundFunction("WhoAmI").then(function (response) {
    console.log('Hello Dynamics 365! My id is: ' + response.UserId);
}).catch(function(error){
    console.log(error.message);
});

Configuration

To initialize a new instance of DynamicsWebApi with a configuration object, please use the following code:

//config can be passed directly to the constructor
var dynamicsWebApi = new DynamicsWebApi({ webApiVersion: "8.2" });

You can set a configuration dynamically if needed:

//or can be set dynamically
dynamicsWebApi.setConfig({ webApiVersion: "8.2" });

Configuration Parameters

Property Name	Type	Description
impersonate	String	A String representing the GUID value for the Dynamics 365 system user id. Impersonates the user.
onTokenRefresh	Function	A callback function that triggered when DynamicsWebApi requests a new OAuth token. (At this moment it is done before each call to Dynamics 365, as recommended by Microsoft).
webApiUrl	String	A complete URL string to Web API. Example of the URL: "https:/myorg.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v8.2/". If it is specified then webApiVersion property will not be used even if it is not empty.
webApiVersion	String	Version of the Web API. Default version is "8.0".

Configuration property webApiVersion is required only when DynamicsWebApi used inside of CRM. Property webApiUrl is required when DynamicsWebApi used externally. If both configuration properties set webApiUrl will have the highest priority than webApiVersion, so the last one will be skipped.

Request Examples

DynamicsWebApi supports Basic and Advanced calls to Web API.

Basic calls can be made by using functions with most commonly used input parameters. They are most convenient for simple operations as they do not provide all possible ways of interaction with CRM Web API (for example, conditional retrievals are not supported in basic functions).

Basic functions are: create, update, upsert, deleteRecord, retrieve, retrieveMultiple, count, executeFetchXml, associate, disassociate, associateSingleValued, disassociateSingleValued, executeBoundFunction, executeUnboundFunction, executeBoundAction, executeUnboundAction.

Advanced functions have a suffix Request added to the end of the applicable operation. Most of the functions have a single input parameter which is a request object.

The following table describes all properties that are accepted in this object. Important! Not all operaions accept all properties and if you by mistake specified an invalid property you will receive either an error saying that the request is invalid or the response will not have expected results.

Property Name	Type	Operation(s) Supported	Description
collection	String	All	The name of the Entity Collection, for example, for account use accounts, opportunity - opportunities and etc.
count	Boolean	retrieveMultipleRequest	Boolean that sets the $count system query option with a value of true to include a count of entities that match the filter criteria up to 5000 (per page). Do not use $top with $count!
entity	Object	updateRequest, upsertRequest	A JavaScript object with properties corresponding to the logical name of entity attributes (exceptions are lookups and single-valued navigation properties).
expand	Array	retrieveRequest, updateRequest, upsertRequest	An array of Expand Objects (described below the table) representing the $expand OData System Query Option value to control which related records are also returned.
filter	String	retrieveRequest, retrieveMultipleRequest	Use the $filter system query option to set criteria for which entities will be returned.
id	String	retrieveRequest, updateRequest, upsertRequest, deleteRequest	A String representing the GUID value for the record.
ifmatch	String	retrieveRequest, updateRequest, upsertRequest, deleteRequest	Sets If-Match header value that enables to use conditional retrieval or optimistic concurrency in applicable requests. More info.
ifnonematch	String	retrieveRequest, upsertRequest	Sets If-None-Match header value that enables to use conditional retrieval in applicable requests. More info.
impersonate	String	All	A String representing the GUID value for the Dynamics 365 system user id. Impersonates the user.
includeAnnotations	String	retrieveRequest, retrieveMultipleRequest	Sets Prefer header with value "odata.include-annotations=" and the specified annotation. Annotations provide additional information about lookups, options sets and other complex attribute types.
maxPageSize	Number	retrieveMultipleRequest	Sets the odata.maxpagesize preference value to request the number of entities returned in the response.
navigationProperty	String	retrieveRequest	A String representing the name of a single-valued navigation property. Useful when needed to retrieve information about a related record in a single request.
orderBy	Array	retrieveMultipleRequest	An Array (of Strings) representing the order in which items are returned using the $orderby system query option. Use the asc or desc suffix to specify ascending or descending order respectively. The default is ascending if the suffix isn't applied.
returnRepresentation	Boolean	updateRequest, upsertRequest	Sets Prefer header request with value "return=representation". Use this property to return just created or updated entity in a single request.
savedQuery	String	retrieveRequest	A String representing the GUID value of the saved query.
select	Array	retrieveRequest, retrieveMultipleRequest, updateRequest, upsertRequest	An Array (of Strings) representing the $select OData System Query Option to control which attributes will be returned.
token	String	All	Authorization Token. If set, onTokenRefresh will not be called.
top	Number	retrieveMultipleRequest	Limit the number of results returned by using the $top system query option. Do not use $top with $count!
userQuery	String	retrieveRequest	A String representing the GUID value of the user query.

Basic and Advanced functions are also have differences in expand parameters. For Basic ones this parameter is a type of String while request.expand property is an Array of Expand Objects for Advanced operations. The following table describes Expand Object properties:

Property Name	Type	Description
filter	String	Use the $filter system query option to set criteria for which related entities will be returned.
orderBy	Array	An Array (of Strings) representing the order in which related items are returned using the $orderby system query option. Use the asc or desc suffix to specify ascending or descending order respectively. The default is ascending if the suffix isn't applied.
property	String	A name of a single-valued navigation property which needs to be expanded.
select	Array	An Array (of Strings) representing the $select OData System Query Option to control which attributes will be returned.
top	Number	Limit the number of results returned by using the $top system query option.

According to CRM developers (here and here $expand does not work for retrieveMultiple requests which is claimed as a bug of CRM Web API. As well as multi-level expands are not implemented yet. This situation may be changed with the future updates in the platform. Please look for the news!

For complex requests to Web API with multi-level expands use executeFetchXml function.

Create a record

//initialize a CRM entity record object
var lead = {
    subject: "Test WebAPI",
    firstname: "Test",
    lastname: "WebAPI",
    jobtitle: "Title"
};
//call dynamicsWebApi.create function
dynamicsWebApi.create(lead, "leads").then(function (id) {
    //do something with id here
}).catch(function (error) {
    //catch error here
})

Update a record

Basic

//lead id is needed for an update operation
var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

//initialize a CRM entity record object
//and specify fields with values that need to be updated
var lead = {
    subject: "Test update",
    jobtitle: "Developer"
}
//perform an update operation
dynamicsWebApi.update(leadId, "leads", lead).then(function () {
    //do something after a succesful operation
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Advanced using Request Object

var request = {
    id: '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70',
    collection: "leads",
    entity: {
        subject: "Test update",
        jobtitle: "Developer"
    },
    returnRepresentation: true,
    select: ["fullname"]
};

dynamicsWebApi.updateRequest(request).then(function (response) {
    var fullname = response.fullname;
    //do something with a fullname of a recently updated entity record
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Update a single property value

//lead id is needed for an update single property operation
var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

//initialize key value pair object
var keyValuePair = { subject: "Update Single" };

//perform an update single property operation
dynamicsWebApi.updateSingleProperty(leadId, "leads", keyValuePair).then(function () {
    //do something after a succesful operation
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Upsert a record

Basic

//lead id is needed for an upsert operation
var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

var lead = {
    subject: "Test Upsert"
};

//initialize a CRM entity record object
//and specify fields with values that need to be upserted
dynamicsWebApi.upsert(leadId, "leads", lead).then(function (id) {
    //do something with id
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Advanced using Request Object

var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

var request = {
    id: leadId,
    collection: "leads",
    returnRepresentation: true,
    select: ["fullname"],
    entity: {
        subject: "Test upsert"
    },
    ifnonematch: "*" //to prevent update
};

dynamicsWebApi.upsertRequest(request).then(function (record) {
    if (record != null) {
        //record created
    }
    else {
        //update prevented
    }
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Delete a record

Basic

//record id is needed to perform a delete operation
var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

//perform a delete
dynamicsWebApi.deleteRecord(leadId, "leads").then(function () {
    //do something after a succesful operation
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Advanced using Request Object

//delete with optimistic concurrency
var request = {
    id: recordId,
    collection: "leads",
    ifmatch: 'W/"470867"'
}

dynamicsWebApi.deleteRequest(request).then(function (isDeleted) {
    if (isDeleted){
        //the record has been deleted
    }
    else{
        //the record has not been deleted
    }
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Delete a single property value

//record id is needed to perform a delete of a single property value operation
var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

//perform a delete of a single property value
dynamicsWebApi.deleteRecord(leadId, "leads", "subject").then(function () {
    //do something after a succesful operation
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Retrieve a record

Basic

var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

//perform a retrieve operaion
dynamicsWebApi.retrieve(leadid, "leads", ["fullname", "subject"]).then(function (record) {
    //do something with a record here
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Advanced using Request Object

var request = {
    id: '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70',
    collection: "leads",
    select: ["fullname", "subject"],

    //ETag value with the If-None-Match header to request data to be retrieved only 
    //if it has changed since the last time it was retrieved.
    ifnonematch: 'W/"468026"',

    //Retrieved record will contain formatted values
    includeAnnotations: "OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue"
};

dynamicsWebApi.retrieveRequest(request).then(function (record) {
    //do something with a record
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //if the record has not been found the error will be thrown
});

Retrieve a reference to related record using a single-valued navigation property

It is possible to retrieve a reference to the related entity (it works both in Basic and Advanced requests): select: ["ownerid/$ref"]. The parameter must be the only one, it must be the name of a single-valued navigation property and it must have a suffix /$ref attached to it. Example:

var leadId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

//perform a retrieve operaion
dynamicsWebApi.retrieve(leadid, "leads", ["ownerid/$ref"]).then(function (reference) {
    var ownerId = reference.id;
    var collectionName = reference.collection; // systemusers or teams
}) //.catch ...

Retrieve a related record data using a single-valued navigation property

In order to retrieve a related record by a signle-valued navigation property you need to add a prefix "/" to the first element in a select array: select: ["/ownerid", "fullname"]. The first element must be the name of a single-valued navigation property and it must contain a prefix "/"; all other elements in a select array will represent attributes of the related entity. Examples:

var recordId = '7d577253-3ef0-4a0a-bb7f-8335c2596e70';

//perform a retrieve operaion
dynamicsWebApi.retrieve(recordId, "new_tests", ["/new_ParentLead", "fullname", "subject"])
    .then(function (leadRecord) {
        var fullname = leadRecord.fullname;
        //and etc...
    }) //.catch ...

In advanced request you have a choice to specify a request.navigationProperty or use it in the same way as for the Basic function.

var request = {
    id: recordId,
    collection: "new_tests",
    navigationProperty: "new_ParentLead", //use request.navigationProperty
    select: ["fullname", "subject"]
}

//or

request = {
    id: recordId,
    collection: "new_tests",
    select: ["/new_ParentLead", "fullname", "subject"]    //inline with prefix "/"
}

dynamicsWebApi.retrieveRequest(request).then(function (leadRecord) {
    var fullname = leadRecord.fullname;
    //and etc...
}) // .catch...

Retrieve multiple records

Basic

dynamicsWebApi.retrieveMultiple("leads", ["fullname", "subject"], "statecode eq 0").then(function (records) {
    //do something with retrieved records here
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Advanced using Request Object

//set the request parameters
var request = {
    collection: "leads",
    select: ["fullname", "subject"],
    filter: "statecode eq 0",
    maxPageSize: 5,
    count: true
};

//perform a multiple records retrieve operation
dynamicsWebApi.retrieveMultipleRequest(request).then(function (response) {
    /// <param name="response" type="DWA.Types.MultipleResponse">Response object</param>

    var count = response.oDataCount;
    var nextLink = response.oDataNextLink;
    var records = response.value;
    //do something else with a records array. Access a record: response.value[0].subject;
})
.catch(function (error){
    //catch an error
});

Count

It is possible to count records separately from RetrieveMultiple call. In order to do that use the following snippet:

IMPORTANT! The count value does not represent the total number of entities in the system. It is limited by the maximum number of entities that can be returned.

For now please use dynamicsWebApi.retrieveMultipleRequest function and loop through all pages to rollup all records. dynamicsWebApi.countAll will be available soon.

dynamicsWebApi.count("leads", "statecode eq 0").then(function (count) {
    //do something with count here
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Associate

var accountId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001';
var leadId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002';
dynamicsWebApi.associate("accounts", accountId, "lead_parent_account", "leads", leadId).then(function () {
    //success
}).catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Associate for a single-valued navigation property

The name of a single-valued navigation property can be retrieved by using a GET request with a header Prefer:odata.include-annotations=Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty, then individual records in the response will contain the property @Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty which is the name of the needed navigation property. Usually it will be equal to a schema name of the entity attribute.

For example, there is an entity with a logical name new_test, it has a lookup attribute to lead entity called new_parentlead and schema name new_ParentLead which is needed single-valued navigation property.

var new_testid = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001';
var leadId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002';
dynamicsWebApi.associateSingleValued("new_tests", new_testid, "new_ParentLead", "leads", leadId)
    .then(function () {
        //success
    }).catch(function (error) {
        //catch an error
    });

Disassociate

var accountId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001';
var leadId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002';
dynamicsWebApi.disassociate("accounts", accountId, "lead_parent_account", leadId).then(function () {
    //success
}).catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Disassociate for a single-valued navigation property

Current request removes a reference to an entity for a single-valued navigation property. The following code snippet uses an example shown in Associate for a single-valued navigation property.

var new_testid = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001';
dynamicsWebApi.disassociateSingleValued("new_tests", new_testid, "new_ParentLead").then(function () {
    //success
}).catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Fetch XML Request

//build a fetch xml
var fetchXml = "<fetch mapping='logical'>" +
                    "<entity name='account'>" +
                        "<attribute name='accountid'/>" +
                        "<attribute name='name'/>" +
                    "</entity>" +
               "</fetch>";

dynamicsWebApi.executeFetchXml("accounts", fetchXml).then(function (response) {
    /// <param name="response" type="DWA.Types.FetchXmlResponse">Request response</param>

    //do something with results here; access records response.value[0].accountid 
})
.catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Paging

//build a fetch xml
var fetchXml = "<fetch mapping='logical' count='5'>" +
                   "<entity name='account'>" +
                       "<attribute name='accountid'/>" +
                       "<attribute name='name'/>" +
                   "</entity>" +
               "</fetch>";

dynamicsWebApi.executeFetchXml("accounts", fetchXml).then(function (response) {
    /// <param name="response" type="DWA.Types.FetchXmlResponse">Request response</param>
    
    //do something with results here; access records response.value[0].accountid

    return dynamicsWebApi
        .executeFetchXml("accounts", fetchXml, null, response.PagingInfo.nextPage, response.PagingInfo.cookie);
}).then(function (response) {
    /// <param name="response" type="DWA.Types.FetchXmlResponse">Request response</param>
    
    //page 2
    //do something with results here; access records response.value[0].accountid

    return dynamicsWebApi
        .executeFetchXml("accounts", fetchXml, null, response.PagingInfo.nextPage, response.PagingInfo.cookie);
}).then(function (response) {
    /// <param name="response" type="DWA.Types.FetchXmlResponse">Request response</param>
    //page 3
    //and so on... or use a loop.
})
//catch...

Execute Web API functions

Bound functions

var teamId = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001";
dynamicsWebApi.executeBoundFunction(teamId, "teams", "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.RetrieveTeamPrivileges")
    .then(function (response) {
        //do something with a response
    }).catch(function (error) {
        //catch an error
    });

Unbound functions

var parameters = {
    LocalizedStandardName: 'Pacific Standard Time',
    LocaleId: 1033
};
dynamicsWebApi.executeUnboundFunction("GetTimeZoneCodeByLocalizedName", parameters).then(function (result) {
    var timeZoneCode = result.TimeZoneCode;
}).catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

Execute Web API actions

Bound actions

var queueId = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001";
var letterActivityId = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002";
var actionRequest = {
    Target: {
        activityid: letterActivityId,
        "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.letter"
    }
};
dynamicsWebApi.executeBoundAction(queueId, "queues", "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.AddToQueue", actionRequest)
    .then(function (result) {
        var queueItemId = result.QueueItemId;
    })
    .catch(function (error) {
        //catch an error
    });

Unbound actions

var opportunityId = "b3828ac8-917a-e511-80d2-00155d2a68d2";
var actionRequest = {
    Status: 3,
    OpportunityClose: {
        subject: "Won Opportunity",

        //DynamicsWebApi will add full url if the property contains @odata.bind suffix
        //but it is also possible to specify a full url to the entity record
        "[e-mail]": "opportunities(" + opportunityId + ")"
    }
};
dynamicsWebApi.executeUnboundAction("WinOpportunity", actionRequest).then(function () {
    //success
}).catch(function (error) {
    //catch an error
});

In Progress

• overloaded functions with rich request options for all Web API operations.
• get all pages requests, such as: countAll, retrieveMultipleAll, fetchXmlAll and etc.
• "formatted" values in responses. For instance: Web API splits information about lookup fields into separate properties, the config option "formatted" will enable developers to retrieve all information about such fields in a single requests and access it through DynamicsWebApi custom response objects.
• Intellisense for request objects.

Many more features to come!

Thank you for your patience!

JavaScript Promises

Please use the following library that implements ES6 Promises: DynamicsWebApi with Promises.

It is highly recommended to use one of the Promise Polyfills (Yaku, ES6 Promise and etc.) if DynamicsWebApi is intended to be used in the browsers.

JavaScript Callbacks

Please use the following library that implements Callbacks : DynamicsWebApi with Callbacks.