Integrating CRM 2011 and SharePoint 2013 using BCS (WCF Service – CRUD Operation)


Create a new WCF Service Application in Visual Studio with .NET Framework version as 4.0 (since we will be using CRM 2011’s assembly that are in version 4.0).

Please go through this MSDN article first to get a clear understanding on the BCS Service

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff953200(v=office.14).aspx

Define the Service Contract and the Date Contract in the following manner. Here we would be performing CRUD operation on Date of Birth and Last Name field of the Contact Entity.

Add references to the following assemblies

Microsoft.BusinessData can be found at

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI on the SharePoint Server.


[ServiceContract]
 public interface IService1
 {
 [OperationContract]
 IEnumerable<ContactEntity> ReadList();

[OperationContract]
 ContactEntity ReadItem(Guid contactId);

[OperationContract]
 ContactEntity Create(ContactEntity newContact);

[OperationContract]
 void Update(ContactEntity contact);

[OperationContract]
 void Delete(Guid contactId);
 }

 [DataContract]
 public class ContactEntity
 {
 [DataMember]
 public Guid ContactId { get; set; }

[DataMember]
 public DateTime? DateOfBirth { get; set; }

[DataMember]
 public string LastName { get; set; }
 }


Implement the Service Contract


public class Service1 : IService1
 {
 private readonly IOrganizationService _orgService = GetOrganizationService();

public ContactEntity ReadItem(Guid contactId)
 {
 try
 {
 var cols = new ColumnSet(new[] {"lastname", "birthdate"});
 ContactEntity contactRecord = null;
 Entity entity = _orgService.Retrieve("contact", contactId, cols);
 if (entity != null)
 {
 contactRecord = new ContactEntity();
 contactRecord.ContactId = contactId;
 if (entity.Contains("lastname"))
 {
 contactRecord.LastName = entity.Attributes["lastname"].ToString();
 }
 if (entity.Contains("birthdate"))
 {
 contactRecord.DateOfBirth = (DateTime) entity.Attributes["birthdate"];
 }
 }

return contactRecord;
 }
 catch (InvalidOperationException)
 {
 throw new ObjectNotFoundException(
 "Unable to read data for the conatct with ID = " +
 contactId.ToString() +
 ". The contact no longer exists.");
 }
 catch (Exception generalException)
 {
 throw new RuntimeException(
 "There was a problem reading contact data.",
 generalException);
 }
 }

public IEnumerable<ContactEntity> ReadList()
 {
 try
 {
 var queryExpression = new QueryExpression("contact");
 var conditionExpression = new ConditionExpression("statuscode", ConditionOperator.Equal, 1);
 queryExpression.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet(new[] {"contactid", "lastname", "birthdate"});
 queryExpression.Criteria.AddCondition(conditionExpression);

EntityCollection contactCollection = _orgService.RetrieveMultiple(queryExpression);
 var lstContactType = new List<ContactEntity>();
 ContactEntity contactRecord;
 foreach (Entity entity in contactCollection.Entities)
 {
 contactRecord = new ContactEntity();
 contactRecord.ContactId = new Guid(entity.Attributes["contactid"].ToString());
 if (entity.Contains("lastname"))
 {
 contactRecord.LastName = entity.Attributes["lastname"].ToString();
 }
 if (entity.Contains("birthdate"))
 {
 contactRecord.DateOfBirth = (DateTime) entity.Attributes["birthdate"];
 }

lstContactType.Add(contactRecord);
 }

return lstContactType;
 }
 catch (Exception generalException)
 {
 throw new RuntimeException(
 "There was a problem reading contact data.",
 generalException);
 }
 }

public ContactEntity Create(ContactEntity newContact)
 {
 try
 {
 var returnContact = new ContactEntity();
 returnContact.ContactId = Guid.NewGuid();
 returnContact.DateOfBirth = newContact.DateOfBirth;
 returnContact.LastName = newContact.LastName;

var contactRecord = new Entity();
 contactRecord.LogicalName = "contact";
 contactRecord.Attributes["lastname"] = returnContact.LastName;
 contactRecord.Attributes["contactid"] = returnContact.ContactId;
 contactRecord.Attributes["birthdate"] = returnContact.DateOfBirth;
 newContact.ContactId = _orgService.Create(contactRecord);

return returnContact;
 }
 catch (Exception generalException)
 {
 throw new RuntimeException(
 "There was a problem creating a new contact.",
 generalException);
 }
 }


 public void Update(ContactEntity updateContact)
 {
 try
 {
 var contactRecord = new Entity();
 contactRecord.LogicalName = "contact";
 contactRecord.Attributes["lastname"] = updateContact.LastName;
 contactRecord.Attributes["contactid"] = updateContact.ContactId;
 contactRecord.Attributes["birthdate"] = updateContact.DateOfBirth;

_orgService.Update(contactRecord);
 }
 catch (InvalidOperationException)
 {
 throw new ObjectNotFoundException(
 "Unable to update the contact with ID = " +
 updateContact.ContactId.ToString() +
 ". The contact no longer exists.");
 }
 catch (Exception generalException)
 {
 throw new RuntimeException(
 "There was a problem updating the lawyer with ID = " +
 updateContact.ContactId.ToString() + ".", generalException);
 }
 }

public void Delete(Guid contactId)
 {
 try
 {
 _orgService.Delete("contact", contactId);
 }
 catch (InvalidOperationException)
 {
 throw new ObjectNotFoundException(
 "Unable to delete the contact with ID = " +
 contactId.ToString() +
 ". The contact no longer exists.");
 }
 catch (Exception generalException)
 {
 throw new RuntimeException(
 "There was a problem lawyer the customer with ID = " +
 contactId.ToString() + ".", generalException);
 }
 }

public static IOrganizationService GetOrganizationService()
 {
 var organizationUri = new Uri("http://crmserver/orgname/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc");
 Uri homeRealmUri = null;
 var credentials = new ClientCredentials();
 credentials.Windows.ClientCredential = new NetworkCredential("username", "password", "domain");
 var orgProxy = new OrganizationServiceProxy(organizationUri, homeRealmUri, credentials, null);
 IOrganizationService _service = orgProxy;
 return _service;
 }

 

Host the Service in the IIS.

Open SharePoint Designer 2013 and connect to the site where we want to create an external content type based on our WCF Service.

Create a new External Content Type

Specify name for the content type and click on the link for defining operations

Click on Add Connection and specify WCF Service as the connection type

Specify the url of the WCF service

For each of the Web Methods, specify the corresponding operation.

For each of the operations define ContactId as Identifier

Once defined, select Create Lists and Form button

Open the SharePoint site and open the list created

Corresponding contact records in CRM

Hope it helps.

“You must provide a value for Potential Customer” error while creating opportunity record through Create Step in Process in CRM 2011 Online


Hi,

Got the below error message while defining the Create Step in Workflow in CRM 2011 online instance. It seems like it is a bug in new online environment that have UR 13 applied.

Check out this thread

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/crm/thread/51a63a3e-bd81-471e-a9d8-617bfe033271/

The workaround would be to remove the requirement level, edit and publish the workflow and the set the requirement level back.

Bye.

CRM 2011 Bug – Team Security Roles


Nice post on Team and Security Role. Do check the comments.

crmdeveloper's avatarcrm2011stuff

This appears to be a bug with Security Roles and Teams.  To duplicate the problem, follow these steps:

  1. Create a Custom Entity
  2. Create a Security Role in CRM 2011 to access the Custom Entity
  3. Create a new Team in CRM
  4. Assign the new Security Role to the new Team
  5. Create a new user
  6. Add the user to the Team as a member

Now the new user is supposed to have the permissions granted by the security role assigned to the Team.  Testing will show that you can access everything but the form.

  1. Now assign the new Security Role directly to the new user
  2. Have the new user log in and access the form for the Custom Entity

If you test at this point, everything will work.  Be sure to access the form at least once. 

  1. Remove the role from the new user
  2. Assign the role back to the Team

Now the…

View original post 24 more words

List of Error Codes in CRM 2011


Hi,

Was wondering where we can get the list of error codes in CRM 2011.

For CRM 4.0 we used to have the following link (page in SDK)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-in/library/cc151248.aspx

In CRM 2011, we can get it in SDK at the following path

\sdk\samplecode\cs\helpercode

Do check this post as well

http://mscrmuk.blogspot.com/2009/01/crm-error-codes.html

Bye.

Advertisements

Error Activating Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for SharePoint


Hi,

After adding the crmlistcomponent.wsp solution to the SharePoint’s team site, while trying to Activate the solution we were getting some error.

The solution for which was to start the SharePoint User Code Host service. However in our case we were not able to start the service, as it would stop after few seconds. The reason was because the service account under which that service was running was not a member of Performance Monitor Users group for the machine. Adding the user to the group fixed the issue for us.

Hope it helps.

Republishing SSRS Report in CRM 2011.


Hi,

We were recently doing installation of CRM 2011 and faced issue while installing CRM 2011 Reporting Extension (SRS Data Connector).

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/crmcustomereffective/archive/2011/12/05/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-reporting-extension-srs-data-connector-installation-service-account-warning.aspx#.UY3ITbWnwQY

After resolving the issue and completing the installation, we saw that there were no reports published. It was because of a flag being set in MSCRM_CONFIG when the installer ran first.

Check out this helpful post to resolve this issue

http://blog.customereffective.com/blog/2011/10/crm-2011-and-restoring-the-ssrs-server.html

Hope this helps.