Query CRM data in Silverlight - silverlight

Question

I am building a silverlight app for CRM 2011 and I was wondering what the best way to retrieve data from the CRM system is.
I have linked in my organisation as a service reference and am able to access that. I have seen a few different ways to retrieve data but they all seem rather complicated. Is there anything like what we can use in plugins such as a fetch XMl query or a simple Service.Retrieve method?
Thanks

Answer 1

If you add a service reference to your project you can use LINQ to query the datasets.
You can download the CSDL from Developer Resources under the customisation area.
private FelineSoftContext context;
private System.String serverUrl;
private DataServiceCollection<SalesOrder> _orders;
public MainPage()
{
InitializeComponent();
serverUrl = (String)GetContext().Invoke("getServerUrl");
//Remove the trailing forward slash returned by CRM Online
//So that it is always consistent with CRM On Premises
if (serverUrl.EndsWith("/"))
serverUrl = serverUrl.Substring(0, serverUrl.Length - 1);
Uri ODataUri = new Uri(serverUrl + "/xrmservices/2011/organizationdata.svc/", UriKind.Absolute);
context = new FelineSoftContext(ODataUri) { IgnoreMissingProperties = true };
var orders = from ord in context.SalesOrderSet
orderby ord.Name
select new SalesOrder
{
Name = ord.Name,
SalesOrderId = ord.SalesOrderId
};
_orders = new DataServiceCollection<SalesOrder>();
_orders.LoadCompleted += _orders_LoadCompleted;
_orders.LoadAsync(orders);
}
void _orders_LoadCompleted(object sender, LoadCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Error == null)
{
if (_orders.Continuation != null)
{
_orders.LoadNextPartialSetAsync();
}
else
{
OrderLookup.ItemsSource = _orders;
OrderLookup.DisplayMemberPath = "Name";
OrderLookup.SelectedValuePath = "Id";
}
}
}
You will also need to add a method in your class as below:
private static ScriptObject GetContext()
{
ScriptObject xrmProperty = (ScriptObject)HtmlPage.Window.GetProperty("Xrm");
if (null == xrmProperty)
{
//It may be that the global context should be used
try
{
ScriptObject globalContext = (ScriptObject)HtmlPage.Window.Invoke("GetGlobalContext");
return globalContext;
}
catch (System.InvalidOperationException)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Property \"Xrm\" is null and the Global Context is not available.");
}
}
ScriptObject pageProperty = (ScriptObject)xrmProperty.GetProperty("Page");
if (null == pageProperty)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Property \"Xrm.Page\" is null");
}
ScriptObject contextProperty = (ScriptObject)pageProperty.GetProperty("context");
if (null == contextProperty)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Property \"Xrm.Page.context\" is null");
}
return contextProperty;
}
You will need to add an additional class library and put the following code within it. Change the class name to match the Context you exported:
partial class FelineSoftContext
{
#region Methods
partial void OnContextCreated()
{
this.ReadingEntity += this.OnReadingEntity;
this.WritingEntity += this.OnWritingEntity;
}
#endregion
#region Event Handlers
private void OnReadingEntity(object sender, ReadingWritingEntityEventArgs e)
{
ODataEntity entity = e.Entity as ODataEntity;
if (null == entity)
{
return;
}
entity.ClearChangedProperties();
}
private void OnWritingEntity(object sender, ReadingWritingEntityEventArgs e)
{
ODataEntity entity = e.Entity as ODataEntity;
if (null == entity)
{
return;
}
entity.RemoveUnchangedProperties(e.Data);
entity.ClearChangedProperties();
}
#endregion
}
public abstract class ODataEntity
{
private readonly Collection<string> ChangedProperties = new Collection<string>();
public ODataEntity()
{
EventInfo info = this.GetType().GetEvent("PropertyChanged");
if (null != info)
{
PropertyChangedEventHandler method = new PropertyChangedEventHandler(this.OnEntityPropertyChanged);
//Ensure that the method is not attached and reattach it
info.RemoveEventHandler(this, method);
info.AddEventHandler(this, method);
}
}
#region Methods
public void ClearChangedProperties()
{
this.ChangedProperties.Clear();
}
internal void RemoveUnchangedProperties(XElement element)
{
const string AtomNamespace = "http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom";
const string DataServicesNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices";
const string DataServicesMetadataNamespace = DataServicesNamespace + "/metadata";
if (null == element)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("element");
}
List<XElement> properties = (from c in element.Elements(XName.Get("content", AtomNamespace)
).Elements(XName.Get("properties", DataServicesMetadataNamespace)).Elements()
select c).ToList();
foreach (XElement property in properties)
{
if (!this.ChangedProperties.Contains(property.Name.LocalName))
{
property.Remove();
}
}
}
private void OnEntityPropertyChanged(object sender, System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (!this.ChangedProperties.Contains(e.PropertyName))
{
this.ChangedProperties.Add(e.PropertyName);
}
}
#endregion
}

Answer 2

I am will suggest you to use Silvercrmsoap , it's very easy to use. I have used this in my silverlight projects.