How to Connect ASP.NET MVC Application to Dynamic CRM
The ASP.NET MVC is a web application framework developed by Microsoft, which implements the Model View Controller (MVC) design pattern. In this tutorial, we will learn how to connect an ASP.Net MVC application to Dynamic CRM and perform CRUD (Create, Update, Retrieve, and Delete) operations.
1. Create a new MVC project
2. Add a connection string in the Web.config file
Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses the concept of connection string to connect to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server. This is similar to the concept of connection strings used with Microsoft SQL Server.
The connection string for Online using Office 365:
<connectionStrings> <add name="Server=CRM Online, organization=contoso, user=someone" connectionString="Url=https://contoso.crm.dynamics.com; Username=someone@contoso.onmicrosoft.com; Password=password;"/> </ connectionStrings>
The connection string for Microsoft on Premise:
<connectionStrings> <add name="Server=myserver, organization=AdventureWorksCycle, user=administrator" connectionString="Url=http://myserver/AdventureWorksCycle; Domain=mydomain; Username=administrator; Password=password;"/> </ connectionStrings>
URL: Specifies the URL to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization.
Username: User id of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization
Password: Password of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization
Domain: Specifies the domain that will verify user credentials.
3. Add the following assemblies from CRM SDK to your MVC project
microsoft.crm.sdk.proxy.dll microsoft.xrm.sdk.dll microsoft.xrm.client.dll
Also, add references to these assemblies from Visual Studio Assemblies.
System.Runtime.Serialization System.ServiceModel
4. Add new model to your project and add some properties
public class AccountEntityModels
{
public Guid AccountID { get; set; }
public string AccountName { get; set; }
public int NumberOfEmployees { get; set; }
public Money Revenue { get; set; }
public EntityReference PrimaryContact { get; set; }
public string PrimaryContactName { get; set; }
public decimal RevenueValue { get; set; }
}
5. Make Data Access Layer(DAL)
Make a DAL Folder and add a new class “DAL_AccountEntity”. The purpose of this class is to handle all the data access to avoid complexity from controller class. Next, create “RetriveRecords” function in “DAL_AccountEntity” class. This function will retrieve all accounts and return the List as shown below.
Make sure to add references to the following assemblies first:
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk; using TestAppMVCAndCRM.Models; using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query; using Microsoft.Xrm.Client.Services;
public List<AccountEntityModels> RetriveRecords()
{
using (OrganizationService service = new OrganizationService("MyConnectionString"))
{
QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression
{
EntityName = "account",
ColumnSet = new ColumnSet("accountid","name", "revenue", "numberofemployees", "primarycontactid")
};
List<AccountEntityModels> info = new List<AccountEntityModels>();
EntityCollection accountRecord = service.RetrieveMultiple(query);
if (accountRecord != null && accountRecord.Entities.Count > 0)
{
AccountEntityModels accountModel;
for (int i = 0; i < accountRecord.Entities.Count; i++)
{
accountModel = new AccountEntityModels();
if (accountRecord[i].Contains("accountid") && accountRecord[i]["accountid"] != null)
accountModel.AccountID = (Guid)accountRecord[i]["accountid"];
if (accountRecord[i].Contains("name") && accountRecord[i]["name"] != null)
accountModel.AccountName = accountRecord[i]["name"].ToString();
if (accountRecord[i].Contains("revenue") && accountRecord[i]["revenue"] != null)
accountModel.RevenueValue = ((Money)accountRecord[i]["revenue"]).Value;
if (accountRecord[i].Contains("numberofemployees") && accountRecord[i]["numberofemployees"] != null)
accountModel.NumberOfEmployees = (int)accountRecord[i]["numberofemployees"];
if (accountRecord[i].Contains("primarycontactid") && accountRecord[i]["primarycontactid"] != null)
accountModel.PrimaryContactName = ((EntityReference)accountRecord[i]["primarycontactid"]).Name;
info.Add(accountModel);
}
}
return info;
}
}
Then, call the function we just created from Controller.
6. Update Index View
Now, to show the accounts retrieved from CRM, index view needs to be updated like given below:
@model TestAppMVCAndCRM.Models.AccountEntityModels
@{
ViewBag.Title = "Home Page";
}
<table>
<tr>
<a href="~/Home/AddNew">Add New </a>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#D8D8D8" class="main_txt">
<tr>
<td width="100" align="center" class="header_bg">
<a href="">
Account name
</a>
</td>
<td width="80" align="center">
<a href="">
Number of Employees
</a>
</td>
<td width="80" align="center">
<a href="">
Revenue
</a>
</td>
<td width="70" align="center">
<a href="">
Primary Contact
</a>
</td>
<td width="120" align="center" class="header_bg">Action</td>
</tr>
@{
string COLOR1 = "#ffffff";
string COLOR2 = "#f1f1f1";
string bgcolor = "#ffffff";
}
@foreach (var x in ViewBag.accountinfo)
{
bgcolor = bgcolor == COLOR1 ? COLOR2 : COLOR1;
<tr bgcolor="@bgcolor">
<td>
@x.AccountName
</td>
<td>
@x.NumberOfEmployees
</td>
<td>
@x.RevenueValue
</td>
<td>
@x.PrimaryContactName
</td>
<td>
<a href="~/Home/Delete/@x.AccountID">Delete Account </a>
<a href="~/Home/AddNew/@x.AccountID">Edit Account </a>
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Make sure you are using .NET Framework 4.5.2 and run the project. The output would look like this:
7. Add additional features e.g. Add, Edit and Delete
First of all, add a controller for Add New as shown below:
For the ‘Primary Contact’ lookup field we will retrieve contacts and display them in Dropdown list. To do that, we will create GetEntityReference function as shown below:
public List<Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.EntityReference> GetEntityReference()
{
try
{
List<Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.EntityReference> info = new List<Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.EntityReference>();
using (OrganizationService service = new OrganizationService("MyConnectionString"))
{
QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression
{
EntityName = "contact",
ColumnSet = new ColumnSet("contactid", "fullname")
};
EntityCollection PrimaryContact = service.RetrieveMultiple(query);
if (PrimaryContact != null && PrimaryContact.Entities.Count > 0)
{
Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.EntityReference itm;
for (int i = 0; i < PrimaryContact.Entities.Count; i++)
{
itm = new EntityReference();
if (PrimaryContact[i].Id != null)
itm.Id = PrimaryContact[i].Id;
if (PrimaryContact[i].Contains("fullname") && PrimaryContact[i]["fullname"] != null)
itm.Name = PrimaryContact[i]["fullname"].ToString();
itm.LogicalName = "contact";
info.Add(itm); }
}
}
return info;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return null;
}
}
The View would look like this:
@model TestAppMVCAndCRM.Models.AccountEntityModels
@{
ViewBag.Title = "AddNew";
}
@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<table>
<tr>
<td width="150px">Account Name</td>
<td>
@Html.HiddenFor(m => m.AccountID)
@Html.EditorFor(m => m.AccountName)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Number of Employees</td>
<td>
@Html.EditorFor(m => m.NumberOfEmployees)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="150px">Revenue</td>
<td>
@Html.EditorFor(m => m.Revenue)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Primary Contact</td>
<td>
@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.PrimaryContact.Id, (SelectList)ViewBag.EntityReferenceUsers)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>
<input type="submit" value="Save" />
<br />
</td>
@Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index")
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
}
The output will be like this
In case of edit, we will pass the Guid of the record to be edited. The following function will do the job:
public AccountEntityModels getCurrentRecord(Guid accountId)
{
AccountEntityModels accountModel = new AccountEntityModels();
using (OrganizationService service = new OrganizationService("MyConnectionString"))
{
ColumnSet cols = new ColumnSet(new String[] { "name", "revenue", "numberofemployees", "primarycontactid" });
Entity account = service.Retrieve("account", accountId, cols);
accountModel.AccountID = accountId;
accountModel.AccountName = account.Attributes["name"].ToString();
accountModel.NumberOfEmployees = (int)account.Attributes["numberofemployees"];
accountModel.RevenueValue = ((Money)account.Attributes["revenue"]).Value;
accountModel.PrimaryContact = (EntityReference)account.Attributes["primarycontactid"];
}
return accountModel;
}
The code behind on save is given below:
public void SaveAccount(AccountEntityModels objAccountModel)
{
using (OrganizationService service = new OrganizationService("MyConnectionString"))
{
Entity AccountEntity = new Entity("account");
if (objAccountModel.AccountID != Guid.Empty)
{
AccountEntity["accountid"] = objAccountModel.AccountID;
}
AccountEntity["name"] = objAccountModel.AccountName;
AccountEntity["numberofemployees"] = objAccountModel.NumberOfEmployees;
AccountEntity["revenue"] = objAccountModel.Revenue;
AccountEntity["primarycontactid"] = new Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.EntityReference { Id = objAccountModel.PrimaryContact.Id, LogicalName = "account" };
if (objAccountModel.AccountID == Guid.Empty)
{
objAccountModel.AccountID = service.Create(AccountEntity);
}
else
{
service.Update(AccountEntity);
}
}
}
And in last the Delete functionality can be achieved like below
public ActionResult Delete(Guid id)
{
using (OrganizationService service = new OrganizationService("MyConnectionString"))
{
service.Delete("account", id);
return Redirect("~/Home");
}
}
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