Retrieve Entity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 From SIlverlight Using RetrieveRequest

This tutorial will show you how to retrieve an entity record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 using C# in Silverlight with RetrieveRequest.

IMPORTANT: First things first.  You have to set up your Silverlight app to make a web services connection to CRM.   The best tutorial I have found for this is located here in the MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg594452.aspx
After you finish that setup you are ready to implement the rest of this post.

Now once that is done you can retrieve a record in CRM using the following syntax.  In the following example I am retrieving a record of type "new_testdata", which is a custom entity I have created.

Here is the call in C#:

private void RetrieveEntity()
{
    try
    {


       EntityReference refEntity = new EntityReference();
       //the guid of the entity you want to retrieve
       refEntity.Id = new Guid("1C49A4FD-0B96-E011-8D5C-1CC1DEE8EA49");
       //the name of the entity type you want to retrieve
       refEntity.LogicalName = "new_testdata";

        //define request type
        OrganizationRequest request = new OrganizationRequest() { RequestName = "Retrieve" };
        request["Target"] = refEntity;
        ColumnSet columns = new ColumnSet();

        //put comma delimited list of attributes you want to retrieve here
        columns.Columns =  new System.Collections.ObjectModel.ObservableCollection<string>(new string[] { "new_name", "new_otherattribute" });
        request["ColumnSet"] = columns;

        //the silverlight utility class is created during the setup process laid out at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg594452.aspx
        IOrganizationService service = SilverlightUtility.GetSoapService();

        //send the async request and specify it's callback
        service.BeginExecute(request, new AsyncCallback(RetrieveEntityResult), service);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        this.ReportError(ex);
    }
}

Now here is the call-back code:

private void RetrieveEntityResult(IAsyncResult result)
{
    try
    {
        OrganizationResponse Response = ((IOrganizationService)result.AsyncState).EndExecute(result);
        Entity e = (Entity)Response["Entity"];
        //strEntityName is a global variable I am using in my program so I can call it in the        //dispatcher method below        
        strEntityName = "entity name = " + e.GetAttributeValue<string>("new_name");

        //call a method that does something in the main UI thread (update the UI with the results of the call) 
        //from method named "method" in this case
        this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(method);
   


    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        this.ReportError(ex);
    }
}

You will need to use the this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke to call a method to act on the UI or perform actions in the main thread.  I did not include the dispatcher invoked method called "method" in this case because it could do anything in the UI.  In my case I will tell you though it is setting a TextBox.Text property to the value of the global variable "strEntityName".

You will notice that the biggest change in thinking and syntax from standard CRM SDK work will be that you have to specify your request and response properties as strings explicitly in code.

I hope this helps!

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