Web API types and operations

 

Applies To: Dynamics 365 (online), Dynamics 365 (on-premises), Dynamics CRM 2016, Dynamics CRM Online

In order to use the Web API you need to find information about what is available for you to use. The service describes itself via service and metadata documents that you can access. This topic will introduce important concepts and describe how you can find the information you need using documentation generated from the service and metadata documents as well as the documentation of the system entity types, functions, and actions.

In this topic

Terminology

Service documents

Entity types

Properties

Navigation properties

Actions

Functions

Complex types

Enumeration types

Terminology

The Web API is implemented using the OData v4 standard which uses a specific set of terms you need to be familiar with. Entity Data Model (EDM) is the abstract data model that is used to describe the data exposed by an OData service. The following table is a selected list of terms defined in OData Version 4.0 Part 1: Protocol Plus Errata 02 which you should understand.

Term	Definition
Entity types	Named structured types with a key. They define the named properties and relationships of an entity. Entity types may derive by single inheritance from other entity types.
Entities	Instances of entity types (e.g. account, opportunity).
Entity sets	Named collections of entities (e.g. accounts is an entity set containing account entities). An entity's key uniquely identifies the entity within an entity set
Complex types	Keyless named structured types consisting of a set of properties. Complex types are commonly used as property values in model entities, or as parameters or return values for operations.
Enumeration types or Enum types	Named primitive types whose values are named constants with underlying integer values.
Functions	Operations that do not have side effects and may support further composition, for example, with additional filter operations, functions or an action
Actions	Operations that allow side effects, such as data modification, and cannot be further composed in order to avoid non-deterministic behavior

Service documents

There are two service documents you can reference to learn more about the Web API.

Service document

The following query, typed into the address field of your browser, returns the service document, a complete list of all the entity sets that are available for your organization. Note that [organization URI] represents the URL for your organization.

[Organization URI]/api/data/v8.2

The entity sets are returned in the form of a JSON array. Each item in the array has three properties as listed in this table.

Property	Description
name	This is the name of the entity set. This data is from the EntityMetadata EntityType EntitySetName property for the entity.
kind	For the web API only Entity sets are listed.
url	This value is the same as the name property and it represents the part of the resource path to retrieve data for the entity.

This information can be retrieved using a GET request and may be useful to get a list of all entity sets available using the service.

CSDL metadata document

A GET request to the following URL will return a rather large (more than 3.5 MB) Common Schema Definition Language (CSDL) document, or metadata document that describes the data and operations exposed by the service.

[Organization URI]/api/data/v8.2/$metadata

This document can be used as a data source to generate classes that will provide strongly typed objects for the service. But if you are not using generated classes, you may want to review documentation generated from this information instead. The Web API Reference uses information primarily from this document taken from an un-customized system.

You can learn more about this document in OData Version 4.0 Part 3: Common Schema Definition Language (CSDL) Plus Errata 02.

Tip

Before your read the rest of this topic, download the CSDL for your organization and take a look at how the types, functions, and actions described are included in the CSDL and the supporting documentation.

Entity types

The Web API EntityType Reference lists each of the system entity types exposed through the web API which store business data. An entity type is a named structured type with a key. It defines the named properties and relationships of an entity. Entity types may derive by single inheritance from other entity types. Web API Metadata EntityType Reference lists each of the entity types used to manage system metadata. Both are entity types but the way you work with them is different. See Use the Web API with Dynamics 365 metadata for information about using model entities. Each entity type is included within an EntityType element in the CSDL. The following is the definition of the account EntityType from the CSDL with properties and navigation properties removed.

<EntityType Name="account" BaseType="mscrm.crmbaseentity">
  <Key>
    <PropertyRef Name="accountid" />
  </Key>
  <!--Properties and navigation properties removed for brevity-->
  <Annotation Term="Org.OData.Core.V1.Description" String="Business that represents a customer or potential customer. The company that is billed in business transactions." />
</EntityType>

Each EntityType reference page in the SDK documentation uses information from the CSDL or metadata to show the following information when available.

Information	Description
Description	A description of the entity. The EntityMetadata EntityType Description property information is included in the EntityType element using the Annotation element with the Term attribute value of Org.OData.Core.V1.Description.
Collection URL	The URL to access the collection of each type. The EntityMetadata EntityType EntitySetName property information is included using the CSDL EntityContainer element. The Name attribute of each EntitySet element controls how the data is accessed via the URL.
Base Type	This is the entity type that the entity type inherits from. The BaseType attribute of the EntityType element contains the name of the entity type. This name is prefixed with the alias for the Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM namespace: mscrm. More information: Type inheritance
Display Name	This information is not in the CSDL, it’s retrieved from the EntityMetadata EntityType DisplayName property.
Primary Key	The property value that contains the unique identifier to refer to an instance of an entity. The EntityMetadata EntityType PrimaryIdAttribute property value is included in the EntityType Key element. Each entity can have just one primary key. Alternate keys are not listed here. More information: Alternate keys
Primary Attribute	Many entities require that a primary attribute value be set, so this is included for convenience. This information is not in the CSDL, it’s retrieved from the metadata EntityMetadata EntityType PrimaryNameAttribute property.
Properties	See Properties.
Single-valued navigation properties	See Single-valued navigation properties.
Collection-valued navigation properties	See Collection-valued navigation properties.
Operations bound to the entity type	When an operation is bound to a specific entity type, it’s listed for convenience.
Operations that use the entity type	This list shows any operations that may use the entity type. This is derived by collecting references to all operations that refer to the current type in the parameters or as a return value.
Entity types that inherit from the entity type	This list includes any entity types that inherit directly from the entity type. See Type inheritance for more information.

Change the name of an entity set

By default, the entity set name matches the EntityMetadata EntityType LogicalCollectionName (EntityMetadataLogicalCollectionName) property value. If you have a custom entity that you want to address using a different entity set name, you can update the EntityMetadata EntityType EntitySetName (EntityMetadata.EntitySetName) property value to use a different name.

Alternate keys

Although Microsoft Dynamics 365 allows for creating alternate keys, only the primary key will be found in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 SDK documentation.

None of the system entities have alternate keys defined. If you define alternate keys for an entity, they will be included in the CSDL EntityType element as an Annotation like the following:

<Annotation Term="OData.Community.Keys.V1.AlternateKeys">
  <Collection>
    <Record Type="OData.Community.Keys.V1.AlternateKey">
      <PropertyValue Property="Key">
        <Collection>
          <Record Type="OData.Community.Keys.V1.PropertyRef">
            <PropertyValue Property="Alias" String="key name" />
            <PropertyValue Property="Name" PropertyPath="key name" />
          </Record>
        </Collection>
      </PropertyValue>
    </Record>
  </Collection>
</Annotation>

Information about alternate keys can also be retrieved from the metadata using the EntityMetadata EntityType Keys collection-valued navigation property using the Web API or the EntityMetadata.Keys property using the organization service.

Type inheritance

Inheritance allows for sharing of common properties and categorizing entity types into groups. All entity types in the web API inherit from two of the following entity types. All business entity types inherit from the crmbaseentity EntityType and all model entities inherit from the crmmodelbaseentity EntityType.

Base entity	Description
crmbaseentity EntityType	All business entities inherit from this entity. It has no properties. It only serves as an abstract base entity.
activitypointer EntityType	All activity entities inherit from this entity. It defines the common set of properties and navigation properties for activity entities.
principal EntityType	The systemuser EntityType and team EntityType inherit a common ownerid property from this entity.
crmmodelbaseentity EntityType	Only MetadataBase EntityType inherits directly from this entity. It has no properties. It only serves as an abstract base entity.
MetadataBase EntityType	All model entities inherit from this entity. It provides the MetadataId and HasChanged properties for all model entities.
AttributeMetadata EntityType	All model entities that represent different types of attributes inherit from this entity.
EnumAttributeMetadata EntityType	Those model entities that represent attributes that include a set of options inherit from this entity.
OptionSetMetadataBase EntityType	This model entity type provides a common set of properties used by the BooleanOptionSetMetadata EntityType and OptionSetMetadata EntityType model entity types that inherit from it.
RelationshipMetadataBase EntityType	This entity type provides a common set of properties used by the ManyToManyRelationshipMetadata EntityType and OneToManyRelationshipMetadata EntityType model entity types that inherit from it.

Properties

Each entity type may have declared properties that correspond to attributes. In the Web API EntityType Reference and Web API Metadata EntityType Reference content, properties that are inherited from a base entity type are combined within the list of declared properties for each entity type. The inheritance is called out in the description for each property.

In the CSDL EntityType elements each property is included in a Property element with a Name attribute value that corresponds to the properties you will set in code. The Type attribute value specifies the data type of the property. Properties for business entity types generally use OData primitive types.

The following is an example of the account EntityType name property defined in the CSDL.

<Property Name="name" Type="Edm.String" Unicode="false">
  <Annotation Term="Org.OData.Core.V1.Description" String="Type the company or business name." />
</Property>

The description of the property is available in an Annotation element with the Term attribute property of Org.OData.Core.V1.Description. This description is taken from the AttributeMetadata EntityType Description property value. Not all properties have a description.

Each property may be computed. This means that the value may be set by the system. This is specified in an Annotation element with the Term attribute value of Org.OData.Core.V1.Computed.

Each property may also have limitations on whether it may be updated. This is defined in an Annotation element with a Term attribute value Org.OData.Core.V1.Permissions. The only option set for this is Org.OData.Core.V1.PermissionType/Read, which indicates that the property is read only.

Primitive types

OData supports a wide range of data types but Microsoft Dynamics 365 doesn’t use all of them. The following table describes how Dynamics 365 Organization service types are mapped to OData primitive types.

Organization Service Type	Web API Type	Description
BigInt	Edm.Int64	Signed 64-bit integer
Boolean	Edm.Boolean	Binary-valued logic
CalendarRules	Single-valued navigation properties	Specific single-valued navigation properties to the calendarrule EntityType.
Customer	Single-valued navigation properties	The customer of an entity with this type of property may be a single-valued navigation property set to either an account or contact entity type using the respective single-valued navigation properties. When either of the respective single-valued collection properties is set, the other is cleared.
DateTime	Edm.DateTimeOffset	Date and time with a time-zone offset, no leap seconds There is no DateTime type in OData.
Decimal	Edm.Decimal	Numeric values with fixed precision and scale
Double	Edm.Double	IEEE 754 binary64 floating-point number (15-17 decimal digits)
EntityName	Edm.String	Sequence of UTF-8 characters
Image	Edm.Binary	Binary data
Integer	Edm.Int32	Signed 32-bit integer
Lookup	Single-valued navigation property	A reference to a specific entity
ManagedProperty	Not applicable	For internal use only.
Memo	Edm.String	Sequence of UTF-8 characters
Money	Edm.Decimal	Numeric values with fixed precision and scale
Owner	Single-valued navigation property	A reference to the principal EntityType. Both systemuser and team entity types inherit their ownerid property from the prinicipal entity type.
PartyList	Collection-valued navigation property to the activityparty entity type.	The activitypartyparticipationtypemask property contains a value to represent the role of the participant. See Activity Party Types for more information.
Picklist	Edm.Int32	Signed 32-bit integer
State	Edm.Int32	Signed 32-bit integer
Status	Edm.Int32	Signed 32-bit integer
String	Edm.String	Sequence of UTF-8 characters
Uniqueidentifier	Edm.Guid	16-byte (128-bit) unique identifier

Lookup properties

For most single-valued navigation properties you will find a computed, read-only property that uses the following naming convention: _<name>_value where the <name> matches the name of the single-valued navigation property. The exception to this pattern is when a lookup attribute of the entity can accept multiple types of entity references. A common example is how the incident entity customerid attribute may be set to a reference that is either a contact or account entity. In the incident EntityTypeSingle-valued navigation properties you will find customerid_account and customerid_contact as separate single-valued navigation properties to reflect the customer associated with an opportunity. If you set one of these single-valued navigation properties, the other will be set to null because they are both bound to the customerid attribute. In the incident EntityTypeProperties you’ll find a _customerid_value lookup property that contains the same value that is set for whichever of the single-valued navigation properties contain a value.

Generally, you should avoid using lookup properties and use the corresponding single-valued navigation properties instead. These properties have been included because they may be useful for certain integration scenarios. These properties are read-only and computed because they will simply reflect the changes applied using the corresponding single-valued navigation property.

When you include lookup properties in a query, you can request annotations to be included that provide additional information about the data that is set for those underlying attributes which aren’t represented by a single-valued navigation property. More information: Retrieve data about lookup properties

Navigation properties

In OData, navigation properties allow you to access data related to the current entity. When you retrieve an entity you can choose to expand navigation properties to include the related data. There are two types of navigation properties: single-valued and collection-valued.

Single-valued navigation properties

These properties correspond to Lookup attributes that support many-to-one relationships and allow setting a reference to another entity. In the CSDL EntityType element, these are defined as a NavigationProperty element with at Type attribute set to a single type. The following is an example of the account EntityType createdby single-valued navigation property in the CSDL:

<NavigationProperty Name="createdby" Type="mscrm.systemuser" Nullable="false" Partner="lk_accountbase_createdby">
 <ReferentialConstraint Property="_createdby_value" ReferencedProperty="systemuserid" />
</NavigationProperty>

Every navigation property that represents a single-valued navigation property will have a corresponding collection-valued navigation property indicated by the Partner attribute value. Each single-valued navigation property also has a ReferentialConstraint element with Property attribute value that represents the computed read-only lookup property that can be used to retrieve corresponding GUID value of the related entity. More information: Lookup properties

Collection-valued navigation properties

These properties correspond to one-to-many or many-to-many relationships. In the CSDL EntityType element, these are defined as a NavigationProperty element with at Type attribute set to a collection of a type. The following represents the account EntityType Account_Tasks collection-valued navigation property which represents a one-to-many relationship:

<NavigationProperty Name="Account_Tasks" Type="Collection(mscrm.task)" Partner="regardingobjectid_account_task" />

When the collection-valued navigation property represents a many-to-many relationship, the name of the navigation property and the name of the partner will be the same. The following represents the account EntityType accountleads_association collection-valued navigation property which represents a many-to-many relationship:

<NavigationProperty Name="accountleads_association" Type="Collection(mscrm.lead)" Partner="accountleads_association" />

The difference between one-to-many and many-to-many relationships is not important when using the Web API. The way you associate entities is the same regardless of the type of relationship. Although many-to-many relationships still use intersect entities behind the scenes, only a few special system intersect entities are included within the Web API EntityType Reference. For example, campaignactivityitem EntityType is technically an intersect entity, but it is included because it has more properties than an ordinary intersect entity.

An ordinary intersect entity has only the four basic properties required to maintain the many-to-many relationship. When you create a custom many-to-many relationship between entities, an ordinary intersect entity will be created to support the relationship. Because you should use navigation properties to perform operations involving many-to-many relationships, ordinary intersect entities are not documented but are still available using the Web API. These intersect entity types are accessible using an entity set name that uses the following naming convention: <intersect entity logical name>+’collection’. For example, you can retrieve information from the contactleads intersect entity type using [Organization URI]/api/data/v8.2/contactleadscollection. You should only use these ordinary intersect entities in situations where you wish to apply change tracking.

Actions

Actions are operations that allow side effects, such as data modification, and cannot be further composed in order to avoid non-deterministic behavior.

The Web API Action Reference topic lists each of the available system actions. More information: Use Web API actions.

Functions

Functions are operations that do not have side effects and may support further composition, for example, with additional filter operations, functions or an action

There are two types of functions defined in the Web API:

• The Web API Function Reference lists each of the available system functions.

• The Web API Query Function Reference topic lists functions which are intended to be used as criteria in a query.

More information: Use Web API functions

Complex types

Complex types are keyless named structured types consisting of a set of properties. Complex types are commonly used as property values in model entities, or as parameters or return values for operations.

Web API ComplexType Reference lists all the system complex types. Complex types are keyless named structured types consisting of a set of properties. They’re commonly used as property values in model entities, or as parameters or return values for operations. The following is the WhoAmIResponse ComplexType from the CSDL.

<ComplexType Name="WhoAmIResponse">
  <Property Name="BusinessUnitId" Type="Edm.Guid" Nullable="false" />
  <Property Name="UserId" Type="Edm.Guid" Nullable="false" />
  <Property Name="OrganizationId" Type="Edm.Guid" Nullable="false" />
</ComplexType>

Enumeration types

Enumeration types or EnumTypes are named primitive types whose values are named constants with underlying integer values.

Web API EnumType Reference lists all the system enumeration types. Enumeration types are named primitive types whose values are named constants with underlying integer values. The following is the AccessRights EnumType from the CSDL.

<EnumType Name="AccessRights">
  <Member Name="None" Value="0" />
  <Member Name="ReadAccess" Value="1" />
  <Member Name="WriteAccess" Value="2" />
  <Member Name="AppendAccess" Value="4" />
  <Member Name="AppendToAccess" Value="16" />
  <Member Name="CreateAccess" Value="32" />
  <Member Name="DeleteAccess" Value="65536" />
  <Member Name="ShareAccess" Value="262144" />
  <Member Name="AssignAccess" Value="524288" />
</EnumType>

See Also

Use the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Web API
Authenticate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 with the Web API
Perform operations using the Web API

Microsoft Dynamics 365

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