Script#, jQuery, Cross Browser and Dynamics CRM 2011 SOAP – Part 1

Gayan Perera, 17 January 2013

This is a two part series; we’ll show you how you can write cross browser compatible code using Script# and jQuery.

We’ve shown you our Xrm.Page Script# library in our earlier posts, if you haven’t had a change to look at it yet take a look at the CodePlex project (http://sharpxrmpage.codeplex.com). Also see the introduction blog post by Paul http://www.magnetismsolutions.com/blog/paul-nieuwelaars-blog/2012/04/04/Script_C_to_Javascript_Meets_Dynamics_CRM_2011.aspx

Now that Rollup 12 (“Polaris”) has been released we need to ensure javascript code works across Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome & Safari. Using Script# and jQuery allows us to write cross browser/UR12 compatible code very easily.

Let’s take a look at how we can retrieve a list of products in Dynamics CRM using FetchXml.

// sample fetchxml: "<fetch mapping='logical'><entity name='product'><all-attributes /></entity></fetch>";
public void RetrieveMultiple(string xml)
{

    // we need to wrap our fetchxml query with additional soap elements 
    xml = WashWithSoap(xml);

    jQueryAjaxOptions options = new jQueryAjaxOptions();

    // ProcessData, DataType and Data are required, without this jQuery will have trouble parsing the xml 
    options.ProcessData = false;
    options.DataType = "xml";
    options.Data = xml;

    options.Async = true;
    // GetCorrectedServerUrl won't be required with orgs with UR12, you can use getClientUrl instead 
    options.Url = GetCorrectedServerUrl() + "/xrmservices/2011/organization.svc/web";
    options.ContentType = "text/xml; charset=utf-8";
    options.Type = "POST";

    // Script# doesn't expose the Headers property therefor we need to inject javascript...uuugggllyyyy 
    Script.Literal("{0}.headers = {{ SOAPAction: 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts/Services/IOrganizationService/Execute' }}", options);

    options.Success = new AjaxRequestCallback(delegate(object data, string state, jQueryXmlHttpRequest request)
        {
            // we will show you how to parse the data next time :) 
        });
    jQuery.Ajax(options);
}

// this is specific to retrievemultiple, be careful
private string WashWithSoap(string fetchXml)
{
    string xml = "<s:Envelope xmlns:s=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\"><s:Body><Execute xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts/Services\"><request i:type=\"b:RetrieveMultipleRequest\" xmlns:b=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts\" xmlns:i=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"><b:Parameters xmlns:c=\"http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Collections.Generic\"> <b:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType><c:key>Query</c:key><c:value i:type=\"b:FetchExpression\"><b:Query>";

    xml += Encode(fetchXml);

    xml += "</b:Query></c:value></b:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType></b:Parameters><b:RequestId i:nil=\"true\"/><b:RequestName>RetrieveMultiple</b:RequestName></request></Execute></s:Body></s:Envelope>";

    return xml;
}

Keep an eye out for Part 2 where we will show you how to parse the data in a cross browser compatible way.