Working with the OData Endpoint in Dynamics 365 for Operations

by Chris Roehrich | Jan 13, 2017 | Development, Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

The OData endpoint is a new REST-based service that allows for integrating with Dynamics 365 for Operations. Below are some tips to help with using an OData client to authenticate and use methods to read and write data in the system.

Data Entities

Data Entities that are marked ‘Yes’ for the ‘Is Public’ property will be available as an OData endpoint. You can consume this OData endpoint in your external application such as a .Net application for integration scenarios.

In the screenshot below, I have created a custom data entity called CPRCustCreditRatingEntity. Note the Is Public, Public Collection Name and Public Entity Name properties:

When viewed using the Chrome browser, I can see my custom Data entity is available:

Tip: If using IE to view the OData endpoint, you might have to open the JSON results in a separate file download. Chrome will automatically show the JSON results in the browser.

Creating a OData Client Application

Use the OData v4 Client Code Generator in your Visual Studio application to build the OData entity proxy classes. This can be downloaded and installed from with Visual Studio. Once it is installed, you can add the OData client to the application. In the following screenshots, I downloaded it and then added it to my C# Console application project:

This will create a file with an extension of tt which stands for Text Template. Update the MetadataDocumentUri string value in the tt file so it contains your OData metadata endpoint. For example, mine is:

public const string MetadataDocumentUri = “https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/data/$metadata”;

Lastly, right click on the tt file and choose to ‘Run custom tool’. This will read the metadata and build a large class file (45+ MB). It may take several minutes to complete. You can explore the CS file when it completes.

Using the generated proxy classes

The generated proxy classes let you instantiate the data entity objects, set properties, and call methods to interact with the OData endpoint. The following is an example of reading a CustCreditRating record using a LINQ (System.Linq) query pattern:

//Get Single CustCreditRating
Console.WriteLine("Get a single CustCreditRating instance...");
CustCreditRating existCustCreditRating = GetCustCreditRating("USMF", "US-010");
Console.WriteLine("Credit Rating for {0} is {1}. Press Enter.", existCustCreditRating.CustomerAccount, existCustCreditRating.CreditRating);
Console.ReadLine();

The GetCustCreditRating method:
#region Get Single CustCreditRating
        private static CustCreditRating GetCustCreditRating(string targetAXLegalEntity, string customerAccount)
        {
            context.SendingRequest2 += new EventHandler<SendingRequest2EventArgs>(delegate (object sender, SendingRequest2EventArgs e)
            {
                var authenticationHeader = OAuthHelper.GetAuthenticationHeader();
                e.RequestMessage.SetHeader(OAuthHelper.OAuthHeader, authenticationHeader);
            });

            var custCreditRatingQuery = from entity in context.CustCreditRatings
                                        where entity.DataAreaId == targetAXLegalEntity
                              && entity.CustomerAccount == customerAccount
                              select entity;

            return (custCreditRatingQuery.Count() > 0) ? custCreditRatingQuery.First() : null;
        }
#endregion

The following code is a complete example of creating multiple Customer records using the OData endpoint:
using System;
using AuthenticationUtility;
using Microsoft.OData.Client;
using CustomerOdataClient.Microsoft.Dynamics.DataEntities;

namespace CustomerOdataClient
{
    class Program
    {
        private static string ODataEntityPath = ClientConfiguration.Default.ODataEndpointUri;
        private static Uri oDataUri = new Uri(ODataEntityPath, UriKind.Absolute);
        private static Resources context = new Resources(oDataUri);


        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Set HTTP header...");
            context.SendingRequest2 += new EventHandler<SendingRequest2EventArgs>(delegate (object sender, SendingRequest2EventArgs e)
            {
                var authenticationHeader = OAuthHelper.GetAuthenticationHeader();
                e.RequestMessage.SetHeader(OAuthHelper.OAuthHeader, authenticationHeader);
            });

            Console.WriteLine("Creating new customer using Data Entity OData...");
            Customer myCustomer = new Customer();
            DataServiceCollection<Customer> customersCollection = new DataServiceCollection<Customer>(context);

            customersCollection.Add(myCustomer);
            
            myCustomer.CustomerAccount = "US-X11111";
            myCustomer.Name = "ABC Trees  111";
            myCustomer.CustomerGroupId = "10";
            myCustomer.SalesCurrencyCode = "USD";
            myCustomer.CreditRating = "Excellent";
            myCustomer.AddressCountryRegionId = "USA";

            #region Create multiple customers
            
            Customer myCustomer2 = new Customer();
            
            customersCollection.Add(myCustomer2);

            myCustomer2.CustomerAccount = "US-X22222";
            myCustomer2.Name = "ABC Rains vb";
            myCustomer2.CustomerGroupId = "10";
            //myCustomer2.SalesCurrencyCode = "USD";
            myCustomer2.CreditRating = "Excellent";
            myCustomer2.AddressCountryRegionId = "USA";
            
            #endregion

            DataServiceResponse response = null;
            try
            {
                response = context.SaveChanges(SaveChangesOptions.PostOnlySetProperties | SaveChangesOptions.BatchWithSingleChangeset);
                Console.WriteLine("created ok");
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message + ex.InnerException);
            }
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

//Get Single CustCreditRating

Console.WriteLine("Get a single CustCreditRating instance...");

CustCreditRating existCustCreditRating = GetCustCreditRating("USMF", "US-010");

Console.WriteLine("Credit Rating for {0} is {1}. Press Enter.", existCustCreditRating.CustomerAccount, existCustCreditRating.CreditRating);

Console.ReadLine();

The GetCustCreditRating method:

#region Get Single CustCreditRating

private static CustCreditRating GetCustCreditRating(string targetAXLegalEntity, string customerAccount)

{

context.SendingRequest2 += new EventHandler<SendingRequest2EventArgs>(delegate (object sender, SendingRequest2EventArgs e)

{

var authenticationHeader = OAuthHelper.GetAuthenticationHeader();

e.RequestMessage.SetHeader(OAuthHelper.OAuthHeader, authenticationHeader);

});

var custCreditRatingQuery = from entity in context.CustCreditRatings

where entity.DataAreaId == targetAXLegalEntity

&& entity.CustomerAccount == customerAccount

select entity;

return (custCreditRatingQuery.Count() > 0) ? custCreditRatingQuery.First() : null;

}

#endregion

The following code is a complete example of creating multiple Customer records using the OData endpoint:

using System;

using AuthenticationUtility;

using Microsoft.OData.Client;

using CustomerOdataClient.Microsoft.Dynamics.DataEntities;

namespace CustomerOdataClient

{

class Program

{

private static string ODataEntityPath = ClientConfiguration.Default.ODataEndpointUri;

private static Uri oDataUri = new Uri(ODataEntityPath, UriKind.Absolute);

private static Resources context = new Resources(oDataUri);

static void Main(string[] args)

{

Console.WriteLine("Set HTTP header...");

context.SendingRequest2 += new EventHandler<SendingRequest2EventArgs>(delegate (object sender, SendingRequest2EventArgs e)

{

var authenticationHeader = OAuthHelper.GetAuthenticationHeader();

e.RequestMessage.SetHeader(OAuthHelper.OAuthHeader, authenticationHeader);

});

Console.WriteLine("Creating new customer using Data Entity OData...");

Customer myCustomer = new Customer();

DataServiceCollection<Customer> customersCollection = new DataServiceCollection<Customer>(context);

customersCollection.Add(myCustomer);

myCustomer.CustomerAccount = "US-X11111";

myCustomer.Name = "ABC Trees 111";

myCustomer.CustomerGroupId = "10";

myCustomer.SalesCurrencyCode = "USD";

myCustomer.CreditRating = "Excellent";

myCustomer.AddressCountryRegionId = "USA";

#region Create multiple customers

Customer myCustomer2 = new Customer();

customersCollection.Add(myCustomer2);

myCustomer2.CustomerAccount = "US-X22222";

myCustomer2.Name = "ABC Rains vb";

myCustomer2.CustomerGroupId = "10";

//myCustomer2.SalesCurrencyCode = "USD";

myCustomer2.CreditRating = "Excellent";

myCustomer2.AddressCountryRegionId = "USA";

#endregion

DataServiceResponse response = null;

try

{

response = context.SaveChanges(SaveChangesOptions.PostOnlySetProperties | SaveChangesOptions.BatchWithSingleChangeset);

Console.WriteLine("created ok");

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

Console.WriteLine(ex.Message + ex.InnerException);

}

Console.ReadLine();

}

In the code above, two Customer objects are being created and passed into a DataServiceCollection named customersCollection. I am using the optional SaveChangesOptions.BatchWithSingleChangeset enum in the SaveChanges method. This means if one of the Customer objects fails validation then neither of the Customer objects are created. Since both Customers run under one batch in the HTTP call to the OData endpoint if one fails then they both do.

Lastly, the Resources object that has been instantiated as ‘context’, is using objects from the AuthenticationUtility project to help with authentication. This is a C# library project made of two classes to help in setting up the authentication to the OData endpoint and retrieving the authorization token. This AuthenticationUtility project can be found in Microsoft’s Dynamics AX Github repository at https://github.com/Microsoft/Dynamics-AX-Integration/tree/master/ServiceSamples/AuthenticationUtility.

Hopefully, this post can steer you in the right direction on how to successfully interact with the OData entities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations.

More on Dynamics 365 for Operations Development

Learn more about OData and the essentials of Dynamics 365 for Operations Development at our online training course! Check out the course agenda and registration information here.

Chris Roehrich

Chris Roehrich is a Developer at Stoneridge Software with more than 17 years of support and engineering experience from Microsoft. He spent nearly 15 years on the Dynamics GP developer support team, focusing on SQL, updates, migrations, and integration tools. Chris was on the AX developer support team as a Sr. Support Engineer where he focused on the CRM Connector, AIF Services, SRS report customizations, TFS\Version Control, and X++\C# debugging.

19 Comments

Riccardo on March 25, 2017 at 1:45 am

Hi Chris,

Nice article! I was wondering in which company your two customers are being created? I don’t see any DataAreaId or Company being specified in the code. Would be great to hear how you specify the company !

Regards,
Riccardo
Brandon Carmichael on April 3, 2017 at 3:04 pm

Hello Riccardo,

Each company aware Data Entity will have a DataAreaId property you can set using the Microsoft .Net OData Client pattern I discussed in the post. US-CPR111 will go into USRT and US-CPR222 will go into USMF since it is the default company of the credentials being used:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

using AuthenticationUtility;
using Microsoft.OData.Client;
using CustomerOdataClient.Microsoft.Dynamics.DataEntities;

namespace CustomerOdataClient
{
class Program
{
private static string ODataEntityPath = ClientConfiguration.Default.ODataEndpointUri;
private static Uri oDataUri = new Uri(ODataEntityPath, UriKind.Absolute);
private static Resources context = new Resources(oDataUri);

static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(“Set HTTP header…”);
context.SendingRequest2 += new EventHandler(delegate (object sender, SendingRequest2EventArgs e)
{
var authenticationHeader = OAuthHelper.GetAuthenticationHeader();
e.RequestMessage.SetHeader(OAuthHelper.OAuthHeader, authenticationHeader);
});

Console.WriteLine(“Creating new customer using Data Entity OData…”);
Customer myCustomer = new Customer();
DataServiceCollection customersCollection = new DataServiceCollection(context);

customersCollection.Add(myCustomer);

myCustomer.CustomerAccount = “US-CPR111”;
myCustomer.Name = “CPR 111”;
myCustomer.CustomerGroupId = “30”;
myCustomer.SalesCurrencyCode = “USD”;
myCustomer.CreditRating = “Excellent”;
myCustomer.AddressCountryRegionId = “USA”;
myCustomer.DataAreaId = “USRT”;

#region Create multiple customers

Customer myCustomer2 = new Customer();

customersCollection.Add(myCustomer2);

myCustomer2.CustomerAccount = “US-CPR222”;
myCustomer2.Name = “CPR 222”;
myCustomer2.CustomerGroupId = “30”;
myCustomer2.SalesCurrencyCode = “USD”;
myCustomer2.CreditRating = “Excellent”;
myCustomer2.AddressCountryRegionId = “USA”;

#endregion

DataServiceResponse response = null;
try
{
response = context.SaveChanges(SaveChangesOptions.PostOnlySetProperties | SaveChangesOptions.BatchWithSingleChangeset);
Console.WriteLine(“created ok”);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message + ex.InnerException);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Thank you,
Brandon
Fahad on April 20, 2017 at 4:37 pm

Hi Chris and Brandon –
I am following your example to setup a client to consume Odata service from D365 for Operations. I am wondering where I can get the following details to set in client configuration from my D365 cloud app.

ActiveDirectoryTenant = “https://login.windows-ppe.net/TAEOfficial.ccsctp.net”,
ActiveDirectoryClientAppId = “d8a9a121-b463-41f6-a86c-041272bdb340”,
ActiveDirectoryClientAppSecret = “”,

Also the latet c# code of Authentication utility doens’t contain this property. I think its a data entity path prefixed with Base URI?

ClientConfiguration.Default.ODataEndpointUri

Thanks
Brandon Carmichael on April 24, 2017 at 12:15 pm

Hello Fahad,

In regards to the Authentication Utility update, unfortunately Chris and I don’t feel comfortable commenting on how to use it if there are changes as we haven’t worked with it much.

Despite this, I would still like to help as much as I can – there is information about the AD Client App Id at https://ax.help.dynamics.com/en/wiki/dynamics-ax-7-services-technical-concepts-guide/ in the Authentication section.

Hope this helps,
Brandon
Parag on June 22, 2017 at 4:21 am

Hi,

I have created one Composite Data Entity Called SalesOrder which is composed of SalesHeader & SalesLine data entity. After created I have realized that I forgot to make IsPublic property to YES. Now When I right click on my composite Data Enity in Solution Explorer I cant see property isPublic but When I see composite Data Entity on ApplicationExplorer then IsPublic property is visible and not editable. How can I edit IsPublic property ?

I have to expose composite data entity into Power BI to create SSRS Report. Please give me any suggestion.

Thanks,
Parag
Brandon Carmichael on June 22, 2017 at 9:37 am

Hello Parag,

This behavior is possibly because Composite Entities are only designed for the Data Management platform with XML files (you can’t consume them via ODATA scenarios – using the .Net OData client for example)

The above is from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/operations/dev-itpro/data-entities/develop-composite-data-entities

Thanks,
Brandon
Avinash Patil on June 28, 2017 at 11:14 am

Hi Chris,

Thanks for this nice article which explained all required details.
I am also trying to consume one of my data entity through .NET application. I have almost completed all the steps but facing issues while assigning the values in ClientConfiguration class. Can you please provide examples of same, so it will help troubleshooting my issue.

My Details for your reference:

public static ClientConfiguration OneBox = new ClientConfiguration()
{
UriString = “https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/”,
UserName = “abc@xyz.com”,
Password = “password”,
ActiveDirectoryResource = “https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com”,
ActiveDirectoryTenant = “https://login.windows.net/myCompany.com”,
ActiveDirectoryClientAppId = “4f05e2ad-0cba-4461-8f72-xxxx0a7dxxxx”,
ActiveDirectoryClientAppSecret = “xxxxLG9RoC8tabcb0xxxxHnaTl0NR1kckgQR5lPXxxxx”,
};

Thanks In Advance.

Avinash
Brandon Carmichael on July 6, 2017 at 3:00 pm

Hello Avinash,

I’m hoping the following will help.

Here is Chris’s edited ClientConfiguration.cs file:

using System;

namespace AuthenticationUtility
{
public partial class ClientConfiguration
{
public static ClientConfiguration Default { get { return ClientConfiguration.OneBox; } }

public static ClientConfiguration OneBox = new ClientConfiguration()
{
ODataEndpointUri = “https://learning01ce8e89487e5be4devaos.cloudax.dynamics.com/data”, // NEEDS TO BE UPDATED
UserName = “user@domain.com”,
Password = “()MyPassword”,
ActiveDirectoryResource = “https://learning01ce8e89487e5be4devaos.cloudax.dynamics.com”, // NEEDS TO BE UPDATED deployment URL
ActiveDirectoryTenant = “https://login.windows.net/companytenant.com”,
ActiveDirectoryClientAppId = “3cabd434-2a47-4beb-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx”, // APP ID from Azure AD
};

public string ODataEndpointUri { get; set; }
public string UserName { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
public string ActiveDirectoryResource { get; set; }
public String ActiveDirectoryTenant { get; set; }
public String ActiveDirectoryClientAppId { get; set; }
}
}

Here is his OAuthHelper.cs file:

using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory;
using System;

namespace AuthenticationUtility
{
public class OAuthHelper
{
///

/// The header to use for OAuth.
///

public const string OAuthHeader = “Authorization”;

///

/// Retrieves an authentication header from the service.
///

/// The authentication header for the Web API call.
public static string GetAuthenticationHeader()
{
string aadTenant = ClientConfiguration.Default.ActiveDirectoryTenant;
string aadClientAppId = ClientConfiguration.Default.ActiveDirectoryClientAppId;
string aadResource = ClientConfiguration.Default.ActiveDirectoryResource;

AuthenticationContext authenticationContext = new AuthenticationContext(aadTenant);

// OAuth through username and password.
string username = ClientConfiguration.Default.UserName;
string password = ClientConfiguration.Default.Password;

// Get token object
AuthenticationResult authenticationResult = authenticationContext.AcquireToken(aadResource, aadClientAppId, new UserCredential(username, password));

// Create and get JWT token
return authenticationResult.CreateAuthorizationHeader();
}
}
}

Thanks,
Brandon
Thomas on November 14, 2017 at 9:11 am

Hi Brandon,

thanks for the great post. Do you know if there is a way to get the metadata only for some services. https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/data/$metadata leads to a really huge file.
Brandon Carmichael on November 14, 2017 at 9:26 am

Hey Thomas,

Do you access to Yammer? If so take a look at: https://www.yammer.com/dynamicsaxfeedbackprograms/#/threads/show?threadId=982246336. Honestly, I don’t know, but I am certainly curious and would like to know more.

Thanks,
Brandon
Thomas on November 14, 2017 at 9:36 am

Yes, Curl sound like an idea that we can try, but still it is resulting in a file with a lot of data that is not really needed.

Thanks,
Thomas
Jeff Reddy on December 7, 2017 at 9:41 am

Could you post an example that doesn’t depend upon the OData v4 Client Code Generator? I used this on our AX365 instance and the generated code file contained 970 thousand lines of code. Not only is this a bear to work with, it also causes a lot of Visual Studio crashes.
Michael Tweiten on December 12, 2017 at 1:44 pm

Hi Jeff,

I reached out to the author of this post about your question.
Unfortunately, they followed the Microsoft example of using the OData client code generator and do not have another example.
Sorry about that.

Thanks,
Michael
Sanjay on January 12, 2018 at 3:25 am

I am getting the following error in Visual Studio when I run the custom tool for OdataClientGenerator:

Error “Running transformation: System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error”.
After a while I went to Event Log to see the detailed description about the Error it shows the following Log,

“Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.Services’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified”.
Please help me to figure out the issue.
Thanks in Advance.
Taylor Valnes on January 12, 2018 at 9:51 am

Hi Sanjay,

This isn’t an error we’ve seen before. You should confirm the OData entities can be viewed in the browser correctly at https://.cloudax.dynamics.com/data it seems like something is not running right with the D365FO instance. If that is ok then binding issues can be debugged using https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/fuslogvw-exe-assembly-binding-log-viewer maybe that will provide clues.

Regards,
Taylor
Anthony on January 16, 2018 at 5:59 pm

Great Article!
Everything is working, howeve the insert goes directly to AX Customer Entity as oppose for CustomerStaging entity. Customer entity Data Management Enabed property is set to Yes, and Data Management Staging Table is set to the Staging table name. However, data is by passing Staging and being written directly Customer table.

Appreciate any assistance.
Taylor Valnes on January 18, 2018 at 3:31 pm

Hello Anthony,

We believe that is designed behavior because you are not going through the DMF framework of using a data package. We are not 100% sure on that though. If you want it to show in staging then use the UI to run a data package import job or we believe there is an API you can call that MSFT recommends for large data imports that’s allows you run a data package. OData API is best for small transactions and there is no mention from MSFT that staging tables are impacted.

Regards,
Taylor
Anthony on January 19, 2018 at 1:55 pm

Thanks for the respond Taylor – was thinking the same thing – OData for real-time interfacing as oppose to bulk loads. Looks like AX “pull” (import) as oppose to “push-to-AX” is optimal approach for Bulk Loads to AX scenarios.

Thanks again Taylor!
Taylor Valnes on January 22, 2018 at 10:15 am

Hello Anthony,

You’re welcome. I also wanted to let you know the author of the blog has also given me the following information as well, and advised as a source of information for this topic.
There is a data management API for imports here and documentation for recurring integrations here. There is also a yammer group.

Regards,
Taylor

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Working with the OData Endpoint in Dynamics 365 for Operations

Data Entities

Creating a OData Client Application

Using the generated proxy classes

More on Dynamics 365 for Operations Development

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