Retrieve single record from an entity using JavaScript in MS CRM 4.0

Here is a JavaScript method which can be used to retrieve a record from an entity using CRM Web Service. This method can be used to retrieve data from any CRM entity. It requires following parameters to be passed:

1.       entityName: Then schema name of an entity to be retrieved.

2.       entityId: record id form an entity.

3.       attributes: Array of attributes to be retrieved.

function RetrieveEntity(entityName, entityId, attributes)

{

    var result = null;

   

    if((entityName != null) && (entityName.length > 0)

    && (entityId != null) && (entityId.length > 0)

    && (attributes != null) && (attributes.length > 0))

    {

         try

         {

            var ColumnsSetAttributes = '';

            // Build columns to be retrieved

            for(var i = 0; i < attributes.length; i++)

            {

                ColumnsSetAttributes += " <q1:Attribute>" + attributes[i] + "</q1:Attribute>";

            }

           

            var XmlHeader = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" +

            "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">" +

            GenerateAuthenticationHeader() +

            " <soap:Body>";   

            var RetrieveXml = XmlHeader +

            " <Execute xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices'>" +

            " <Request xsi:type='RetrieveRequest' ReturnDynamicEntities='true'>" +

            " <Target xsi:type='TargetRetrieveDynamic'>" +

            " <EntityName>" + entityName + "</EntityName>" +

            " <EntityId>" + entityId + "</EntityId>" +

            " </Target>" +

            " <ColumnSet xmlns:q1='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/Query' xsi:type='q1:ColumnSet'>" +

            " <q1:Attributes>" +

            ColumnsSetAttributes +

            " </q1:Attributes>" +

            " </ColumnSet>" +

            " </Request>" +

            " </Execute>" +

            " </soap:Body>" +

            " </soap:Envelope>" +

            "";

            var RetrieveRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");

            RetrieveRequest.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);

            RetrieveRequest.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction"," http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute");

            RetrieveRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");

            RetrieveRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", RetrieveXml.length);

            RetrieveRequest.send(RetrieveXml);          

           

            var RetrieveResponseXml = RetrieveRequest.responseXML;

            //Check for errors.

            if((RetrieveResponseXml == null) || (typeof(RetrieveResponseXml) == "undefined"))

            {                  

                alert("Error: No response received.");

            }

            else

            {

                var errorContactIdCount = RetrieveResponseXml.selectNodes('//error').length;

                if(errorContactIdCount != 0)

                {

                    var msg = oXml.selectSingleNode('//description').nodeTypedValue;              

                    alert(msg);

                }

                else

                {

                    //select the node text

                    var QueryBusinessResponseXml = RetrieveResponseXml.selectNodes("//BusinessEntity");

                    result = QueryBusinessResponseXml;

                }

            }

        }

        catch(e)

        {

            alert('Error occurred: ' + e.description);

        }

    }   

    return result;

   

}

Example: Retrieve name from a contact record:

//Example: To retrieve name from a contact

var EntityName = "contact";

var EntityId =  crmForm.ObjectId;//contactid

var AttributeList = new Array();

AttributeList[0] =  "name";

var responseXml = RetrieveEntity(EntityName,EntityId,AttributeList);

if(responseXml != null)

{

    //Get Investor Activity Id from response xml.

    var ContactNameNode = responseXml[0].selectSingleNode("//Property[@Name='name']");

    var CotactName = '';

    if(ContactNameNode != null && ContactNameNode.childNodes[0] != null)

    {

        CotactName = ContactNameNode.childNodes[0].text;

    }

}