Key not used in request

[vidarkongsli]

I have this code where I try to delete an entity:

client.For<Account>()
                    .Key("foo")
                    .DeleteEntryAsync()
                    .Wait();

which constructs the following Uri to the server: https://localhost:44305/odata/Account() instead of the expected https://localhost:44305/odata/Account('foo'). Any idea what could be the cause of this? I use Web Api to implement the Odata service.

[object]

The only thing I can think of is that the OData service definition doesn't have the key. Can you check the service metadata (go to service_url/$metadata)?

[vidarkongsli]

Yes, that was it. Thanks a lot! 👍

[toryb]

I don't know if should open a new issue or use this one. I have a scenario where the OData service (MS Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement A.K.A. CRM) I am accessing uses "alternate keys" in which the key notation is accepted but the metadata does not define them in the Key node for the entity. As a result, the Client will not use the key I define using the .Key() statement.

Here are the details:

The metadata:

  <EntityType Name="account" BaseType="mscrm.crmbaseentity">
    <Key>
      <PropertyRef Name="accountid" />
    </Key>
    <Property Name="accountid" Type="Edm.Guid" />
    <Property Name="lastusedincampaign" Type="Edm.DateTimeOffset" />
    <Property Name="address1_name" Type="Edm.String" Unicode="false" />
    <Property Name="accountnumber" Type="Edm.String" Unicode="false" />
    ... (Properties and Navigation left out for brevity)
    <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="accountnumber" />
                <PropertyValue Property="Name" PropertyPath="accountnumber" />
              </Record>
            </Collection>
          </PropertyValue>
        </Record>
      </Collection>
    </Annotation>
  </EntityType>

The essence of the code:

  var keyValues = new Dictionary<string, object>();
  keyValues.Add("accountnumber", "US-50");
  var selectFields = new List<string>()
  {
    nameof(customer.accountid),
    nameof(customer._owningbusinessunit_value),
    nameof(customer._primarycontactid_value),
    nameof(customer.lev_Account_AccountAddress),
    nameof(customer.accountnumber),
    nameof(customer.contact_customer_accounts),
    nameof(customer.description),
    nameof(customer.lev_CustomerId),
    nameof(customer.name),
    nameof(customer.statecode),
    nameof(customer.statuscode)
  };
  var query = Client.For("accounts")
    .Key(keyValues)
    .Select(selectFields);
  return query.FindEntryAsync()

The request:

GET https://[our_tenant].crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.0/accounts()?$select=accountid,_owningbusinessunit_value,_primarycontactid_value,description,statecode,accountnumber,name,statuscode,lev_CustomerId,lev_Account_AccountAddress,contact_customer_accounts

Here is a working request that I tested:

GET https://[our_tenant].crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.0/accounts(accountnumber='US-50')?$select=accountid,_owningbusinessunit_value,_primarycontactid_value,description,statecode,accountnumber,name,statuscode,lev_CustomerId,lev_Account_AccountAddress,contact_customer_accounts

I know there is a plan to add support for custom attributes in the next major release. However, until that time is there any possible workaround?

For example, is there a way to tell the client to use the key values provided even though the Metadata doesn't appear to define them as keys? I could use the ODataClientSettings.BeforeRequest but since I only have the HttpRequestMessage in the method I won't know what keys were defined to modify the request. Does anyone have any ideas for a workaround besides modifying the code myself to ignore the Key definition?

Thanks,

toryb