How to send an entity to a global action input parameter if the Entity is brand new/temporary?

Question

I believe this question is different than the one linked here:

CRM do not support direct update of Entity Reference properties, Use Navigation properties instead

I have a global action that accepts a ClubOfficer Entity as a required input argument. Here is a sample of the payload my code is generating:

{
    "ClubOfficer":{
        "_ti_club_officer_code_value":"6efab90f-7d2b-e811-a957-000d3a34a108",
        "ti_club_id":{
            "accountid":"cbf646cb-a232-e811-a959-000d3a34a0aa"
        },
        "ti_member":{
            "contactid":"e318472c-c732-e811-a959-000d3a34ae50"
        },
        "ti_start_date":"2018-07-01T00:00:00Z",
        "ti_end_date":"2018-12-31T23:59:59Z"
    },
    "Term":"Current"
}

However, before that action is even called it fails with the error:

{
    "error": {
        "code": "0x0",
        "message": "CRM do not support direct update of Entity Reference properties, Use Navigation properties instead.",
        "innererror": {
            "message": "CRM do not support direct update of Entity Reference properties, Use Navigation properties instead.",
            "type": "Microsoft.Crm.CrmHttpException",
            "stacktrace": "   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.TypeConverters.EntityReferenceAttributeTypeConverter.ConvertToCrmTypeInternal(Guid edmTypeValue)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.TypeConverters.EdmTypeConverterBase`2.ConvertToCrmType(Object edmTypeValue)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.TypeConverters.EdmEntityTypeConverter.SetStructuralPropertyToXrmEntity(Entity entity, EntityMetadata entityMetadata, String crmAttributeName, IEdmProperty edmProperty, Object propertyValue)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.TypeConverters.EdmEntityTypeConverter.ConvertToCrmTypeInternal(EdmEntityObject edmTypeValue)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.TypeConverters.EdmTypeConverterBase`2.ConvertToCrmType(Object edmTypeValue)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.ODataV4.Converters.TypeConverters.OnDemandEdmEntityTypeConverter.ConvertToCrmTypeInternal(EdmEntityObject edmTypeValue)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.TypeConverters.EdmTypeConverterBase`2.ConvertToCrmType(Object edmTypeValue)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.RequestResponseConverter.AddSDKRequestParameterFromEdmOperationParameter(IEdmModel edmModel, IEdmOperation edmOperation, ParameterCollection parameterCollection, KeyValuePair`2 parameter, Tuple`2 messagePair)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.RequestResponseConverter.GetRequestParamsFromOperationRequest(IEdmModel edmModel, IEdmOperation edmOperation, Dictionary`2 parameters, Dictionary`2 boundParameters, Tuple`2 messagePair, Dictionary`2 offlineData)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.CrmODataServiceDataProvider.ExecuteOperation(CrmODataExecutionContext context, EdmOperation edmOperation, Dictionary`2 parameters, Dictionary`2 boundParameters)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.ActionController.ProcessOperationRequest(String operationName, Dictionary`2 operationParameters, EntityReference entityReference, String boundEntityName, String boundEntityType)\r\n   at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OData.ActionController.<>c__DisplayClass9_0.<PostUnboundAction>b__0()\r\n   at Microsoft.PowerApps.CoreFramework.ActivityLoggerExtensions.Execute[TResult](ILogger logger, EventId eventId, ActivityType activityType, Func`1 func, IEnumerable`1 additionalCustomProperties)\r\n   at Microsoft.Xrm.Telemetry.XrmTelemetryExtensions.Execute[TResult](ILogger logger, XrmTelemetryActivityType activityType, Func`1 func)\r\n   at lambda_method(Closure , Object , Object[] )\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor.ActionExecutor.<>c__DisplayClass10.<GetExecutor>b__9(Object instance, Object[] methodParameters)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor.ExecuteAsync(HttpControllerContext controllerContext, IDictionary`2 arguments, CancellationToken cancellationToken)\r\n--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---\r\n   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()\r\n   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ApiControllerActionInvoker.<InvokeActionAsyncCore>d__0.MoveNext()\r\n--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---\r\n   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()\r\n   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ActionFilterResult.<ExecuteAsync>d__2.MoveNext()\r\n--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---\r\n   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()\r\n   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Dispatcher.HttpControllerDispatcher.<SendAsync>d__1.MoveNext()"
        }
    }
}

The ClubOfficer is not an existing entity, but rather I would like the Action to treat it as a ClubOfficer temporary entity so that I can take advantage of the "type safety" of the entity properties. Is that possible? Or do I have to pass ClubOfficer as a String argument and then operate on the JSON string? What is this error complaining about and how do I fix it?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 05 '18 at 23:13

Unfortunately this isn’t possible. You are not passing a whole entity to the action, you are only passing the entity reference, which is just the name of the entity and its ID. So you won’t be able to pass additional values anyway.

The proper way to do this is to create additional input parameters for each of your inputs. This way they will be strongly-typed. Another option would be to pass a JSON string payload that you parse with a custom activity.

Hope that helps!

How to send an entity to a global action input parameter if the Entity is brand new/temporary?

1 Answers1