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Onboarding to Web API for Dynamics CRM 2016 from Web API Preview

Applies to: CRM 2016 and CRM Online 2016 Update.

There are many exciting new platform features available in CRM 2016 for developers. One of the biggest platform features is the rollout of the Modern Web API.

The Web API makes it easier to create applications across a wide variety of platforms, devices, and programming languages. The Web API will provide parity with the existing organization service (SOAP endpoint). You will be able to do anything using the Web API that you can do using the organization service, with a few differences. You won’t have to download any Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK assemblies. You can perform all operations using HTTP requests with the Web API located at [organization uri]/api/data/v8.0/. The Web API implements OData version 4.0, an open standard for data access. For the list of third-party libraries that support OData, version 4.0, see http://www.odata.org/libraries/.

Documentation about using the Web API can be found in Use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web API

The Web API Reference is available at Web API Reference.

Breaking changes over Web API Preview 

Along with Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1, we had released a preview version of the Web API. There have been a set of breaking changes since the preview release.

  • The root path for the Web API Endpoint has changed from: [organization-uri]/api/data/, to [organization-uri]/api/data/v8.0/ to allow for a streamlined versioning support.
  • Lookup attributes are now primarily exposed through Navigation properties, instead of similarly named guid type structural properties. The lookups can also be accessed using a guid type structural properties, though with an alternate name of “_<LookupAttributeName>_value”.
  • SDK Messages were earlier exposed in the Preview WebAPI as unbound Actions and Functions. In the CRM 2016 release, many of them have been bound to Entity instances or EntitySets.
    • For example: CloneContract, which was earlier exposed as an unbound action is now bound to a contract entity.

To compare the Web API with the existing web services provided by Dynamics CRM 2016, see Use Microsoft Dynamics CRM web services.

Cheers,

Abhishek Kumar

365blog

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