Connect to Dynamics CRM in Node.js
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ReportThere are a couple of ways that we can authenticate with a CRM deployment: Active Directory (AD), Claims, and OAuth. Finding a single library that can easily handle all three in Node.js was a bit of a challenge. Installing multiple libraries, with different methods of usage, is too much hassle for such a straightforward purpose, in my opinion.
The research
To connect to CRM using AD, I tried httpntlm library, and it worked right away without any issues. However, i faced a lot of issues with OAuth; mainly caused by outdated guides on the Internet.
Previously, I worked mainly with Google’s APIs when it came to OAuth, so it was new territory for me working with Azure. So the first step I did was to try the well-known ADAL.js library. It worked fine in a web app with a proper front end, but in my case, I wanted to connect server-to-server. Try as I might, it never worked, as expected as nearly all guides assume there is an interface for the user.
Stumbling upon this article by Lucas: link, I went back to the basics by opting to do it by hand using basic Node built-in functions.
The solution
I followed his steps for the most part, but I wanted to simplify things even more by automatically acquiring the tokenendpoint. The endpoint requires the tenant ID, which can be found by accessing https://login.windows.net/{xyz.onmicrosoft.com}/.well-known/openid-configuration, after replacing xyz.onmicrosoft.com with the domain of the users.
I will add the option to specify the tenant ID in the configuration, for when the above causes an issue I didn’t foresee.
Using the knowledge acquired above, I created a Node.js library that can do the intended job, for AD and OAuth at least.
Installation
Run the following command in your app’s CLI:
npm i node-dcrm-service |
The following imports cover the exposed types in this module:
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import { CrmService, CrmResponse, CrmConnectionConfig, CrmO365ConnectionConfig, CrmAdConnectionConfig } from "node-dcrm-service"; |
Configuration
Common parameters
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AD parameters
To authenticate with AD, in addition to the above parameters, all you need is the username, password, and domain.
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{ username: "testuser@testorg.onmicrosoft.com", password: "password", domain: "domain"} |
OAuth parameters
To authenticate with OAuth, you will need a few more parameters:
- tenant: the Azure tenant
- appId: Application ID in Azure Active Directory
- clientId: the Client Secret created in the application above
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{ webApiHost: 'testorg.api.crm.dynamics.com', tenant: 'testorg.onmicrosoft.com', username: "testuser@testorg.onmicrosoft.com", password: "password", appId: "16cd08d5-b6f1-475e-90a3-d40d83e26bbc", clientId: "Ao+cz9J6MNe/tyizLZR5ili3Oth/vBoZzTr5DqS6r+o="} |
Refer to the following page for more detailed steps on how to acquire the above OAuth parameters: link.
Initialisation
The parameters defined above are passed to the right configuration constructor first:
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// OAuthconst config = new CrmO365ConnectionConfig(parameters);// ADconst config = new CrmAdConnectionConfig(parameters); |
Next, construct and initialise the service:
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const crmService = new CrmService(config);crmService.initialise(); |
Make CRM requests
The service supports the following HTTP verbs: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE.
To make requests to CRM:
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crmService.then(v => crmService.get("WhoAmI()") .then(r => console.log(r.body.UserId))); |
Contribution
If you would like to contribute to the project, please clone this repository: link.
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