Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Merge action using Web API

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Posted on by Emmanuelle

Hello,

I'm trying to call a Merge action using the Web API, but when I test it, I have the following error:

"Required field 'Target' is missing","innererror".

Here is my request below, I am trying to merge two Contacts as an example:

var parameters = "{";

parameters += "\"Target\": \"/contacts(5037B103-BD07-E611-80FA-5065F38A7A11)\",";

parameters += "\"Subordinate\": \"/contacts(F0E248FD-BC07-E611-80FA-5065F38A7A11)\",";

parameters += "\"PerformParentingChecks\": \"false\",";

parameters += "\"UpdateContent\": \"\"";

parameters += "}";

byte[] MergedContact = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(parameters);

string ContactMerge = CrmApiUrl + "Merge";

request = WebRequest.Create(new Uri(ContactMerge)) as HttpWebRequest;

request.ContentType = "application/json; charset=utf-8";

request.Headers.Add("OData-MaxVersion", "4.0");

request.Headers.Add("OData-Version", "4.0");

request.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Bearer " + jsonAuthent.access_token);

request.Method = "POST";

var requestStream3 = request.GetRequestStream();

requestStream3.Write(MergedContact, 0, MergedContact.Length);

requestStream3.Close();

HttpWebResponse ContactMergeResponse = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;

var ContactMergeResponseStream = ContactMergeResponse.GetResponseStream();

Does anyone has any idea about the syntax for a merge action call?

Thank you in advance,

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Community Member on at

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Hi Emmanuelle,

Target, Subordinate, UpdateContent use the CRMbaseentity type, you will need to pass through a JSON Object which contains the parameter from the Entity you wish to merge i.e for account - accountid and also a parameter setting the odata type for example with account:

"@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account"

Full Request body would look something like:

{"Target":{

"accountid": "2fc9ebf0-6b3c-e611-80e0-c4346bc5b2d4",

"@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account"

},

"Subordinate":{

"accountid": "2fc9ebf0-6b3c-e611-80e0-c4346bc5b2d5,

"@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account"

},

"UpdateContent":{"emailaddress1":"something@hotmail.com",

"@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account"

},

"PerformParentingChecks":"false"

}

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Pierre Andre Joubert 175 on at

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Hi Emmanuelle,

Were you able to find a solution to this and figure out how to perform the merge?

Thanks

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a33ik 84,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Pierre,

Ian's answer is correct. Also you can check my post that has code that can be used to merge records - butenko.pro/.../merge-records-using-webapi

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Pierre Andre Joubert 175 on at

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Hi Andrew,

Unfortunately I am using c# not JavaScript, I can get retrievals and deletions to work, but sending the Merge request just fails with a Bad Request error, which leads me to believe I have a mistake in my parameters, but I cannot figure out where though:

string requestPrefix = ApiEndpointPrefix + "contacts(" + item.MergeTargetId + ")" + "/Merge";

var parameters = new JObject();

parameters.Add(propertyName: "Target", value: "contacts(" + item.MergeTargetId + ")");

parameters.Add(propertyName: "Subordinate", value: "contacts(" + item.ContactId + ")");

parameters.Add(propertyName: "PerformParentingChecks", value: "true");

//parameters.Add(propertyName: "UpdateContent", value: "");

httpRequestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, requestPrefix);

httpRequestMessage.Content = new StringContent(content: parameters.ToString(), encoding: Encoding.UTF8, mediaType: "application/json");

mergeResponse = await httpClient.SendAsync(httpRequestMessage);

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a33ik 84,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Pierre,

C# or JavaScript but payload and urls should be the same. My assumption why you keep getting errors because you use wrong url and different payload. Check article I referenced, fix your code and that should resolve your issue.

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Pierre Andre Joubert 175 on at

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a33ik 84,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Pierre,

Here is solution for your issue.

1. Url you should use - yourorgnamehere.crm.dynamics.com/.../Merge

2. Body of Post request:

{

"Target": {

"accountid": "D9C08D12-CE55-E711-80E0-3863BB2E73F0",

"@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account"

},

"Subordinate": {

"accountid": "E5C08D12-CE55-E711-80E0-3863BB2E73F0",

"@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account"

},

"UpdateContent": {

"accountid": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",

"@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account"

},

"PerformParentingChecks": true

}

3. Add to Headers of Request only one - "Content-Type" with value "application/json".

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Pierre Andre Joubert 175 on at

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Thanks but the what wasn't the problem, it was the how.

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a33ik 84,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

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I believe that "what" is problem as well because your payload looks like

{

"Target": "contacts(someguidhere)",

"Subordinate": "contacts(someguidhere)",

"PerformParentingChecks": "true",

"UpdateContent": ""

}

and it's far from payload that I provided in previous reply (tested in Postman and confirmed that it's correct).

Anyway - do you still have issues with your code?

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Pierre Andre Joubert 175 on at

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I knew what I needed to send it was the how, as in how to format it which is what I requested in the first place.

You provided exactly what was provided previously which didn't help unfortunately, i agreed it was showing the format, but again, the implementation with C# is different to the implementation with JavaScript. And it is that implementation, the how, that I needed.

The "how" that has solved the problem, was an example from the Json.Net Documentation site, which guided me to the answer:

string requestPrefix = ApiEndpointPrefix + "/Merge";

var mergeObject = new JObject(

new JProperty(name: "Target", content: new JObject(

new JProperty(name: "contactid", content: item.MergeTargetId),

new JProperty(name: "@odata.type", content: "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.contact"))),

new JProperty(name: "Subordinate", content: new JObject(

new JProperty(name: "contactid", content: item.ContactId),

new JProperty(name: "@odata.type", content: "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.contact"))),

new JProperty(name: "UpdateContent", content: new JObject(

new JProperty(name: "contactid", content: "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"),

new JProperty(name: "@odata.type", content: "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.contact"))),

new JProperty(name: "PerformParentingChecks", content: "true")

);

httpRequestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, requestPrefix);

httpRequestMessage.Content = new StringContent(content: mergeObject.ToString(), encoding: Encoding.UTF8, mediaType: "application/json");

mergeResponse = await httpClient.SendAsync(httpRequestMessage);

Thanks

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