CRM 2011 – Getting started with oData

I was asked today where the oData url was for CRM.  it’s always tricky when someone asks you expecting you to know the oData url off the top of your head.

but CRM has this value easily at hand, you just need to know where to find it

Settings–> Customizations –> Developer Resources

When you click on here you will then get to see your discovery service, organisation service and oData Service.

The oData service should look something like this

http://<server name:port>/Metaphorix/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc

Now you have the oData url you are at the beginning of your quest.  The first thing you should do is download the oData query tool created by MVP Rhett Clinton 

http://bingsoft.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/crm-2011-odata-query-designer-crm2011/

This article explains some of the filters you can add to oData queries

Using OData Retrieve in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

This technet article is fantastic and has a lot of explanation and examples

OData System Query Options Using the REST Endpoint

another blog post, if you are still hungry for more information

CRM 2011 OData, JSON and CRM Forms

The great thing about oData is you can test the query in the internet browser, although when I did it in IE it didn’t show the full result but when I ran it in Chrome, after logging in it returned the XML data returned in the query.