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Dynamics CRM 4 SDK for the iPhone via MonoTouch

We are working on a version of the Dynamics CRM 4 SDK that will work with the iPhone via MonoTouch. Here is a preview of it creating an account in Dynamics CRM using the MonoTouch C# library. We're creating this to speed up development of xRM solutions that can leverage the power of touch based mobile devices as well as the Dynamics CRM platform.

iphone crm


Challenges so far...

MonoTouch doesn't support web services natively yet, therefore we had to use the HttpWebRequest class to make raw calls to the crm web service. We also had to duplicate Request, Response, CreateRequest, CreateResponse, TargetCreateDynamic as well as all Dynamics CRM specific data types (CrmDateTime, CrmDateTimeProperty...etc).

Sample Code

// IFD not supported yet
CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken
{
    AuthenticationType = 0,
    OrganizationName = "MagnetismLimited",
    CallerId = Guid.Empty
};
 
CrmWebRequest sdk = new CrmWebRequest("http://virtualcrm03/mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx",
    "MAGNETISM", "Administrator", "h3rew3g0", token);
 
// only difference here is that entity.Properties is an array instead of type PropertyCollection
DynamicEntity entity = new DynamicEntity("account");
entity.Properties = new Property[] { 
    new StringProperty("name", accountName),
};
 
TargetCreateDynamic target = new TargetCreateDynamic { Entity = entity };
CreateRequest cr = new CreateRequest { Target = target };
 
CreateResponse response = sdk.Execute(cr) as CreateResponse;
Console.WriteLine(response.id);

Dynamics CRM SDK for the iPhone is still in its early stages, we plan to release a public beta by the end  of October. If you'd like to be part of our test team please contact me.

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