Monthly Archives: May 2018

Software, Tutorials and guides

Powershell & Microsoft Dynamics CRM: how to get results using a FetchXml

15 Comments

[Update June 2020] There’s a newer post that does the same as this and is more complete -it includes paging and updating records. You might want to check it out here.

If you’ve used Microsoft CRM as a power user (on-premise or online), chances are you’ve come across the standard way of querying CRM data, FetchXml.

You can run this by hand but of course the real power of it is using it to automate tasks. And another great way to automate tasks in Windows is, naturally, powershell.

So here’s a script I’m using to run a fetch xml and export the results to a csv file:

#
# Source: DotJim blog (http://dandraka.com)
# Jim Andrakakis, May 2018
#
# Prerequisites:
# 1. Install PS modules
#    Run the following in a powershell with admin permissions:
#       Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Xrm.Tooling.CrmConnector.PowerShell
#       Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Xrm.Data.PowerShell -AllowClobber
#
# 2. Write password file
#    Run the following and enter your user's password when prompted:
#      Read-Host -assecurestring | convertfrom-securestring | out-file C:\temp\crmcred.pwd
#
# ============ Constants to change ============
$pwdFile = "C:\temp\crmcred.pwd"
$username = "myusername@mycompany.com"
$serverurl = "https://my-crm-instance.crm4.dynamics.com"
$fetchXmlFile = "c:\temp\fetch.xml"
$exportfile = "C:\temp\crm_export.csv"
$exportdelimiter = ";"
# =============================================
# ============ Login to MS CRM ============
$password = get-content $pwdFile | convertto-securestring
$cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $username,$password
try
{
    $connection = Connect-CRMOnline -Credential $cred -ServerUrl $serverurl
    # for on-prem use :
    #   $connection = Connect-CrmOnPremDiscovery -Credential $cred -ServerUrl $serverurl
    # you can also use interactive mode if you get e.g. problems with multi-factor authentication
    #   $connection = Connect-CrmOnlineDiscovery -InteractiveMode -Credential $cred
    # or you can use a connection string if you want to use e.g. OAuth or a Client Secret
    # but then the password must be plaintext which is kind of a security no-no
    #   $connString = "AuthType=ClientSecret;url=$serverurl;ClientId=$username;ClientSecret=$password"
    #   $connection = Get-CrmConnection -ConnectionString $connString
}
catch
{
    Write-Host $_.Exception.Message
    exit
}
if($connection.IsReady -ne $True)
{
    $errorDescr = $connection.LastCrmError
    Write-Host "Connection not established: $errorDescr"
    exit
}
else
{
    Write-Host "Connection to $($connection.ConnectedOrgFriendlyName) successful"
}
# ============ Fetch data ============
$fetchXml = [xml](Get-Content $fetchXmlFile)
$result = Get-CrmRecordsByFetch -conn $connection -Fetch $fetchXml.OuterXml
# ============ Write to file ============
# Obviously here, instead of writing to csv directly, you can loop and do whatever suits your needs, e.g. run a db query, call a web service etc etc
$result.CrmRecords | Select -Property lastname, firstname | Export-Csv -Encoding UTF8 -Path $exportfile -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter $exportdelimiter

When you use your own FetchXml, do remember to change the properties in the last line (lastname, firstname).

For a quick test, the example FetchXml I’m using is the following:

<fetch mapping="logical" version="1.0">
    <entity name="account">
        <attribute name="customertypecode" alias="customertypecode"/>
        <attribute name="name" alias="company_name"/>
        <attribute name="emailaddress1" alias="company_emailaddress1"/>
        <link-entity name="contact" from="accountid" to="accountid" link-type="inner">
            <attribute name="lastname" alias="lastname"/>
            <attribute name="firstname" alias="firstname"/>
        </link-entity>
    </entity>
</fetch>

Have fun coding!