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Getting the profileid for a userid

In our company we created a custom Issues app. Additionally to using this app in the web interface, we also want to be able to change the state of an issue (new, acknowledged, test, resolved, ...) automatically via git commit hooks. The basics are working fine (ie change state, add notes, ...), but we also want to change the responsibility for the current item to a specific user. In that special case, it's the creator if this item.
My first try was the following:
var appid = 1234; var itemid = 1;
var item = podio.ItemService.GetItemByAppItemId(appid, itemid);
var update = new Item {ItemId = item.ItemId};
var creator = item.CreatedBy.Id;
var resp = update.Field<ContactItemField>("responsibility");
resp.ContactIds = new List<int>{creator.Value};
//change some other fields as well
podio.ItemService.UpdateItem(update);
This throws an "Object not found" exception, because in the resp.ContactIds one must not set the UserId but the ProfileId.
I then tried to get the ProfileId of the item-creator via
podio.ContactService.GetUserContactField(creator.Value, "profile_id");
but this also throws an exception "(Authentication as app is not allowed for this method").
So how can I get an appropriate profile id for the user when I use authentication as app?

OK, I found a workaround for it, not sure, if this is possible for other scenarios, but it works for the current case.
Instead of using the C# interface for setting the ContactIds for the ContactItemField, I set the json values directly.
var appid = 1234; var itemid = 1;
var item = podio.ItemService.GetItemByAppItemId(appid, itemid);
var update = new Item {ItemId = item.ItemId};
var creator = item.CreatedBy.Id;
var resp = update.Field<ContactItemField>("responsibility");
resp.ContactIds = new List<int>(); // set to an empty list, so that resp.Values is initialized to an empty JArray
var u = new JObject { {"value", new JObject { {"type" , "user" }, {"id", creator } } } };
responsibleField.Values.Add(u); //add the new user to the Values of the field
//change some other fields as well
podio.ItemService.UpdateItem(update);
And if I set the value with type user I can use the known userid and the API on the server takes care of the lookup.

'The given key was not present in the dictionary' - but the key exists

I am currently developing a MS Dynamics CRM 2013 - Plugin.
When I try to assign a string-value to a key of a field of an entity it gives me the 'keynotfound'-exception.
This leaves me clueless, because I can verify the key is existing. The key I give is also written correctly, and the data types are compatible, too.
Here's some extra info:
I tried resolving the issue with a server reboot. Nothing.
Remote Debugging is not an option.
I swapped "retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i][forField]" with retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i]["new_name"] and everything was working fine (kind of pointing out the obvious here, but "new_name" is not the key I try to access).
The execution stops # "if (retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i][forField].ToString() != "" && !overwriteExisting)"
Have you got an idea to help me out?
public void GenerateNumberForEntityCollection(string target)
{
try
{
// variables for number generation
bool overwriteExisting = (bool)preImageEntity["new_overwriteexisting"];
int suffixstart = (int)preImageEntity["new_suffixstart"];
string forField= preImageEntity["new_forfield"].ToString();
string prefix = preImageEntity["new_prefix"].ToString();
string postfix = preImageEntity["new_postfix"].ToString();
string separator = preImageEntity["new_separator"].ToString();
// Build query to get all the entries
RetrieveMultipleResponse retrieved;
int PageNumber = 1;
string PagingCookie = string.Empty;
int PageSize = 5000;
string[] Columns = { forField };
QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression()
{
EntityName = target,
ColumnSet = new ColumnSet(Columns),
PageInfo = new PagingInfo()
{
PageNumber = 1,
Count = PageSize
}
};
do
{
if (PageNumber != 1)
{
query.PageInfo.PageNumber = PageNumber;
query.PageInfo.PagingCookie = PagingCookie;
}
RetrieveMultipleRequest retrieve = new RetrieveMultipleRequest();
retrieve.Query = query;
retrieved = (RetrieveMultipleResponse)service.Execute(retrieve);
// Now that all entities are retrieved, iterate through them to gen. the numbers
int i = 0;
foreach (Entity entity in retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities)
{
if (retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i][forField].ToString() != "" && !overwriteExisting)
{
//continue;
}
else
{
retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i][forField] = prefix + separator + suffixstart.ToString() + separator + postfix;
}
suffixstart++;
service.Update(retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i]);
i++;
}
if (retrieved.EntityCollection.MoreRecords)
{
PageNumber++;
PagingCookie = retrieved.EntityCollection.PagingCookie;
}
} while (retrieved.EntityCollection.MoreRecords);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
tracing.Trace("GenerateNumberForEntityCollection: Failed: {0}", e.ToString());
}
}

How did you verify that the key exists?
If the data in a field is null, the Entity instance will not contain that key, even if you specify it in the query's ColumnSet.
This will return you a boolean, indicating if the key exists in the Entity. You can do this control before attempting to read the attribute.
var attributeExists = retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i].Contains(forField)
The control below you've done will result in the exception you're getting if the field is null. Just make sure that the attribute exists before.
retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i][forField].ToString() != ""
Additionally, you'll get a null reference exception if no records were returned from the query. Make you do a null check on retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities.

When you are querying data in Dynamics CRM it is important to know that record fields having null values in the database are not included in the Attributes collection of the Entity instances being returned.
Getting a value from an Entity's Attribute with this construct:
var value = retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i][forField].ToString();
succeeds when attribute forField already has a value in the database, but fails when its current value is null.
Therefore the preferred method to get the attribute values from an entity is GetAttributeValue<T>, like this:
var value = retrieved.EntityCollection.Entities[i].getAttributeValue<string>(forField);
This method returns the value when the attribute exists in the attribute collection, otherwise it returns null.

If any of the fields among
(new_forfield,new_prefix,new_postfix,new_separator) has null value,
that column does not present in the retrieved object and you are trying to get the value of null column preImageEntity["new_forfield"] which will throw keynotfound'-exception ,
so change the code
string forField= preImageEntity["new_forfield"].ToString();
string prefix = preImageEntity["new_prefix"].ToString();
string postfix = preImageEntity["new_postfix"].ToString();
string separator = preImageEntity["new_separator"].ToString();
to
string forField = preImageEntity.Attributes.Contains("new_forfield")? preImageEntity["new_forfield"].ToString():"";
string prefix = preImageEntity.Attributes.Contains("new_forfield") ? preImageEntity["new_prefix"].ToString() : "";
string postfix = preImageEntity.Attributes.Contains("new_forfield") ? preImageEntity["new_postfix"].ToString() : "";
string separator = preImageEntity.Attributes.Contains("new_forfield") ? preImageEntity["new_separator"].ToString() : "";
this will check for field, if it exists than will parse the value to
string else will assign empty string.

How to Add Custom Fields on JoeBlogs Wordpress Wrapper

I'm trying to complete fields with JoeBlogs WordPress Wrapper.
My code is:
private void postToWordpress(string title, string postContent,string tags, string aioTitle)
{
string link = this.maskedTextBox1.Text;
string username = this.maskedTextBox2.Text;
string password = this.maskedTextBox3.Text;
var wp = new WordPressWrapper(link + "/xmlrpc.php", username, password);
var post = new Post();
post.Title = title;
post.Body = postContent;
post.Tags = tags.Split(',');
string[] cf = new CustomField(); //{ ID = "name", Key = "aiosp_title", Value = "All in One SEO Title" };
cf.ID = "name";
cf.Key = "aiosp_title";
cf.Value = "All in One SEO Title";
post.CustomFields[0] = cf;
wp.NewPost(post, false);
}
The error is at this line:
post.CustomFields[0] = cf;
And it is:
An unhandled exception of type 'System.NullReferenceException'
occurred in JoeBlogsWordpressWrapperTests.exe
Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an
object.
So, how to use/add correctly custom fields on WordPress from C# Application using JoeBlogs WordPress Wrapper?

The following code fixes your NullReferenceException and also successfully saves the custom fields into the Post in Wordpress.
private void postToWordpress(string title, string postContent,string tags, string aioTitle)
{
string link = this.maskedTextBox1.Text;
string username = this.maskedTextBox2.Text;
string password = this.maskedTextBox3.Text;
var wp = new WordPressWrapper(link + "/xmlrpc.php", username, password);
var post = new Post();
post.Title = title;
post.Body = postContent;
post.Tags = tags.Split(',');
var cfs = new CustomField[]
{
new CustomField()
{
// Don't pass in ID. It's auto assigned for new custom fields.
// ID = "name",
Key = "aiosp_title",
Value = "All in One SEO Title"
}
};
post.CustomFields = cfs;
wp.NewPost(post, false);
}
You were getting the NullReferenceException error because you were creating a string array and trying to assign it the CustomFields property of the Post object, which is an array of CustomField i.e. CustomField[].
Also, in order to save the CustomFields to the Post in the database, you should pass in only the Key and Value fields of the CustomField struct and skip the ID field all together. Reason being Wordpress auto-generates the ID fields (also it's an integer / numeric field in the database). I think that was what was causing the XmlRpc call to fail, but we did not get any errors as to why.
Try the above code and it should work (I have it working on my localhost WAMP Wordpress installation).
One final note. Although the CustomField's name property is called Key, it doesn't have to be unique, and uniqueness is not enforced. So for instance, if you are populating a custom dropdown box with a list of cities for a Post, you could have the list of cities as a set of custom fields as follows.
var cfs = new CustomField[]
{
new CustomField()
{
Key = "aiosp_title",
Value = "All in One SEO Title"
} ,
new CustomField()
{
Key = "this is another custom field with HTML",
Value = "All in One SEO Title <br/> Keyword 1 <br/><p>This is some more text and html</p>"
} ,
new CustomField()
{
Key = "list_of_cities",
Value = "San Francisco"
} ,
new CustomField()
{
Key = "list_of_cities",
Value = "New York"
}
};
This will also get saved to the post, with 2 custom fields with the same Key value and different text in the Value field's value.
And last but not least, you can store HTML also in the custom fields (as shown above).

How to set Option List value on new CRM 2011 Entity record with Linq?

I'm creating new Entity records in C#. The problem is my early-bound Xrm class is expecting the integer value of the Option List in question, but all I have is the string value of the Option List.
So, this is what I'd like to do. The problem is the "OptionListValue" in question is the integer value. You know; The auto-created one that's huge.
Is the only way for me to do this by finding out the value of that particular option? If so, what API do I use to get it and how do I use it? I'm expecting there's some Linq method of doing so. But I'm possibly assuming too much.
public void CreateNewContactWithOptionListValue(string lastName, string theOptionListValue)
{
using ( var context = new CrmOrganizationServiceContext( new CrmConnection( "Xrm" ) ) )
{
var contact = new Contact()
{
LastName = lastName,
OptionListValue = theOptionListValue // How do I get the proper integer value from the CRM?
};
context.Create( contact );
}
}

Method to do it without using web service:
generate enums for option sets (here is how you can do it)
once you have enum, just parse string value. Something like this:
public void CreateNewContactWithOptionListValue(string lastName, string theOptionListValue)
{
using (var context = new CrmOrganizationServiceContext(new CrmConnection("Xrm")))
{
new_customoptionset parsedValue;
if (!Enum.TryParse<new_customoptionset>(theOptionListValue, out parsedValue))
{
throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("Unknown value");
}
var contact = new Contact()
{
LastName = lastName,
OptionListValue = new OptionSetValue((int)parsedValue)
};
context.Create(contact);
}
}
Be careful with space in option labels, as they are removed in enums

C# Linq is removing a value from my entity

So, in a desperate attempt to wrangle EntityFramework into being usable. I am here..
private MyEntity Update(MyEntity orig)
{
//need a fresh copy so we can attach without adding timestamps
//to every table....
MyEntity ent;
using (var db = new DataContext())
{
ent = db.MyEntities.Single(x => x.Id == orig.Id);
}
//fill a new one with the values of the one we want to save
var cpy = new Payment()
{
//pk
ID = orig.ID,
//foerign key
MethodId = orig.MethodId,
//other fields
Information = orig.Information,
Amount = orig.Amount,
Approved = orig.Approved,
AwardedPoints = orig.AwardedPoints,
DateReceived = orig.DateReceived
};
//attach it
_ctx.MyEntities.Attach(cpy, ent);
//submit the changes
_ctx.SubmitChanges();
}
_ctx is an instance variable for the repository this method is in.
The problem is that when I call SubmitChanges, the value of MethodId in the newly attached copy is sent to the server as 0, when it is in fact not zero if I print it out after the attach but before the submit. I am almost certain that is related to the fact that the field is a foreign key, but I still do not see why Linq would arbitrarily set it to zero when it has a valid value that meets the requirements of the constraint on the foreign key.
What am I missing here?

You should probably set Method = orig.Method, but I can't see your dbml, of course.

I think you need to attach the foreign key reference
var cpy = new Payment()
{
//pk
ID = orig.ID,
//other fields
Information = orig.Information,
Amount = orig.Amount,
Approved = orig.Approved,
AwardedPoints = orig.AwardedPoints,
DateReceived = orig.DateReceived
};
//create stub entity for the Method and Add it.
var method = new Method{MethodId=orig.MethodId)
_ctx.AttachTo("Methods", method);
cpy.Methods.Add(method);
//attach it
_ctx.MyEntities.Attach(cpy, o);
//submit the changes
_ctx.SubmitChanges();