Retrieves an entity instance using the specified ID.
Syntax
public BusinessEntity Retrieve( string entityName,Guid id,
ColumnSetBase columnSet
);
Parameters
entityName
Specifies a String containing the name of the entity to retrieve. For more information, see Entity Names.
id
Specifies a Guid containing the ID of the entity to retrieve.
columnSet
Specifies the set of columns to retrieve. Pass null to retrieve only the primary key. To retrieve all columns, pass a new instance of the AllColumns class. See ColumnSetBase.
Return Value
Returns the BusinessEntity requested. The BusinessEntity contains only the columns specified by the columnSet parameter. The entity is of the type specified by the entityName parameter.
Remarks
Use this method to retrieve an instance of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM entity.
For better performance, use this method instead of using the Execute method with the Retrieve message.
To perform this action, the caller must have access rights on the entity instance specified in the request class. For a list of required privileges, see Retrieve Privileges.
Example
The following example demonstrates the use of the Retrieve method.
// Set up the CRM Service.
CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();
// You can use enums.cs from the SDK\Helpers folder to get the enumeration for Active Directory authentication.
token.AuthenticationType = 0;
token.OrganizationName = "AdventureWorksCycle";
CrmService service = new CrmService();
service.Url = "http://: /mscrmservices/2007/crmservice.asmx";
service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;
service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
// Create the column set object that indicates the properties to be retrieved.
ColumnSet cols = new ColumnSet();
// Set the properties of the column set.
cols.Attributes = new string [] {"fullname"};
// contactGuid is the GUID of the record being retrieved.
Guid contactGuid = new Guid("4D507FFE-ED25-447B-80DE-00AE3EB18B84");
// Retrieve the contact.
// The EntityName indicates the EntityType of the object being retrieved.
contact contact = (contact)service.Retrieve(EntityName.contact.ToString(), contactGuid, cols);
