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Because Microsoft Dataverse is a metadata-driven application, developers may need to query the system definitions at run-time to adapt to how an organization has been configured. This capability uses a RESTful query style.
Note
You can also construct a query using an object-based style using the EntityQueryExpression ComplexType with the RetrieveMetadataChanges Function. This function allows for capturing changes to table definitions between two periods of time as well as returning a limited set of definitions described by a query you specify. More information: Query schema definitions
You'll use the same techniques described in Query data using the Web API when you query EntityMetadata, with a few variations. Use the EntityDefinitions entity set path to retrieve information about the EntityMetadata EntityType. EntityMetadata entities contain a lot of data so you'll want to be careful to only retrieve the data that you need. The following example shows the data returned for just the DisplayName, IsKnowledgeManagementEnabled, and EntitySetName properties of the definition for the Account entity. The MetadataId property value is always returned.
Request:
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')?$select=DisplayName,IsKnowledgeManagementEnabled,EntitySetName HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0
OData-Version: 4.0
Response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; odata.metadata=minimal
OData-Version: 4.0
{
"@odata.context": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#EntityDefinitions(DisplayName,IsKnowledgeManagementEnabled,EntitySetName)",
"value": [
{
"DisplayName": {
"LocalizedLabels": [
{
"Label": "Account",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "2a4901bf-2241-db11-898a-0007e9e17ebd",
"HasChanged": null
}
],
"UserLocalizedLabel": {
"Label": "Account",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "2a4901bf-2241-db11-898a-0007e9e17ebd",
"HasChanged": null
}
},
"IsKnowledgeManagementEnabled": false,
"EntitySetName": "accounts",
"MetadataId": "70816501-edb9-4740-a16c-6a5efbc05d84"
}
]
}
You can use any of the EntityMetadata properties with $select system query options and you can use $filter on any properties that use primitive or enumeration values.
There are no limits on the number of metadata entities that will be returned in a query. There's no paging. All matching resources will be returned in the first response.
When an environment has many languages provisioned, the amount of data returned can grow large. For best performance, limit the language labels returned using the LabelLanguages parameter with the LCID value of the language you want to return.
Language codes are four-digit or five-digit locale IDs. Valid locale ID values can be found at Locale ID (LCID) Chart).
For example, appending the following will limit the localized language labels to English: &LabelLanguages=1033.
When you need to filter metadata entities based on the value of a property that uses an enumeration, you must include the namespace of the enumeration before the string value. Enum types are used as property values only in metadata entities and complex types. For example, if you need to filter entities based on the OwnershipType property, which uses the OwnershipTypes Enumtype, you can use the following $filter to return only those entities that are UserOwned.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions?$select=LogicalName&$filter=OwnershipType eq Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.OwnershipTypes'UserOwned'
When you need to filter metadata entities based on the value of a property that uses a complex type, you must include the path to the underlying primitive type. Complex types are used as property values only in metadata entities. For example, if you need to filter entities based on the CanCreateAttributes property, which uses the BooleanManagedProperty ComplexType, you can use the following $filter to return only those entities that have a Value of true.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions?$select=LogicalName&$filter=CanCreateAttributes/Value eq true
This pattern works with BooleanManagedProperty ComplexType because the primitive value to check is one level deep. However, this doesn't work on properties of Label ComplexType.
You can query entity attributes in the context of an entity by expanding the Attributes collection-valued navigation property but this will only include the common properties available in the AttributeMetadata EntityType which all attributes share. For example, the following query will return the LogicalName of the entity and all the expanded Attributes that have an AttributeType value equal to the AttributeTypeCode EnumType value of Picklist.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')?$select=LogicalName&$expand=Attributes($select=LogicalName;$filter=AttributeType eq Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.AttributeTypeCode'Picklist')
But you can't include the OptionSet or GlobalOptionSet collection-valued navigation properties that PicklistAttributeMetadata EntityType attributes have within the $select filter of this query.
In order to retrieve the properties of a specific type of attribute you must cast the Attributes collection-valued navigation property to the type you want. The following query will return only the PicklistAttributeMetadata EntityType attributes and will include the LogicalName as well as expanding the OptionSet and GlobalOptionSet collection-valued navigation properties
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')/Attributes/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.PicklistAttributeMetadata?$select=LogicalName&$expand=OptionSet,GlobalOptionSet
Note
Despite the fact that the OptionSet and GlobalOptionSet collection-valued navigation properties are defined within EnumAttributeMetadata EntityType, you cannot cast the attributes to this type. This means that if you want to filter on other types which also inherit these properties (see Entity types that inherit from EnumAttributeMetadata ), you must perform separate queries to filter for each type.
Another example of this is accessing the Precision property available in MoneyAttributeMetadata EntityType and DecimalAttributeMetadata EntityType attributes. To access this property, you must cast the attributes collection either as MoneyAttributeMetadata EntityType or DecimalAttributeMetadata EntityType. An example showing casting to MoneyAttributeMetadata is shown here.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')/Attributes/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.MoneyAttributeMetadata?$select=LogicalName,Precision
The AttributeMetadata EntityType RequiredLevel property uses a special AttributeRequiredLevelManagedProperty ComplexType where the Value property is a AttributeRequiredLevel EnumType. In this case, you must combine patterns found in Use complex types in $filter operations and Use enum types in $filter operations to filter by this unique property. The following query will filter those attributes in the account entity that are ApplicationRequired.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')/Attributes?$select=SchemaName&$filter=RequiredLevel/Value eq Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.AttributeRequiredLevel'ApplicationRequired'
When you know the MetadataId for both the EntityMetadata and the AttributeMetadata, or the LogicalName value of either, you can retrieve an individual attribute and access the property values using a query like the following. This query retrieves the LogicalName property of the attribute as well as expanding the OptionSet collection-valued navigation property. You must cast the attribute as a Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.PicklistAttributeMetadata to access the OptionSet collection-valued navigation property.
Request:
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')/Attributes(5967e7cc-afbb-4c10-bf7e-e7ef430c52be)/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.PicklistAttributeMetadata?$select=LogicalName&$expand=OptionSet HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0
OData-Version: 4.0
Response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; odata.metadata=minimal
OData-Version: 4.0
{
"@odata.context": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#EntityDefinitions(70816501-edb9-4740-a16c-6a5efbc05d84)/Attributes/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.PicklistAttributeMetadata(LogicalName,OptionSet)/$entity",
"LogicalName": "preferredappointmentdaycode",
"MetadataId": "5967e7cc-afbb-4c10-bf7e-e7ef430c52be",
"OptionSet@odata.context": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#EntityDefinitions(70816501-edb9-4740-a16c-6a5efbc05d84)/Attributes(5967e7cc-afbb-4c10-bf7e-e7ef430c52be)/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.PicklistAttributeMetadata/OptionSet/$entity",
"OptionSet": {
"Options": [
{
"Value": 0,
"Label": {
"LocalizedLabels": [
{
"Label": "Sunday",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "21d6a218-2341-db11-898a-0007e9e17ebd",
"HasChanged": null
}
],
"UserLocalizedLabel": {
"Label": "Sunday",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "21d6a218-2341-db11-898a-0007e9e17ebd",
"HasChanged": null
}
},
"Description": {
"LocalizedLabels": [],
"UserLocalizedLabel": null
},
"Color": null,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": null,
"HasChanged": null
}
Additional options removed for brevity
],
"Description": {
"LocalizedLabels": [
{
"Label": "Day of the week that the account prefers for scheduling service activities.",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "1b67144d-ece0-4e83-a38b-b4d48e3f35d5",
"HasChanged": null
}
],
"UserLocalizedLabel": {
"Label": "Day of the week that the account prefers for scheduling service activities.",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "1b67144d-ece0-4e83-a38b-b4d48e3f35d5",
"HasChanged": null
}
},
"DisplayName": {
"LocalizedLabels": [
{
"Label": "Preferred Day",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "ebb7e979-f9e3-40cd-a86d-50b479b1c5a4",
"HasChanged": null
}
],
"UserLocalizedLabel": {
"Label": "Preferred Day",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "ebb7e979-f9e3-40cd-a86d-50b479b1c5a4",
"HasChanged": null
}
},
"IsCustomOptionSet": false,
"IsGlobal": false,
"IsManaged": true,
"IsCustomizable": {
"Value": true,
"CanBeChanged": false,
"ManagedPropertyLogicalName": "iscustomizable"
},
"Name": "account_preferredappointmentdaycode",
"OptionSetType": "Picklist",
"IntroducedVersion": null,
"MetadataId": "53f9933c-18a0-40a6-b4a5-b9610a101735",
"HasChanged": null
}
}
If you don't require any properties of the attribute and only want the values of a collection-valued navigation property such as OptionsSet, you can include that in the URL and limit the properties with a $select system query option for a more efficient query. In the following example only the Options property of the OptionSet are included.
Request:
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')/Attributes(5967e7cc-afbb-4c10-bf7e-e7ef430c52be)/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.PicklistAttributeMetadata/OptionSet?$select=Options HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0
OData-Version: 4.0
Response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; odata.metadata=minimal
OData-Version: 4.0
{
"@odata.context": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#EntityDefinitions('account')/Attributes(5967e7cc-afbb-4c10-bf7e-e7ef430c52be)/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.PicklistAttributeMetadata/OptionSet(Options)/$entity",
"Options": [{
"Value": 0,
"Label": {
"LocalizedLabels": [{
"Label": "Sunday",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "21d6a218-2341-db11-898a-0007e9e17ebd",
"HasChanged": null
}],
"UserLocalizedLabel": {
"Label": "Sunday",
"LanguageCode": 1033,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": "21d6a218-2341-db11-898a-0007e9e17ebd",
"HasChanged": null
}
},
"Description": {
"LocalizedLabels": [],
"UserLocalizedLabel": null
},
"Color": null,
"IsManaged": true,
"MetadataId": null,
"HasChanged": null
}
Additional options removed for brevity
],
"MetadataId": "53f9933c-18a0-40a6-b4a5-b9610a101735"
}
You can retrieve relationship metadata in the context of a given entity much in the same way that you can query attributes. The ManyToManyRelationships, ManyToOneRelationships, and OneToManyRelationships collection-valued navigation properties can be queried just like the Attributes collection-valued navigation property. More information: Querying EntityMetadata Attributes
However, entity relationships can also be queried using the RelationshipDefinitions entity set. You can use a query like the following to get the SchemaName property for every relationship.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/RelationshipDefinitions?$select=SchemaName
The properties available when querying this entity set are limited to those in the RelationshipMetadataBase EntityType. To access properties from the entity types that inherit from RelationshipMetadataBase, you need to include a cast in the query like the following one to return only OneToManyRelationshipMetadata EntityType.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/RelationshipDefinitions/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.OneToManyRelationshipMetadata?$select=SchemaName
Because the entities returned are typed as OneToManyRelationshipMetadata, you can filter on the properties such as ReferencedEntity to construct a query to return only the one-to-many entity relationships for a specific entity, such as the account entity as shown in the following query:
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/RelationshipDefinitions/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.OneToManyRelationshipMetadata?$select=SchemaName&$filter=ReferencedEntity eq 'account'
That query will return essentially the same results as the following query, which is filtered because it's included in the EntityMetadataOneToManyRelationships collection-valued navigation property of the account entity. The difference is that for the previous query you don't need to know the MetadataId for the account entity.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='account')/OneToManyRelationships?$select=SchemaName
You can use the GlobalOptionSetDefinitions entity set path to retrieve information about global option sets, but this path doesn't support the use of the $filter system query option. So, you can only retrieve a single global option set by either the MetadataId or the unique name.
The following example shows retrieving a global option set using the MetadataId.
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/GlobalOptionSetDefinitions(08fa2cb2-e3fe-497a-9b5d-ee887f5cc3cd)
The following example shows retrieving a global option set by name:
GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/GlobalOptionSetDefinitions(Name='incident_caseorigincode')
You can also access the definition of a global option set from within the GlobalOptionSet single-valued navigation property for any attribute that uses it. This is available for all the EnumAttributeMetadata EntityType Derived Types. More information: Retrieving attributes
Use the Web API with Dataverse metadata
Retrieve metadata by name or MetadataId
Metadata entities and attributes using the Web API
Metadata entity relationships using the Web API
Web API table schema operations sample
Web API table schema operations sample (C#)
Training
Learning path
Get started using Microsoft Dataverse - Training
Do you want to learn how to build solutions that can use a standardized data structure, and work with other solutions sharing the same data model? Do you want to extend the standard model to support custom solutions? This learning path explains the concepts behind and benefits of Dataverse. Creating an environment, entities, fields and options sets are also discussed.