How-to: action

OData function and action recipes, taken from the CRMWorx build (§4, §11). See the CLI reference for every flag.

Call an unbound function

crm --json action function RetrieveCurrentOrganization --params '{"AccessType":"Default"}'

--params is a JSON dict encoded inline per OData v4; returns the function result under data.

Pass a record-reference or special-character param

A param value that is a JSON object {"@odata.id": "<entityset>(<guid>)"} is a record reference — it is sent as an OData parameter alias (Fn(P=@p1)?@p1=...) carrying the @odata.id, so functions that take an entity reference are invocable:

crm --json action function RetrievePrincipalAccess \
    --bind-set systemusers --bind-id <user-guid> \
    --params '{"Target": {"@odata.id": "accounts(<account-guid>)"}}'

String values that contain URL-reserved characters (/ < > * % & : \ ? +) or whitespace are aliased the same way automatically — passing them inline would 400/404. Plain scalars stay inline. A malformed reference (a JSON object that is not exactly {"@odata.id": "..."}) is rejected with a clear error.

Call a bound function

# Collection-bound: GET <entityset>/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.<Fn>(params)
crm --json action function <FunctionName> --bind-set <entityset>

# Record-bound: GET <entityset>(<guid>)/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.<Fn>(params)
crm --json action function RetrieveUserPrivileges --bind-set systemusers --bind-id <systemuser-guid>

--bind-set alone binds to the collection; adding --bind-id binds to a single record. Override the Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM namespace segment with --cast <namespace> only for custom namespaces. --bind-id requires --bind-set. Functions issue a GET (read-only, params encoded inline) — unlike action invoke, which issues a POST.

Invoke an unbound action from a body file

crm --json action invoke AddAppComponents --body-file /tmp/cwx_addcomponents.json

Use --body-file (or --body) for the JSON payload; AddAppComponents binds typed entity references to a model-driven app.

Invoke a bound action

crm --json action invoke <ActionName> --bind-set workflows --bind-id <workflow-guid> --body '{}'

--bind-set + --bind-id bind the action to a record; pass both together (override the namespace with --cast only for custom actions). <ActionName> is the action's schema/logical name (e.g. as listed in the entity's metadata).