Use Microsoft Dynamics CRM web service to get customized option set values - soap

Question

The CRM has some customized option sets, for example, Salutation option set is defined for Contact entity. I need to get values of this option set when creating or updating contacts. I tried to use RetrieveOptionSet request to get the option set values as below:
SOAP action to use http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts/Services/IOrganizationService/Execute
SOAP request body
<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<s:Body>
<Execute xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts/Services" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<request i:type="a:RetrieveOptionSetRequest" xmlns:a="http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts">
<a:Parameters xmlns:b="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Collections.Generic">
<a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<b:key>MetadataId</b:key>
<b:value i:type="c:guid" xmlns:c="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</b:value>
</a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<b:key>RetrieveAsIfPublished</b:key>
<b:value i:type="c:boolean" xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">true</b:value>
</a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<b:key>Name</b:key>
<b:value i:type="c:string" xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">my_type</b:value>
</a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
</a:Parameters>
<a:RequestId i:nil="true" />
<a:RequestName>RetrieveOptionSet</a:RequestName>
</request>
</Execute>
</s:Body>
</s:Envelope>
The problem is that I can only use this request to get global option sets, but for customized option sets, this request just returns a not found error.
Does anyone knows how to get customized option set values?
EDIT: I'm using Java client to access Dynamics CRM web service. This is the final SOAP request body I used to successfully get option set values.
<s:Envelope>
<s:Body>
<Execute>
<request i:type="a:RetrieveAttributeRequest">
<a:Parameters>
<a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<b:key>MetadataId</b:key>
<b:value i:type="c:guid">00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</b:value>
</a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<b:key>RetrieveAsIfPublished</b:key>
<b:value i:type="c:boolean">true</b:value>
</a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<b:key>EntityLogicalName</b:key>
<b:value i:type="c:string">contact</b:value>
</a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
<b:key>LogicalName</b:key>
<b:value i:type="c:string">my_type</b:value>
</a:KeyValuePairOfstringanyType>
</a:Parameters>
<a:RequestId i:nil="true"/>
<a:RequestName>RetrieveAttribute</a:RequestName>
</request>
</Execute>
</s:Body>
</s:Envelope>
The sample code in this page gave me useful information.

Answer 1

You need to use the RetrieveAttributeRequest, not the RetrieveOptionSetRequest.
The metadata for non-global(local) optionsets are defined as a part of the attribute on the entity itself, rather than as an entirely different structure. ie. if you delete your local optionset attribute from your entity, you lose all of the entire option set definition. But if it's a global optionset, deleting an attribute on a entity the references doesn't result in any loss of data for the option set

Answer 2

I think your question was answered a couple of months ago in this link:
Dynamics CRM - Accessing Custom Product Option Value
Please let me know if it is not the same, and we will try to find another way ;)
But thinking about you requirement again, and if I have understand it properly, how often is that option set going to change? Why don't you just retrieve the optionsets with the crmsvcutil.exe from the SDK?
Cheers,
Mario