How to retrieve the current value of the description field in Dynamics 365 Activity Task record?

Question

I have a Dynamics 365 Activity Task record that contains a description with the value "Test Description Value". I want to retrieve this value in a plug-in.

My main code is outlined below.

public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
{
    IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService((typeof(IPluginExecutionContext)));
    IOrganizationServiceFactory factory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
    IOrganizationService service = factory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);
    ITracingService tracingService = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));

    if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") && context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)
    {
        Entity task = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];
        if (task.LogicalName == "task")
        {
            ColumnSet cs = new ColumnSet(new string[] { "description", "ownerid" });
            service.Retrieve("task", task.Id, cs);
            foreach (KeyValuePair<String, Object> attribute in task.Attributes)
            {
                tracingService.Trace(attribute.Key + ": " + attribute.Value);
            }
        }
    }
}

Iterating the foreach loop reveals that the task.Attributes does not contain a key for description, nor can I get the current value of the description using task["description"]. Both return a System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException.

Is it possible to get the current value of the description field of an Activity Task record in a plug-in? How?

Arun Vinoth - MVP Arun Vinoth - MVP · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-09T01:07:57

You are going for explicit service call to retrieve extra task entity attributes, but missing a simple one.

Entity wholeTask = service.Retrieve("task", task.Id, cs);

And in iteration loop, use this retrieved entity instead of target entity.

foreach (KeyValuePair<String, Object> attribute in wholeTask.Attributes)

You can use preimage also if you want, which will avoid one more SDK call.

How to retrieve the current value of the description field in Dynamics 365 Activity Task record?

1 Answers