CRM 2011 + Retrieve Metadata in Silverlight Web Resource using Organization Service.

While retrieving data for a particular entity and displaying it in a Silverlight web resource I found that for option sets values it was displaying the numeric value of the option set that is stored in the entity and not the display text. In order for the display value I had to retrieve the metadata of the option set. Retrieving metadata can be done by calling the OrganizationService of CRM. Now retrieving metadata using organization service is not the same as using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk dll’s or the QueryExpression class that we use in plugins. The one simple reason being that Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.dll’s are not compatible with Silverlight. So in the code below you will find the alternative way to query the organizationservice in Silveright web resource.

//Make sure you add the "/web" to the organization url for silverlight web resource.
Uri serviceUrl = new Uri("http://crm.microsoft.com/Contoso/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc/web");
BasicHttpBinding binding = new BasicHttpBinding(BasicHttpSecurityMode.None)
                              {
                                 MaxReceivedMessageSize = int.MaxValue,
                                 MaxBufferSize = int.MaxValue,
                                 SendTimeout = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(2)
                              };
OrganizationServiceClient client = new OrganizationServiceClient(binding, new EndpointAddress(serviceUrl));
OrganizationRequest request = new OrganizationRequest
                         {
                                RequestName = "RetrieveAttribute",
                                Parameters = new ParameterCollection
                                                   {
                                                       new KeyValuePairOfstringanyType
                                                          {key = "EntityLogicalName", value = "new_address"},
                                                       new KeyValuePairOfstringanyType
                                                          {key = "LogicalName", value = "new_addresstype"},
                                                       new KeyValuePairOfstringanyType
                                                           {key = "MetadataId", value = Guid.Empty},
                                                       new KeyValuePairOfstringanyType
                                                           {key = "RetrieveAsIfPublished", value = false}
                                                  }
                              };
//register the async completed event.
client.ExecuteCompleted += ClientAddressTypeExecuteCompleted;
client.ExecuteAsync(request);

Please writeback in case of any queries.