CRM workflow: How to get all the records from a subgrid as a list of entities and perform multi-retrieve

Question

As the title suggests, I do not know how to convert entity.attributes ["subgrid"] as a list of entities, on which to run the multiretrieve:

My code for now:

protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext executionContext)
    {
        ITracingService tracingService = executionContext.GetExtension<ITracingService>();
        IWorkflowContext context = executionContext.GetExtension<IWorkflowContext>();
        IOrganizationServiceFactory serviceFactory = executionContext.GetExtension<IOrganizationServiceFactory>();
        IOrganizationService service = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);

        var entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];

        if (entity.LogicalName != "account")
        {
            return;
        }
        var currentAccountId = entity.Id;
        try
        {
            if (!entity.Contains("Subgrid"))
            {
                return;
            }
            var itemsOnSubgrid = entity.Attributes["Subgrid"];
            if(itemsOnSubgrid == null)
            {
                return;
            }
            else
            {
                //if subgrid exist and is not null
                //List of entities needed
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            tracingService.Trace("MyWorkflow: {0}", ex.ToString());
            throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException(ex.Message);
        }
    }

Answer 1

As you are writing code in a custom workflow assembly - the entity at this point does not know anything about the form it is being called from, and does not have a "Subgrid" property to allow you to access the related records.

You will need to do a sperate query to retrieve related contacts (as an example) using the target entity's "accountid" property to relate to the contacts' "parentcustomerid" property.

Answer 2

Assume you are looking for a method to get all associated records for a particular record.

If that is the case, I would have written something like this. Hope that helps.

private EntityCollection GetAssociatedRecords(string relationshipName, string relatedEntityName, string entityName, Guid entityId,OrganizationService service)
        {
            EntityCollection result = null;
            try
            {
                QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression();
                query.EntityName = relatedEntityName;
                query.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet(false);
                Relationship relationship = new Relationship();
                relationship.SchemaName = relationshipName;
                relationship.PrimaryEntityRole = EntityRole.Referencing;
                RelationshipQueryCollection relatedEntity = new RelationshipQueryCollection();
                relatedEntity.Add(relationship, query);
                RetrieveRequest request = new RetrieveRequest();
                request.RelatedEntitiesQuery = relatedEntity;
                request.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet(true);

                request.Target = new EntityReference
                {
                    Id = entityId,
                    LogicalName = entityName
                };
                RetrieveResponse response = (RetrieveResponse)service.Execute(request);
                RelatedEntityCollection relatedEntityCollection = response.Entity.RelatedEntities;
                if (relatedEntityCollection.Count > 0)
                {
                    if (relatedEntityCollection.Values.Count > 0)
                    {
                        result = (EntityCollection)relatedEntityCollection.Values.ElementAt(0);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception exception)
            {
                throw exception;  
            }
            return result;
        }

In that based on the role of the other entity change the Primary Entity Role between Referencing and Referenced.

Hope that helps. Let me know if my assumption is wrong.