CRM 2011, C#: Connect CRM 2011 without using SDK/using .Net Framework 3.5

Recently I had a situation where I was already done with coding with C# 4.0 and CRM 2011 SDK. The issue was the project was built on Visual Studio 2008 with .Net framework 3.5. Now the client did not mention that they do not want to move to .Net framework 4.0. But to use CRM 2011 SDK assemblies I had to convert it to 4.0. I had to convert the project back to .Net framework 3.5.

I searched for solution to this issue and found an interesting posts on MSDN and  this post just follow these steps and connect CRM 2011 with .net framework 3.5:

Steps:

1. Create a .Net project with framework 3.5.

2. Add a web service reference of your organization service – (i.e. http://<server >:<port>/<Organization Name>/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc?wsdl)

3. You will get all the methods offered by OrganizationService. Check the screenshot.

CRM 2011 Service Reference

4. Finally Add the following method so that you can get CRM 2011 Service Object.

/// <summary>
/// Gets or sets the org service.
/// </summary>
/// <value>
/// The org service.
/// </value>
public static IOrganizationService OrgService { get; set; }

/// <summary>
/// Gets the CRM service.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="serverHost">The server host.</param>
/// <param name="organizationName">Name of the organization.</param>
/// <param name="userName">Name of the user.</param>
/// <param name="domain">The domain.</param>
/// <param name="password">The password.</param>
public static void GetCRMService(string serverHost, string organizationName, string userName, string domain, string password)
{
    Uri OrgUri = new Uri(string.Format("{0}/{1}/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc", serverHost, organizationName));

    SymmetricSecurityBindingElement symmetricSecurityBindingElement = new SymmetricSecurityBindingElement();
    symmetricSecurityBindingElement.ProtectionTokenParameters = new SspiSecurityTokenParameters();

    HttpTransportBindingElement httpTransportBindingElement = new HttpTransportBindingElement();
    httpTransportBindingElement.MaxReceivedMessageSize = 1000000000;

    CustomBinding customBinding = new CustomBinding();
    customBinding.Elements.Add(symmetricSecurityBindingElement);

    TextMessageEncodingBindingElement textMessageEncodingBindingElement = new TextMessageEncodingBindingElement(
        MessageVersion.Soap12WSAddressing10, Encoding.UTF8);
    customBinding.Elements.Add(textMessageEncodingBindingElement);
    customBinding.Elements.Add(httpTransportBindingElement);

    EndpointAddress endpointAddress = new EndpointAddress(OrgUri);

    OrganizationServiceClient organizationServiceClient = new OrganizationServiceClient(customBinding, endpointAddress);
    organizationServiceClient.ClientCredentials.Windows.ClientCredential = new NetworkCredential(userName, password, domain);

    OrgService = (IOrganizationService)organizationServiceClient;
}

You now have IOrganizationService instance with all required methods available with CRM 2011 SDK.

Find more about this on my next blog post: https://consultrikin.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/crm-2011-c-entity-class-redefined-with-net-framwork-3-5-to-connect-crm-2011/