Calling an X++ method on a Data Entity through OData

Today I learned of a documented but little-known (well, to me) way to put an X++ method on a data entity, and make it available via an OData call. This is a great way to build more powerful integrations through Flow or other external tools and programs.

I won’t belabor it since it is documented, but something like this:

[SysODataActionAttribute("CalcMaintenanceDuration", true)]
public int CalculateMaintenanceDuration()
{
 //do something
 return 0;
}

…will let you make a method available through an OData call. You’d use a URL that looks something like this to call the method:

https://MYCOMPANY.operations.dynamics.com/data/MYDATAENTITY.CalculateMaintenanceDuration

This needs to be done as a POST request, so you can’t easily test it in Internet Explorer like you can just getting the data entity (which sends you a JSON file full of data). Calling and using OData from outside Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is outside the scope of this blog post… and, honestly, outside the scope of my expertise at this point. You’ll want to look at the OData standards (where the methods you can call are usually called “actions”) and/or documentation for your language. Tools like Flow can handle all this in the background for you, just letting you browse available “actions.”