Linq.js for Dynamics 365 Developers

Recently I was working in some large JSON objects in client side javascript where I had to query through it several times as per requirement I was using javascript array’s functions. Then I thought why not use lodash.js or underscore.js I checked over github they are really feature rich and trustworthy, but there was a whole new list of functions and syntax to learn.

Then after few more google search I got sevearal javascript libraries with LINQ like syntax, after comparing I found linq.js most promising and even size is lesser when comparing to lodash and underscore.

Library

GZipped size

lodash

~ 24 KB

linq.js

~ 7 KB

underscore

~ 6.6 KB

linq.js github project link -> https://github.com/mihaifm/linq

With Linq.js dynamics 365 developers can use their existing knowledge of LINQ in javascript code whith nominal changes. see below examples from their github

// C# LINQ - delegate
Enumerable.Range(1, 10)
    .Where(delegate(int i) { return i % 3 == 0; })
    .Select(delegate(int i) { return i * 10; });

// linq.js - anonymous function
Enumerable.range(1, 10)
    .where(function(i) { return i % 3 == 0; })
    .select(function(i) { return i * 10; });


// C# LINQ - lambda
Enumerable.Range(1, 10).Where(i => i % 3 == 0).Select(i => i * 10);

// linq.js - arrow function
Enumerable.range(1, 10).where(i => i % 3 == 0).select(i => i * 10);


// C# LINQ - anonymous type
array.Select((val, i) => new { Value = val, Index = i });

// linq.js - object literal
Enumerable.from(array).select((val, i) => ({ value: val, index: i}));

Example with Dynamics 365/CRM

Let’s retrieve some data from CRM and query in client side javascript. First of all download and save linq.min.js as a javascript webresource, and save below code as html webresource and change your linq.js webresource name accordingly.

<head>
  <title>Trying linq.js</title>
  <script src="/WebResources/new_linq.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
  <script src="ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx" type="text/javascript"></script>
  <script>
    // to bypass a product bug, ignore this
    window["ENTITY_SET_NAMES"] = window["ENTITY_SET_NAMES"] || '{ "account" : "accounts"}';

    // retrieving accoount records
    Xrm.WebApi.retrieveMultipleRecords("account").then(
      function(result) {
        debugger;
        console.log(result);
        // storing all the records to var accounts 
        var accounts = result.entities;

        // build query filter all records with address1_city == "Redmond"
        var accountsCityRedmond = Enumerable.from(accounts).where(a => a.address1_city == "Redmond");
        // use toArray(); to evaluate the query
        console.log(accountsCityRedmond.toArray());

        // previously built query can be filtered even further
        var accountsCityRedmondCountryColumbia = accountsCityRedmond.where(a => a.address1_country == "Columbia").select(w => w.websiteurl);
        // and can be evaluated anytime with .toArray()
        console.log(accountsCityRedmondCountryColumbia.toArray());
      },
      function(error) {
        console.log(error.message);
      }
    );
  </script>
</head>

Run above HTML web resource in browser & press F12 to see output, it would be similar to below shown output, I have run this code in newly created trial instance of dynamics 365.

Go through code comments to understand it better.

Hope it helps. Feel free to ask any questons.