Resolve error on deep insert of navigation property Dynamics WebAPI

Question

I am using the Microsoft Dynamics Web API to write data to an entity in Microsoft Dynamics 365. When I try to do a deep insert I am receiving the error

An undeclared property 'ccseq_employeeid' which only has property annotations in the payload but no property value was found in the payload. In OData, only declared navigation properties and declared named streams can be represented as properties without values.

Why am I receiving this error and how can I resolve the error?

JSON

{
    "ccseq_importdate" : "2017-05-28T04:00:00Z", 
    "ccseq_month" : "1", 
    "ccseq_year" : "2017", 
    "ccseq_name" : "Test", 
    "ccseq_status" : "100000000", "ccseq_ccseq_expensetransactionset_ccseq_expensetransaction_ExpenseTransactionSetID" : 
    [ 
        { 
          "[email protected]": "/systemusers(6d2fd71b-32d1-dd11-a4f5-001a6449bbe7)", 
          "[email protected]": "/ccseq_clients(663ebd00-73b9-4faf-90ed-f56bb9c2dc9b)", 
          "ccseq_navemployeeid" : "11111", 
          "ccseq_employeefirstname" : "John"
        }
    ]
}

ExpenseTransactionSet is the parent of ExpenseTransaction meaning that ExpenseTransaction has a lookup to ExpenseTransactionSet. ccseq_ccseq_expensetransactionset_ccseq_expensetransaction_ExpenseTransactionSetID is one to many relationship. systemuser and ccseq_clients are separate entities that are lookups in ExpenseTransaction.

I've also tried the below variations on the "[email protected]"

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected] : systemusers()
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

I have seen this question and this question and tried the suggested resolutions without success.

Owades

Answer 1

I discovered the answer reading this thread. The correct syntax for a Navigation Property in a deep insert is to use the Child Entity Name followed by brackets with the field name. The json needs to be changed to the below

{
    "ccseq_importdate" : "2017-05-28T04:00:00Z", 
    "ccseq_month" : "1", 
    "ccseq_year" : "2017", 
    "ccseq_name" : "Test", 
    "ccseq_status" : "100000000",
    "ccseq_ccseq_expensetransactionset_ccseq_expensetransaction_ExpenseTransactionSetID" : 
    [ 
        {
          // Next two lines are changed 
          "ExpenseTransaction[[email protected]]": "/systemusers(6d2fd71b-32d1-dd11-a4f5-001a6449bbe7)", 
          "ExpenseTransaction[[email protected]]": "/ccseq_clients(663ebd00-73b9-4faf-90ed-f56bb9c2dc9b)", 
          "ccseq_navemployeeid" : "11111", 
          "ccseq_employeefirstname" : "John"
        }
    ]
}

Owades

Answer 2

In the metadata document {org-url}/api/data/v8.0/$metadata, can you check the element-type of the collection-valued navigation property ccseq_ccseq_expensetransactionset_ccseq_expensetransaction_ExpenseTransactionSetID?

Is it the same type which has ccseq_employeeid as its navigation property? If not, and the property ccseq_employeeid belongs to the derived type, you may need to annotate the navigation property object as below:

{
    "ccseq_importdate" : "2017-05-28T04:00:00Z", 
    "ccseq_month" : "1", 
    "ccseq_year" : "2017", 
    "ccseq_name" : "Test", 
    "ccseq_status" : "100000000",
    "ccseq_ccseq_expensetransactionset_ccseq_expensetransaction_ExpenseTransactionSetID" : 
    [ 
        {
          "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.ccseq_navemployee",
          "[email protected]": "/systemusers(6d2fd71b-32d1-dd11-a4f5-001a6449bbe7)", 
          "[email protected]": "/ccseq_clients(663ebd00-73b9-4faf-90ed-f56bb9c2dc9b)", 
          "ccseq_navemployeeid" : "11111", 
          "ccseq_employeefirstname" : "John"
        }
    ]
}

Belkisbelknap

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here. ccseq_ccseq_expensetransactionset_ccseq_expensetransaction_ExpenseTransactionSetID has an odata type of #Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.OneToManyRelationshipMetadata. ExpenseTransactionSet is the parent of ExpenseTransaction which has lookups to separate entities of systemuser and ccseq_clients – Owades

Can you try adding "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.ExpenseTransaction", as first property in the ExpenseTransaction elements being inserted. From your comment, it seems that OData layer expects the deep-inserted elements to be of type ExpenseTransactionSet and does not expect them to contain property ccseq_employeeid. You can search for @odata.type in docs.oasis-open.org/odata/odata-json-format/v4.0/os/…. – Belkisbelknap

I received the error A type named 'Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.ExpenseTransaction' could not be resolved by the model. When a model is available, each type name must resolve to a valid type. – Owades