Create auto-number attributes

Article
02/16/2022

With the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) version 9 release, you can add an auto-number attribute for any entity. Currently, you can add the attribute programmatically. There is no user interface to add this type of attribute. This article explains how you can programmatically create an auto-number attribute and set a seed value for sequential elements. In addition, this article shows how to set the sequence number for the next record if you need to reset the seed at any time later.

Note

The setting of the seed is optional. There is no need to call the seed if you don’t need to reseed.

You can create an auto-number attribute in the same way you create a string attribute using the StringAttributeMetadata class except that you use the new AutoNumberFormat property. Use the AutoNumberFormat property to define a pattern that includes sequential numbers and random strings by composing placeholders, which indicate the length and type of values that are generated. The random strings help you to avoid duplicates or collisions, especially when offline clients trying to create auto-numbers.

When creating an auto-number attribute, the StringAttributeMetadata.FormatName property or the StringAttributeMetadata.Format property values must be Text. Since these are the default values, you will typically not set this property. You cannot create an auto-number attribute that uses any other special kind of format such as Email, Phone, TextArea, Url, or any other existing formats.

Autonumber sequencing is managed by SQL and is ensured to be unique.

Note

Autonumber values are preselected by the database when the record is started. If a record is started but cancelled, the number it was assigned is not used. If, during this time, another record is completed with the next sequential number, gaps will be present in the autonumbering of records.

Note

You can modify an existing format text attribute to be an auto-number format.

In the legacy web client, when adding a control on a form bound to an auto-number attribute, the control is disabled automatically and behaves as read-only in the form where end users cannot edit the control. In Unified Interface, controls bound to an auto-number attribute need to explicitly be set as disabled. If you do not set the initial attribute value on the form, the value is set only after you save the entity. Auto-numbering can be applied to attribute field values in views, grids, and so on.

Examples

The following examples show how to create a new auto-number attribute named new_SerialNumber for a custom entity named new_Widget, which will have a value that looks like this: WID-00001-AB7LSFG-20170913070240. Using the Organization service with SDK assemblies CreateAttributeRequest and StringAttributeMetadata classes:

CreateAttributeRequest widgetSerialNumberAttributeRequest = new CreateAttributeRequest
            {
                EntityName = "newWidget",
                Attribute = new StringAttributeMetadata
                {
                    //Define the format of the attribute
                    AutoNumberFormat = "WID-{SEQNUM:5}-{RANDSTRING:6}-{DATETIMEUTC:yyyyMMddhhmmss}",
                    LogicalName = "new_serialnumber",
                    SchemaName = "new_SerialNumber",
                    RequiredLevel = new AttributeRequiredLevelManagedProperty(AttributeRequiredLevel.None),
                    MaxLength = 100, // The MaxLength defined for the string attribute must be greater than the length of the AutoNumberFormat value, that is, it should be able to fit in the generated value.
                    DisplayName = new Label("Serial Number", 1033),
                    Description = new Label("Serial Number of the widget.", 1033)
                }
            };
            _serviceProxy.Execute(widgetSerialNumberAttributeRequest);

Use Web API

You can create and update entity definitions using the Web API.

More information: Create and update entity definitions using the Web API > Create attributes.

Request

POST [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.1/EntityDefinitions(LogicalName='new_widget')/Attributes HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0
OData-Version: 4.0

{
 "AttributeType": "String",
 "AttributeTypeName": {
  "Value": "StringType"
 },
 "Description": {
  "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.Label",
  "LocalizedLabels": [
   {
    "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.LocalizedLabel",
    "Label": "Serial Number of the widget.",
    "LanguageCode": 1033
   }
  ]
 },
 "DisplayName": {
  "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.Label",
  "LocalizedLabels": [
   {
    "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.LocalizedLabel",
    "Label": "Serial Number",
    "LanguageCode": 1033
   }
  ]
 },
 "RequiredLevel": {
  "Value": "None",
  "CanBeChanged": true,
  "ManagedPropertyLogicalName": "canmodifyrequirementlevelsettings"
 },
 "SchemaName": "new_SerialNumber",
 "AutoNumberFormat": "WID-{SEQNUM:5}-{RANDSTRING:6}-{DATETIMEUTC:yyyyMMddhhmmss}",
 "@odata.type": "Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.StringAttributeMetadata",
 "FormatName": {
  "Value": "Text"
 },
 "MaxLength": 100
}

Response

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
OData-Version: 4.0
OData-EntityId: [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.1/EntityDefinitions(00aa00aa-bb11-cc22-dd33-44ee44ee44ee)/Attributes(11bb11bb-cc22-dd33-ee44-55ff55ff55ff)

AutoNumberFormat options

These examples show how you can configure the AutoNumberFormat property to get different results:

AutoNumberFormat value	Example value
`CAR-{SEQNUM:3}-{RANDSTRING:6}`	`CAR-123-AB7LSF`
`CNR-{RANDSTRING:4}-{SEQNUM:4}`	`CNR-WXYZ-1000`
`{SEQNUM:6}-#-{RANDSTRING:3}`	`123456-#-R3V`
`KA-{SEQNUM:4}`	`KA-0001`
`{SEQNUM:10}`	`1234567890`
`QUO-{SEQNUM:3}#{RANDSTRING:3}#{RANDSTRING:5}`	`QUO-123#ABC#PQ2ST`
`QUO-{SEQNUM:7}{RANDSTRING:5}`	`QUO-0001000P9G3R`
`CAS-{SEQNUM:6}-{RANDSTRING:6}-{DATETIMEUTC:yyyyMMddhhmmss}`	`CAS-002000-S1P0H0-20170913091544`
`CAS-{SEQNUM:6}-{DATETIMEUTC:yyyyMMddhh}-{RANDSTRING:6}`	`CAS-002002-2017091309-HTZOUR`
`CAS-{SEQNUM:6}-{DATETIMEUTC:yyyyMM}-{RANDSTRING:6}-{DATETIMEUTC:hhmmss}`	`CAS-002000-201709-Z8M2Z6-110901`

The random string placeholders are optional. You can include more than one random string placeholder. Use any of the format values for datetime placeholders from Standard Date and Time Format Strings.

String length

The table shows the string length value for the random and sequential placeholders.

Placeholder	String Length	Output Scenario
`{RANDSTRING:MIN_LENGTH}`	The value of MIN_LENGTH is between 1 and 6.	When you save the entity, the auto-number attribute generates the random string with the defined length if the value is between 1 and 6. If you use the MIN_LENGTH value as 7 or beyond 7, you get to see an Invalid Argument error.
`{SEQNUM:MIN_LENGTH}`	The minimum value of the MIN_LENGTH is 1. The number continues to increment beyond the minimum length.	When you save the entity, the auto-number attribute works fine and continue to work fine for larger values of MIN_LENGTH.

For sequential value placeholders, the MIN_LENGTH is a minimum length. If you set the value to be 2, the initial value will be 01, and the 100th entity value will be 100. The number will continue to increment beyond the minimum length. The value in setting the length for sequential values is to establish a consistent length for the autogenerated value by adding additional 0s to the initial value. It will not limit the absolute value. Random value placeholders will always be the same length.

Because the sequential values can get larger than the minimum length allotted for them, you should not adjust the StringAttributeMetadata.MaxLength property to match the length of your formatted value. There is little value in doing this and it could cause an error in the future if the value exceeds the MaxLength value. Make sure you leave enough room for a realistic range of sequential values.

Note

There is no validation of the placeholder values when you create the attribute. The error appears only when you try to save an entity instance that uses an incorrectly configured AutoNumberFormat value. For example, if you specify the length of the random string more than 6, the first person creating a new entity instance gets an Invalid Argument error when they first try to save the entity containing the new auto-number attribute.

Update auto-number attributes

If you create an auto-number attribute with an incorrect configuration or you want to modify an existing auto-number attribute, you can update the attribute the AutoNumberFormat value.

The following code snippet explains you to retrieve, modify, and update the auto-number attribute.

To modify an existing auto-number attribute, you must retrieve the attribute using the RetrieveAttributeRequest class.

// Create the retrieve request
RetrieveAttributeRequest attributeRequest = new RetrieveAttributeRequest
            {
                EntityLogicalName = entityName.ToLower(),
                LogicalName = "new_serialnumber",
                RetrieveAsIfPublished = true
            };
// Retrieve attribute response
RetrieveAttributeResponse attributeResponse = (RetrieveAttributeResponse)_serviceProxy.Execute(attributeRequest);

After retrieving the auto-number attribute, you need to modify and update the attribute.

//Modify the retrieved auto-number attribute
AttributeMetadata retrievedAttributeMetadata = attributeResponse.AttributeMetadata;
retrievedAttributeMetadata.AutoNumberFormat = "CAR-{RANDSTRING:5}{SEQNUM:6}"; //Modify the existing attribute by writing the format as per your requirement 

// Update the auto-number attribute            
UpdateAttributeRequest updateRequest = new UpdateAttributeRequest
                        {
                            Attribute = retrievedAttributeMetadata,
                            EntityName = "newWidget",
                        };
// Execute the request
_serviceProxy.Execute(updateRequest);

Set a seed value

By default, all auto-number sequential values start with 1000 and use 0 as the prefix depending on the length. In this way, the length of the value is always same. If you want to change the initial value, you need to change the initial seed value using the API below to set the next number that are used for the sequential segment.

For example, if you did not use a seed value, or if you set the seed value to a single digit, your first number would be a single digit with a prefix of zeros added to equal the number length. A single digit seed with a display length of 5 would result in displaying "5" as "00005". Using a seed value allows you to start with a larger initial value, so if you set your seed as "10000" a value of 5 would show as "10005".

If you want to choose a different starting value after creating the auto-numbering attribute, use the SetAutoNumberSeed message. Use the SetAutoNumberSeedRequest class when using the SDK assemblies and SetAutoNumberSeed action when using the Web API.

The AutoNumberSeed message has the following parameters:

Name	Type	Description
EntityName	string	The logical name of the entity that contains the attribute you want to set the seed on.
AttributeName	string	The logical name of the attribute you want to set the seed on.
Value	int	Next auto-number value for the attribute.

Note

Setting the seed only changes the current number value for the specified attribute in the current environment. It does not imply a common start value for the attribute. The seed value is not included in a solution when installed in a different environments. To set the starting number after a solution import, use SetAutoNumberSeed message in the target environment.

Examples

The following samples set the seed to 10000 for an auto-number attribute named new_SerialNumber for a custom entity named new_Widget.

Using the Organization service with SDK assemblies SetAutoNumberSeedRequest class:

//Define the seed 
SetAutoNumberSeedRequest req = new SetAutoNumberSeedRequest();
req.EntityName = "newWidget";
req.AttributeName = "newSerialnumber";
req.Value = 10000;
_serviceProxy.Execute(req);

Using the Web API SetAutoNumberSeed Action.

More information: Use Web API actions > Unbound actions

Request

POST [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.1/SetAutoNumberSeed HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0
OData-Version: 4.0

{
 "EntityName": "new_Widget",
 "AttributeName": "new_Serialnumber",
 "Value": 10000
}

Response

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
OData-Version: 4.0

Community tools

Auto Number Manager

Auto Number Manager for XrmToolBox is a community driven tool for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) that provides a UI to set, update, and remove auto number format on new or existing attributes. See the Developer tools article for community developed tools and anm.xrmtoolbox.com for more information about Auto Number Manager.

Note

The community tools are not a product of Microsoft Dynamics and does not extend support to the community tools. If you have questions pertaining to the tool, please contact the publisher. More Information: XrmToolBox.

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Create auto-number attributes

Examples

Use Web API

Request

Response

AutoNumberFormat options

String length

Update auto-number attributes

Set a seed value

Examples

Request

Response

Community tools

Auto Number Manager

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