Create Item in Dynamics 365 Business Central using Rest API

Question

I am trying to consume Microsoft Dynamics Business Central Rest API, to create item using following endpoint:

https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/mydomain.com/api/v1.0/companies({id})/items

Following is my code:

string requestBody = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(itemBodyValues);
            string url = "https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/mydomain.com/api/v1.0/companies({id})/items";
            string encodedCredentials = System.Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1").GetBytes(userName + ":" + WebServiceAccessKey));
            HttpWebRequest endpointRequest = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(url);

            endpointRequest.ContentType = "application/json";
            endpointRequest.Method = "POST";
            //endpointRequest.Accept = "application/json;odata=verbose";
            using (var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(endpointRequest.GetRequestStream()))
            {

                streamWriter.Write(requestBody);
            }
            endpointRequest.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Basic " + encodedCredentials);
            HttpWebResponse endpointResponse = (HttpWebResponse)endpointRequest.GetResponse();

Following is the request body (copied it from here):

{
  "number": "1896-S",
  "displayName": "ATHENS Desk",
  "type": "Inventory",
  "blocked": false,
  "baseUnitOfMeasure": {
    "unitCode": "PCS",  //Unit of measure with this code exists in dynamics BC
    "unitName": "Piece",
    "symbol": "",
    "unitConversion": null
  },
  "gtin": "",
  "itemCategory": {
    "categoryId": "TABLE",     //Item category with this code exists in dynamics BC
    "description": "Assorted Tables"
  },
  "inventory": 0,
  "unitPrice": 1000.8,
  "priceIncludesTax": false,
  "unitCost": 780.7,
  "taxGroupCode": "FURNITURE"
}

When i try to execute the code, then at endpointRequest.GetResponse(); i get the following error:

The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request.'

I tried creating item in postman (basic authentication), with same URL and request body and error is:

{
    "error": {
        "code": "BadRequest",
        "message": "Does not support untyped value in non-open type.  CorrelationId:  4bc23d7b-f6b3-4eca-ab62-6fb7d37e23ac."
    }
}

It is important to note that item successfully gets created when i exclude baseUnitOfMeasure and itemCategory properties from request body. But including these properties causes the error. As i researched for the issue above, from different sources i found that, such issue appears when a field/property is mistyped. I am copying the request body from Microsoft document as mentioned above so i am clueless that which field is causing the issue. Please help me resolve this. Thanks

Answer 1

BadRequest is usually a bad datatype or json that is in the request body is not what is expected by the server side. I don't recommend adding any fields to the request body that are null this can also cause bad request.

My question is where is the field weight or net_weight on the item card to update via the rest api? Do you have to build a custom api just to include a field in the table not visible in the api to update?

Answer 2

For Future visitors/readers:

It took some R&D to let me know that the request body that can be found in Microsoft Document actually contains some wrong property name. we can go to https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/[your domain]/api/v1.0/$metadata where after authentication we get the XML that specifies the property names that should be used. So, the request body that i found working is:

{
  "number": "1836-S",
  "displayName": "ATHENS Desk",
  "type": "Inventory",
  "blocked": false,
  "baseUnitOfMeasure": {
    "code": "PCS",
    "displayName": "Piece",
    "symbol": "",
    "unitConversion": null
  },
  "gtin": "",
  "itemCategory": {
    "code": "TABLE",  //make sure item category with this code doesn't already exists
    "displayName": "Assorted Tables"
  },
  "inventory": 0,
  "unitPrice": 1000.8,
  "priceIncludesTax": false,
  "unitCost": 780.7,
  "taxGroupCode": ""
}