Log in to CRM from ASP.NET - dynamics-crm-2011

Question

I'm writing an application in which I have to log on to a CRM 2011 server from ASP.NET code. I quickly found this article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc156363.aspx
The problem I'm having is in this bit of code from that article:
//Create the Service
CrmService service = new CrmService();
service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;
service.Url = crmurl;
Visual Studio can't resolve CrmService. So I tried to add a web reference to this project and point the web reference at the CRM service I'm using. The URL I'm getting from Settings->Customizations in CRM, and I'm using the Organization Service endpoint. However, after I add that reference CrmService is still unresolvable. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

First off, you have linked a CRM 4 MSDN article, some things have changed so you might want try this one instead: Authenticate Users with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Services.
Then as an alternative you may want to try the CrmConnection class, its a helper library in Microsoft.Xrm.Client. It means you can use a connection string approach to authenticate with CRM (and let the class takes care of all the hard work).
var connection = CrmConnection.Parse("Url=http://crm.contoso.com/xrmContoso; Domain=CONTOSO; Username=jsmith; Password=passcode;");
var service = new OrganizationService(connection);
var context = new CrmOrganizationServiceContext(connection);
You can also keep the connection strings in config files makes life significantly easier.
Related articles:
Simplified Connection to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Sample: Simplified Connection Quick Start using Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Answer 2

If you're using standard AD authentication with a local environment this answer should work fine: How to Authenticate to CRM 2011?

Answer 3

Actually, the login procedure is heavily dependent on the authentication provider you're targeting. I'm currently in the process of structuring that info in a pedagogic way on my blog so you're welcome to check it out and nag if it's too techy.
There are at the moment four such ways.
Active directory
Live id
Federation
Online federation
Which is applicable in your case, you should know already. If not, there's code for that too uploaded just a few days ago.
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client;
...
public AuthenticationProviderType GetAuthenticationProviderType(Uri address)
{
IServiceManagement<IOrganizationService> organizationServiceManagement
= ServiceConfigurationFactory.CreateManagement
<IOrganizationService>(address);
return organizationServiceManagement.AuthenticationType;
}
Assuming that you're aiming for AD, you're in luck. It's the easiest.
Uri organizationUrl = new Uri("http ... Organization.svc");
OrganizationServiceProxy organizationService = new OrganizationServiceProxy(
organizationUrl, null, null, null);
If you're aiming for Live Id - that's stingy. I'm still trying to set up a graspable example. The ones at MSDN are just too heavy and confusing. At least when one's dense and lazy like me. More info at mentioned but undisclosed location.