jsonapidynamics-365dynamics-business-centralhttp-accept-header

Dynamic 365 API only returns XML despite Request for JSON

I am using Postman to query a Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) API. The API is returning XML and I am trying to get it to return JSON. The Microsoft page that gives an example shows the response as being in JSON format.

Image from Microsoft's Getting Started Developing Connect Apps for Dynamics 365 Business Central

I tried added my own Request header to denote that I would like JSON returned

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Postman says that by adding my own "Accept" Request header it will override the one that is auto-generated

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Even so I tried sending the request with the auto-generated "Accept" header disabled and enabled. This is the response ...

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Am I requesting JSON the proper way for a REST endpoint? Microsoft's example seems to indicate that JSON can be returned yet I am only able to get XML back as shown below (just a fragment)

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Solution

  • There are two different endpoints you are talking about, $metadata which generates the whole CSDL schema in xml format, whereas <endpoint>/companies fetches the data in JSON format.

    This can be tested in browser simply pasting these URLs.

    https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/environment name/api/v2.0/$metadata

https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/environment name/api/v2.0/companies

    Note: Pls test it. I don’t have experience with Dynamics BC, but I managed to get these from docs with the idea of my Dynamics CRM experience :)