Pfthb

This happens when there is &, or other invalid characters in the contract name. My question is, how do I deal with these invalid characters??!!

Microsoft.Crm.CrmException: Invalid XML. --->
System.Xml.XmlException: An error occurred while parsing EntityName.
Line 13, position 117.
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.HandleEntityReference(Boolean isInAttributeValue, EntityExpandType expandType, Int32&
charRefEndPos)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributeValueSlow(Int32 curPos, Char quoteChar, NodeData attr)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributes()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent()
at System.Xml.Linq.XContainer.ReadContentFrom(XmlReader r)
at System.Xml.Linq.XContainer.ReadContentFrom(XmlReader r, LoadOptions o)
at System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Load(XmlReader reader, LoadOptions options)
at Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Server.Utility.XmlHelper.LoadXmlInfo(String
xmlInfo)
at Microsoft.Crm.Query.EntityExpression.ExtractPlatformName(String fetchXml, XElement element).

Here is the code in questions:

//run a fetchXml query to get how many contract lines have these values

string fetchLines = @"
 <fetch version='1.0' output-format='xml-platform' mapping='logical' distinct='false'>
 <entity name='new_yummycontractline'>
 <attribute name='new_yummycontractlineid' />
 <filter type='and'>
 <condition attribute='new_servingtime' operator='eq' value='" + servingTime.ToString() + @"' />
 <condition attribute='new_servinggroup' operator='eq' value='" + servingGroup.ToString() + @"' />
 <condition attribute='new_destination' operator='eq' value='" + location.ToString() + @"' />
 <condition attribute='statecode' operator='eq' value='0' />
 </filter>
 <link-entity name='new_yummycontract' from='new_yummycontractid' to='new_contractid' link-type='inner' alias='ad'>
 <filter type='and'>
 <condition attribute='new_yummycontractid' operator='eq' uiname='" + uiname + @"' uitype='new_yummycontract' value='" + contractId.ToString() + @"' />
 </filter>
 </link-entity>
 </entity>
 </fetch>";

EntityCollection results = service.RetrieveMultiple(new FetchExpression(fetchLines));

uiname and uitype are not required for your fetchXml to work. These are used for presentation and not for the query. I think these are added by the Advanced Find editor; hence the "UI"

You can rewrite that section of XML like so

<link-entity name='new_yummycontract' from='new_yummycontractid' to='new_contractid' link-type='inner' alias='ad'>
 <filter type='and'>
 <condition attribute='new_yummycontractid' operator='eq' value='" + contractId.ToString() + @"' />
 </filter>
</link-entity>

Not sure which version of .NET you're using, but you can also use the $ special character to indicate an interpolated string which I think increases readability and reduces string concatenation

string fetchLines = @$"
 <fetch version='1.0' output-format='xml-platform' mapping='logical' distinct='false'>
 <entity name='new_yummycontractline'>
 <attribute name='new_yummycontractlineid' />
 <filter type='and'>
 <condition attribute='new_servingtime' operator='eq' value='servingTime' />
 <condition attribute='new_servinggroup' operator='eq' value='servingGroup' />
 <condition attribute='new_destination' operator='eq' value='location' />
 <condition attribute='statecode' operator='eq' value='0' />
 </filter>
 <link-entity name='new_yummycontract' from='new_yummycontractid' to='new_contractid' link-type='inner' alias='ad'>
 <filter type='and'>
 <condition attribute='new_yummycontractid' operator='eq' value='contractId' />
 </filter>
 </link-entity>
 </entity>
 </fetch>";

I used webutility.htmlencode(uiname) and the problem seems to have disappeared. I guess the uiname has some invalid XML characters and this method gets rid of the problem!