CREATING A DYNAMICS CRM PLUGIN FROM SCRATCH

Here I will go through an example of creating a Dynamics CRM plugin. In this example, I will create a plugin to set the opportunity description after the opportunity has been created.

First create a new project in Visual Studio.

Next, add references.

Add the Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.dll which is found in the CRM SDK at CRM SDK 2016\SDK\Bin folder:

Or using NuGet the Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreAssemblies:

using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query;

Add code to extend IPlugin. This is how the registration tool will know this is a plugin.

Note – add the Execute function before compiling, or you will get an error Class does not implement interface member IPlugin.Execute(IServiceProvider).

Add the code. We will do a simple plugin, where the description of an opportunity is updated when the opportunity is created.

public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
{

// Obtain the execution context from the service provider.

Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.IPluginExecutionContext context = (Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.IPluginExecutionContext)

serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.IPluginExecutionContext));

// The InputParameters collection contains all the data passed in the message request.

if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") &&
context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)
{
// Obtain the target entity from the input parameters.
Entity entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters[“Target”];

if (entity.LogicalName == "opportunity")
{

if (entity.Attributes.Contains("description") == false)
{

entity.Attributes.Add(“description”, “Here is the new description”);
}
else
{

throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("The description can only be set by the system.");
}}}

Give the assembly a strong name. Go to the properties of the project and select Signing. Create a new strong name key file:

Build the solution.

Deploy the solution. Open the Plugin Registration Tool located in the CRM SDK and select Register New Assembly:

Select the dll from the project debug folder and press Register Selected Plugins:

You will get the message:

Right click the assembly and click Register New Step:

Enter the message as “Create” and the Primary Entity as “opportunity”. Change the Event Pipeline Stage of Execution to “Pre-operation”:

To test the plugin, enter a new Opportunity and click Save. Once the saving is complete, on the description will be updated (without having to manually refresh):