The Dynamics CRM 2016 SDK contains a plugin sample. The code is located here: SDK\SampleCode\CS\Plug-ins\AccountNumberPlugin.cs
I’m going to go through step by step how to create this plugin and upload it to Dynamics CRM, then how to debug the plugin. In the example I will connect to a Dynamics CRM 2016 Online instance.
Firstly, open and build the sample plugin solution in Visual Studio:
Next, open the plugin registration tool. This is located here: SDK\Tools\PluginRegistration. Double click the PluginRegistration.exe file:
Next, click Create New Connection enter credentials to connect to your CRM instance. Below I am connecting to CRM Online. Click Login:
You should now see a list of plugins registered in your CRM instance:
Click Register->Register a new Assembly:
Browse out to the sample assembly created above.
This will display the plugins to register. Click Register Selected Plugins:
You should see something like this if successful:
The plugin now appears in the list:
Next, register a step. Select the plugin, right-click and select “Register New Step”:
Select the message as “Create”, the entity as “Account”, and the Event Pipeline Stage of Execution as “Pre-Operation”. Click Register New Step:
In CRM, create a new account record:
View results – Account Number has been populated:
To debug the plugin, first select Install Profiler:
Once installed select the plugin profiler and click Profile Workflow:
Select the step and click Start Profiling:
Enter a new account and save:
On saving, you will see the following message:
Click Download Log File.
Select to Stop Profiling:
Back in Visual Studio, put a breakpoint in the plugin code that will be stepped through:
Then select Debug->Attach to Process:
Select PluginRegistrationTool.exe:
In the Plugin Registration Tool then select “Replay Plugin Execution”:
Select the downloaded log text file as the Profile and then the SamplePlugins.dll assembly file:
Visual Studio debugging will open to the set breakpoint:
That’s it! You can use this process to create and debug Microsoft CRM plugins.
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