🔑 Key Highlights
- Plugins are custom business logic that extend Dynamics 365 CRM.
- They act as event handlers triggered on specific operations (create, update, delete).
- Useful for automation, external service calls, complex data flows, and enforcing business rules.
- Can cancel or modify pipeline operations to ensure data integrity.
🏗️ Plugin Architecture
- Executes within the Event Execution Pipeline.
- Supports synchronous and asynchronous execution.
- Can integrate with external services (via webhooks, Azure Functions).
- Provides flexibility for pre-event, core, and post-event logic.
⚖️ Early Binding vs Late Binding
| Early Binding | Late Binding |
| Compile-time type checking | Run-time type checking |
| Strongly typed classes, safer coding | More flexible, works with dynamic/custom fields |
| Requires regeneration when schema changes | No recompilation needed |
| Faster performance | Comparable performance |
| Wrapper classes simplify development | Limited to public members |
Example – Early Binding:
`csharp
Account account = new Account
{
Name = "New Account",
Revenue = new Money(1000000)
};
service.Create(account);
Example – Late Binding:
`csharp
Entity account = new Entity("account");
account["name"] = "Contoso";
account["revenue"] = new Money(5000000.00m);
service.Create(account);
🔒 Isolation Modes
- None: Full access to system resources (on-premises).
- Sandbox: Restricted environment (online), higher security, limited external calls.
🔄 Event Execution Pipeline
- Pre-validation (Stage 10) – before core operation, outside DB transaction.
- Pre-operation (Stage 20) – before core operation, inside DB transaction.
- Main Operation (Stage 30) – platform execution (no plugins).
- Post-operation (Stage 40) – after core operation, inside DB transaction.
- Supports both synchronous and asynchronous execution.
⚙️ Practical Examples
- Pre-validation: Prevent duplicate records, validate email format, enforce security roles.
- Pre-operation: Auto-generate account numbers, enrich data before save.
- Post-operation: Send notifications/emails after record creation.
🛠️ Troubleshooting & Debugging
- Use Plugin Trace Logs with ITracingService.
- Enable trace logging in system settings.
- Debug with Plugin Profiler:
- Exception mode: captures state at failure.
- Persist to Entity mode: stores execution profile for replay.
📸 Plugin Images
- Pre-Image: Snapshot before operation (useful for validation).
- Post-Image: Snapshot after operation (useful for auditing).
- Commonly used in update/delete scenarios to compare old vs new values.
🔗 Shared Variables
- Allow plugins to share data across pipeline stages.
- Example: flagging duplicates in pre-event, then updating status in post-event.
🌀 Depth
- Prevents infinite loops by tracking call stack depth.
- Default threshold: 8.
👤 Run Context
- Calling User: Executes under the initiating user’s privileges.
- Specific User: Executes under a designated user.
- System User: Executes with elevated privileges.
🌐 Webhook & Azure Function Integration
- Webhooks send HTTP POST requests to external endpoints on CRM events.
- Azure Functions can act as receivers, enabling serverless integrations.
- Example: Send account data to external service via webhook.
✅ Best Practices
- Use sandbox isolation for online deployments.
- Keep plugins lightweight; offload heavy logic to Azure Functions.
- Always implement error handling and tracing.
- Avoid infinite loops by checking context.Depth.
- Use pre/post images for validation and auditing.
✨ Takeaway: Plugins are the backbone of extending Dynamics 365 CRM. With proper design, debugging, and integration patterns, they ensure scalable, secure, and maintainable business logic.
