Writing a Simple Dynamics 365 Plugin – A Beginner’s Guide

Dynamics 365 is a powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that helps businesses manage their operations, finances, and customer relationships. It offers a range of features and functions that can be customized to meet the specific needs of different businesses. One of the ways to extend the functionality of Dynamics 365 is through plugins. A plugin is a piece of code that runs within the Dynamics 365 platform and interacts with the data and processes that it manages. In this article, we’ll discuss how to write a simple Dynamics 365 plugin.

Step 1: Create a Visual Studio Project

To get started, you’ll need a development environment that supports the creation of Dynamics 365 plugins. Visual Studio is the recommended tool for this purpose. Open Visual Studio and create a new project. Select the Dynamics 365 plugin project template from the list of available templates. Give your project a meaningful name and select the version of Dynamics 365 that you’re targeting.

Step 2: Define the Plugin Configuration

Once you’ve created your project, you’ll need to define the configuration of your plugin. This includes specifying the entity that your plugin will interact with, the event that will trigger your plugin, and any input parameters that your plugin requires. You can do this by adding a new class to your project and decorating it with the appropriate attributes. For example, to create a plugin that runs on the creation of a new account record, you could add the following code:

[DataContract]
public class CreateAccountPlugin : IPlugin
{
public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
{
// Your plugin code goes here
}

[DataMember]
public string EntityName { get; set; } = “account”;

[DataMember]
public string MessageName { get; set; } = “Create”;
}

Step 3: Implement the Plugin Logic

With your plugin configuration defined, you can now implement the logic of your plugin. This will depend on the specific requirements of your business. In the example above, we’re creating a plugin that runs on the creation of a new account record. We might want to set a default value for some of the fields on the account record, or perform a calculation based on other data in the system. To do this, we can add the following code to our plugin:

public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
{
var context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));
var serviceFactory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
var orgService = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);

if (context.InputParameters.Contains(“Target”) && context.InputParameters[“Target”] is Entity)
{
var target = (Entity)context.InputParameters[“Target”];

target.Attributes[“new_field1”] = “Default Value”;
target.Attributes[“new_field2”] = CalculateValueFromOtherData();

orgService.Update(target);
}
}

This code retrieves the current execution context and organization service, checks if the input parameters contain a new account record, sets default values for certain fields, performs a calculation, and updates the record with the modified data.

Step 4: Register the Plugin with Dynamics 365

Once you’ve implemented your plugin logic, you’re ready to register it with Dynamics 365. This involves creating a solution, adding your plugin assembly to the solution, and configuring the plugin step. To do this, navigate to the Dynamics 365 web interface, go to Settings > Solutions, create a new solution, and add your plugin assembly to it. Then, go to the Plugins section and create a new plugin step. Select your plugin assembly and specify the event and entity that will trigger your plugin.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve discussed how to write a simple Dynamics 365 plugin. While this is just a starting point, it should give you an idea of the basic steps involved in creating custom functionality within Dynamics 365. With a little bit of programming knowledge and some creativity, you can extend the platform to meet the unique needs of your business. Happy coding!