Develop Reference

Dynamics plugin update record after create

Hi I'm new to Dynamics and plugins in dynamics. I have created a simple Entity called Library that holds books.
After a new book is created I want the price of the book to increment by a GST of 10% on the server side via a plugin.
I know this would normally occur on the page before saving by I'm trying to work out how server side logic works.
I have created a postOperation (synchronous) step for the "Create" message to call the Plugin Execute() method. From my reading this should occur AFTER the record is saved in the database.
I also have a post image entity that I access.
In the Execute method I try to access the saved record via the PostMessageEntity to update the price, but I get an exception saying the record does not exist based on the record identifier that i have obtained. I can confirm the record was never created in the system, yet the postOperation has been called.
How do I access the just saved record in the plugin so that I can update the Price?
My code:
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));
// create a trace log so you can see where in the code it breaks
ITracingService tracingService = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));
// create access to service
IOrganizationServiceFactory serviceFactory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
IOrganizationService service = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);
tracingService.Trace("have reached execute event in plugin.");
// The InputParameters collection contains all the data passed in the message request.
if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") &&
context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)
{
tracingService.Trace("We have a target and it is an entity.");
// Obtain the target entity from the input parameters.
Entity entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];
if (entity.LogicalName == "new_books")
{
tracingService.Trace("the entity id of the record that was created is .." + entity.Attributes["new_booksid"].ToString());
// do we have a post update image of the new_books entity
if (context.PostEntityImages.Contains("newbookpostImage") && context.PostEntityImages["newbookpostImage"] is Entity)
{
tracingService.Trace("we have a postEntityImage.");
// // yep lets grab it.
Entity postMessageEntity = (Entity)context.PostEntityImages["newbookpostImage"];
// get book price as just saved to db
decimal bookPrice = ((Money)postMessageEntity.Attributes["new_price"]).Value;
// get id of the the record we have
Guid RecordID = ((Guid)postMessageEntity.Attributes["new_booksid"]);
tracingService.Trace("we have a post update bookprice.");
tracingService.Trace("the entity id of the post image entity is ..." + postMessageEntity.Attributes["new_booksid"].ToString());
Entity created_book = new Entity("new_books");
// use service to access a field of the current record as it is in the database and column we want to update.
created_book = service.Retrieve(created_book.LogicalName, RecordID, new ColumnSet(true));
//And the last line is where it dies and tells me new_books with id with d7bfc9e2 - 2257 - ec11 - 8f8f - 00224814e6e0 does not exist.
}
}
}
}

Entity postMessageEntity = (Entity)context.PostEntityImages["newbookpostImage"];
Is your PostEntityImage new_books entity?
Also if you have an entity postMessageEntity you can directly get Entity Record ID by
postMessageEntity.ID
rather than Guid RecordID = ((Guid)postMessageEntity.Attributes["new_booksid"]);
Here your code does nothing more than create empty object of type Entity new_books.
You have not set Priamry name field of entiy or any other. Also you have not created a record, you should use
Entity created_book = new Entity("new_books")
service.Create(created_book);
Below you are trying to fecth Record from Entity new_books based on postMessageEntity.Id
You should check postMessageEntity logical name is same as created_book.LogicalName and then use postMessageEntity.ID rather than RecordID
created_book = service.Retrieve(created_book.LogicalName, RecordID, new ColumnSet(true));

In the plugin pipeline you can actually add, modify and even remove attributes in the entity object on the fly. This must be done before the main operations take place: in the prevalidation or in the preoperation stage.
So, your code can be simplified like this:
public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
{
var context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));
Debug.Assert(context.Stage <= 20); // This only works in prevalidation and preoperation stages.
var book = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"]; // For message Create a Target parameter is always available.
// Using GetAttributeValue is more safe, because when price is not set, the attribute will not be available in the collection.
decimal? price = book.GetAttributeValue<Money>("new_price")?.Value;
if (price.HasValue)
book["new_price"] = new Money(price.Value * 1.1M);
}
In the synchronous post create stage you are still in a database transaction. At that point the record is created, but not yet committed.
The ID of the record created can be found in the OutputParameters collection. You can pick it up like this:
var recordId = (Guid)context.OutputParameters["id"];
There is no need to do checks on the context object. When your plugin is registered properly, all items you would expect to be available will be there. If not, a proper exception log will be your best friend. Just add a generic exception handler responsible for writing the error context to the plugin trace log.

NetSuite custom record search through suiteTalk using C#

We are having an issue with searching a custom record through SuiteTalk. Below is a sample of what we are calling. The issue we are having is in trying to set up the search using the internalId of the record. The issue here lies in in our initial development account the internal id of this custom record is 482 but when we deployed it through the our bundle the record was assigned with the internal Id of 314. It would stand to reason that this internal id is not static in a site per site install so we wondered what property to set up to reference the custom record. When we made the record we assigned its “scriptId’ to be 'customrecord_myCustomRecord' but through suitetalk we do not have a “scriptId”. What is the best way for us to allow for this code to work in all environments and not a specific one? And if so, could you give an example of how it might be used.
Code (C#) that we are attempting to make the call from. We are using the 2013.2 endpoints at this time.
private SearchResult NetSuite_getPackageContentsCustomRecord(string sParentRef)
{
List<object> PackageSearchResults = new List<object>();
CustomRecord custRec = new CustomRecord();
CustomRecordSearch customRecordSearch = new CustomRecordSearch();
SearchMultiSelectCustomField searchFilter1 = new SearchMultiSelectCustomField();
searchFilter1.internalId = "customrecord_myCustomRecord_sublist";
searchFilter1.#operator = SearchMultiSelectFieldOperator.anyOf;
searchFilter1.operatorSpecified = true;
ListOrRecordRef lRecordRef = new ListOrRecordRef();
lRecordRef.internalId = sParentRef;
searchFilter1.searchValue = new ListOrRecordRef[] { lRecordRef };
CustomRecordSearchBasic customRecordBasic = new CustomRecordSearchBasic();
customRecordBasic.recType = new RecordRef();
customRecordBasic.recType.internalId = "314"; // "482"; //THIS LINE IS GIVING US THE TROUBLE
//customRecordBasic.recType.name = "customrecord_myCustomRecord";
customRecordBasic.customFieldList = new SearchCustomField[] { searchFilter1 };
customRecordSearch.basic = customRecordBasic;
// Search for the customer entity
SearchResult results = _service.search(customRecordSearch);
return results;
}

I searched all over for a solution to avoid hardcoding internalId's. Even NetSuite support failed to give me a solution. Finally I stumbled upon a solution in NetSuite's knowledgebase, getCustomizationId.
This returns the internalId, scriptId and name for all customRecord's (or customRecordType's in NetSuite terms! Which is what made it hard to find.)
public string GetCustomizationId(string scriptId)
{
// Perform getCustomizationId on custom record type
CustomizationType ct = new CustomizationType();
ct.getCustomizationTypeSpecified = true;
ct.getCustomizationType = GetCustomizationType.customRecordType;
// Retrieve active custom record type IDs. The includeInactives param is set to false.
GetCustomizationIdResult getCustIdResult = _service.getCustomizationId(ct, false);
foreach (var customizationRef in getCustIdResult.customizationRefList)
{
if (customizationRef.scriptId == scriptId) return customizationRef.internalId;
}
return null;
}

you can make the internalid as an external property so that you can change it according to environment.
The internalId will be changed only when you install first time into an environment. when you deploy it into that environment, the internalid will not change with the future deployments unless you choose Add/Rename option during deployment.

CRM 2011 update incident when email arrives

In CRM when emails arrive and have the tracking token in them they automatically set the regarding field to be the incident (or whatever they relate to)
Unfortunately the Record wall isn't updated with this info so even if you are following the case nothing alerts you to the new activity.
I want to write a plugin on email or incident (or both) that updates the record wall and creates a task to follow up on that email with in 3 days.
I'm looking at the SDK and I can't see what the appropriate event in the pipe line would be to work out when an email is/has its regarding field set on arrival in the CRM.
The CRM email creation life-cycle is not well described in the documentation. [shakes fist]
Extra things that are bothering me
I can't seem to include a reference to get a strongly typed Email, Post or Case (driving me crazy)
Testing this is really hard (harder than it should be)
EDIT Here is my current code
namespace Assembly.Plugins
{
using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query;
/// <summary>
/// PostEmailDeliverIncoming Plugin.
/// </summary>
public class PostEmailDeliverIncoming : Plugin
{
/// <summary>
/// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="PostEmailDeliverIncoming"/> class.
/// </summary>
public PostEmailDeliverIncoming()
: base(typeof(PostEmailDeliverIncoming))
{
RegisteredEvents.Add(new Tuple<int, string, string, Action<LocalPluginContext>>(40, "DeliverIncoming", "email", ExecutePostEmailDeliverIncoming));
// Note : you can register for more events here if this plugin is not specific to an individual entity and message combination.
// You may also need to update your RegisterFile.crmregister plug-in registration file to reflect any change.
}
protected void ExecutePostEmailDeliverIncoming(LocalPluginContext localContext)
{
if (localContext == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("localContext");
}
//Extract the tracing service for use in debugging sandboxed plug-ins.
ITracingService tracingService = localContext.TracingService;
// Obtain the execution context from the service provider.
IPluginExecutionContext context = localContext.PluginExecutionContext;
// Obtain the organization service reference.
var service = localContext.OrganizationService;
// The InputParameters collection contains all the data passed in the message request.
if (!context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") || !(context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity))
return;
// Obtain the target entity from the input parmameters.
var target = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];
// Verify that the target entity represents an account.
// If not, this plug-in was not registered correctly.
if (target.LogicalName != "email")
return;
if((string)target["direction"] != "Incoming")
return;
if (target["regardingobjectid"] == null)
return;
try
{
// if its not a case I don't care
var incident = service.Retrieve("incident", (Guid)target["regardingobjectid"], new ColumnSet(true));
if (incident == null)
return;
var post = new Entity("post");
post["regardingobjectid"] = target["regardingobjectid"];
post["source"]=new OptionSetValue(0);
post["text"] = String.Format("a new email has arrived.");
// Create the task in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
tracingService.Trace("FollowupPlugin: Creating the post.");
service.Create(post);
// Create a task activity to follow up with the account customer in 7 days.
var followup = new Entity("task");
followup["subject"] = "Follow up incoming email.";
followup["description"] = "An email arrived that was assigned to a case please follow it up.";
followup["scheduledstart"] = DateTime.Now.AddDays(3);
followup["scheduledend"] = DateTime.Now.AddDays(3);
followup["category"] = context.PrimaryEntityName;
// Refer to the email in the task activity.
if (context.OutputParameters.Contains("id"))
{
var regardingobjectid = new Guid(context.OutputParameters["id"].ToString());
followup["regardingobjectid"] = new EntityReference("email", regardingobjectid);
}
// Create the task in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
tracingService.Trace("FollowupPlugin: Creating the task activity.");
service.Create(followup);
}
catch (FaultException<OrganizationServiceFault> ex)
{
throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("An error occurred in the FollupupPlugin plug-in.", ex);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
tracingService.Trace("FollowupPlugin: {0}", ex.ToString());
throw;
}
}
}
}

I've just been fighting with this exact same issue and came across this post. I thought I'd post the solution for you (if you still need it) and anyone else who comes across the issue in the future.
Here's the solution I arrived at:
- Using the Plugin Registration Tool register a New Image on the appropriate step( Stage = "40", MessageName = "DeliverIncoming")
- Set the New Image to be a Post Image
- In your plugin fetch the Post Image's entity ID:
Guid emailID = context.PostEntityImages["PostImage"].Id;
Entity emailFromRetrieve = localContext.OrganizationService.Retrieve(
"email",
emailID,
new Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query.ColumnSet(true));
Email email = emailFromRetrieve.ToEntity<Email>();
if (email.RegardingObjectId == null)
{
return;
}
var regardingObject = email.RegardingObjectId;
Hope this helps!

I'm actually working on a very similar plugin at the moment. Mine creates a custom entity upon arrival of an email addressed to a certain email address. It also associates the incoming email with that new record via the Regarding field. I've added a Pre-Operation step on Create of Email and it works great, including incoming email from the router.
What I'm not sure of is when CRM fills in the Regarding field. You might look at Post-Operation and see if it is set there?
One interesting caveat regarding the Regarding field (haha!): Unlike single lookup fields, the Regarding object's name is actually stored in the ActivityPointer table, so when you update the Regarding field, be sure to set the Name on the EntityReference. If you don't, the Regarding lookup will still have a clickable icon but there won't be any text. I do it like this:
email.RegardingObjectId = [yourentity].ToEntityReference();
email.RegardingObjectId.Name = email.Subject;
Hope that helps!

I ended up doing this in a workflow on the email entity
Steps
Create new workflow, I called it 'incoming email workflow'
Scope is Organisation
Choose Email as the entity and check 'Record field changes'
Add a step that checks Regarding (Case):Case Contains Data
if true:
Add a step that creates a Post
Edit the properties in the Post
Text : This case has had {Direction(E-mail)} email activity from {From(E-mail)}
Source : Auto Post
Regarding : {Regarding(E-mail)}
Add a step that creates a Task
Edit the properties in the Task
Subject : Follow up {Subject(E-mail)}
Regarding : {Regarding(E-mail)}

Try to use the following code:
if ((bool)entity["directioncode"] == false)
Instead of your code:
if((string)target["direction"] != "Incoming")

Updating StateCode in Dynamics CRM with web service failes

Im trying to update "StatE Code" (Active|Inactive) to Active through the CRM web service on a product in the database.
...
crmProduct.statecode = new ProductStateInfo() { Value = ProductState.Active };
//crmProduct.statuscode = new Status() { Value = 1 };
crmProduct.name = "...";
service.Update(crmProduct);
It seem to work okay, I get no errors and the name changes, but its still Inactive!
When trying to set "StatUS Code" as well to Active, I get an error saying I cant set status to Active when state is Inactive... but Im setting both to Active at the same time... hmmmm.. dont now whats wrong here...
Any clues?

Setting the state code in an entity has no effect when you save it. You must use an appropriate SetState request. As Matt said, for dynamic entities this is the SetStateDynamicEntityRequest. In your case I am assuming you are using a "product" object, so you need to use the SetStateProductRequest class.
var request = new SetStateProductRequest()
{
EntityId = [GUID of product],
ProductState = ProductState.Active,
ProductStatus = -1
}
var response = (SetStateProductResponse)crmService.Execute(request);
Check out this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb958061.aspx
The -1 for the ProductStatus tells CRM to use to appropriate default statuscode value for the statecode.

You have to use the SetStateDynamicEntityRequest to update the state of a record. You can update the statuscode using the regular update message, but only if the code you're updating to is in the same state that the record is currently in, as you've found.

Dynamics CRM - access property within a workflow on newly created entity

I'm creating a Dynamics CRM workflow assembly to be executed when a new Note is created on another record of any type. I need to be able to access a property Prop1 on that newly created Note entity to accomplish other tasks.
Previously I've only accessed values that were input from a field or from the user, but never on a property of a newly created entity. Any guidance would be appreciated.
UPDATE:
This is regarding CRM 4.0.
More information while I wait:
Ultimately, this workflow assembly will create an email that contains a link to the parent entity of the newly created Note record. The property I need to get is the AnnotationId. Once the Note record is created, I will be retrieving the ObjectId and ObjectTypeCode based on the AnnotationId of the newly created Note.
(In case you were curious)

Ok so if your using 4.0 custom workflows and not 3.0 callouts, you should add a workflow assembly, and use the Context service and executing context of your workflow to pull the values from the new note.
See the example below on how to access a record using the context service and the ID of your current context of execution (that should be your note)
/// <summary>
/// The Execute method is called by the workflow runtime to execute an activity.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="executionContext"> The context for the activity</param>
/// <returns></returns>
protected override ActivityExecutionStatus Execute(ActivityExecutionContext executionContext)
{
// Get the context service.
IContextService contextService = (IContextService)executionContext.GetService(typeof(IContextService));
IWorkflowContext context = contextService.Context;
// Use the context service to create an instance of CrmService.
ICrmService crmService = context.CreateCrmService(true);
BusinessEntity newNote = GetNote(crmService, context.PrimaryEntityId);
string noteAttrib;
noteAttrib = newNote.Properties.Contains("AnnotationId") ? ((Lookup)newNote.Properties["annotationid"]).name.ToString() : null;
return ActivityExecutionStatus.Closed;
}
GetNotes method would be a standard query for notes by Id through a CRM service call,
here is an example slightly modified from MSDN to return a note:
private BusinessEntity getNote(ICrmService service, guid noteid)
{
// Create the column set object that indicates the fields to be retrieved.
ColumnSet cols = new ColumnSet();
// Set the columns to retrieve, you can use allColumns but its good practice to specify:
cols.Attributes = new string [] {"name"};
// Create the target object for the request.
TargetRetrieveAnnotation target = new TargetRetrieveAnnotation();
// Set the properties of the target object.
// EntityId is the GUID of the record being retrieved.
target.EntityId = noteid;
// Create the request object.
RetrieveRequest retrieve = new RetrieveRequest();
// Set the properties of the request object.
retrieve.Target = target;
retrieve.ColumnSet = cols;
// Execute the request.
RetrieveResponse retrieved = (RetrieveResponse)service.Execute(retrieve);
return RetrieveResponse;
}