Microsoft Dynamics CRM Early vs. Late Binding Advantage and Disadvantage

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developers have two options when writing .NET code for Microsoft Dynamics CRM – early binding and late binding. The choice comes down to personal preference, but there are several advantages and disadvantages with both options.

Early Binding

// To access Contact entity directly in your code you need to include to include helper class in your solution

Advantage

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015, 2013 & 2011 Software Development Kit contains with a tool (CrmSvcUtil) which can automatically generate helper classes to make it easier to work with your CRM entities and their attributes. You can also generate helper class from MS Visual Studio (greater than 2010 version) if you install CRM SDK Developer tool kit package and connect to CRM organization then generate wrapper class. This provides type checking at compile time, which eliminates the chance of running into InvalidCastExceptionsduring execution of your custom code. It also lets developers take advantage of intellisense by suggesting names for entities, attributes, and relationships. This can speed up development time by removing the risk of spelling mistakes.

Disadvantage

Every time you make a customization change in your system, you will need to run the CrmSvcUtil tool again to ensure that the latest entities, attributes, and relationships are available in your custom applications. The size of the generated file can be large depending on the complexity of your system. Use of the Helper class results in slightly lower performance than the Late-bound entity types.

Late Binding

Advantage

Late binding involves the use of the generic “Entity” class which can manage objects of any entity type. For example, we can use the “Entity” object to programmatically create Accounts, Contacts, Leads, or any custom entity. So in this case we have to define everything explicitly, so here no need to generate helper class again and again. Use of the Entity class results in slightly better performance than the early-bound entity types.

Disadvantage

Type checking is performed at runtime, so developers must explicitly cast attribute values correctly otherwise the custom code will fail during execution. Developers need to be familiar with the late binding syntax as there is no intellisense available.