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Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

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Posted on by ErickTreeTops

I'm trying to understand how plug ins work. Specifically how the Pipeline Stages work.

I created a very simply book Entity.

What I was trying to do was after a new record is added to the database I wanted the price of the book to be incremented by 10% GST.

I wanted this action to be carried out on the server side by a plugin.

From the online documentation I read that the new record would be available in the database during the PostOperation Stage of the Create Step.

Can someone confirm that this is correct ?

This is not what i found.

Regardless what code i used i kept getting the error in the plugin code that the record i was trying to update did not exist.

I removed all the code from my plugin and replaced it all with a single line of code

throw new Exception("just so we can debug");

As it states, i just wanted to kill the code from doing anything in the PostOperation stage so no changes are made to the record in the database..

After "save and close " of the new record the exception is thrown. I then confirmed via the App and the Entity table that NO new record was created.

Since by the time the PostOperation is called the new record should already safely exists in the entity table nothing i did in that event should affect it.

But the fact that the new record was NOT created says otherwise.

Can some explain why this is occurring.

And how would i update the record in the plugin when a users does a "Save" or Save close" on a new record

Regards

Erick

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Michel Gueli 982 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Can i give you a tip? Try to write the plugin logic in a seperate class. Make the Plugin class, which implements IPlugin and has the Execute function, as dumb as possible. Then you can test this locally in Visual Studio to see what you're code is doing.

public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)

{

ITracingService trace = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));

IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));

IOrganizationServiceFactory factory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));

IOrganizationService service = factory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);

var book= context.GetTargetEntity();

if (book!= null)

{

var bookHandler= new BookHandler(service, trace);

bookHandler.IncreasePriceBy10Percent(book);

}

}
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Bipin D365 28,964 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Hi,

You are sure correct, On Pre-validate stage you don't need to call Update method. Whatever attribute you set the Target Entity attribute will be saved to Database.

When you enable profiler, system creates copy of the same steps in your instance. So it is always good idea to kill the profile before exporting the solution and import it into production instance otherwise you will have same code running twice. And in case if you are creating say Task record or any entity record from plugin you will see duplicat record getting created.

I hope this clear your doubts.

Please mark my answer verified if this is helpful!

Regards,

Bipin Kumar

Follow my Blog: xrmdynamicscrm.wordpress.com/
ErickTreeTops 20 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Thank for you reply. My step is in the PreValidation of the Create step. From my understanding the "Target" contains the data that is on it's way to be added to the database. Any changes I make to the Entity in the "Target" will be persisted to the database. Additionally at this stage there is no need to call the update method. Once I turned off the profiler the code worked as expected. I'm now adding to my code to have the same action occur during the Update message. I just need to read up on preventing recursive updates before I implement.
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Pradeep Rai 5,490 Super User 2024 Season 2 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Hi,

You can refer below link to get more details about each stages and example.

https://carldesouza.com/dynamics-365-plugin-execution-pipeline/

Thanks,
Pradeep.

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Moh Helper

250 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Hi,

I have some remarks about your code (The final answer is at the end) :

- Did you register the plugin in the post operation stage ?

If Yes , you have to change the '10' by '40'. Because no data exists in the pre-validation of a "create" message.

- Secondly you have to be sure that the field "new-price" is set in the creation of the book record.

- Finally, you need to update your change about the new_gstprice because you are in the post-operation

Example of code :

Entity updateRecord = new Entity("book");

updateRecord.Id = newRecord.Id;

updateRecord.Attributes.Add("new_gstprice", new Money(price));

service.update(updateRecord);

But the good way it's to register your plugin in the pre-operation :

- change the context.stage == '10" by context.stage == '20'

And Normally all will work correctly.

Here a draft schema to allow you to understand.

Pre-Operation

Operation

Post-Operation

Target contains the changes

All changes in the target will be taken care of the operation stage

Record creation with the values in the target

Target contains the values registered in the database.

If you need to update a value , you need to explicitely do an update

I hope I was able to help you.

Kr,

M.Helper

ErickTreeTops 20 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

I killed the profiler I had running in the registration tool on the step I was debugging. This prevented the unknown exception from. My code seems to be working fine now. Not really sure why the profile was causing the exception at the end of the plugin execution. Perhaps some one can shed some light on this phenomena it.
ErickTreeTops 20 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Since the "new_gstprice" field is not set during the creation of a record it is not available as an Attribute. That is why I added it. I get an exception thrown on the Save and close of a new record. But when I step through he plugin in debug mode all lines of the plug execute without an error. The trace log also shows the last line of the plugin is executed without issue. I am unable to determine what the issue is.
ErickTreeTops 20 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

namespace Library { public class CalcGSTPrice : IPlugin { public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider) { try { //Obtain the execution context from the service provider. IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(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."); // get a reference to the newly added record. Entity newRecord = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"]; if (newRecord != null) { // are we in a 'create' message occuring during the Prevalidation Event if (context.MessageName.ToLower() == "create" && context.Stage == 10) { if (newRecord.Contains("new_price")) { // Get price of book Decimal price = newRecord.GetAttributeValue("new_price").Value; // increase price of book by 10% price = Decimal.Multiply(price, (Decimal)1.1); // create new attribute and set value to new price of book newRecord.Attributes.Add("new_gstprice", new Money(price)); tracingService.Trace("Update of new_gstprice has completed"); } } } tracingService.Trace("Last line of plugin execute method reached"); return; } catch (Exception ex ) { throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException(ex.Message); } } } }
Moh Helper 250 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Hi,

Can you share your code to see where is the problem ?

Kr,

M.Helper
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Bipin D365 28,964 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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RE: Updating an Entity record via a Plugin

Hi,

If Price field is present of Book entity itself then you can write you code in Pre-operation plugin.

No need to write the code and register in Post Operation Plugin.

Sample Code -

Entity entity=(Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];

//Check if Price value if entered by the user

if(entity.Attributes.Contains("new_bookprice"))

{

// Get the price field value

Decimal price=((Money)entity.Attributes["new_bookprice"]).Value;

Decimal increasePriceBy10Percentage=price+(price*10/100);

entity["new_bookprice"]=new Money(increasePriceBy10Percentage);

}

else

{

// if book price is not entered by user

// What value is to be stored in Book Price field?

}

Please mark my answer verified if this is helpful!

Regards,

Bipin Kumar

Follow my Blog: xrmdynamicscrm.wordpress.com/