Registering a Plug-in Using the Plug-in Developer Tool

Article
06/03/2015
3 minutes to read

[Applies to: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0]

Find the latest SDK documentation: CRM 2015 SDK

This walkthrough demonstrates how to deploy a sample plug-in to the database of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 server using the PluginDeveloper tool. A sample plug-in is provided in the SDK\Walkthroughs\Plugin\CS\AccountCreate folder to test run the PluginDeveloper tool. The register.xml configuration file, required by PluginDeveloper, is also provided in that same folder. When executed, the plug-in creates a followup task after a new account is created.

Note that the register.xml file is a configuration file that PluginDeveloper uses to register a plug-in. When you develop your own plug-ins and use PluginDeveloper to register them, you must edit register.xml or create a new one as appropriate for your plug-in. Instructions on the format of the configuration information is provided in the register.xml file.

During this walkthrough you will learn how to do the following:

Build and copy required files.
Run the PluginDeveloper tool.
Test the Sample plug-in.

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you will need the following:

Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008.
Completion of the Build the Plug-in Developer Tool walkthrough.
Access to the SDK\Bin folder.
Access to a working installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
A Microsoft Dynamics CRM system account with either the System Administrator or System Customizer security role that is also a member of the Deployment Administrators group in Deployment Manager. Use this system account when directed to specify a username in the register.xml configuration file in step 2 later in this topic.

Step 1: Build and Copy Required Files

Build the sample AccountCreatePlugin assembly if you have not already done so. To do this, follow only steps 1 thru 4 of the Creating a Simple Plug-in walkthrough. Alternately, the complete source code for the plug-in can be found in the SDK\Walkthroughs\Plugin\CS\AccountCreate folder. You only need to add references for the Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.dll and Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.dll assemblies to build the plug-in's Visual Studio project.
Copy the AccountCreatePlugin.dll assembly, located in the bin\Debug folder of the project, and the register.xml file located in the SDK\Walkthroughs\Plugin\CS\AccountCreate folder to the same folder as the PluginDeveloper.exe executable. If a register.xml file already exists in that folder, you may want to rename it so that it does not get overwritten.

Step 2: Run the PluginDeveloper Tool

To run the tool, follow these steps

Edit the register.xml file and verify that the server, organization, domain, and user name are correct for your Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation. Make any changes needed and save the file.
Open a command prompt and change to the folder where the PluginDeveloper.exe executable file is. For example: cd SDK\Tools\PluginDeveloper\bin\Debug.
At the command prompt, type PluginDeveloper.exe.
When you are prompted to, enter the password of the user account that you specified in the register.xml file and press ENTER.
After the program completes, press ENTER one or two times to close the console window.
View the log file, named "Plugin Registration Log.txt", which can be found in the folder that the tool runs from.
(Optional) Repeat steps 3 through 5 to have the tool unregister the sample plug-in and register it again. The tool aids in the edit/compile/deploy/test development cycle.

Test the Sample Plug-in

To test the plug-in you can create an account. This will trigger the plug-in code to run.

Run the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application.
Create a new account and save it.
Navigate to your Workplace to see the available activities. You should see a new task activity with a subject of "Send e-mail to the new customer". The plug-in created this task.
When you are done testing the plug-in you can unregister the plug-in assembly using the Plugin Registration tool.

See Also

Concepts