Plugin – Page 2 – Nishant Rana's Weblog

How to Trigger a Plugin on a Calculated Column Change in Dataverse / Dynamics 365

In Microsoft Dataverse, calculated columns are a powerful way to derive values dynamically without the need for manual updates. However, one challenge is that plugins do not trigger directly on calculated column changes since these values are computed at runtime and not stored in the database.

Calculated field considerations

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Since calculated columns use/depend on other fields, we can register a plugin on the change of those dependent fields. If a calculated column Total Amount is based on Quantity and Unit Price, then we can trigger the plugin on the Update event of Quantity and Unit Price.

Let us see it in action, we have the below plugin registered in the update event.

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On specifying the Formula / Calculated column as a Filtering attribute, our plugin doesn’t get triggered.

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Here we updated the Unit Price, which changed the Total Amount, but we do not see any trace log generated.

Now we have updated the filtering attribute to be Quantity and Unit Price the field used by the Calculated column.

We updated both the Quantity and Unit Price and see the log generated i.e. plugin triggered.

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The trace log –

While plugins can’t directly trigger on the calculated column changes, this workaround ensures we still get the desired automation.

Hope it helps..

Fixed – Delete Plugin on Appointment not firing for operation on Recurring Appointment (Dataverse / Dynamics 365)

Recently we observed that our plugin registered on the Delete message of appointment on the PreValidation stage was not getting triggered when we were deleting or updating the occurrence of the Recurring Appointment.

For both of the below operations, our plugin was not getting triggered. The plugin had the logic to delete a few associated records to the appointment record.

Delete operation – This deletes all the existing appointment.

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Recurrence Update –This deletes the existing appointment and creates new appointment records based on the new recurrence.

On trying out different things, we saw that the plugin was getting triggered if registered on the PreOperation.

For testing, we registered a sample plugin that throws the InvalidPluginExecutionException and saw it getting triggered in case of PreOpertaion as shown below.

Hope it helps..

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Update Modified On (modifiedon) date of existing records – Dynamics 365 / Dataverse

Recently we had a requirement to update the modifiedon date of a few of the records of notes table.

The we can achieve this is by implementing an update plugin on preoperation.

Below is our test record

Below is our plugin on the preoperation update to update the modifiedon date.

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On updating the note record, we can see the modifiedon date updated as shown below.

Below are some other records where we have modifiedon updated (test records)

As we had multiple records to be updated on production, eventually we updated the plugin step to be triggered on the update of langid attribute (which won’t be updated by users) and used the awesome XrmToolBox Plugin – Bulk Data Updater to perform touch on langid field. This is to make sure it doesn’t get triggered on the creation or update of any existing records unless explicitly triggered from the Bulk Data Updater for that field and than disabled the plugin.

Check below articles –

https://debajmecrm.com/createdon-createdby-modifiedon-and-modfiedby-all-you-need-to-know-to-maintain-history-during-data-migration-in-dynamics-365/

https://rajeevpentyala.com/2017/11/18/set-created-on-created-by-modified-on-modified-by-fields-using-sdk-data-import-plug-in-dynamics-365/

https://nishantrana.me/2018/10/16/using-overriddencreatedon-or-record-created-on-field-to-update-created-on-field-in-dynamics-365/

Hope it helps..

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Bypass execution of specific plugin (step) using BypassBusinessLogicExecutionStepIds parameter – Dynamics 365 / Dataverse

The BypassBusinessLogicExecutionStepIds optional parameter or request header value allows us to bypass a specific plugin step by passing its GUID, irrespective of whether it is synchronous or asynchronous, unlike the other optional parameters – BypassCustomPluginExecution and BypassBusinessLogicExecution that will bypass all the custom synchronous and/ or asynchronous logic (plugins and workflows).

Using BypassCustomPluginExecution and BypassBusinessLogicExecution parameters – https://nishantrana.me/2024/05/21/using-bypassbusinesslogicexecution-parameter-preview-to-bypass-custom-sync-and-async-logic-plugin-and-workflow-dataverse-dynamics-365/

Below we have our plugin registered, that writes to the Plugin Trace log.

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The plugin step is registered on the update of the lead record. We have got the StepId of the plugin step from the Properties window.

Below is our console app, which updates the lead, triggering the plugin. On running it without the BypassBusinessLogicExecutionStepIds, we can see the trace log parameter record created.

Upon adding the BypassBusinessLogicExecutionStepIds parameter in UpdateRequest, as shown below, the plugin is not triggered and no trace log is created.

Also, we can pass multiple Step’s GUID to it

By default, we can maximum of 3 steps to it, which can be defined through BypassBusinessLogicExecutionStepIdsLimit Organization Settings value.

Get more details

Hope it helps..

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Using BypassBusinessLogicExecution Parameter (Preview) to bypass Custom Sync and Async Logic (Plugin and Workflow) – Dataverse / Dynamics 365

Using the new BypassBusinessLogicExecution parameter we can bypass both sync as well as asynchronous custom logic (i.e. sync / async custom plugin and custom workflow registered), unlike the BypassCustomPluginExecution parameter which applied to only the synchronous custom logic.

Let us see it in action with a simple example.

We have the following Plugin registered against the lead table that writes to the Plugin Trace Log.

We have the Update step (synchronous) registered for the plugin.

Below is our console app that updates one of the lead records triggering the plugin.

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On running it we can see our plugin step triggered and a trace log created.

Now let us use the BypassCustomPluginExecution parameter of Update Request or BypassPluginExecution property of CrmServiceClient.

This time as expected the plugin is not triggered, so no plugin trace log record was created.

However, if our plugin step is registered in Asynchronous mode, we will have our plugin triggered, even if we are using the BypassCustomPluginExection parameter.

For bypassing the Asynchronous plugin only, or Sync Plugin, or both Async or Sync plugin, we can use the new optional parameter BypassBusinessLogicExecution passing the following values to it

CustomSync – to bypass synchronous logic.
CustomAsync – to bypass asynchronous logic.
CustomSync, CustomAsync – to bypass both Sync and Async logic.

On running the below code, our Plugin Step registered Asynchronously earlier is not triggered, in fact, any Synchronous step also, as we have specified both the CustomSync and CustomAsync.

“Also, any Workflow (Asynchronous or Real-time) registered will not trigger.“

In short,

BypassBusinessLogicExecution + CustomAsync parameter = Asynchronous workflow/plugin will be bypassed. We will have our Sync Plugin and Real-time workflow getting triggered.
BypassBusinessLogicExecution + CustomSync parameter or BypassCustomPluginExecution or BypassPluginExecution = Synchronous workflow/plugin will be bypassed. We will have our Asynchronous Plugin and Real-time workflow getting triggered
BypassBusinessLogicExecution + CustomSync + CustomAsync = Both Async / Sync Plugin and Workflow will be bypassed.

A few key points –

The user making the request needs to have the prvBypassCustomPlugins privilege.
These parameters will not apply to Core Plugin and Workflow included in a solution where Microsoft is the publisher.
Power Automate flows are not bypassed using these optional parameters.

Get all the details here

Hope it helps..

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Fixed – The plug-in execution failed because no Sandbox Hosts are currently available. Please check that you have a Sandbox server configured and that it is running – Dataverse / Dynamics 365

Recently we were bulk updating our records, which would trigger an asynchronous plugin registered on its update. We were using the wonderful Bulk Data Updater (XrmToolBox) plugin for it. We realized if we are updating too many records at once say e.g. 100 Batch Size (total 5K records to be processed), we are getting below exception.

The plug-in execution failed because no Sandbox Hosts are currently available. Please check that you have a Sandbox server configured and that it is running.System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.OrganizationServiceFault]: The plug-in execution failed because no Sandbox Hosts are currently available. Please check that you have a Sandbox server configured and that it is running. Microsoft.Xrm.RemotePlugin.Grpc.ExceptionHandlers.SandboxFabricHostCommunicationException: Error communicating with Sandbox Host

We than updated the Execution settings to process with a Batch Size of 5 with an interval of 60 seconds. This fixed the issue for us.

Also, check –

The plug-in execution failed because the Sandbox Worker process crashed. This is typically due to an error in the plug-in code – Dataverse / Dynamics 365

The plug-in execution failed because no Sandbox Hosts are currently available. Please check that you have a Sandbox server configured and that it is running.

Hope it helps..