Dynamics plugin update record after create

Question

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.
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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));