Why is my update in my plugin on my custom entity not occurring? - plugins

Question

I'm writing an auto number plugin for MS Dynamics CRM 2015. It works on the creation of an opportunity, when a new number needs to be generated. The current number is stored in another entity, which is retrieved at the time of creating the opportunity and then adds 1. The auto number entity is then updated with the new number (except it isn't as this isn't working at the moment).
At the moment the number is retrieved and 1 is added to it and is used in the opportunity correctly. However, as the update to the auto number entity does not occur when another opportunity is created it gets the same number as the previous one.
Here's my plugin code so far:
protected void ExecuteGenerateOpportunityAutoNumber(LocalPluginContext localContext)
{
if (localContext == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("localContext");
}
IPluginExecutionContext context = localContext.PluginExecutionContext;
IOrganizationService service = localContext.OrganizationService;
if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") && context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)
{
Entity entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];
if (entity.LogicalName == OPPORTUNITY_ENTITY_NAME)
{
if (!entity.Attributes.Contains(OPPORTUNITY_REF_ID))
{
try
{
string newId = RetrieveAndUpdateLastId(service);
entity.Attributes.Add(OPPORTUNITY_REF_ID, newId);
}
catch (FaultException ex)
{
throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("GenerateOpportunityAutoNumber plugin error: ", ex);
//tracingService.Trace("GenerateOpportunityAutoNumber plugin error: {0}", ex.Message);
}
}
}
}
}
The RetrieveAndUpdateLastId method code is below:
private string RetrieveAndUpdateLastId(IOrganizationService service)
{
lock (lastIdentifierLock)
{
string result = null;
ColumnSet cols = new ColumnSet();
cols.AddColumns(LAST_REF_LAST_VALUE, LAST_REF_PRIMARY_KEY);
QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression();
query.ColumnSet = cols;
query.EntityName = LAST_REF_ENTITY_NAME;
EntityCollection ec = service.RetrieveMultiple(query);
if (ec.Entities.Count >= 1)
{
foreach (Entity identifier in ec.Entities)
{
if (identifier.Attributes.Contains(LAST_REF_LAST_VALUE))
{
int? lastValue = identifier[LAST_REF_LAST_VALUE] as int?;
if (lastValue != null)
{
string newValue = (lastValue.Value + 1).ToString().PadLeft(7, '0');
result = String.Format("SN{0}", newValue); //This is clearly happening as I'm getting the next number back.
identifier[LAST_REF_LAST_VALUE] = lastValue.Value + 1;
//Tried this also:
//identifier.Attributes.Remove(LAST_REF_LAST_VALUE);
//identifier.Attributes.Add(LAST_REF_LAST_VALUE, lastValue.Value + 1);
service.Update(identifier); //This doesn't seem to be happening.
break;
}
}
}
}
return result;
}
}
No error is thrown but the update of the auto number just isn't happening. I've checked the user I'm running this as has the required update privileges on the auto number entity as well. Any ideas?
UPDATE
After debugging I found that it was throwing an error that the Principal user is missing the prvWrite privilege. This would explain why the update isn't happening, but now raises another issue. I've setup the plugin to run as a specific user (one with the correct privileges), but the Guid of the 'Principal user' in the error was of the calling user. Why would it run as the calling user when I've set it up to use a specific user?
UPDATE 2
I think I may have found the issue but wonder if anyone else can confirm / shed some more light on this. It seems that according to this, the issue may lie with the user not being in a specific AD group, specifically
User account (A) needs the privilege prvActOnBehalfOfAnotherUser,
which is included in the Delegate role.
Alternately, for Active Directory directory service deployments only,
user account (A) under which the impersonation code is to run can be
added to the PrivUserGroup group in Active Directory. This group is
created by Microsoft Dynamics CRM during installation and setup. User
account (A) does not have to be associated with a licensed Microsoft
Dynamics CRM user. However, the user who is being impersonated (B)
must be a licensed Microsoft Dynamics CRM user.
For my purposes I think the user I'm trying to run as needs to be in PrivUserGroup in AD (which it's not), otherwise it defaults to the calling user.
UPDATE 3
I've been able to identify 2 fundamental problems. The first is as explained above, in that the context always runs as the calling user. The 2nd is that when either giving the calling user system admin privileges OR creating the IOrganizationService with a null parameter it still doesn't update. HOWEVER, and this seems very odd, these 2 scenarios DO work when profiling the plugin. Why would this be?
UPDATE 4
It seems I may have resolved the issue, though I'm not certain (hence why I've not written an answer as yet). As per the documentation we've added the user to be impersonated into the PrivUserGroup. The plugin now works. However, I don't understand why this is needed. Also, is this best practice in this scenario or have I done something that should never be done?
On a related note I also unregistered the plugin before deploying it this time, so I'm now wondering if this solved this issue. To confirm I've now removed the user from the PrivUserGroup in AD, but this takes some time (not sure exactly how long) to filter through apparently. If it still works then it looks like this actually resolved it. Do you normally need to unregister a plugin before re-deploying it to make sure it works?
UPDATE 5
Ok, so this if my final update. I'm not marking this as the answer as I'm not 100% certain, but it appears that removing the assembly using the plugin registration tool may have done the trick. From everything I've read you shouldn't need to unregister a plugin to redeploy, so my perhaps my assembly was corrupt somehow and by removing it and creating it again using the new assembly solve the issue. Unfortunately I don't have the original assembly to test with.

Answer 1

I would suggest to debug your plugin. Following article contains a video that describes how to debug plugins using Plugin Debugger and Plugin Regitration Tool - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/devkeydet/archive/2015/02/17/debug-crm-online-plugins.aspx
Updated How to have 2 instances of IOrganizationService for user context and system:
Open Plugin.cs file.
Locate following code:
internal IOrganizationService OrganizationService
{
get;
private set;
}
Add following code after:
internal IOrganizationService SystemOrganizationService
{
get;
private set;
}
Find following code:
// Use the factory to generate the Organization Service.
this.OrganizationService = factory.CreateOrganizationService(this.PluginExecutionContext.UserId);
Add following code after:
this.SystemOrganizationService = factory.CreateOrganizationService(null);
Use this instance of IOrganizationService in the place where you need higher level of privileges.