Decrypting the Soap Exceptions thrown by CRM 4.0

I know this has been covered a million times before, but for those new to CRM, here's how to get around the unhelpful soap exception "Server was unable to process request".

Make sure you catch the soap exception, not just the standard System.Exception, this will open up an object called Details that has a property called InnerText. This will give you some more information surrounding the actual cause of the exception. But make sure you catch the System.Exception too, just in case.

So:

try
{
...
}
catch (System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException ex)
{
throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException(ex.Message+", "+ex.Detail.InnerText);
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException(ex.Message);
}

Have fun,
Bossie

Steps to isolate why a plugin is not firing

Hi,

This list is more for myself, but other people may benefit from it too. I am compiling a list of steps to go through if a plugin is not firing. This really only covers problems with your assembly being loaded, if the plugin does actually execute some of your code then this will not help you. This list will grow in time as more common pitfalls are uncovered. So check back regularly.

1. Is the assembly signed?

2. Does the assembly reference an external assembly (perhaps an assembly that stores all your common code)? If this is the case, the 2 (or more) assemblies needs to be merged using IL Merge. George wrote an extensive explanation of this here http://crm.georged.id.au/post/2008/02/22/Packaging-plugins.aspx.

3. In the plugin registration tool, did you misspell the step message and entity?

4. Are you trying to reference a pre-image on Create or a post-image on Delete? Neither of these will be accessible and your plugin will fail before it even tries to execute any code.

5. Did you install the assembly to disk? If so you need to make sure you copy the assembly to the assembly\bin directory. The assembly gets loaded from this location every time it is initialized if it is installed to disk.

6. Is this crm server an upgrade form CRM3 to CRM4 or are you still using CRM3 style callouts? It seems that old style callouts get called before plugins, so ensure that there are not any failing callouts in the assembly\bin\callout.config file.

That's it for now, more to follow

Thanks
Bossie

Pre and Post Images

Hi all,

I am probably stating the obvious here, but it does seem to be a recurring theme accross the forums, so I decided to post this.

When the plugin action is a Create then you can only have a Post Image because Pre Image does not exist.

When the plugin action is a Delete then you can only have a Pre Image because the Post Image does not exist.

If you try to use a Pre Image on Create or a Post Image on Delete the plugin will fail before it even reaches your code.

In all the rest you should be able to have both the Pre and Post Images available.

Thanks

Bossie