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Debug a plug-In

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Applies To: Dynamics CRM 2015

The following steps describe how to debug a plug-in executing on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 on-premises. To debug a plug-in that executes in the sandbox on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you must using tracing as described later in this topic.

In This Topic

Debug a plug-in

Debug a sandboxed plug-in

Logging and tracing

Debug a plug-in

  1. Register and deploy the plug-in assembly.

    If there is another copy of the assembly at the same location and you cannot overwrite that copy because it is locked by Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you must restart the service process that was executing the plug-in. Refer to the table below for the correct service process. More information: Register and Deploy Plug-Ins

  2. Configure the debugger.

    Attach the debugger to the process on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server that will run your plug-in. Refer to the following table to identify the process.

    Plug-in Registration Configuration

    Service Process

    online

    w3wp.exe

    offline

    Microsoft.Crm.Application.Hoster.exe

    asynchronous registered plug-ins (or custom workflow assemblies)

    CrmAsyncService.exe

    sandbox (isolation mode)

    Microsoft.Crm.Sandbox.WorkerProcess.exe

    If there are multiple processes running the same executable file, for example multiple w3wp.exe processes, attach the debugger to all instances of the running executable process. Next, set one or more breakpoints in your plug-in code.

  3. Test the plug-in.

    Run the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application, or other custom application that uses the SDK, and perform whatever action is required to cause the plug-in to execute. For example, if a plug-in is registered for an account creation event, create a new account.

  4. Debug your plug-in code.

    Make any needed changes to your code so that it performs as you want. If the code is changed, compile the code into an assembly and repeat steps 1 through 4 in this procedure as necessary. However, if you change the plug-in assembly’s major or minor version numbers, you must unregister the earlier version of the assembly and register the new version. More information: Register and Deploy Plug-Ins

  5. Register the plug-in in the database.

    After the edit/compile/deploy/test/debug cycle for your plug-in has been completed, unregister the (on-disk) plug-in assembly and then reregister the plug-in in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database. More information: Register and Deploy Plug-Ins

Tip

It is possible to debug a database deployed plug-in. The compiled plug-in assembly's symbol file (.pdb) must be copied to the server's <crm-root>\Server\bin\assembly folder and Internet Information Services (IIS) must then be restarted. After debugging has been completed, you must remove the symbol file and reset IIS to prevent the process that was executing the plug-in from consuming additional memory.

For more information about debugging a plug-in using the Plug-in Profiler tool, see Analyze plug-in performance.

Debug a sandboxed plug-in

It is important to perform these steps before the first execution of a sandboxed plug-in. If the plug-in has already been executed, either change the code of the assembly, causing the hash of the assembly to change on the server, or restart the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sandbox Processing Service on the sandbox server.

Configure the Server

The sandbox host process monitors the sandbox worker process which is executing the plug-in. The host process checks if the plug-in stops responding, if it is exceeding memory thresholds, and more. If the worker process doesn't respond for than 30 seconds, it will be shutdown. In order to debug a sandbox plug-in, you must disable this shutdown feature. To disable the shutdown feature, set the following registry key to 1 (DWORD):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM\SandboxDebugPlugins

Debug the Plug-in

Follow these steps to debug a sandboxed plug-in.

  1. Register the plug-in in the sandbox (isolation mode) and deploy it to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server database.

  2. Copy the symbol file (.pdb) of the compiled plug-in assembly to the server\bin\assembly folder on the server running the sandbox worker process named Microsoft.Crm.Sandbox.WorkerProcess.exe. This is the server hosting the Sandbox Processing Service role.

  3. Follow the instructions in steps 2 through 4 presented at the beginning of this topic.

For more information about debugging a plug-in using the Plug-in Profiler tool, see Analyze plug-in performance.

Logging and tracing

An alternative method to troubleshoot a plug-in or custom workflow activity (custom code), compared to debugging in Microsoft Visual Studio, is to use tracing. Tracing assists developers by recording run-time custom information as an aid in diagnosing the cause of code failures. Tracing is especially useful to troubleshoot Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online registered custom code as it is the only supported troubleshooting method for that scenario. Tracing is supported for sandboxed (partial trust) and full trust registered custom code and during synchronous or asynchronous execution. Tracing isn’t supported for custom code that executes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook or other mobile client.

Recording of run-time tracing information for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is provided by a service named ITracingService. Information provided to this service by custom code can be recorded in three different places as identified here.

  • Trace log

    Trace log records of type PluginTraceLog can be found in the web application by navigating to Settings and choosing the Plug-in Trace Log tile. The tile is only visible if you have access to the trace log entity records in your assigned security role. Writing of these records is controlled by the trace settings mentioned in the next section. For more information on required privileges, see TraceLog entity privileges.

    Note

    The trace logging feature was introduced with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 and is not available for on-premises deployments.

    Trace logging takes up organization storage space especially when many traces and exceptions are generated. You should only turn trace logging on for debugging and troubleshooting, and turn it off after your investigation is completed.

  • Error dialog

    A synchronous registered plug-in or custom workflow activity that returns an exception back to the platform results in an error dialog box in the web application presented to the logged on user. The user may choose to select the Download Log File button in the dialog to view the log containing exception and trace output.

  • System job

    For asynchronous registered plug-in or custom workflow activities that returns an exception, the tracing information is shown in the Details area of the System Job form in the web application.

Enable trace logging

To enable trace logging in an organization that supports this feature, in the web application navigate to Settings > Administration > System Settings. In the Customization tab, locate the drop-down menu labeled Enable logging to plug-in trace log and choose one of the available options.

Option

Description

Off

Writing to the trace log is disabled. No PluginTraceLog records will be created. However, custom code can still call the Trace method even though no log is written.

Exceptions

Trace information is written to the log if an exception is passed back to the platform from custom code.

All

Trace information is written to the log upon code completion or an exception is passed back to the platform from the custom code.

If the trace logging setting is set to Exception and your custom code returns an exception back to the platform, a trace log record is created and tracing information is also written to one other location. For custom code that executes synchronously, the information is presented to the user in an error dialog box, otherwise, for asynchronous code, the information is written to the related system job.

By default, the System Administrator and System Customizer roles have the required privileges to change the trace logging setting, which is stored in a TraceSettings entity record. Trace settings have an organization scope.

Write to the tracing service

Before writing to the tracing service, you must first extract the tracing service object from the passed execution context. Afterwards, simply add Trace calls to your custom code where appropriate passing any relevant diagnostic information in that method call.


//Extract the tracing service for use in debugging sandboxed plug-ins.
ITracingService tracingService =
    (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));

// Obtain the execution context from the service provider.
IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)
    serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));

// For this sample, execute the plug-in code only while the client is online. 
tracingService.Trace("AdvancedPlugin: Verifying the client is not offline.");
if (context.IsExecutingOffline || context.IsOfflinePlayback)
    return;

// The InputParameters collection contains all the data passed 
// in the message request.
if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") &amp;&amp;
    context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)
{
    // Obtain the target entity from the Input Parameters.
    tracingService.Trace
        ("AdvancedPlugin: Getting the target entity from Input Parameters.");
    Entity entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];

    // Obtain the image entity from the Pre Entity Images.
    tracingService.Trace
        ("AdvancedPlugin: Getting image entity from PreEntityImages.");
    Entity image = (Entity)context.PreEntityImages["Target"];

Next, build and deploy the plug-in or custom workflow activity. During execution of the custom code, the information provided in the Trace method calls is written to a trace log entity record by ITracingService, if supported by your organization and enabled, and may also be made available to the user in a Web dialog or system job as described in the previous section. Tracing information written to the trace log is configured in the trace settings. For more information see Enable trace logging.

Note

If your custom code executes within a database transaction, and an exception occurs that causes a transaction rollback, all entity data changes by your code will be undone. However, the PluginTraceLog records will remain after the rollback completes.

About the tracing service

The ITracingService batches the information provided to it through the Trace method. The information is written to a new PluginTraceLog record after the custom code successfully runs to completion or an exception is thrown.

PluginTraceLog records have a finite lifetime. A bulk deletion background job runs once per day to delete records that are older than 24 hours from creation. This job can be disabled when needed.

See Also

Plug-in development
Analyze plug-in performance
Register and Deploy Plug-Ins
Event execution pipeline
Write a plug-in
Plug-in isolation, trusts, and statistics
PluginTraceLog entity messages and methods

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