Category: D365 Online

Another way to install Plugin Registration Tool for Dynamics 365 CE from Nuget

Hi Folks,

Are you a Power Platform or Dynamics 365 CE Developer, you would definitely need to work on Plugin Registration tool at any given point of time and having a local application for Plugin Registration tool greatly helps…in this post, I will show a little different way to install Plugin registration tool and that too very easily.

Well, this approach is especially useful to me when I got a new laptop and need to work on Plugin Registration Tool where the Plugins already build for the implementation.

First 3 ways might have known to everyone through which you can download Plugin registration tool…do you know there is fourth approach as well…

  1. From XrmToolBox
  2. From https://xrm.tools/SDK
  3. Installation from CLI
  4. See below

Because there were limitations to use these approaches at least in my experience, I found the fourth one very useful.

  1. XrmToolBox – Not quite convenient to profile and debug your plugins
  2. https://xrm.tools/SDK – Dlls in the downloaded folder will be blocked and would need to manually unblock the DLL’s for the Tool to work properly
  3. CLI – People rarely use this.

Just do note that the approach is very easy and works only if you have a Plugin Project already. Please follow the steps below

  1. Just open the Plugin project.
  2. Right click on the solution and choose manage Nuget Packages for the solution
  3. Search for Plugin Registration tool as below

4. Choose the Plugin project and click install, confirm the prompt and agree the license agreement shown

5. Once installed, next go to the Project folder in the local machine.

6. Navigate to Packages folder, you should see a folder for Plugin Registration tool below

7. There you go, you can open the Plugin Registration Application under tools folder. You can undo the changes for the Assembly it is linked to Source control.

That’s it, how easy it was? Hope this would help someone.

Cheers,

PMDY

Dataverse Accelerator | API playground (Preview)

Hi Folks,

In this post, I will be talking about the features of Dataverse Accelerator in brief. Actually, the Microsoft Dataverse accelerator is an application that provides access to select preview features and tooling related to Dataverse development, it is based on Microsoft Power Pages. This is totally different from Dataverse Industry Accelerator.

Dataverse accelerator app is automatically available in all new Microsoft Dataverse environments. If your environment doesn’t already have it, you can install the Dataverse accelerator by going to Power Platform Admin Center –> Environments –> Dynamics 365 Apps –> Install App –> Choose Dataverse Accelerator

You can also refer to my previous blog post on installing it here if you prefer

Once installed, you should see something like below under the Apps

On selection of the Dataverse Accelerator App, you should see something like below, do note that you must have App-level access to the Dataverse accelerator model driven app, such as system customizer or direct access from a security role.

Now let’s quickly see what are features available with Dataverse Accelerator

FeatureDescription
Low-code plug-insReusable, real-time workflows that execute a specific set of commands within Dataverse. Low-code plug-ins run server-side and are triggered by personalized event handlers, defined in Power Fx.
Plug-in monitorA modern interface to surface the existing plug-in trace log table in Dataverse environments, designed for developing and debugging Dataverse plug-ins and custom APIs.
Do you remember viewing Plugin Trace logs from customizations, now you don’t need system administrator role to view trace logs, giving access to this app will do, rest everything remains the same.
API PlaygroundA preauthenticated software testing tool which helps to quickly test and play with Dataverse API’s.

I wrote a blog post earlier on using Low Code Plugins, you may check it out here, while using Plugin Monitor is pretty straight forward.

You can find my blog post on using Postman to test Dataverse API’s here.

Now let’s see how can use the API Playground, basically you will be able to test the below from API Playground similar to Postman. All you need to open the API Playground from Dataverse accelerator. You will be preauthenticated while using API Playground.

TypeDescription
Custom APIThis includes any Dataverse Web API actions, functions from Microsoft, or any public user-defined custom APIs registered in the working environment.
Instant plug-inInstant plug-ins are classified as any user-defined workflows registered as a custom API in the environment with a related Power Fx Expressions.
OData requestAllows more granular control over the request inputs to send OData requests.

Custom API, Instant Plugin – You select the relevant request in the drop down available in API Playground and provide the necessary input parameters if required for your request

OData request – Select OData as your request and provide the plural name of the entity and hit send

After a request is sent, the response is displayed in the lower half of your screen which would be something like below.

OData response

I will update this post as these features get released in my region(APAC), because at the time of writing this blog post, this API Playground feature is being rolled out globally and was still in preview.

The Dataverse accelerator isn’t available in GCC or GCC High environments.

Hope learned something about Dataverse Accelerator.

Cheers,

PMDY