Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog: Part Deux: Storing Configuration Data for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Plug-ins

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Источник: http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/20...-plug-ins.aspx
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CRM MVP Mitch Milam returns as a guest blogger with part two of this post. You can read more from Mitch at his blog.

In part one of this series we discussed the built-in mechanism provided by CRM to store plug-in application settings. Based on several comments on the article, I’ve decided to enhance the process by moving the storage of our settings from the plug-in configuration step to a custom CRM entity.

Creating a Custom Entity for Settings Storage

The first step in this process is to create a custom CRM entity which will store our settings. The New Entity form looks like this:



The primary attribute for the Plug-in Setting entity will be configured as follows:



We then add a single attribute that will actually hold our settings information:



Modify the main form to allow entry of the Plug-in Name and Settings information then publish the new entity and we’re ready for business. Here is how we populate a plug-in settings record:



Modified Plug-In Configuration Class

The PluginConfiguration class created in the previous article has been modified slightly to retrieve our settings from the CRM database instead of using the normal plug-in configuration methods.

Note: The constants at the beginning of the class will need to be modified to match the entity and attributes you created on your system.

1: using System; 2: using System.Collections.Generic; 3: using System.Text; 4: using System.Xml; 5: using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk; 6: using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Query; 7: using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy; 8:  9: namespace CRMAccelerators 10: { 11: class PluginConfiguration 12: { 13: private const string PLUGIN_ENTITY = "m3_pluginsetting"; 14: private const string PLUGIN_NAME_ATTRIBUTE = "m3_pluginname"; 15: private const string PLUGIN_SETTING_ATTRIBUTE = "m3_settings"; 16:  17: private static XmlDocument _settingsDoc = new XmlDocument(); 18:  19: public static void RetrieveSettings(ICrmService crmService, string settingsName) 20: { 21: QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression(); 22:  23: query.EntityName = PLUGIN_ENTITY; 24:  25: query.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet(new string[] { PLUGIN_SETTING_ATTRIBUTE }); 26:  27: query.Criteria = new FilterExpression(); 28: query.Criteria.FilterOperator = LogicalOperator.And; 29:  30: ConditionExpression condition1 = new ConditionExpression(); 31: condition1.AttributeName = "statecode"; 32: condition1.Operator = ConditionOperator.Equal; 33: condition1.Values = new object[] { 0 }; 34:  35: ConditionExpression condition2 = new ConditionExpression(); 36: condition2.AttributeName = PLUGIN_NAME_ATTRIBUTE; 37: condition2.Operator = ConditionOperator.Equal; 38: condition2.Values = new object[] { settingsName }; 39:  40: query.Criteria.Conditions.AddRange(new ConditionExpression[] { condition1, condition2 }); 41:  42: OrderExpression order1 = new OrderExpression(); 43: order1.AttributeName = PLUGIN_NAME_ATTRIBUTE; 44: order1.OrderType = OrderType.Ascending; 45:  46: query.Orders.Add(order1); 47:  48: RetrieveMultipleRequest request = new RetrieveMultipleRequest(); 49: request.ReturnDynamicEntities = true; 50: request.Query = query; 51:  52: RetrieveMultipleResponse retrieved = (RetrieveMultipleResponse)crmService.Execute(request); 53:  54: DynamicEntity entity = (DynamicEntity)retrieved.BusinessEntityCollection.BusinessEntities[0]; 55:  56: _settingsDoc.LoadXml(GetStringProperty(entity, PLUGIN_SETTING_ATTRIBUTE)); 57: } 58:  59: public static Guid GetConfigDataGuid(string label) 60: { 61: string tempString = GetValueNode(label); 62:  63: if (tempString != string.Empty) 64: { 65: return new Guid(tempString); 66: } 67: return Guid.Empty; 68: } 69:  70: public static bool GetConfigDataBool(string label) 71: { 72: bool retVar; 73:  74: if (bool.TryParse(GetValueNode(label), out retVar)) 75: { 76: return retVar; 77: } 78: else 79: { 80: return false; 81: } 82: } 83:  84: public static int GetConfigDataInt(string label) 85: { 86: int retVar; 87:  88: if (int.TryParse(GetValueNode(label), out retVar)) 89: { 90: return retVar; 91: } 92: else 93: { 94: return -1; 95: } 96: } 97:  98: public static string GetConfigDataString(string label) 99: { 100: return GetValueNode(label); 101: } 102:  103: private static string GetValueNode(string key) 104: { 105: XmlNode node = _settingsDoc.SelectSingleNode(String.Format("Settings/setting[@name='{0}']", key)); 106:  107: if (node != null) 108: { 109: return node.SelectSingleNode("value").InnerText; 110: } 111:  112: return string.Empty; 113: } 114:  115: public static string GetStringProperty(DynamicEntity parent, string prop) 116: { 117: string retVar = string.Empty; 118:  119: if (AttributeExists(parent, prop)) 120: { 121: retVar = parent.Properties[prop].ToString(); 122: } 123:  124: return retVar; 125: } 126:  127: public static bool AttributeExists(DynamicEntity entity, string attr) 128: { 129: return entity.Properties.Contains(attr); 130: } 131: } 132: }

Putting PluginConfiguration to Work

The only change made to the usage of the PluginConfiguration class I the requirement that we call RetrieveSettings before attempting to access any properties found within the settings attribute:

PluginConfiguration.RetrieveSettings(CrmService, "CoolPlugin");

string TaskPrefix = PluginConfiguration.GetConfigDataString("TaskPrefix");

Note: Since we need a connection to CRM to retrieve settings from the database, you will need to locate the code that retrieves settings after the code that has initiated a connection to the CRM web service.

Conclusion

By moving the settings from the Plug-in step configuration to the CRM database we’ve reduced the maintenance level required to store our settings in a central location. There will be a slight performance hit since we have to retrieve a database record, but I don’t think it will be huge.

I’ll place the source code for the modified pluginconfiguration class on my blog so you may download it and add it to your next plug-in project.

Cheers,

Mitch Milam



Источник: http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/20...-plug-ins.aspx