Difference between Parent and Child Pipeline Plugin in MS CRM 4.0

Stage of Execution:

Pre-Stage: (synchronous) called before the write to the database.

The main reasons to use a Pre-Stage of Execution are synchronous in nature:

• Modify data before it is written to the database.
• Abort the action being taken
• Server Side Validity checking

Post-Stage: (synchronous or asynchronous)

Use the Post-Stage of Execution whenever you don't need to use Pre-Stage.

If you don't want the user to wait for the process to finish and there is no race condition use asynchronous.

Data Images:

Pre-Image: Get the image of the record as is stored in the SQL database before the CRM Platform action has been performed

Post-Image: Returns the image of the record after the CRM Platform action has been performed

Pipeline:
Parent Pipeline: This is the pipeline that is the most common and there are no restrictions imposed in a parent pipeline.

Child Pipeline: This is the pipeline that causes the most confusion and there are limitations that vary with Stage and Execution Mode.
Sometimes a child pipeline is required to trap the event you need, and sometimes you need to trap both the parent and child pipeline for the same entity, message and stage

Have a look on following example for getting difference between Parent and Child Pipeline:

We can create “Quote” in following ways:

1.    Sales->Quotes->New

2.    Sales->Opportunity->(Open Opportunity)->Quotes->New Quote

Let us take first scenario Sales->Quotes->New

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk;

using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Query;

using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy;

using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.Metadata;

using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Metadata;

using System.Web.Services;

using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace TestQuotePlugin

{

    public class QuotePlugin : IPlugin

    {

        public void Execute(IPluginExecutionContext context)

        {

            ICrmService crmService = (ICrmService)context.CreateCrmService(true);

     IMetadataService metaData = context.CreateMetadataService(true);

     lead ld = new lead();

            ld.subject = "Test Subject";

            ld.firstname = "Test FirstName";

            ld.lastname = "Test LastName";

            ld.companyname = "Test Company";

            crmService.Create(ld);

        }       

    }

}

Register above plug-in as following:

Create new Quote from Sales -> Quotes -> New, then it will work and create a new Lead.

But when you create a Quote from

Sales->Opportunity->(Open Opportunity)->Quotes->New Quote then it will not work.

So you have to register a new child pipeline plug-in as following:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk;

using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Query;

using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy;

using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.Metadata;

using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Metadata;

using System.Web.Services;

using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace TestQuotePlugin

{

    public class QuotePlugin : IPlugin

    {

        public void Execute(IPluginExecutionContext context)

        {

            CrmService crmService = CreateCrmService(context);    

     lead ld = new lead();

            ld.subject = "Test Subject";

            ld.firstname = "Test FirstName";

            ld.lastname = "Test LastName";

            ld.companyname = "Test Company";

            crmService.Create(ld);

        }   

        private static CrmService CreateCrmService(IPluginExecutionContext context)

        {

            CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();

            token.AuthenticationType = AuthenticationType.AD;

            token.OrganizationName = context.OrganizationName;

            CrmService crmService = new CrmService();

            crmService.UseDefaultCredentials = true;

            crmService.Url = (string)(Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("Software\\Microsoft\\MSCRM").GetValue("ServerUrl")) + "/2007/crmservice.asmx";

            crmService.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;

            return crmService;

        }   

    }

}

So now when you create a Quote from

Sales->Opportunity->(Open Opportunity)->Quotes->New Quote then it will work.

Hard Coded Restrictions:

A CrmService running Synchronously in a child pipeline is limited to the following:

·  Create

·  Delete

·  Update

·  RetrieveExchangeRate

However a child plugin running in Asynchronous Execution Mode is not limited this way.

Those 4 allowed actions are hard coded by MS whenever the plugin is executed inside a transaction, and it appears that all synchronous child pipeline events occur inside a transaction.

However you can do a query in child pipeline if it is registered as asynchronous.

In review:

·  Use ICrmService for all parent pipelines when at all possible.

·  Use CrmService for child pipelines in asynchronous execution mode.

·  There is very limited functionality allowed with CrmService for any plugin registered in a synchronous child pipeline

·  Querying CRM data in a plug-in registered as a synchronous Pre Create in a child process is currently unsupported. (i.e. direct SQL access)