DEV Community: akshayk47007

Plugin development basics in Dynamics CRM

akshayk47007 — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 09:29:10 +0000

This video by Magnifez Academy demonstrates how to develop your first plugin from scratch step-by-step.

Download SDK for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

akshayk47007 — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 10:14:14 +0000

With every release of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement(CRM) Microsoft comes up with a new version of SDK( Software Development Kit), and for the very new version of Dynamics 365, they did the same. The SDK for Dynamics 365 normally comes with a set of tools, resources, source code, and DLLs and can be download from Microsoft website.

What is SDK for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement:

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement SDK contains resources and tools that help us to develop code for CRM.
It includes different CRM APIs and helpful resources such as sample code (both server-side and client-side) and a list of tools to facilitate CRM development
SDK contains an architectural overview of Microsoft Dynamics 365, the entity model, security model, web services, and sample code.
Since Dynamics 365 CRM v9.0 there are few changes in the process. Let’s have a look at what are those changes.

Changes with SDK for Dynamics 365 CRM V9.0

Cannot directly download SDK from the Microsoft website. Now you have to download it as Nuget packages.
The SDK package includes only basic DLLs and tools ( No sample code, resource files, etc)
The DLLs and tools from previous SDK versions are not compatible with the present SDK version. Ex: Plugin registration tool of the previous SDK cannot connect to Dynamics 365 CE V9.0.
The folder structure of SDK the package is also changed.
So because of these changes, you have to download the latest version to work with Dynamics 365 CRM v9.0

Sadly, if you searching online for Dynamics 365 SDK you wouldn’t probably get the link for SDK for Dynamics 365 V9.x, instead, you get the link for Dynamics CRM v8.2. You can access the page from the following link but you cannot directly download from the link.

Two ways you can download the latest SDK.

Using Nuget package manager in visual studio.
Using Powershell.
We will explain the second method.

Download Dynamics 365 CRM V9.0 SDK Using PowerShell

Open Powershell.
Navigate to the folder you want to install the tools to. Ex: D: dev tools.
Copy and paste the following PowerShell script into the PowerShell window and press Enter.

$sourceNugetExe = "https://dist.nuget.org/win-x86-commandline/latest/nuget.exe"
$targetNugetExe = ".\nuget.exe"
Remove-Item .\Tools -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction Ignore
Invoke-WebRequest $sourceNugetExe -OutFile $targetNugetExe
Set-Alias nuget $targetNugetExe -Scope Global -Verbose

Download Plugin Registration Tool

./nuget install Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.PluginRegistrationTool -O .\Tools
md .\Tools\PluginRegistration
$prtFolder = Get-ChildItem ./Tools | Where-Object {$_.Name -match 'Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.PluginRegistrationTool.'}
move .\Tools\$prtFolder\tools*.* .\Tools\PluginRegistration
Remove-Item .\Tools\$prtFolder -Force -Recurse

Download CoreTools

./nuget install Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreTools -O .\Tools
md .\Tools\CoreTools
$coreToolsFolder = Get-ChildItem ./Tools | Where-Object {$_.Name -match 'Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreTools.'}
move .\Tools\$coreToolsFolder\content\bin\coretools*.* .\Tools\CoreTools
Remove-Item .\Tools\$coreToolsFolder -Force -Recurse

Download Configuration Migration

./nuget install Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.ConfigurationMigration.Wpf -O .\Tools
md .\Tools\ConfigurationMigration
$configMigFolder = Get-ChildItem ./Tools | Where-Object {$_.Name -match 'Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.ConfigurationMigration.Wpf.'}
move .\Tools\$configMigFolder\tools*.* .\Tools\ConfigurationMigration
Remove-Item .\Tools\$configMigFolder -Force -Recurse

Download Package Deployer

./nuget install Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.PackageDeployment.WPF -O .\Tools
md .\Tools\PackageDeployment
$pdFolder = Get-ChildItem ./Tools | Where-Object {$_.Name -match 'Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.PackageDeployment.Wpf.'}
move .\Tools\$pdFolder\tools*.* .\Tools\PackageDeployment
Remove-Item .\Tools\$pdFolder -Force -Recurse

Download Package Deployer PowerShell module

./nuget install Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.PackageDeployment.PowerShell -O .\Tools
$pdPoshFolder = Get-ChildItem ./Tools | Where-Object {$_.Name -match 'Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.PackageDeployment.PowerShell.'}
move .\Tools\$pdPoshFolder\tools*.* .\Tools\PackageDeployment.PowerShell
Remove-Item .\Tools\$pdPoshFolder -Force -Recurse

Remove NuGet.exe

Remove-Item nuget.exe

Visit for more Download SDK for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

Security features of LMS

akshayk47007 — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 06:53:58 +0000

According to Wikipedia, the main purpose of LMS software is the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of various courses to one or more learners. For the users, security on LMS is always a question of debate. Online security is important because, people can break into data and modify, cause changes, or disrupt operations. We’ll go through some most important LMS security features users should demand from their eLearning solution software in this post.

Data Encryption

Encryption assures that the data is safe and secure when transmitted between applications. LMS software should use advanced encryption standards to make use of encryption and cryptographic codes, which helps in maintaining high-security to transmit data from a users' LMS to other platforms. Encryption locks for files and folders, domain whitelisting, watermarks in documents, are the methods of encryption that can be used to ensure the security of LMS. It also allows users to integrate their system with third-party applications without worrying about the security of data transmitted.

Back-up Data Storage

The system automatically backs up all the data and helps users to save the latest modified version of the data manually. User's data is still secured, even if the data is accidentally erased or corrupted by malware. Remember that backup protocols may vary upon the LMS seller. By way of instance, some could run nightly backups and save the data into a distributed storage support, but some have dedicated service of their own.

Anti-Spam

This LMS security service prevents spam which has the capacity to see the user data and steal sensitive data by entering the Learning Management System. This includes phishing, malware, and even ransomware. So the users don't have to worry about fraudulent cyber attackers getting a hold of their contact details or sending them potentially dangerous or unwanted emails.

IP Blocker

Blockers prevent unwanted IP addresses from accessing user information. The admin can manually add particular IP addresses into the"allowed" or"blocked" lists. This guarantees that attackers can't see your user information or content through the LMS. The drawback is that they can always use another IP address to operate with the blocker, which explains the reason why it's so important to place other preventative LMS safety steps in place.
Visit for more security features of LMS