Plugin Development Workflow: Registration, Deployment, and Validation Tools

Plugin Development Workflow: Registration, Deployment, and Validation Tools

After completing the initial Visual Studio setup for plugin development, the next phase focuses on registering and validating plugin logic inside Dataverse. Writing code alone is not enough. The assembly must be deployed correctly and its behavior verified in the Dynamics interface.

XrmToolBox – Deployment and Registration

XrmToolBox is a community-maintained Windows application used extensively in Dynamics CRM and Dataverse development. It provides a collection of tools for managing environments, metadata, and custom components.

The tool is distributed as a ZIP file and does not require installation. Extract it into a local directory under your user profile. Avoid placing it in cloud-synced folders such as OneDrive to prevent file locking issues.

After launching XrmToolBox, use the Connection Wizard to authenticate and connect to your Dataverse environment. Once connected, installed tools gain direct access to the environment metadata and data.

The Plugin Registration Tool is the most important component in this workflow. It is used to register plugin assemblies, define execution steps, and configure images. If it is not visible initially, install it from the Tool Library by refreshing the tool list.

LevelUp – Inspection and Runtime Validation

LevelUp is a developer-focused browser extension available for Microsoft Edge and Chrome. It enhances the Dynamics user interface by exposing internal system details required during development.

Plugin code relies on logical names rather than display labels. LevelUp can instantly reveal logical names directly on forms, eliminating the need to search through customization screens.

The extension also provides an All Fields view, which displays every column and its current value, including fields hidden from the form due to layout or security. This makes it possible to validate plugin execution even when changes are not visible in the UI.

End-to-End Plugin Workflow

Plugin development follows a structured loop. Visual Studio is used to write and compile the plugin logic. XrmToolBox is used to deploy and register the assembly in Dataverse. LevelUp is used to inspect metadata and verify runtime behavior.

Using these tools together ensures plugins are correctly deployed, executed at the right pipeline stage, and validated with full visibility.

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