DynamicsCrm-CodeGenerator

A Visual Studio extension for generating early bound classes for Microsoft Dynamics CRM entities based on a template file, similar to Entity Framework.

Features

• Built for Visual Studio
  • You never have to leave Visual Studio to regenerate the code
  • All the configurations are saved in the project itself, which facilitates Version Control
• Preserved the original CrmSvcUtil structure and logic
• Customize the way the code is generated
  • You get a default T4 template for the code that is generated, with a multitude more features than the official tool (features below)
  • You can rewrite the whole template if you wish for any possible requirements
• Replaced the SDK types with .NET types
  • E.g. OptionSetValue => Enum (Enum[] for Multi-select), EntityReference => Guid, Money => decimal, ... etc.
• Generate only what's needed
  • Only choose the entities required
  • Only the fields required
• Additional control
  • Option to use display names of entities and fields as variable names instead of logical names
  • Override field names inside the tool's UI
  • Ability to Lock variable names to avoid code errors on regeneration
• Greatly enhanced regeneration speed by only fetching changed metadata from the server
• Support for strongly-typed alternate keys, for entities and Entity References
• Add annotations for model validation
• Generate metadata
  • Field logical and schema names
  • Localised labels
• Automatically limit attributes retrieved from CRM on any entity in a LINQ to the ones choosen (filtered) in the tool (check new entity constructors)
• Many options to optimise generated code size even further
• Define web service contracts with different profiles
  • Option to mark certain fields as 'read-only'
  • Option to link CRM entity profile with contract profiles, which effectively copies selection changes made in contracts to the CRM entity
• Generate concrete classes for CRM Actions
• Support bulk relation loading
  • Support filtering on relation loading

This tool is available as an XrmToolBox plugin as well (here).

How To Use

You can read a quick overview of the tool and its functionality here.

To get started, install the Visual Studio extension (here).

Note: any window can be closed by pressing the ESC button on the keyboard, even if the generator is busy.

Add a template to your project

Highlight the project where you want to add the template and generated code.
Click on Tools –> Add CRM Code Generator Template... (if you don't see this menu, then shutdown VS and reinstall the extension).

• Start with one of the provided templates.
• After a template is added to your project you will be prompted for CRM connection info.
• Pick the entities that you want to include.
• Click the "Generate Code" button.

If you make schema changes in CRM and you want to refresh the code, right click the template and select "Run Custom Tool".

Changing the template

When you make changes to the template and save, Visual Studio will automatically attempt to regenerate the code.

Screenshots

Upcoming/planned

• Add: Visual Studio Shared Projects support
• Add: undo/redo
• Add: parse placeholders in annotations for LogicalName and variable name
• Add: [template] File field, with a Get and Set that uses the SDK message
• Add: enum annotations (DisplayName ... etc.)
• Add: option to add alternate keys to contracts
• Add: option to use CRM-only contracts to replace Contract classes, optionally
• Add: [template] an attribute/annotation to the Clear Flag fields in contracts, to ease parsing them in helper methods
• Add: [template] XrmDefinitelyTyped support, and generate form structure
• Improve: [template] rework lookup labels localisation
  • After the upgrade to v7, it has been buggy, and I don't like how it uses ExecuteMultiple to load labels in the first place; so I need to come up with a method that is faster but still as efficient
• Fix: [template] helpers to support new stuff since v7
  • LoadRelation methods

Credits & Contributions

• Eric Labashosky:
  • Original extension base code
  • My work:
  • Redesigned the screens and most of the logic
  • Greatly boosted the generation and regeneration speed
  • Added the features that don't exist in the Microsoft's tool
• Ramy Victor:
  • Enhancements
  • Debugging during the early versions
• Mohammed Ghoname:
  • New feature suggestions during the early versions
• ClemensWon:
  • Global option-sets

Changes

• Check Releases page for the later changes

  v10.6 to v10.9.1 (since 2020-10-01)

• Added: CRM entity profiles clean-up
• Added: Filter Details window row filtering
• Added: [template] unify global option-sets (thanks https://github.com/ClemensWon)
• Added: cell highlighter for easier interaction with grids
• Improved: sort profiles to aid in preventing source control merge conflicts in JSON
• Improved: JSON size by removing even more redundant information
• Improved: connection readiness performance
• Improved: upgraded to VS Async API
• Improved: refactor
• Fixed: Actions 'loading' indicator issue
• Fixed: generated code 'labels' syntax error
• Fixed: connection errors causing deadlocks
• Fixed: connection issues
• Fixed: [template] removed LimitAttributes, which caused issues in sandbox plugins
• Fixed: [template] skip Guid.Empty-valued records when calling ProcessFetchXmlRelations
• Fixed: changing contract settings that doesn't require a trip to CRM's servers is not reflected if cache-only is used
• Fixed: FetchXML result processing helper
• Fixed: pre-v7 migration
• Fixed: rare 'object null reference' error during generate
• Fixed: filter to properly take the Display Name and Rename columns into account as lower case, and to consider the 'entity' and 'field' columns in relations
• Fixed: concurrency issues
• Fixed: Use Display Names option not saved correctly
• Fixed: non-existent entities in settings persisting, causing error with 'generate cached'
• Fixed: cache not working
• Fixed: [template] ActivityParty naming issue (thanks https://github.com/ClemensWon)
• Fixed: [template] consider the 'use display names' setting for global option-sets
• Fixed: [template] multiselect option-sets mapping to global option-sets (thanks https://github.com/ClemensWon)

  v10.1 to v10.5 (since 2020-08-28)

• Added: option to link CRM entity profile with contract profiles, effectively copying selection changes made in contracts to the CRM entity to keep them in sync
• Added: option to define entity, attribute, and contract custom annotations through the UI
• Added: [template] helper to automatically limit attributes retrieved from CRM on any entity in a LINQ to the ones choosen (filtered) in the tool (check new entity constructors)
• Added: [template] helper to automatically parse Aliased Values into their respective early-bound properties in entity records retrieved by a FetchXML query
• Added: option to split contracts (profile groups) into separate files, to ease sharing with other teams
• Added: template file compatibility check (validates using version formatted as in default templates)
• Added: CRM Entity Profile window in the Entity Selection (double-click CRM Entity to open)
• Added: filtering option in the Entity Selection (if checked, Profile is applied, else only renaming is applied)
• Added: option to automatically delete unselected Profiles on save
• Added: button to clear cached data from memory without having to generate or refresh
• Added: 'cancel' option in the Entity Selection window
• Added: connections warm-up to improve code generation performance
• Added: pre-v10 settings migration
• Improved: tool startup speed
• Improved: mapper error-handling
• Improved: handling the extremely rare 'null reference' error by showing a meaningful message, which indicates that clearing the cache fixes the issue (still trying to catch it)
• Improved: [template] small enhancements
• Improved: contracts are now grouped into a single separate file by default (even if the option is disabled), with a base file for common code with CRM
• Improved: base and contract files do not require the SDK assemblies anymore, to ease sharing with non-CRM teams
• Improved: [template] removed annotation attribute references when none need to be generated to save an assembly reference
• Improved: table rendering performance
• Improved: reduced connection pool timeout (20 secs) to get a new connection faster when none are available
• Improved: cache folder structure
• Improved: cache performance
• Improved: log messages
• Changed: the 'red' row indicator in the Entity Selection window to mean that the CRM Entity Profile has some data
• Changed: [template] fell back to an older version of C# to avoid tranformation errors on older VS versions
• Fixed: connection string values containing '=' character causing connectivity issue (e.g. client secrets containing '=')
• Fixed: 'missing assembly' errors (if one still persists, please report it)
• Fixed: cancelling the mapper (ESC button) causes the window to rarely hang
• Fixed: [template] ConvertTo and GetLabel issues
• Fixed: stop warmup on changing connection
• Fixed: duplicate profiles saved in JSON
• Fixed: [template] ApplyFilter issues
• Fixed: [template] data annotations issue
• Fixed: [template] helper method issues
• Fixed: [template] issues
• Fixed: Actions selection issue
• Fixed: settings reset issue
• Fixed: filtering issue
• Fixed: deadlock issue
• Fixed: issue with Enable rules in Options window
• Fixed: alternate key information retrieved regardless of setting
• Fixed: Generate Global Actions setting having no effect
• Fixed: issue with pre-v9 settings migration
• Fixed: issues
• Removed: 'Apply to CRM Entity' option and moved it to Entity Selection window
• Removed: metadata refresh buttons
• Removed: redundant and obsolete settings entries

  v7 to v9 (since 2020-08-09)

• Added: Multi-option Option-set and Image support (File Field requires a special SDK Message to handle)
• Added: new Annotation Attributes for Image Fields
• Added: Entity list view filtering in profiles
• Added: selection control for CRM Actions
• Added: [template] custom multi-typed EntityReference type (Customer, Owner ... etc.)
• Added: options to optimise the resulting code by removing some extra data
• Added: option to optimise settings file size
• Added: 'cancel' option in the Profiles window
• Added: pre-v9 settings migration
• Improved: [template] use .NET Annotation Attributes when possible, instead of the custom ones
• Improved: optmised CRM Actions generation
• Improved: increased threading of independent logic
• Improved: optimised saved and generated data
• Improved: switched to EnhancedOrgService package for improved connection pooling and caching
• Improved: moved the 'Apply to CRM Entity' option to be on a per-Entity level for more control
• Improved: 'Apply to CRM Entity' filters Attributes and Relations similar to how Contracts work
• Improved: [template] label dictionary property initialisation
• Improved: cleaned and refactored to prepare for XrmToolBox Plugin and improve extensibility
• Improved: error messages
• Changed: switched to explicit or raw Connection Strings to allow for a broader support of newer features
• Changed: separated settings from cache data (cache saved at the solution level)
• Changed: save settings as JSON (per project)
• Changed: save connection in a separate file outside of source control
• Changed: exclude cache data from Source Control
• Updated: SDK packages
• Updated: licence
• Fixed: issue with assembly binding
• Fixed: handling older versions of CRM when it comes to new features
• Fixed: [template] contract label dictionary has wrong type definition
• Fixed: issues
• Removed: connection profiles to encourage generating from a single model source for the selected project

  v1.1.1 (2015-03-01)

• Initial release

Copyright © by Ahmed Elsawalhy (Yagasoft) -- GPL v3 Licence