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Plugin Step Codegen 1.0: the registration, in the file

A pull request can be read line by line and still tell you nothing about when the code in it runs. The stage, the mode, the filtering attributes and the columns on the pre-image are rows in SdkMessageProcessingStep, changed through a registration tool by whoever had the credentials that afternoon. Nothing in the diff moves when they change, and nothing in the build fails.

Plugin Step Codegen reads those rows back out of the environment and writes them into the file the reviewer already has open.

Plugin Step Codegen: the environment's assemblies and plugin classes on the left, and on the right the [Plugin], [Step] and [Image] attributes it would write above each class.

What it does

  • Reads the plugin steps and images registered in the connected environment and writes them into your C# source, as Xrm Tools [Plugin], [Step] and [Image] attributes, or as a readable summary comment if you would rather not take the dependency.
  • The assembly list defaults to the unmanaged assemblies. Microsoft’s and managed ones are behind switches that carry the count of what they hold back.
  • Writes above the class declaration, replacing only its own block. Every changed file gets a timestamped .bak beside it.
  • Create Attribute Definitions File emits a dependency-free XrmToolsMetaAttributes.cs, so the attributes compile with no package at all.
  • Read-only. Nothing is ever written back to the environment.

The attribute model is Xrm Tools’, and being compatible with it is the whole premise: what gets written here is what Xrm Tools reads back, down to the constructor overload and the order of the attributes. Xrm Tools takes the attributes in your source and makes the environment match them; this takes an environment somebody else registered and gives you the attributes. The two run in opposite directions and meet in the middle.

Where it stops

It documents the registration; it does not perform it. If you want the attributes to become the registration, that is Xrm Tools’ job, and it is worth the detour. Requires XrmToolBox 1.2025.7 or later.

Install

Search for Plugin Step Codegen in the XrmToolBox Tool Library. The source is MIT.

The note that led here is The plugin step nobody reviewed.

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