Event Framework Overview

Event Framework Overview

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM you have the ability to extend or customize the functionality of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server through the integration of custom business logic. You can customize the product to support the way your company does business, and you can add new features to the product. The technology that enables your custom solutions to be developed and integrated into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server is called the event framework.

The event framework enables you to create rich vertical and horizontal solutions on top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM by supporting the development and integration of custom business logic (computer code) with Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a reliable and portable way. After your custom business logic has been integrated into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, it can be executed synchronously as part of the main Microsoft Dynamics CRM execution path, or asynchronously from a managed queue. Business data can be passed to your custom code, which can then perform actions based on the nature of the information, or modify the information itself.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Event Framework provides the following key features:

• An improved event processing subsystem for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This subsystem provides a unified method of executing both plug-ins and workflow activities, which results in improved reliability, an enhanced feature set, and plug-in portability.
• A unified event framework API for extending the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform through the development of custom business logic in the form of plug-ins and workflow activities.
• An API for the deployment of plug-ins and workflow activities to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database. Deployment of plug-ins and activities to the database instead of to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM server's hard disk enables automatic distribution throughout a server cluster in a datacenter.
• Backwards compatibility for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 callouts. 
• Synchronous and asynchronous execution of plug-ins. Synchronous plug-ins are executed in a pre-defined order as part of the main Microsoft Dynamics CRM event processing. Asynchronous plug-ins are queued and executed independently.

The Event Framework is supported only on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server. For information about how to extend the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application, see Client Extensions and Scripting.

In This Section

Unified Event Framework for Plug-ins and Workflow Activities

Discusses the unification of plug-in and workflow technologies.

Event Execution Pipeline

Provides information about event notification and event handling at run time.

Plug-in Entity Model

Contains information about the object model for plug-in and registration entities.

Supported Messages for Plug-ins

Lists which messages are supported with plug-ins.

Supported Entities for Plug-ins

Lists which entities are supported with plug-ins.