Microsoft CRM 2011 Plugins - Simple Issue

Question

I am trying to write a plugin to create a new contact entity in Microsoft CRM 2011. I'm yet to find any useful information online and I feel like I've been banging my head against a brick wall all day. The code I have posted below is giving me an error saying "The name 'service' does not exist in the current context". Can anyone tell me what's going on, please?

// <copyright file="PreValidateContactCreate.cs" company="">
// Copyright (c) 2013 All Rights Reserved
// </copyright>
// <author></author>
// <date>8/6/2013 4:22:10 PM</date>
// <summary>Implements the PreValidateContactCreate Plugin.</summary>
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//     Runtime Version:4.0.30319.1
// </auto-generated>
namespace Plugins1
{
    using System;
    using System.ServiceModel;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;
    using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Messages;
    using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client;
    using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Discovery;
    using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Metadata;
    using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query;


    /// <summary>
    /// PreValidateContactCreate Plugin.
    /// </summary>    
    public class PreValidateContactCreate: Plugin
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="PreValidateContactCreate"/> class.
        /// </summary>
        public PreValidateContactCreate()
            : base(typeof(PreValidateContactCreate))
        {
            base.RegisteredEvents.Add(new Tuple<int, string, string, Action<LocalPluginContext>>(10, "Create", "contact", new Action<LocalPluginContext>(ExecutePreValidateContactCreate)));

            // Note : you can register for more events here if this plugin is not specific to an individual entity and message combination.
            // You may also need to update your RegisterFile.crmregister plug-in registration file to reflect any change.
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Executes the plug-in.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="localContext">The <see cref="LocalPluginContext"/> which contains the
        /// <see cref="IPluginExecutionContext"/>,
        /// <see cref="IOrganizationService"/>
        /// and <see cref="ITracingService"/>
        /// </param>
        /// <remarks>
        /// For improved performance, Microsoft Dynamics CRM caches plug-in instances.
        /// The plug-in's Execute method should be written to be stateless as the constructor
        /// is not called for every invocation of the plug-in. Also, multiple system threads
        /// could execute the plug-in at the same time. All per invocation state information
        /// is stored in the context. This means that you should not use global variables in plug-ins.
        /// </remarks>
        protected void ExecutePreValidateContactCreate(LocalPluginContext localContext)
        {
            if (localContext == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("localContext");
            }

            // TODO: Implement your custom Plug-in business logic.


            Entity Contact = new Entity("contact");
            Contact.Attributes["firstname"] = "SomeName";
            Contact.Attributes["lastname"] = "SomeSurname";

            service.Create(Contact);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

An error is being thrown because service is not yet defined. It needs to be defined before you can call service.Create.

The following is some code that I use for plugins that you might find useful. Seems a bit simpler than your example.

EDIT: I have modified the code to show a Create and an Update

using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Messages;
using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.ServiceModel;

namespace PluginSample
{
    public class ContactSample : IPlugin
    {
        public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
        {
            // Get the context
            IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));

            try
            {
                IOrganizationServiceFactory factory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
                IOrganizationService service = factory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);

                if (context.MessageName == "Create")
                {
                    // Creates a contact
                    Entity contact = new Entity("contact");
                    contact.Attributes.Add("firstname", "SomeName");
                    contact.Attributes.Add("lastname", "SomeSurname");
                    service.Create(contact);
                }
                else if (context.MessageName == "Update")
                {
                    if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") && context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)
                    {
                        // Update contact
                        Entity contact = new Entity("contact");
                        contact.Id = new Guid("EBFB262C-5EFF-E211-8BEB-1CC1DEEAE7EC");
                        contact.Attributes.Add("firstname", "Name Changed");
                        service.Update(contact);
                    }
                }

            }
            catch (Exception generalException)
            {
                throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("Plugin Failed - Execute :-(", generalException);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Use the localContext parameter to get to the org service.

*<param name="localContext">The <see cref="LocalPluginContext"/> which contains the
        /// <see cref="IPluginExecutionContext"/>,
        /// <see cref="IOrganizationService"/>*

Answer 3

public class CreateRecord : IPlugin
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Execute Method
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="serviceProvider">IServiceProvider object.</param>
        public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
        {
            //Obtain the tracing service.
            ITracingService tracingService = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));
            if (tracingService == null)
                throw new Exception("Unable to obtain tracing service.");

            //Obtain the execution context from the service provider.
            IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));
            if (context == null)
                throw new Exception("Unable to obtain Plugin Execution context.");

            //Obtain the organization service reference
            IOrganizationServiceFactory serviceFactory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
            if (serviceFactory == null)
                throw new Exception("Unable to obtain Organization service factory.");

            IOrganizationService service = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);
            if (service == null)
                throw new Exception("Unable to obtain organization service.");

            Entity contact = new Entity("contact");
            contact["firstname"] = "Your First Name";
            contact["lastname"] = "Your Last Name";
            Guid contactId = service.Create(contact);
        }
    }  

Above code is a sample for creating a record, in this case contact in CRM. contactid should be holding the record which got created.You can locate the created record with other contacts under active contact view.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any more help on this. Happy learning !!! :)