Your assembly can be registered and stored in the database or on disk. The database option is preferable because the system will handle deployment across multiple servers. If you choose the on-disk option, you must handle deployment issues.

Other tips for deploying custom workflow activities include the following:

• You should have only one version of an assembly in the database. If you are making changes, make sure that you delete the old version, and then add the new version.
• Make sure that the interface does not change between versions. If the interface changes, any workflows that refers to the old interface may break.
• After you upload, restart IIS and then restart the asynchronous service on every server that is running the asynchronous service and on every Web server. For more information, see Stopping and Starting the Asynchronous Service.
• Multiple versions of an assembly are not supported.
• If you refer to any third-party DLL that is not in the GAC, it must be located in the %installdir%\server\bin\assembly folder.

Before you can register your workflow assembly you must build the plug-in developer tool. For information about how to do this, see the Build the Plug-in Developer Tool walkthrough. For more information about the tool sample code, see Sample Code.

To run the tool, follow these steps.

1. In Windows Explorer, double-click the PluginDeveloper.sln file in the SDK\Tools\PluginDeveloper folder to open Visual Studio.
2. Open the register.xml file in the bin\Debug folder and verify that the server, organization, domain, and user name are correct for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation. Make any changes that are needed and save the file. Also, change the assembly name.
3. Verify that there are PluginDeveloper.exe, register.xml, and your workflow assembly files in the bin\Debug folder.
4. Press CTRL+F5 to run the program.
5. When you are prompted to, enter the password of the user account that you specified in the register.xml file and then press <Enter>.
6. After the program finishes, press the <Enter> key one or two times to close the console window.
7. View the log file that is named "Plugin Registration Log.txt", which can be found in the bin\Debug folder.
8. (Optional) Repeat steps 4 through 7 to have the tool unregister the sample plug-in and register it again. This sample tool aids in the edit/compile/deploy/test development cycle.

An alternative approach to registering a plug-in is to write an installer program. A sample installer can be found in the SDK\Walkthroughs\Workflow\CodeWorkflow\CreateLead\Installer folder.

See Also

Concepts

• Registering Plug-ins

Other Resources

• Custom Workflow Activities