Plugin registration tool throwing Unable to load plug-in assembly

dynamics-crm-2011

I'm using the latest version of the MS CRM 2011 SDK and am trying to deploy a custom workflow activity (it has been signed with a key). The plugin registration tool throws an error "Unable to load plug-in assembly" without much information about the root cause.
The error trace thrown by the tool is very similar to the one described in this post

The answer to the post referenced above indicates adding Microsoft.Xrm.Client assembly in the GAC, but my workflow project references the following DLLs
1)Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Proxy.dll
2)Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.dll
3)Microsoft.Xrm.Client.dll
4)Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Workflow.dll

Should all these be added to the GAC?
The CRM server is Win 2K8R2. I tried dragging and dropping the assemblies to the c:\windows\assembly folder but that did not work. No errors but nothing was copied over either. I followed the instructions outlined in this post but that did not work either.

What am I missing?

Best Answer

I don't think you should have to place any crm dlls into the gac, they are already installed in the CRM server files. If you think it might solve the problem use gacutil (not clear if you can't install to the gac, or if that didn't fix the problem).

I suspect its complaining about your dll, are you trying to register to the disk? As you usually have to place the dll in the crm/server/bin folder first. Try deploying to the database - makes life easier for deploying the solution to other servers later.

If that still doesn't work post the trace of the error.

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CRM 2011 – Import Solution getting error Unable to load plug-in assembly

Ended up being I was referencing an assembly not in the GAC of the new server. Wasn't related to solutions per-say and I couldn't register directly with the plugin registration tool either (though that gave me more information). So if you see this I recommend trying to register the assembly using the plugin registration tool to get better information.

C# – Error registering plugins and/or workflows. Plug-in assembly does not contain the required types or assembly content cannot be updated

If you are deployong your custome workflows via CRM development toolkint and package and then after that if you have changed any class name or namespace, you must change RegisterFile.crmregister file manually as Visual Studio does not do it for you. So if you change your class name from A to B and your namespace from N to M then 'TypeName' from the below xml in RegisterFile.crmregister file must be as following:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Register xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2011/tools/pluginregistration">
  <Solutions>
    <Solution Assembly="PackageECRProcesses.CleanRegistration.dll" Id="ab72673b-c0a8-e111-af82-080027dd322f" IsolationMode="None" SourceType="Database">
      <WorkflowTypes>
        <WorkflowType FriendlyName="any" Name="any" Description="any." WorkflowActivityGroupName="account" Id="f0e3f436-c1a8-e111-af82-080027dd322f" TypeName="M.B" />
      </WorkflowTypes>
    </Solution>
  </Solutions>
  <XamlWorkflows />
</Register>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

CRM 2011 – Import Solution getting error Unable to load plug-in assembly

C# – Error registering plugins and/or workflows. Plug-in assembly does not contain the required types or assembly content cannot be updated

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