CRM 2011: Entity form halt when plugin executed

Question

In CRM 2011, I want to export description of email activity as doc file using plugin. I've following problem with after the execution of plugin:

Problem: It disable the email activity form.

Following is my so far code for the plugin.

IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)isp.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));
            IOrganizationServiceFactory factory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)isp.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
            IOrganizationService service = factory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);
            ITracingService t_service = (ITracingService)isp.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));

            service.Update(entity);
                if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") && context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)
                {

                    Entity entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];
     string strFileName = subject + ".doc";
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline;filename=" + strFileName);
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear();
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.Charset = "";
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/msword";
                    StringBuilder strHTMLContent = new StringBuilder();
                    strHTMLContent.Append(html);
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(strHTMLContent);
                    HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest();
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.Flush();

I want to seek your kind help in this regard so that it could not disable the email activity form.

Answer 1

You're creating an infinite loop. You don't need to call Update when updating the target. Just make the changes you desire, and as a part of the plugin context, the changes will be made when it actually saves the entity to SQL. (This is assuming you're registered as a Pre-Update) If it needs to be registered on a Pre-Validation or a post update, use shared-variables to keep from creating an infinite loop .

Answer 2

The problem here is you are trying to tweak the response stream in a plugin. Plugins are not meant to do this. Plugins run serverside and are not only triggered by actions performed through the web browser interface. Eg, a console program of some middleware could also invoke the CRM API's methods.

In your case the web client sends a SOAP post message to the server, telling it to create or update an e-mail record. The client expects to receive a SOAP response message from the server. Instead it is receiving a binary stream, which it can not handle.

When the user needs to automatically download a Word document, you would need to develop a custom web service or look for a different solution.