Custom workflow activities (workflow assemblies)

Article
07/22/2016

Applies To: Dynamics CRM 2015

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update supports the registration and execution of custom workflow activities in addition to the out-of-box activities provided by Windows Workflow Foundation. Windows Workflow Foundation includes an activity library that provides activities for control flow, sending and receiving messages, doing work in parallel, and more. However, to build applications that satisfy your business needs, you may need activities that perform tasks specific to that application. To make this possible, Windows Workflow Foundation supports the creation of custom workflow activities.

You can write custom workflow activities in Microsoft Visual C# or Microsoft Visual Basic .NET code by creating an assembly that contains one or more classes derived from the Windows Workflow Foundation CodeActivity class. This assembly is annotated with .NET attributes to provide the metadata that Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses at runtime to link your code to the workflow engine.

After you have created an assembly that contains one or more custom workflow activities, you register this assembly with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This process is similar to registering a plug-in. The custom workflow activity can then be incorporated into a workflow or dialog in the Process form in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Note

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online only supports sandbox (partial trust) execution of custom workflow activities. On-premises Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 supports execution of custom workflow activities in partial or full trust.