CRM 4.0 Logging user login information

Following is a simple example on how-to log a user interaction with CRM. The sample uses a simple plug-in that references the System.Web assembly. Once you create a reference to this assembly you’re able to read the HttpContext and consequently read the information you wish to log.

The plug-in hooks into the execute message which in most cases is the first event to fire (grid event). The plug-in also writes a cookie back to the browser to mark the logging operation so it only happens once while the main crm application is opened.

In the example I also create a simple logInfo entity with fields I’m interested in logging.

Please not that while reading information from the httpcontext and other objects like Request might be considered supported, reading information that CRM uses like httpcontext.items[“organizationName”] or writing information to a cookie might break your support. So when you write values back to the browser make sure you’re using a well defined naming convention that will always stay unique. And instead of reading the orgname from the items collection get it from the request url.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk;
using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy;
using System.Web;

namespace GI.SandBox
{
   public class LoginHandler : IPlugin
   {
      #region IPlugin Members

      public void Execute(IPluginExecutionContext context)
      {
         if (context.MessageName != "Execute")
         {
            return;
         }
   
         if (context.Stage != MessageProcessingStage.BeforeMainOperationOutsideTransaction)
         {
            return;
         } 
   
         if (!(context.CallerOrigin is ApplicationOrigin))
         {
            return;
         }
   
         HttpContext webContext = HttpContext.Current;
         HttpCookie  logInfo = webContext.Request.Cookies.Get("loginfo");
  
         if (logInfo == null)
         {
            DynamicEntity logInfoEntry = new DynamicEntity();
            logInfoEntry.Name = "gi_loginfo";

            logInfoEntry.Properties.Add
            (
               new StringProperty
               (
                  "gi_userhostaddress",
                  webContext.Request.UserHostAddress
               )
            );

            logInfoEntry.Properties.Add
            (
               new StringProperty
               (
                  "gi_useridentity",
                  webContext.User.Identity.Name
               )
            );

            logInfoEntry.Properties.Add
            (
               new StringProperty
               (
                  "gi_starturl",
                  webContext.Request.Path
               )
            );

            logInfoEntry.Properties.Add
            (
               new StringProperty
               (
                  "gi_hostname",
                  webContext.Request.Url.Host
               )
            );

            if (webContext.Items["organizationName"] != null)
            {
               logInfoEntry.Properties.Add
               (
                  new StringProperty
                  (
                     "gi_userhostaddress",
                     webContext.Items["organizationName"].ToString()
                  )
               );
            }
    
            logInfoEntry.Properties.Add
            (
               new CrmDateTimeProperty
               (
                  "gi_datetime",
                  new CrmDateTime(webContext.Timestamp.ToString())
               )
            );
    
            TargetUpdateDynamic targetRecord = new TargetUpdateDynamic();
            targetRecord.Entity = logInfoEntry;
       
            UpdateRequest updateRequest = new UpdateRequest();
            updateRequest.Target = targetRecord;
    
            context.CreateCrmService(true).Execute(updateRequest);

            logInfo = new HttpCookie("loginfo");
            logInfo.Value = DateTime.Now.ToString();
            webContext.Response.Cookies.Add(logInfo);
      }   
  }

  #endregion
 }
}