Debug a Plugin without plugin profiler using Dataverse Browser

Debugging a plugin always required multiple steps like installing profiler , add profiler to the step , attaching the visual studio etc . This takes additional time and effort .
Recently I have came across a tool called Dev Browser .

This is an amazing tool Developed by Nicolas Prats making debugging plugins easier then before .Much thanks for this Savior!

Lets go through a step by step guide on How to use Dataverse browser to debug plugin .
First lets register a plugin using plugin registration tool . I am deploying a plugin on create of contact.

Plugin is registered on create of Account now lets download the Dataverse browser tool form this link.

Download the zip file and extract it to a folder .Once extracted you will see a file Dataverse.Browser.exe .

Once you click on the exe a system pop up of Microsoft like below will appear.
Click on More Info and select run anyway.

Next you will see a pop up with below inputs
Name of this Environment – You can provide preferred name based on your environment details . In real life example we can have DEV , SIT ,UAT .
Here I am providing the name as Reydynamics.
Organization URL – Provide the organization URL that is the instance URL.
Assembly Path – Select the local path where the plugin DLL are compiled in Debug mode.

After entering the details click on Go. Now we have to sign in with the user credentials.

There you go now you can browse the CRM inside dataverse browser.
On the right hand side you will see all the WEB API calls.
You also have an attach debugger button and clear logs button using which we can clear the right side WEBAPI calls console.

Now lets try to create a contact record . Before that lets clear the logs using the clear button in the right corner. As you can see in below screenshot I have cleared the logs and now will save the contact record.

The plugin call with error will be visible in Red color on the right side as you can see in the above screen shot. Now select the class file and click on attach to debugger button.

Select the Plugin solution in the Debugger option. My plugin solution name is Debugger_Online so I am selecting the same option .

After clicking on OK your Visual studio with debugger screen will open as shown in below screenshot. Click on continue or press F5.

Switch back to Dataverse browser screen . You will see a pop up “Debugger is attached”.

Switch back to VS solution and add the debugger on the line from where you want to start the debugging.

There you go .. Debugger is ready now lets try to create a contact again .

As you can see in the above screenshots the code is ready to debug . You can recheck the logic / errors in the code, do the changes retest and once assured you can build and register the code through plugin registration tool.

This is how you can easily debug plugin without Plugin profiling or collecting traces using Dev Browser.
Thanks for reading hope it helps!

Original Post https://msdynamicscrm137374033.wordpress.com/2023/06/03/debug-a-plugin-without-plugin-profiler-using-dataverse-browser/