When to use plug-ins vs. workflow?
As a developer who is interested in extending or customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can choose from several methods to perform your tasks. In addition to adding client-side JavaScript code to a form or adding custom ASP.NET pages, you can write a plug-in or create a custom workflow by using the web interface that calls a custom workflow activity. How do you decide when to use a plug-in and when to use a workflow? The technology that you use depends on the task that you have to perform and who will author the customization. For example, you must use a synchronous plug-in real-time workflow if you want to execute custom code immediately before or after the core platform operation executes and before the result of the operation is returned from the platform. You cannot use an asynchronous workflow or asynchronous plug-in in this situation because they are queued to execute after the core operation finishes executing. Therefore, you cannot predict when they will run. If you wan