Migrating and Preserving ModifiedOn, ModifiedBy values of Dynamics 365/CRM

Out of the box there's no solution to keep the original source values of ModifiedOn and ModifiedBy when migrating data records to Dynamics 365. In an on-premises deployment you could accomplish the task by the unsupported query update on the destination database; but if you are migrating to cloud Dynamics 365 database access is not an option. In this article I'll walk you through step-by-step guide of one solution proven to work in migration projects. The migration scenario is to move data from an older Dynamics CRM system to online Dynamics 365/CRM; but this could work for other data sources wishing to migrate to Dynamics 365/CRM.

The steps are:
1. Create temporary fields in destination entity to hold the source values of ModifiedOn and ModifiedBy.
2. Write plug-in to set ModifiedOn/By values of destination entity.
3. Register the plug-in.
4. Map source fields to temporary fields and run the migration/import

Step 1: Create 2 temp fields new_ModifiedOn and new_ModifiedBy in the destination environment. Whatever method/tool of migration you will use, the source ModifiedOn will set value for destination new_ModifiedOn; and source ModifiedBy will set value for destination new_ModifiedBy.

Step 2: Write plug-in to set value of destination ModifiedOn and ModifiedBy. Core code for the plug-in is at the end.

Step 3: Register the plug-in, on create message and Pre-Operation.

Step 4: Map the fields for migration/import, like I mentioned in Step 1 - source ModifiedOn to destination new_ModifiedOn, and ModifiedBy to new_ModifiedBy

Now if you run the migration/import, the plug-in will pickup the original values in temp fields and set them for ModifiedOn/ModifiedBy upon creation of new record.

Here is my plugin:

using System;

using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;

using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Query;

namespace TXN.Plugin.PreserveRecordInfo

{

    public class PreCreateRecord : IPlugin

    {

        #region Secure/Unsecure Configuration Setup

        private string _secureConfig = null;

        private string _unsecureConfig = null;

        public PreCreateRecord(string unsecureConfig, string secureConfig)

        {

            _secureConfig = secureConfig;

            _unsecureConfig = unsecureConfig;

        }

        #endregion

        public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)

        {

            ITracingService tracer = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));

            IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));

            IOrganizationServiceFactory factory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));

            IOrganizationService service = factory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);

            if (context == null) throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("IPluginExecutionContext is null");

            if (service == null) throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("IOrganizationService is null");

            if (tracer == null) throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("ITracingService is null");

            tracer.Trace("TXN: message: " + context.MessageName + " | Timestamp: " + DateTime.Now);

            

            if (context.InputParameters.Contains("Target") && context.InputParameters["Target"] is Entity)

            {

                Entity entity = (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"];

                string _message = context.MessageName.ToUpper();

                string _entityLogical = entity.LogicalName;

                tracer.Trace("TXN: entity: " + entity.LogicalName + " | GUID: " + entity.Id.ToString());

                //TXN: Filter the message and your entities here

                if (!(_message == "CREATE" ) ||

                    !(_entityLogical == "knowledgearticle" || 

                      _entityLogical == "adobe_agreement" ||

                      _entityLogical == "phonecall" ||

                      _entityLogical == "fax" ||

                      _entityLogical == "letter" ||

                      _entityLogical == "appointment" ||

                      _entityLogical == "email" ||

                      _entityLogical == "task"))

                    return;

                try

                {

                    DateTime _initDate = new DateTime(2099, 12, 12);

                    DateTime _modifiedOn = _initDate;

                    string _modifiedBy = null;

                    if (entity.Contains("new_modifiedon") && entity.Attributes["new_modifiedon"] != null)

                    {

                        _modifiedOn = (DateTime)entity.Attributes["new_modifiedon"];

                        tracer.Trace("TXN: mapped new_modifiedon: " + _modifiedOn.ToString());

                    }

                    if (entity.Contains("new_modifiedbyname") && entity.Attributes["new_modifiedbyname"] != null)

                    {

                        _modifiedBy = (entity.Attributes["new_modifiedbyname"]).ToString();

                        tracer.Trace("TXN: mapped new_modifiedbyname: " + _modifiedBy);

                    }

                    //TXN: Set original modifiedon value in destination record

                    if(!_modifiedOn.Equals(_initDate))

                    {

                        entity.Attributes["modifiedon"] = _modifiedOn;

                        tracer.Trace("TXN: set modifiedon to: " + _modifiedOn.ToString());

                    }

                    //TXN: find new_modifiedbyname and set that user to destination record's modifiedby

                    if (_modifiedBy != null)

                    {

                        var fetchXml = @"<fetch version='1.0' output-format='xml-platform' mapping='logical' distinct='false'>

                              <entity name='systemuser'>

                                <attribute name='fullname' />

                                <attribute name='systemuserid' />

                                <filter type='and'>

                                  <condition attribute='fullname' operator='eq' value='{0}' />

                                </filter>

                              </entity>

                            </fetch>";

                        fetchXml = string.Format(fetchXml, _modifiedBy);

                        EntityCollection users = service.RetrieveMultiple(new FetchExpression(fetchXml));

                        if (users != null && users.Entities.Count > 0)

                        {

                            entity.Attributes["modifiedby"] = users.Entities[0].ToEntityReference();

                            tracer.Trace("TXN: set modifiedby to user: " + users.Entities[0].GetAttributeValue<string>("fullname"));

                        }

                    }

                }

                catch (Exception e)

                {

                    throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException(e.Message);

                }

            }

        }

    }

}