Callout not working?

Lets write a bit more about how to get a callout to work and to make debugging available. I already wrote something about this before in this post: Callout debug: Access is Denied.

So your callout is not fired? Here are some thoughts to get started. Make sure that:

- the callout even should fire. Are you using the right callout? Special attention to the email PreSend and PostDeliver callouts: PreSend is for sending email
and PostDeliver is after you received an email

- you have built your callout in .NET Framework 1.1

- the dll file is placed in the correct directory. By default this would be: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM\Server\bin\assembly"

- you created a callout.config.xml in the same folder. Don't forget the extension xml

- the callout is subscribed correctly in the callout.config.xml. It should look like: http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/callout/;

A correct example would be: http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2006/callout/;

- you reset iis (start, run, iisreset) after placing the new callout files


Okay, now you have checked the basics, then let's continue with the harder things to find out based on an error message. Either from the web interface or the event log (don't forget to check there to see if there is an error)

The error messages I'd like to give some hints on are:

Error (in Web UI):

Could not load type YourCallout from assembly YourCallout, Version=1.0.2512.17524, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request.
Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Possible solution:
If your code is written in VB, then make sure that you write the subscription correct. You might think that the class in the subscription should be "YourNamespace.YourCalloutClass", but in fact it should be "YourProjectName.YourNamespace.YourCalloutClass".

Error (from event viewer):

Error: ISV code threw exception: assembly: YourCallout.dll; class: YourNamespace.YourCallout; entity: product, event: postcreate, exception: System.IO.FileLoadException: Access is denied: 'YourCallout.dll'.File name: "YourCallout.dll"

Possible solution: Make sure that the security is set to Full for "Network Service" on your dll files.

Error (from event viewer):

Error: General config file format error: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Could not find stored procedure 'sp_sdidebug'.

Possible solution: After the iisreset first do all the actions that you should do to run the callout and when the callout should have run, then start the debugger on the w3wp process.

Here's another hint for when working with impersonation. When you're using the userContext.UserId to set the callerid value, make sure that you also set the credentials on the webservice as shown below.

service = new CrmService();
service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
service.CallerIdValue = new CallerId();
service.CallerIdValue.CallerGuid = userContext.UserId;

Error (from event viewer):

Error: ISV code threw exception: assembly: YourCallout.dll; class: Namespace.Callout; entity: account, event: postupdate, exception: wi: Specified cast is not valid.

Possible solution: The file "Microsoft.crm.platform.callout.base.dll" is located in the assembly folder. Remove the file from that folder, perform an IISReset and restart the workflow service.

Error (from event viewer):

Error: ISV code threw exception: assembly: YourCallout.dll; class: Namespace.Callout; entity: account, event: postupdate, exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: File or assembly name Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Callout.Base, or one of its dependencies, was not found.

Possible solution: The CRM server is older then the RTM version. Look in the registery (HKLM\software\Microsoft\MSCRM\CRM_Server_Version). The value should be 3.0.5300.0 or above. If it is not, then reinstall the CRM server with the latests bits.

Error (from event viewer):

Precallout event cannot have pre-/post-image subscription. event: preupdate, entity: entityname

Possible solution: This error appears if you are supplying prevalue and postvalue attributes in the callout.config.xml for a precallout. The prevalue and postvalue attributes are only valid for postcallouts. The pre callout does supply all the changed values. If you need more values, then get them via the service.Retrieve method.

No Error info?
If you cannot find any error information and your callout doesn't do anything, then check the registery. There might be a key named "SetupMode" in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSCRM\. If it is indeed there, then modify this key to contain the DWORD value "0". After the change, make sure that you perform an "IISReset" (thanks Jevgenij).

Exceptional situation.
There is one situation known in which callouts do not fire. This is when an activity is created by quick campaigns (possibly also regular campaigns). The callout OnCreate will NOT fire for the activities. You'll need to use the CRM 1.2 approach for this situation. Microsoft promised to work on this in the Titan release. If it will be fixed is still a question though.

Well, these were the issues I could think of now. Another approach would be to temporarily remove all complex codes and start with a simple callout that writes something to the eventlog. You then at least know if your callout is fired or not.

Hope this helps you to get your callout working!