Prepare plugin packages and recover extraction

Power Platform Developer Suite (PPDS) extracts registration metadata locally before deploying plugins. This guide describes published CLI 1.4.2, including net48 package acceptance and protected-cache fixes.

Choose a framework and deployment path

PPDS.Plugins retains its net462 library target and is compatible with plugin projects targeting .NET Framework 4.6.2 through 4.8. CLI 1.4.2 accepts NuGet plugin packages containing lib/net462, lib/net471, or lib/net48. The library's own target does not require every consumer to use that exact asset group.

A loose plugin assembly must still target a Dataverse-supported .NET Framework version and be strong-name-signed. Changing packaging alone does not make netstandard or modern .NET assemblies deployable. Do not retarget an unsupported assembly merely to silence a diagnostic without checking its dependencies and platform compatibility.

Before using the commands, replace <package.nupkg>, <profile>, and <environment-url> with the reviewed package and target. Extraction reads a local package; preview and deploy use the configured environment.

ppds plugins extract --input <package.nupkg> --output registrations.json
ppds plugins deploy --config registrations.json --dry-run --profile <profile> --environment <environment-url>

Review the registrations and preview before the separately authorized real deployment. Retain the same package bytes between extraction and deployment; re-extract after changing the package.

Resolve package validation errors

CLI 1.4.2 validates one unambiguous primary assembly and its runtime IPlugin types before connection or upload. It verifies SDK/registration attribute assembly identities and rejects missing configured types, stale extraction evidence, and ambiguous primaries. A type can implement IPlugin without PPDS registration attributes; that does not invent registration steps.

Fix the reported identity, dependency, or configuration problem locally and repeat extraction and preview. If a later upload succeeds but expected server state is missing, inspect that state before retrying. Unregistering is a separate destructive operation, not an automatic rollback.

Recover reference extraction

Single-file installs carry .NET Framework reference assemblies. CLI 1.4.2 uses PPDS/cache/net462-ref/<resource-hash> beneath the operating system's local application-data directory. It validates ownership, permissions, and links before cache reads or repair. Missing or truncated expected files are restored; a complete cache is reused without rewriting it.

If stderr reports unsafe storage, use protected local user storage and have the owner or administrator correct the reported ownership or permissions. Do not grant broad write access, run the CLI elevated as a workaround, or disable the checks. macOS ACLs granting mutation are conservatively rejected.

Old shared-temp caches are neither read, migrated, nor deleted automatically. Their presence is not a reason to delete another process's or account's files. The boundary separates unprivileged OS accounts; it does not defend against same-account processes, administrators/root, or hostile filesystems. The completeness check detects absent/truncated files, not arbitrary same-length modification by an account already inside that boundary.

See the package validation change, net48 acceptance, and cache isolation change.