Power Automate Search

This is a tool created to help search Power Automate flows, workflows, web resources, and plugins across your Dataverse environments. It started as a basic search tool and has somewhat grown with several performance optimizations and search features.

Please feel free to suggest commits/changes and new features/bug fixes/optimizations!

Installation:

For End Users (Installing the Plugin)

Option 1: XrmToolBox Plugin Store (Recommended - Coming Soon)

1. Open XrmToolBox
2. Click Tool Library
3. Search for "Power Automate Search"
4. Click Install

Option 2: Manual Installation (Install DLL - Currently Recommended)

Step 1: Download the Plugin

• Download the latest paSearch.dll from the Releases page

Step 2: Locate XrmToolBox Plugins Folder

Default location:

C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\MscrmTools\XrmToolBox\Plugins\

Alternative locations:

• %APPDATA%\MscrmTools\XrmToolBox\Plugins\
• Where you installed XrmToolBox: [XrmToolBox Install Dir]\Plugins\

Step 3: Copy DLL

1. Copy paSearch.dll to the Plugins folder
2. Important: Also copy these dependencies if they don't exist:
   • ICSharpCode.Decompiler.dll (for code search feature)
   • System.Reflection.Metadata.dll
   • System.Collections.Immutable.dll

Step 4: Restart XrmToolBox

1. Close XrmToolBox completely
2. Reopen XrmToolBox
3. The plugin should appear in the Tools menu

Step 5: Open the Plugin

• Click Tools → Power Automate Search
• Connect to your Dataverse environment
• Start searching!

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For Developers (Building from Source)

Prerequisites

Required:

• Visual Studio 2019 or later
• .NET Framework 4.8 SDK
• Git

Recommended:

• XrmToolBox (lol)

Step 1: Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/addisonfischer/Power-Automate-Search.git
cd Power-Automate-Search

Step 2: Restore NuGet Packages

Option A: Visual Studio (Recommended)

1. Open paSearch.sln in Visual Studio
2. Right-click solution → Restore NuGet Packages
3. Wait for packages to download

Option B: Command Line

nuget restore paSearch.sln

Key Dependencies:

• XrmToolBox.PluginBase - XrmToolBox SDK
• Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreAssemblies - Dynamics SDK
• ICSharpCode.Decompiler - Code search decompilation
• Newtonsoft.Json - JSON parsing

Step 3: Build the Project

Option A: Visual Studio

1. Open paSearch.sln
2. Set configuration to Release
3. Build → Build Solution (Ctrl+Shift+B)
4. Output DLL: bin\Release\paSearch.dll

Option B: MSBuild (Command Line)

msbuild paSearch.sln /p:Configuration=Release

Option C: dotnet CLI (if using .NET Core SDK)

dotnet build paSearch.sln --configuration Release

Step 4: Install for Testing

Copy to XrmToolBox Plugins folder:

# Windows (PowerShell)
Copy-Item "bin\Release\paSearch.dll" "$env:APPDATA\MscrmTools\XrmToolBox\Plugins\" -Force

# Also copy dependencies (if not already there)
Copy-Item "bin\Release\ICSharpCode.Decompiler.dll" "$env:APPDATA\MscrmTools\XrmToolBox\Plugins\" -Force

Or manually:

1. Navigate to bin\Release\
2. Copy paSearch.dll to XrmToolBox Plugins folder
3. Copy dependency DLLs if needed
4. Restart XrmToolBox

Usage:

• Connect to your organization
• Search and go!
  • Select a category (Workflow, Cloud Flow, Web Resource, etc.) or search all
  • Leaving the search blank will return everything in the selected category
  • Double clicking a line will copy the Solution ID of the object

Search Options:

• Fuzzy Search: Check this to find results even with typos (e.g., "varCstmrNme" will find "varCustomerName")
• Search Content: For Web Resources, check this to search inside file contents. Expect slightly longer search times. Leave unchecked for faster name-only searches.
• Search Code: For plugins, check this to decompile plugin code back to dotnet/C#. Expect significantly longer search times. Leave unchecked for faster entity/message/stage-only searches.

What it Searches:

• Workflows/Flows: Searches names and content (variables, expressions, actions inside flows)
• Web Resources: Searches names and optionally file contents (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.)
• Solutions: Automatically shows which solution contains each object
• Plugins: Searches names, entities, messages, stages of plugins, as well as optionally code snippets.

Features:

• Deep content search inside Power Automate flow definitions
• Web resource search (by name or file content)
• Plugin search (by name/entity/message/stage or code)
• Fuzzy search for typo tolerance
• Optimized batch queries for fast performance

Future improvements:

• Automatic opening of solutions upon double click (open to suggestions on how to do this)
• Double click plugins and open PluginRegistrationTool (or similar)
• Content preview window
• Export results to CSV/Excel
• Search history
• Additional search filters