Setting Lookup Fields - Guidance needed

[adrenaline15]

First of all I wanted to thank you for this very helpful project, it makes the whole Dynamics CRM communication a lot easier!

I successfully tested and implemented the code to create and update a new contact (lead in my case).

The only thing I'm missing now is 'to set lookup values', which should be retrieved as GUID from the org.

I did not find an example howto achieve this task, so I was hoping that someone would be so nice to show me / point me to right implementation.

Thanks in advance!

[wizardist]

Hi @adrenaline15

We will surely add an example to the codebase. If you want a quick one, here it is:

$leadContact = $client->entity( 'contact' );
$leadContact->ID = 'GUID HERE';
$lead->contactid = $leadContact;

$lead->update();

Thanks.

[wizardist]

It would be more semantically correct (and in the spirit of .NET implementation) to use an EntityReference:

$lead->contactid = new EntityReference( 'contact', 'GUID HERE' );
$lead->update();

[adrenaline15]

Hi @wizardist,

thank you very much for your response.

I was able to set the required Lookup-Fields, but I needed to change an if-check in your code which obviously shouldn't be necessary.

php-crm-toolkit/src/Entity.php

Line 280 in 5eac907

if ( !$value instanceOf self ) {

The line above checks if my EntityReference-Object is an instance of self (=Entity-Object).
Since Entity extends EntityReference (and not the other way round) it doesn't match and so I needed to change this line to be able to set the Lookup-values

<?php

class A {}
class B extends A {}

$a = new A();
$b = new B();

echo sprintf('$a is %san instance of A' . PHP_EOL, $a instanceOf A ? '' : 'not ');
// $a is an instance of A
echo sprintf('$a is %san instance of B' . PHP_EOL, $a instanceOf B ? '' : 'not ');
// $a is not an instance of B
echo sprintf('$b is %san instance of A' . PHP_EOL, $b instanceOf A ? '' : 'not ');
// $b is an instance of A
echo sprintf('$b is %san instance of B' . PHP_EOL, $b instanceOf B ? '' : 'not ');
// $b is an instance of B

Thanks

[wizardist]

Yeah, this should be fixed.

[sfenne]

When calling the entity method while passing a KeyAttribute, the script will fail in Entity:1297

Catchable Fatal Error: Object of class AlexaCRM\CRMToolkit\KeyAttributes could not be converted to string

[georged]

@sfenne can you provide a snippet of code that causes the error?

[sfenne]

@georged sure. I'm trying to lookup an account by its accountnumber.

    $contactKey = new \AlexaCRM\CRMToolkit\KeyAttributes();
    $contactKey->add( 'accountnumber', $accountNumber );

    $contact = $this->client->entity( 'account', $contactKey );`

[georged]

@sfenne
This construct is designed to handle alternate keys - did you create alternate key over the accountnumber in your CRM instance?

[sfenne]

@georged the accountnumber exists, but I'm not too familiar with CRM. If I replace the KeyAttributes $contactKey with the GUID of an account, I get full account result. An array with all the values, which includes the accountnumber key and value. Is it possible I need to do further actions in CRM to "enable" accountnumber as a lookupable field via API?

Thanks

[georged]

@sfenne

you need to create alternate key in CRM. Note that it's not going to create a lookup which is CRM construct for a foreign key, it will simply allow you to retrieve the record by account number.

If you have any further questions, I recommend creating a separate thread as your question has little to do with lookup fields and is about alternate keys.

Thanks

[wizardist]

077ae7e now allows setting EntityReference as a lookup value. Closing this one.

[ziyaindia]

I am trying to create a Case by using https://github.com/AlexaCRM/php-crm-toolkit.

When I am using following code getting following error:

Fatal error: Uncaught AlexaCRM\CRMToolkit\SoapFault: Contact With Id = 9f3065e3-64bc-e811-a94c-000d3a4e761d Does Not Exist in \vendor\alexacrm\php-crm-toolkit\src\Client.php on line 1159

<?php
/**
 * Use init.php if you didn't install the package via Composer
 */
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use AlexaCRM\CRMToolkit\Client as OrganizationService;
use AlexaCRM\CRMToolkit\Settings;
use AlexaCRM\CRMToolkit\Entity\EntityReference;

$options = [
    'serverUrl' => '*********',
    'username' => '**************',
    'password' => '*******************',
    'authMode' => 'OnlineFederation',
];
$guid = '9F3065E3-64BC-E811-A94C-000D3A4E761D';


$serviceSettings = new Settings( $options );
//echo '<pre>';print_r($serviceSettings);echo '</pre>';
$service = new OrganizationService( $serviceSettings );
//echo '<pre>';print_r($service);echo '</pre>';

$incident = $service->entity('incident');
//echo '<pre>';print_r($incident);echo '</pre>';
$incident->title = 'Test Created With Proxy';
$incident->description = 'This is a test incident';
$incident->customerid = new EntityReference( 'contact', $guid );
//$incident->ID = $guid;//contactid responsiblecontactid primarycontactid
$incidentId = $incident->create();

[wizardist]

@ziyaindia are you sure such contact really exists? The fault is coming from CRM, and that's CRM telling you that it doesn't exist.

[ziyaindia]

How can i come to know which contact id i can use for this?

[georged]

@ziyaindia you're trying to create a case for a contact. Surely, you need to know who the contact is. How would you like to identify the contact you want to create a case for? It can be hard-coded (you need to find out guid of that contact from CRM), or you could run fetchxml with some conditions to find a contact, or you could use alternate keys. Finally, you can just create a contact before creating a case. Whatever you want. But you need to have a valid contact id, this is something that we can't help you with.

[ziyaindia]

I used Email link and get following link in my compose email window:

Eric Williams
https://localposhinc.crm.dynamics.com/main.aspx?appid=bf2a44ac-d5b8-e811-a999-000d3a1ab48b&etc=8&extraqs=formid%3dc2cd9e55-d4b4-4b55-9951-16ead79643e5&id=%7b9F3065E3-64BC-E811-A94C-000D3A4E761D%7d&pagetype=entityrecord
Sent from Mail for Windows 10

I took - 9F3065E3-64BC-E811-A94C-000D3A4E761D this id for contact

[georged]

That's id of a systemuser (etc=8), not of a contact.

[ziyaindia]

How i can find the contact id in my php script?Please help me I stuck too much.

[georged]

What contact do you want the case created for?!

[ziyaindia]

When someone submit contact us query from my website then I want to create a case in CRM

[georged]

So who would be a contact in this scenario? Are you going to prompt them for first/last name and create contact at the same time? Then instead of

$guid = '9F3065E3-64BC-E811-A94C-000D3A4E761D';

you'd want something like

$contact = $service->entity( 'contact' );
$contact->firstname = 'John';
$contact->lastname = 'Doe';
$contact->emailaddress1 = 'john.doe@example.com';
$guid = $contact->create();

Thanks
George

[ziyaindia]

Thanks for replying

If I already having a contact in my CRM with email id 'john.doe@example.com', How can i get contact id for this?
Can I use this contact Id to create a case?

Regards,
Ziya

[georged]

Ziya,

you would have to use fetchxml to search and locate the contact.

Thanks

[ziyaindia]

Thanks for all your help

Now I am creating note for a lead.

Note is not creating under leads

Using following code foe this

$leadId = $lead->create();

$note = $service->entity('annotation');
//echo '

';print_r($incident);echo '

';
$note->objectid = new EntityReference( 'lead', $leadId );
$note->objecttypecode = 'lead';
$note->subject = 'Note is Created From Lead';
$note->documentbody = $insuranceFile;
$note->mimetype = "text/plain";
$note->notetext = $note;
$note->filename = $insuranceFileName;
//$incident->ID = $guid;//contactid responsiblecontactid primarycontactid
$noteId = $note->create();

Thanks,
Ziya