Writing associate & disassociate request using Web API

Associate and disassociate request is used to link and unlink records having relationship. We can link and unlink records depending on their relationship type for example, We can link records having 1:N using update request (setting lookup). In our earlier sample we demonstrated how we can update lookup field using Web API. In this post we are going to discuss associating and disassociating N:N relationship.

Let’s say we have a custom entity called Building and which is related to account using N:N relationship, so a single account can be related to multiple buildings, similarly single building can be related to multiple accounts.
association3

So if we need to associate account record with building entity record, we can write POST request using following syntax can pass target record id as object:

[OrganizationURL]+"/api/data/v8.0/accounts(0370F447-C9B2-E511-80DF-3863BB35DED8)/him_building_account/$ref"

Where him_building_account is the name of the relationship, we can check it by opening N:N relationship record:
associate1
We can use following code in our java script web resource for associate request:

function associateRequest(accountID, buildingID) {
    var associate = {
        "@odata.id": serverURL + "/api/data/v8.0/him_buildings(" + buildingID + ")"
    };
    var serverURL = Xrm.Page.context.getClientUrl();
    var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
    req.open("POST", serverURL + "/api/data/v8.0/accounts(" + accountID + ")/him_building_account/$ref", true);
    req.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
    req.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
    req.setRequestHeader("OData-MaxVersion", "4.0");
    req.setRequestHeader("OData-Version", "4.0");
    req.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if (this.readyState == 4 /* complete */ ) {
            req.onreadystatechange = null;
            if (this.status == 204) {
                alert('Record Associated');
            } else {
                var error = JSON.parse(this.response).error;
                alert(error.message);
            }
        }
    };
    req.send(associate);
}

And to disassociate records we can write following request using DELETE method:

function disassociateRequest(accountID, buildingID) {

    var serverURL = Xrm.Page.context.getClientUrl();
    var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
    req.open("DELETE",serverURL+"/api/data/v8.0/accounts("+accountID+")/him_building_account/$ref?$id="+serverURL+"/api/data/v8.0/him_buildings("+buildingID+")", true);
    req.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
    req.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
    req.setRequestHeader("OData-MaxVersion", "4.0");
    req.setRequestHeader("OData-Version", "4.0");
    req.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if (this.readyState == 4 /* complete */ ) {
            req.onreadystatechange = null;
            if (this.status == 204) {
                alert('Record Disassociated');
            } else {
                var error = JSON.parse(this.response).error;
                alert(error.message);
            }
        }
    };
    req.send();
}

Note: You can get complete system and custom entity reference for Web API using
[Organizaiton URL] + “/api/data/v8.0/

Stay tuned for more Web API Samples !!

13 thoughts on “Writing associate & disassociate request using Web API

  1. Pingback: Writing associate & disassociate request using Web API - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Community

  2. Alagunellaikumar

    Hi
    When I use the above approach I am getting error
    Invalid role specified for entity “contact” in “relationshipname” relatioship

    Reply
        1. Private

          I already referred link which you provided before posting query on you blog. In that link they have given example for “1 to many relationship”. I want to perform same for “N to N relationship”. I tried that example but not working. Is there any other solution?

          Thanks!

          Reply
  3. Aaliya

    Hi,
    Were you able to find out how to associate multiple data .
    @HimBap,The doc you shared mentioned to link many records to one..Is there a way to associate multiple records to multiple contact at once.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Habeeb Mk Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *