How do I update CDS Contact entity _parentcustomerid_type and _parentcustomerid_value

[DChrisPhillips]

Hi Folks,

I have automatically created an app using the CDS Contact entity as my data source resulting in the typical 3-screen phone app. Once the app was created, I added the Account entity as an additional data source and created a collection of each of the entities.

The Contact entity has a Many-to-one relationship with the Account entity. The field name on the Contact entity is _parentcustomerid_value with a field type=String and its display name is Company Name.

On my Contact entity collection, I can see _parentcustomerid_value and _parentcustomerid_type and it would appear from sample data on my trial environment that _parentcustomerid_type must equal either "account" or "contact".

My question is, how do I update these fields in the Contact entity, so that records are associated with their respective company in the Account entity? I've been unsuccessful in all my attempts to update my collection or the entities.

Here is an example of what I've been attempting (I only have two records in the Contact entity and they have separate last names, so I've explicitly filtered the one-and-only "Phillips" for simplicity sake):

Patch(colContacts, First(Filter(colContacts,lastname = "Phillips")),{_parentcustomerid_type: "account"})

My apologies if this is covered elsewhere in the PowerUser community KB. I am fairly new to PowerApps. However, in my fairly limited testing, I have had some good success creating one-to-many relationships with SharePoint lists I just don't want to go down the path of warehousing my Account/Contact data in SharePoint.

Please advise. Thanks!

PowerApps Version: 3.18042.26

[CWesener]

Adding @GregLi and @bsimons from the document and connector teams.

[bsimons]

Hello - 

Customer fields can point to two entities.  So for this type of update you need to provide two pieces of information similar to what you have below; _value and _type.  

The _parentcustomerid_type should be "accounts" or "contacts", adn the _parentcustomerid_value should be the guid of the account or contact record.

Hope this helps!

[DChrisPhillips]

<p>Hi&nbsp;<li-user login="bsimons" uid="254"></li-user>,</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Thank you for the quick reply. I've changed my Patch statement to make "account" read "accounts".</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, now I'll really show my ignorance. What would the syntax of that Patch statement look like, so that it is updating both fields simultaneously? If I'm not mistaken, you have to commit the updates simultaneously or the server will return an error message -&nbsp;<em>"Ambiguous binding is present. Resolve by sending lookup_type property"</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<pre>Patch(colContacts, LookUp(colContacts, contactid = BrowseGallery1.Selected.contactid), {_parentcustomerid_value: ThisItem.accountid, _parentcustomerid_type: "accounts"});Back()</pre>
<p>Your assistance is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Chris</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

[DChrisPhillips]

Hi @bsimons,

Thank you for the quick reply. I've changed my Patch statement to make "account" read "accounts".

So, now I'll really show my ignorance. What would the syntax of that Patch statement look like, so that it is updating both fields simultaneously? If I'm not mistaken, you have to commit the updates simultaneously or the server will return an error message - "Ambiguous binding is present. Resolve by sending lookup_type property"

Patch(colContacts, LookUp(colContacts, contactid = BrowseGallery1.Selected.contactid), {_parentcustomerid_value: ThisItem.accountid, _parentcustomerid_type: "accounts"});Back()

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Chris

[bsimons · Accepted solution]

Here is an example of what it could look like:

Patch(Contacts, LookUp(Contacts, contactid = BrowseGallery2.Selected.contactid), { _parentcustomerid_value: BrowseGallery1.Selected.accountid, _parentcustomerid_type: "accounts"})

Where "BrowseGallery1" is my list of accounts and "BrowseGallery2" is my list of contacts.

Hope this helps!

[DChrisPhillips]

Hi @bsimons,

The Patch updated the Contact entity's _parentcustomerid_value field with the GUID without error. Mission accomplished.

However, interestingly enough, the _parentcustomerid_type field still appears NULL when viewing it in my collection. Is this normal behavior? If so, I'm good-to-go.

Thank you very much!

Chris

[bsimons]

Hello - 

This is a known issue for using these types in a collection.  We are working to resolve it in the near future.

@GregLi as FYI

[schphi]

Hello,

I think there have been some major changes for the CDS-Connectors in the last update. Especially accessing LookUps with dots. This makes handling the data much easier. But I now face a similar problem as is stated above. In my case I want to create a new Case-Entity using the CDS-Connector. A necessary entry for that is the "Customer" field. This on the other hand (just as in the Contact entity) is an ambiguous field. It can be Account or Contact. So at a low level there is always a  _parentcustomerid_type and a _parentcustomerid_value. Using the (almost) obsolete Dynamics-Connector I have no problems in setting these values. But the CDS-Connector for Cases doesn't show me any sign of the Customer field. Is there something I have overlooked or is this simply not yet working with CDS-Connectors.

Thanks for any help.

[bsimons]

Hello - 

Thank you for the feedback.  While the recent updates make working with relationships easier, unfortunately it does not support the customer field (yet!).  If you need to use the customer field(s) then you can uncheck the feature flag in: Click "File", Click "App Settings", Click "Advanced Settings", Click Turn off "Relational data, option sets, and other new features for CDS"

Doing that will revert you back to what you had previously, and stay tuned for more updates.

@GregLias FYI

Thanks,

Brandon