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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived) / Connections vs Relatio...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Connections vs Relationships

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Posted on by Community Member

 

Hello,

          I wanted to see if anyone had some insight into relationships vs connections. Is there a reason to use one over the other? From what I understand connections are much more flexible in their actions. I also noticed that there are many predefined connection roles whereas when I bring up a relationship there is a field for roles but not roles are available in the dropdown. Can anyone comment on why that is and how we would add roles to the relationship if necessary?

 

 

Sincerely,

Sean Burke

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  • Suggested answer
    CRMInnovation.com Profile Picture
    CRMInnovation.com on at

    Sean,

    Go with Connections. Relationships in 2011 are just a hold over from the previous versions of CRM when this was the only way to describe non parent child relationships. It is only in the system to support previous environments.

    Connections were added in 2011 and are much more versatile.

    There is no reason in a new environment to use Relationships.

    community.dynamics.com/.../connections-role-in-crm-2011.aspx

    Jerry

  • Mark Spiers Profile Picture
    Mark Spiers 1,085 on at

    Completly agree with jerry, and dont forget, you can do some pretty cool stuff with connections and dialogs.

  • Ramesh Xavier Profile Picture
    Ramesh Xavier Microsoft Employee on at

    Hi Sean,

     

    You can certainly use Connections over RelationShip roles. Relationship roles are limited to only Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities, but Connection Roles are more resourceful.

     

    Answering you question about no roles being available in the drop down.

    You will need to create a new relationship role and specific where you need it to appear- Once created within Settings > Business Management > RelationShip role, these roles will be available in the drop downs when you create a new relation ship

     

    Hope that helps

     

    Regards,
    Ramesh

    CRM Support Engineer

     

     

  • Sumeet Maheshwari Profile Picture
    Sumeet Maheshwari 10 on at

    I am a newbie but I thought that this thread would help asking my question since it is somewhat related.

    In an hierarchy, if an account plays more that one role , I am getting a circular reference error when I try connecting an account with itself  but in a different role context. Can someone shed light on this one. I am using Connections instead of Relationships as advised above.

  • Sumeet Maheshwari Profile Picture
    Sumeet Maheshwari 10 on at

    If it were to help , here is the error I am getting.

    Unhandled Exception: System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[[Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.OrganizationServiceFault, Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35]]: Cannot connect a record to itself.Detail:

    <OrganizationServiceFault xmlns:i="www.w3.org/.../XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="schemas.microsoft.com/.../Contracts">

     <ErrorCode>-2147188201</ErrorCode>

     <ErrorDetails xmlns:d2p1="schemas.datacontract.org/.../System.Collections.Generic" />

     <Message>Cannot connect a record to itself.</Message>

     <Timestamp>2012-11-26T19:32:32.682835Z</Timestamp>

     <InnerFault i:nil="true" />

     <TraceText i:nil="true" />

    </OrganizationServiceFault>

    So if an account plays more than role in a hierarchy , is the solution to create sub accounts for each role to  leverage connections?

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