Duplicate Contact? (C#/SDK question)

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Community Member

I want to accomplish this feat in programming in C# for CRM.

Check if the contact exists, if it does not, then create the contact.
The conflict I'm facing is if the contact exists, only the last name is a required field which makes checking the data challenging and there may be more than 1 contact that might be erroneously entered.

Here's my code, I can only figure out how to create a GUID using the last name but Not on more than one field. Can someone shed some light on this and provide your thoughts from those who has more experience in this field?

How can I check on more than just the last name? Perhaps 'lastname' , 'firstname' , and 'Company'?

Thanks in advance!

string firstName= "John";
string lastName = "Doe";

 var ContactValue = GetEntityCollection(_service, "contact", "lastname", lastName, new ColumnSet("contactid", "lastname")); //does it return anything
                                Guid contactpersonid = (Guid)ContactValue[0].Id;
                                salesorder["neu_orderedbyid"] = new EntityReference("contact", new Guid(contactpersonid.ToString()));

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)

All responses (12)

Answers (2)

Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

bump

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
a33ik 84,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (0)

Report

Hello,

Please provide code for GetEntityCollection method.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

ThomasN 3,190 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Tekwise, Thank you for reaching out.

Why not use the existing duplicate detection rules in CRM? You can access those through the SDK and do something with the results like display error or ask for more information.

Let me know if this is something that might work? I am eager to help.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report
[quote user="Andrii Butenko"]

Hello,

Please provide code for GetEntityCollection method.

[/quote]

private static EntityCollection GetEntityCollection(IOrganizationService service, string entityName, string attributeName, string attributeValue, ColumnSet cols) { QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression { EntityName = entityName, ColumnSet = cols, Criteria = new FilterExpression { Conditions = { new ConditionExpression { AttributeName = attributeName, Operator = ConditionOperator.Equal, Values = { attributeValue } } } } }; return service.RetrieveMultiple(query); }

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

[quote user="ThomasN"]

Hi Tekwise, Thank you for reaching out.

Why not use the existing duplicate detection rules in CRM? You can access those through the SDK and do something with the results like display error or ask for more information.

Let me know if this is something that might work? I am eager to help.

[/quote]

Hi Tom - how can I get started? Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

a33ik 84,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (1)

Report
You can use following code for searching my multiple fields:

private static EntityCollection GetEntityCollection(IOrganizationService service, string entityName, string[] attributes, object[] attributeValues, ColumnSet cols) { QueryByAttribute query = new QueryByAttribute(entityName) { ColumnsSet = cols }; for(var i = 0; i < attributes.length; i++) { query.AddAttributeValue(attributes[i], attributeValues[i]); } return service.RetrieveMultiple(query); }

Here is usage sample based on your code:

string firstName= "John"; string lastName = "Doe"; var ContactValue = GetEntityCollection(_service, "contact", new string[] { "firstname", "lastname" }, new object[] { firstName, lastName }, new ColumnSet("contactid", "lastname")); //does it return anything

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

ThomasN 3,190 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Tekwise,

First you will need to setup Duplicate Detection Rules in Settings > Data Management > Duplicate Detection Rules. Those rules are an entity that you can retrieve records from that would indicate duplicates.

You can then use "Retrieve" Method to pull back the duplicates found during creation (Add) of that record. Using the CHM in the SDK was big help working through this. Below is the link to the TechNet article on this as well.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh210213(v=crm.7).aspx

May not fit your scenario Andrii provided a great sample as well.

Let me know if this works.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

I tried this but I get an error once it gets to this part. It cannot create a guid using the combination?

"error message: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection."

var ContactValue = GetEntityMultipleCollections(_service, "contact", new string[] { "firstname", "lastname" }, new object[] { firstName, lastName },
new ColumnSet("contactid", "lastname")); //does it return anything

Guid contactpersonid = (Guid)ContactValue[0].Id;

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

[quote user="ThomasN"]

Hi Tekwise,

First you will need to setup Duplicate Detection Rules in Settings > Data Management > Duplicate Detection Rules. Those rules are an entity that you can retrieve records from that would indicate duplicates.

You can then use "Retrieve" Method to pull back the duplicates found during creation (Add) of that record. Using the CHM in the SDK was big help working through this. Below is the link to the TechNet article on this as well.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh210213(v=crm.7).aspx

May not fit your scenario Andrii provided a great sample as well.

Let me know if this works.

[/quote]

Thanks - ill check this out!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

a33ik 84,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (0)

Report

Hello,

That means that no contacts were returned based on your criteria.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No