Associate Two Entity Instances in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Using VB.NET

This illustration shows you how to associate two entities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 using the associate request against a known relationship.   This example will be given in VB.NET (.NET) with the Associate message against the CRM 2011 organization service.  In this example we are simply associating a contact to an account as it's parent customer using the existing "contact_customer_accounts" relationship in CRM.

You can find the relationship schema name to use in the request by going to settings - customization - your entity - relationships.  Here is an example of where to find it.

Ok, here is what the calls look like!

In VB.NET:

 Dim req As New AssociateRequest()

 'Target is the entity that you are associating your entities to.
 req.Target = New EntityReference("account", New Guid("063DE6F9-2E6B-E111-B3CA-1CC1DEF1B5FF"))

 'RelatedEntities are the entities you are associating to your target (can be more than 1 depending on type of association)
 req.RelatedEntities = New EntityReferenceCollection()
 req.RelatedEntities.Add(New EntityReference("contact", New Guid("C81416E4-9089-E111-ACD4-1CC1DEF1B5FF")))

 'The relationship schema name in CRM you are using to associate the entities. 
 'found in settings - customization - entity - relationships
 req.Relationship = New Relationship("contact_customer_accounts")

 Dim resp As AssociateResponse = DirectCast(service.Execute(req), AssociateResponse)

I hope this helps!