Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationshipFollow
Lucas Hewitt
Lucas HewittJan 13, 2022 09:56 PM
I have field on the contact record called “Spouse Lookup”. This is a lookup field to the contact table, …
1. Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Lucas Hewitt
Posted Jan 13, 2022 09:56 PM
I have field on the contact record called “Spouse Lookup”. This is a lookup field to the contact table, so N(Contact):1(Contact).

I can populate the field just fine on one record – Spouse A has Spouse B in the Spouse Lookup field – but when I try to add the other spouse – Spouse B has Spouse A in the Spouse Lookup field – I get the following error:

“Cannot associate records

This lookup creates a parental relationship between records and you attempted to link this record to itself. This is not allowed because it would create a circular reference. You can link this record to other records of the same type, but not the same record.”

Why is this? Can I not have two records reference each other with a referential lookup relationship?

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Lucas Hewitt
Enterprise Application Specialist
Ethnos360
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2. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Donal McCarthy
Posted Jan 14, 2022 03:10 AM
I tried this and got the same message!

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Donal McCarthy
BrightWork 365 Solution Architect
BrightWork
Galway
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3. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Lucas Hewitt
Posted Jan 14, 2022 11:26 AM
Hey Donal, thank you for replicating the issue! Now I know I’m not crazy 🤪

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Lucas Hewitt
Enterprise Application Specialist
Ethnos360
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4. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Ryan Perry
Posted Jan 14, 2022 10:51 AM
Hi Lucas.

I recall running into this years ago. If I recall, you should be able to set the relationships on the fields as referential or configurable cascading to get around this. What you cannot have is a circular referential parental hierarchy.

Give it a try and let me know if that fixes for you.​​

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Ryan Perry
Business Systems Analyst
The Helpful Bit
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5. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Lucas Hewitt
Posted Jan 14, 2022 11:07 AM
Thanks for the reply!

The relationship is already set as Referential. I tried changing it to configurable cascading setting all the options to “cascade none” but it just reverts back to referential since I basically just recreated it.

That’s what’s confusing me – it’s acting Parental while set as Referential…

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Lucas Hewitt
Enterprise Application Specialist
Ethnos360
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6. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Ryan Perry
Posted Jan 15, 2022 12:30 AM
Edited by Ryan Perry Jan 15, 2022 01:02 AM
HI Lucas….

I know this is definitely possible. If I recall, the error is actually the result of a different relationship – one of the OOB fields – though I can’t recall the specific one at the moment. To prove my point, as an example, if you create a custom entity, reciprocal relationships work fine. I’ll think on this and if I remember the workaround, will be sure to fill you in.

Fore reference:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/dynamicscrm-2016/developers-guide/gg328297(v=crm.8)?redirectedfrom=MSDN#self-referencing-one-to-many-entity-relationships

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Ryan Perry
Business Systems Analyst
The Helpful Bit
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7. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Lucas Hewitt
Posted Jan 17, 2022 10:34 AM
Thanks Ryan! Here’s hoping you can remember!

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Lucas Hewitt
Enterprise Application Specialist
Ethnos360
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8. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

SILVER CONTRIBUTOR
Vanessa Lopez
Posted Jan 18, 2022 11:20 AM
Hello,
Have you tried changing the relationship to N:N? I know it may sound odd but essentially it seems like you are trying to associate a child to a parent and then a parent to a child as a parent even though that is not the type of relationship you selected. It inherently assumes it is that way because of the N:1 association. The other way around this would be to create a grid on the Spouse B record showing the Spouse A spouses but that seems silly to me.
Good luck!

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Vanessa Lopez
Black Knight Financial Services
Jacksonville FL
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9. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Lucas Hewitt
Posted Jan 18, 2022 02:10 PM
Hey Vanessa, thanks for the response!

Stupid question – how do I set a lookup field to a N:N relationship? I know how to create the relationship itself but I can’t figure out how to change the settings for the column itself.

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Lucas Hewitt
Enterprise Application Specialist
Ethnos360
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10. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

SILVER CONTRIBUTOR
Vanessa Lopez
Posted Jan 18, 2022 07:10 PM
Hey there,
Sorry but I was testing things out finally and was not able to associate the relationship after the fact. I was hoping that would be an easy solution. You probably need to just create a small sub grid view on the form and use that with a N:N relationship. You will have to determine the best way to house the “parent” like a primary contact checkbox and then make the spouse the child. You can also make it a show/hide so the grid only shows if the primary box is not selected but you can default it to true.
Good Luck!

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Vanessa Lopez
Black Knight Financial Services
Jacksonville FL
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11. RE: Issue with reciprocal lookup field for spouses – can’t associate records due to parental relationship

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Lucas Hewitt
Posted Jan 18, 2022 09:59 PM
No worries! Thank you for testing that out for me!

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Lucas Hewitt
Enterprise Application Specialist
Ethnos360
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