Finding Lookup item numerical values in MS Dynamics

Question

I have a site powered by ExpressionEngine 2.5.x, using Freeform, integrated to post form data to MS Dynamics CRM 2011. The extension is nicely scalable, I can change the mapping, all that excellent stuff. My problem is how to find mapping values for Lookup fields in MS Dynamics.

I am trying to map form fields from the site forms, into MS Dynamics. Some of the fields are Lookups, in MS Dynamics. Our mapping calls out the numerical value of the Lookup item, rather than its name. (Which is good, because ppl can change the text names in the MS Dynamics console without breaking the mapping.)

My question is: I know how to find the actual back-end field names of form fields within MS Dynamics. But how to I find the numerical values of the picklist items and lookup fields? Say I have a Lookup field, for Lead Source (called campaignid). The items are:

• web
• online
• radio ad
• flyer
• word of mouth
• other

I know that when I edit options in an option set, I can see their numerical value. Where can I edit options in a lookup field? I've tried looking under Settings > Customizations > Customize the System, but didn't see anything called lookup.

Answer 1

Lookups are pointers to entities. They do not have numerical values like regular option sets. So I guess that you will have entity called Campaign (or lead) so you can check which campaigns exist in the crm DB where each entity will have view in the DB.

Answer 2

Let's see if i understand your question. You don't have a Lookup option like Option Set because a lookup is consequence of a relationship 1:N between two entities. So for edit a lookup you need edit a record of a entity. In lookup fields you don't have numerical values, you have guid that represent individually a record, so in a record a lookup is stored in database as a guid. Check this video.

Check here how find this guid with the record open.

Answer 3

A look-up field is, roughly speaking a pointer to en entity (in C# it's referred to as EntityReference instead of Entity) and it consist mainly of a guid and logical name of something.

Usually, in the code, when you have an entity, in order to access the fields of its lookup-connected entity, you'll need to make an extra query for that.

So, if you have a Contact instance and need to see the address of its parent customer, you'll have to get the guid and logical name (in this case it'll be Account) and retrieve the data for it separately.

EDIT:

Suppose that you have created an instance of Contact entity and you'd like to access its lastName field. Then you can simply refer to it as follows.

var value = Xrm.Page.getAttribute(“lastName”).getValue();

On the same form, there's also a field that refers to an Account instance (its name is parentCustomerId. Suppose now that you'd like to get the fullName field of the Account. One could expect the following to work.

var account = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("parentCusomterId").getValue();
var name = account.getAttribute("fullName").getValue();

However, that's not going to work, because the parentCutomerId is a look-up field. It means that it only contains a guid (a pointer, a reference) identifying an other entity. You'll have to use it (the guid) in order to fetch the instance that the look-up is "mentioning". Then you'll be able to check it's properties.