Relationships

Relationship steps manage the connections between Dataverse records - associating and disassociating related entities.

All four relationship steps share a common set of parameters. Entity Logical Name / Entity ID identify the primary record, Other Entity Logical Name identifies the related entity type, and Relationship Schema Name is the relationship to act on. For many-to-many relationships, Entity Role (Entity1, Entity2, or Any) disambiguates which side of a self-referential relationship the primary record plays.

Associate Relationship

Links a related record (or reference) to a primary record via a relationship.

Parameter	Description
Entity Logical Name	The primary entity type
Entity ID	The primary record ID
Other Entity Logical Name	The related entity type to associate
Relationship Schema Name	The relationship schema name
Entity	The related record/reference to associate
Entity Role	(Many-to-many) the role of the primary record: Entity1, Entity2, or Any

Example:

ASSOCIATE RELATIONSHIP
  Entity Logical Name: account
  Entity ID: Customer.Id
  Relationship Schema Name: account_contacts
  Other Entity Logical Name: contact
  Entity: NewContact

Associate Multiple Relationships

Links multiple records to a single record in one operation.

Parameter	Description
Entity Logical Name	The primary entity type
Entity ID	The primary record ID
Other Entity Logical Name	The related entity type to associate
Relationship Schema Name	The relationship schema name
Entities	Collection of related records/references to associate
Entity Role	(Many-to-many) the role of the primary record: Entity1, Entity2, or Any

This step is more efficient than calling Associate Relationship multiple times in a loop.

Example:

ASSOCIATE MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIPS
  Entity Logical Name: team
  Entity ID: SalesTeam.Id
  Relationship Schema Name: teammembership_association
  Other Entity Logical Name: systemuser
  Entities: NewTeamMembers

Disassociate Relationship

Removes the link between two records.

Parameter	Description
Entity Logical Name	The primary entity type
Entity ID	The primary record ID
Other Entity Logical Name	The related entity type to disassociate
Relationship Schema Name	The relationship schema name
Entity	The related record/reference to disassociate
Entity Role	(Many-to-many) the role of the primary record: Entity1, Entity2, or Any

Example:

DISASSOCIATE RELATIONSHIP
  Entity Logical Name: account
  Entity ID: Customer.Id
  Relationship Schema Name: account_contacts
  Other Entity Logical Name: contact
  Entity: FormerContact

Disassociate Multiple Relationships

Removes links between multiple records and a single record in one operation.

Parameter	Description
Entity Logical Name	The primary entity type
Entity ID	The primary record ID
Other Entity Logical Name	The related entity type to disassociate
Relationship Schema Name	The relationship schema name
Entities	Collection of related records/references to disassociate
Entity Role	(Many-to-many) the role of the primary record: Entity1, Entity2, or Any

Example:

DISASSOCIATE MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIPS
  Entity Logical Name: campaign
  Entity ID: Campaign.Id
  Relationship Schema Name: campaignitem_association
  Other Entity Logical Name: product
  Entities: RemovedProducts

Get Entities by Relationship

Retrieves the records related to a given record via a specific relationship. The Relationship Type determines which set of parameters applies: OneToMany or ManyToMany.

One-to-Many (OneToMany) parameters:

Parameter	Description
Relationship Type	OneToMany
Relationship Schema Name	The relationship schema name
Referenced Entity	The "one" side entity type (holds the primary record)
Referenced Entity ID	The primary record ID on the referenced side
Referencing Entity	The "many" side entity type to retrieve
Referencing Entity Properties	The columns to return on each retrieved record

Many-to-Many (ManyToMany) parameters:

Parameter	Description
Relationship Type	ManyToMany
Relationship Schema Name	The intersect relationship schema name
Entity	The primary entity type
Entity ID	The primary record ID
Other Entity	The related entity type to retrieve
Other Entity Properties	The columns to return on each retrieved record
Entity Role	The role of the primary record: Entity1, Entity2, or Any

Returns: A collection of related records.

Example - One-to-Many:

GET ENTITIES BY RELATIONSHIP
  Relationship Type: OneToMany
  Relationship Schema Name: account_contacts
  Referenced Entity: account
  Referenced Entity ID: Customer.Id
  Referencing Entity: contact
  Referencing Entity Properties: [ firstname, lastname, emailaddress1 ]
  → Store in variable: CustomerContacts

Example - Many-to-Many:

GET ENTITIES BY RELATIONSHIP
  Relationship Type: ManyToMany
  Relationship Schema Name: teammembership_association
  Entity: team
  Entity ID: SalesTeam.Id
  Other Entity: systemuser
  Other Entity Properties: [ fullname ]
  Entity Role: Any
  → Store in variable: TeamMembers

Best Practices

Use Correct Relationship Names: Always use the exact relationship schema name from Dataverse. You can find this in the entity customization area.

Batch When Possible: Use Associate Multiple / Disassociate Multiple when working with several records to improve performance.

Check Existing Relationships: Before associating, consider whether the relationship already exists to avoid duplicate relationship errors.

Handle Many-to-Many Carefully: Many-to-many relationships require using the intersect entity relationship name.