CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I am using API's to load data into CiviCRM. This works fine, but I have one problem: how do I add an employer to a contact with the contact_add API? I can update the employer_id field, but that does not show in CiviCRM because the organization_name is still empty. However, if I add organization_name in the API, it updates the name of the contact and not the name of the employer 
Can you help me?
Regards
Erik

Hi Donald,
that is exactly what I have done  I just have to add the bit that takes care of the new multi-language support.
What is the best way or place to post the code so that others can benefit whenever they encounter the same problem?
regards
Erik

I have developed a function to update the employer data in the file civicrm_contact. In this specific example, I have a large import file containing data from a legacy system in a separate MySQL table. I take 2 steps to create the contact data in CiviCRM, because I need to build relationships so I have to have the civicrm contact_id. I store this in the source table during my first read. When I build the relationships, I also update the employer data in the contact file:

   // Connect to the database to update employer data in contact table:
   $udbc = new mysqli($host, $user, $password, $databse);

   // Only if any relations present in source table:
   if (!empty($relatie_met1) and !empty($relatietype1)) {
   
      // Set relationshiptype:
      $relationship_type_id = NULL;
      switch ($relatietype1) {
         case "Employee":
            $relationship_type_id = 4;
            break;
         case "Household":
            $relationship_type_id = 7;
            break;
         case "Contact":
            $relationship_type_id = 8;
            break;
         case "Social worker":
            $relationship_type_id = 9;
            break;
         case "Projectpartner":
            $relationship_type_id = 12;
            break;
         case "Child":
            $relationship_type_id = 13;
            break;
         case "Relative":
            $relationship_type_id = 14;
            break;
         case "Rents with institution":
            $relationship_type_id = 15;
            break;
         case "Looking for house":
            $relationship_type_id = 16;
            break;
      } // ENDswitch($relatietype1)
      
      // Retrieve id of relation_b:
      $get_id = "SELECT civicrm_id, name FROM demo1 WHERE id = $relatie_met1";
      $r_id = mysqli_query($dbc, $get_id);
      if (mysqli_num_rows($r_id) == 1) {
         list($relatie_id_b, $employer) = mysqli_fetch_array($r_id, MYSQLI_NUM);
      }   
 
      $today= date('Ymd');
   
      // Parameter array forCiviCRM API to add relationship:   
      $params = array(
                    'contact_id_a'             => $civicrm_id,
                    'contact_id_b'             => $relatie_id_b,
                    'relationship_type_id'  => $relationship_type_id,
             'start_date'          => $today,
                    'is_active'            => 1
                    );

      // CallCiviCRM API to add relationship:
       $relatie = & civicrm_relationship_create( $params );
       if( civicrm_error( $relatie)) {
         $errors[$i] = "Error building relationship with : ".$civicrm_id." to contact : "
            .$relatie_id_b." : ". $relatie['error_message'];
         $i++;
   }
      
   // If employer relation than update civicrm_contact table with employer data:      
        if ($relationship_type_id == 4) {

         // Build and execute update query:
         $update = "UPDATE civicrm_contact SET organization_name_nl_NL = '$employer', employer_id = '$relatie_id_b' WHERE
               id = $civicrm_id";
         $ru = $udbc->query($update);
         }
      } // END if ($relationship_type == 4)         
   } // END if (!empty($relatie_met1) and !empty($relatietype1))

Any questions or remarks, let me know!

Erik