Netsuite: How to attach custom fields to sales orders

Question

The documentation for Netsuite is quite lacking, they cover the basics and then let you loose to explore. Anyone without a vast knowledge of PHP trying to use their php toolkit would be on their knees begging for mercy.

At any point throughout this whole project it's been trail and error and trying to make sense out of everything until stuff started to work.

I'm stumped on assigning custom fields to sales orders, I know it has to be an object of an object of an object in order for it to tier down the xml for the soap to take over but what with what with what?

I have some code I worked that is getting somewhere but it is complaining it's not the right RecordRef type. If anyone worked with Netsuite and feels my pain please lend me your knowledge before I pull out all my hair.

Thanks in advance.

Code:

$customFields = array('internalId' => 'custbody_new_die_yn','value' => array('name' => 'custbody_new_die_yn','internalId' => 'NO'));
$customObject = new nsComplexObject("SelectCustomFieldRef");
$customObject->setFields($customFields);

$salesOrderFields = array(

    'entity'        => new nsRecordRef(array('internalId' => $userId)),
    'paymentMethod' => array('internalId' => 8),
    'ccNumber'      => 4111111111111111,
    'ccExpireDate'  => date("c", mktime(0,0,0,11,1,2011)),
    'ccName'        => 'Test Testerson',
    'itemList'  => array(
        'item'  => array(
            'item'      => array('internalId' => 5963),
            'quantity'  => 5
        )
    ),
    'department' => new nsRecordRef(array('internalId' => 1)),
    'class' => new nsRecordRef(array('internalId' => 47)),
    'customFieldList' => $customObject
);

I have found that I have to prototype all of my Netsuite web services interactions in Java using the Axis generated interface to figure out how to build the SOAP queries correctly. Only after I have it working in Java do I try to translate that to the PHP toolkit. Whenever possible I avoid PHP with netsuite. — Craig, Jan 14 '11 at 15:00

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '11 at 16:47

I am not familiar using PHP with Netsuite but I have done a good amount of c#/.net Netsuite work. As Craig mentioned I find it much easier using a language such c#/.net with a Visual Studio generated interface to figure out what is available in the Netsuite SuiteTalk web service API.

There is a fair amount of documentation around this stuff in the NetSuite Help Center - by no means everythign you will need but a good start. Netsuite Help Center

Check out the SuiteFlex/SuiteTalk (Web Services) section specifically this page on Ids & References. Using Internal Ids, External Ids, and References

With that said I will try to help with a .net example & explanation of adding a custom field to a Sales Order.

Here are a few examples of adding different CustomFieldRefs:

//A list object to store all the customFieldRefs
List<CustomFieldRef> oCustomFieldRefList = new List<CustomFieldRef>();

//List or Record Type reference
SelectCustomFieldRef custbody_XXX_freight_terms = new SelectCustomFieldRef();
custbody_XXX_freight_terms.internalId = "custbody_XXX_freight_terms";
ListOrRecordRef oFreightTermsRecordRef = new ListOrRecordRef();
oFreightTermsRecordRef.internalId = <internalId of specific record in Netsuite>;
//See the References link above for more info on this - trying to figure out typeId caused me a lot of pain.
oFreightTermsRecordRef.typeId = <internalId of the List Record Type in Netsuite>; 
custbody_XXX_freight_terms.value = oFreightTermsRecordRef;
oCustomFieldRefList.Add(custbody_XXX_freight_terms);

//Freeform text sorta field            
StringCustomFieldRef objStringCustomFieldRef = new StringCustomFieldRef();
objStringCustomFieldRef.internalId = "custbody_XXX_tracking_link";
objStringCustomFieldRef.value = "StringValue";
oCustomFieldRefList.Add(objStringCustomFieldRef);

//Checkbox field type
BooleanCustomFieldRef custbody_XXX_if_fulfilled = new BooleanCustomFieldRef();
custbody_XXX_if_fulfilled.internalId = "custbody_XXX_if_fulfilled";
custbody_XXX_if_fulfilled.value = true;
oCustomFieldRefList.Add(custbody_XXX_if_fulfilled);

//By far the most complicated example a multi-select list referencing other records in Netsuite
MultiSelectCustomFieldRef custrecord_XXX_transaction_link = new MultiSelectCustomFieldRef();
//internal id of field you are updating
custrecord_XXX_transaction_link.internalId = "custrecord_XXX_transaction_link";

List<ListOrRecordRef> oListOrRecordRefList = new List<ListOrRecordRef>();

ListOrRecordRef oListOrRecordRefItemFulfillment = new ListOrRecordRef();
oListOrRecordRefItemFulfillment.name = "Item Fulfillment";
oListOrRecordRefItemFulfillment.internalId = <ItemFulfillmentInternalId>;
//Item Fulfillment is record type (Transaction -30) - this is from the above Reference links
oListOrRecordRefItemFulfillment.typeId = "-30";
oListOrRecordRefList.Add(oListOrRecordRefItemFulfillment);

ListOrRecordRef oListOrRecordRefSalesOrder = new ListOrRecordRef();
oListOrRecordRefSalesOrder.name = "Sales Order";
oListOrRecordRefSalesOrder.internalId = <SalesOrderInternalId>;
//Sales Order is record type (Transaction -30) - this is from the above Reference links
oListOrRecordRefSalesOrder.typeId = "-30";
oListOrRecordRefList.Add(oListOrRecordRefSalesOrder);

//Add array of all the ListOrRecordRefs to the MultiSelectCustomFieldRef        
custrecord_XXX_transaction_link.value = oListOrRecordRefList.ToArray();
oCustomFieldRefList.Add(custrecord_XXX_transaction_link);

//And then add all these to the Custom Record List (Array) on the Sales Order Record
objSalesOrder.customFieldList = oCustomFieldRefList.ToArray();

From what I can tell in your above example I think your issue is with the ListOrRecordRef typeId. Its hard to tell from your example what typeId you are referencing but if you can figure that out and set the TypeId on your SelectCustomFieldRef I think that should fix your issue.

I figured this out probably 3-4 days after I posted the question through the netsuite usergroup, finally someone pulled through. It was exactly what you thought the ListOrRecordRef was the issue after I was told how NS would only accept it, it became easy to understand why NS accepts it that way. Thanks for the detailed info, someone will be searching for this one day and find this useful and that is why I am marking this answered. Thanks again. — Dreamcube, Feb 23 '11 at 18:11
@Rick, do you happen to know if it is possible to identify the typeID programmatically? In other words, by knowing the name of the custom field, is there a way to determine the currently-associated CustomList? — digitalsteez, Dec 30 '14 at 22:01
Note that for StringCustomFieldRef it should actually be the scriptId property not the internalId. Here is how that line would now look: objStringCustomFieldRef.scriptId = "custbody_XXX_tracking_link"; — theark40, Aug 11 '16 at 12:05

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 24 '19 at 00:53

The Custom Field Ref Internal ID is the reference ID on the record you are trying to update. This can be found in the Transaction Body fields for that record within Netsuite.

The Internal ID for the ListOrRecordRef is the internal ID for the actual list item or record that you want to attach to the previously mentioned record

The typeID for the ListOrRecordRef is the internal ID for the custom list/record. This is the parent ID for the previous internal ID, and is not inherently tied to the original record.

Netsuite: How to attach custom fields to sales orders

2 Answers2