Partner

Supported Calls

create(), delete(), describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules

You must have the “View All Data” permission to access this object via the API. All of the Partner fields are accessible in the describeSObjects() and query() calls. You cannot update() or upsert() partners via the API.
Customer Portal users can’t access this object.

Fields

Field	Details
AccountFromId	Type reference Properties Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort Description Required if OpportunityId is null. ID of the main Account in a partner relationship between two accounts. Specifying this field when creating a Partner record creates two AccountPartner objects, one for each direction of the relationship. If you specify the OpportunityId field, you can’t specify this field as well.
AccountToId	Type reference Properties Create, Filter, Group, Sort Description Required. ID of the Partner Account related to either an opportunity or an account. You must specify this field when creating an opportunity Partner or an Account Partner.
IsDeleted	Type boolean Properties Defaulted on create, Filter Description Indicates whether the object has been moved to the Recycle Bin (`true`) or not (`false`). Label is Deleted.
IsPrimary	Type boolean Properties Create, Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort Description Valid for Opportunity Partners only. Indicates that the account is the primary partner for the opportunity. Only one account can be marked as primary for an opportunity. If you set this field to 1 (`true`) upon insert of a new opportunity partner, any other primary partners for that opportunity will automatically have this field set to 0 (`false`). Label is Primary.
OpportunityId	Type reference Properties Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort Description Required if AccountFromId is null. ID of the Opportunity in a partner relationship between an Account and an Opportunity. Specifying this field when creating a record creates an OpportunityPartner. If you specify the AccountFromId field, you can’t specify this field as well.
Role	Type picklist Properties Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort, Description UserRole that the account has towards the related opportunity or account, such as consultant or distributor.

Roles

In the Salesforce user interface, system administrators can set up the valid role values and their corresponding reverse role values in the PartnerRole object. Each account in the relationship is assigned a Role (such as Consultant or Distributor) designating that account’s role towards the related account or opportunity.

Creating an Account-Opportunity Partner Relationship

When you create a partner relationship between an account and an opportunity (when you create a Partner object and specify the OpportunityId field), the API automatically creates an OpportunityPartner with the corresponding values:

The value of the Partner field AccountToId maps to the value of the OpportunityPartner field AccountToId.
The values of the OpportunityId, Role, and IsPrimary fields in both objects are the same.
If you set the IsPrimary value to 1 (true) upon insert of a new OpportunityPartner, any other existing primary partners for that opportunity will automatically have the IsPrimary value set to 0 (false).

This mapping allows the API to manage the objects and their relationship efficiently.

Creating an Account-Account Partner Relationship

When you create a partner relationship between two accounts (when you create a Partner object and specify the AccountFromId), the API automatically creates two AccountPartner objects, one for the forward relationship and one for the reverse. For example, if you create a Partner object with “Acme, Inc.” as the AccountFromId and “Acme Consulting” as the AccountToId, the API automatically creates two AccountPartner objects:

The forward relationship AccountPartner with “Acme, Inc.” as the AccountFromId and “Acme Consulting” as the AccountToId.
The reverse relationship AccountPartner with “Acme Consulting” as the AccountFromId and “Acme, Inc.” as the AccountToId.
The value of the Role field in the reverse relationship AccountPartner is set to the PartnerRole object ReverseRole value associated with the value of the Role field in the forward relationship AccountPartner.