Unlink Business Contacts from an Account

To unlink one or more Business Contacts from an Account object, first set the Parent Entity EntryID property of the Business Contact to an empty String. The following C# and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) examples show how to unlink a Business Contact from an Account object.

C#

  private void UnlinkContactToAccount()
        {

            Outlook.ApplicationClass _app = new Outlook.ApplicationClass();
            Outlook.Application olApp = (Outlook.Application)_app;
            Outlook.NameSpace olNameSpace = _app.GetNamespace("MAPI");
            Outlook.Folders folders = olNameSpace.Session.Folders;
            Outlook.Folder bcmRootFolder = (Outlook.Folder)folders["Business Contact Manager"];
            Outlook.UserProperty userProp;

            Outlook.Folder accounts = (Outlook.Folder)bcmRootFolder.Folders["Accounts"];
            Outlook.ContactItem newAccount = (Outlook.ContactItem)accounts.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Account");
            newAccount.FullName = "Sara Hettich";
            newAccount.FileAs = "Sara";
            newAccount.Save();

            string accEntryID = newAccount.EntryID;

            Outlook.Folder businessContacts = (Outlook.Folder)bcmRootFolder.Folders["Business Contacts"];
            Outlook.ContactItem newContact1 = (Outlook.ContactItem)businessContacts.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Contact");
            newContact1.FullName = "Hao Chen";
            newContact1.FileAs = "Chen";

            if (newContact1.UserProperties["Parent Entity EntryID"] == null)
            {
                userProp = newContact1.UserProperties.Add("Parent Entity EntryID", Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlUserPropertyType.olText, false, false);
                userProp.Value = accEntryID;
            }

            newContact1.Account = newAccount.FileAs;
            newContact1.Save();

            string contactEntryID = newContact1.EntryID;

            if (newAccount.UserProperties["PrimaryContactEntryID"] == null)
            {
                userProp = newAccount.UserProperties.Add("PrimaryContactEntryID", Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlUserPropertyType.olText, false, false);
                userProp.Value = contactEntryID;
            }
            
            newAccount.Save();

            newContact1.UserProperties["Parent Entity EntryID"].Value = String.Empty;
            newContact1.Account = String.Empty;
            newContact1.Save();

        }

VBA

  Sub UnlinkContactsToAccount()

   Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
   Dim objNS As Outlook.NameSpace
   Dim olFolders As Outlook.Folders
   Dim bcmRootFolder As Outlook.Folder
   Dim bcmAccountsFldr As Outlook.Folder
   Dim bcmContactsFldr As Outlook.Folder
   Dim newAcct As Outlook.ContactItem
   Dim newContact1 As Outlook.ContactItem
   Dim newContact2 As Outlook.ContactItem
   Dim newContact3 As Outlook.ContactItem
   Dim userProp As Outlook.UserProperty

   Set olApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
   Set objNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
   Set olFolders = objNS.Session.Folders
   Set bcmRootFolder = olFolders("Business Contact Manager")
   Set bcmAccountsFldr = bcmRootFolder.Folders("Accounts")
   Set newAcct = bcmAccountsFldr.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Account")

   newAcct.FullName = "Wide World Importers"
   newAcct.FileAs = "Wide World Importers"
   newAcct.Save

   Set bcmContactsFldr = bcmRootFolder.Folders("Business Contacts")

   Set newContact1 = bcmContactsFldr.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Contact")
   newContact1.FullName = "John Smith"
   newContact1.FileAs = "John Smith"
   
   If (newContact1.UserProperties("Parent Entity EntryID") Is Nothing) Then
        Set userProp = newContact1.UserProperties.Add("Parent Entity EntryID", olText, False, False)
        userProp.Value = newAcct.EntryID
   End If

   newContact1.Save

   Set newContact2 = bcmContactsFldr.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Contact")
   newContact2.FullName = "Rajesh Rotti"
   newContact2.FileAs = "Rajesh Rotti"
   
   If (newContact2.UserProperties("Parent Entity EntryID") Is Nothing) Then
        Set userProp = newContact2.UserProperties.Add("Parent Entity EntryID", olText, False, False)
        userProp.Value = newAcct.EntryID
   End If
   
   newContact2.Save

   Set newContact3 = bcmContactsFldr.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Contact")
   newContact3.FullName = "Isabel Martins"
   newContact3.FileAs = "Isabel Martins"
   
   If (newContact3.UserProperties("Parent Entity EntryID") Is Nothing) Then
        Set userProp = newContact3.UserProperties.Add("Parent Entity EntryID", olText, False, False)
        userProp.Value = newAcct.EntryID
   End If
   
   newContact3.Save

   If (newAcct.UserProperties("PrimaryContactEntryID") Is Nothing) Then
        Set userProp = newAcct.UserProperties.Add("PrimaryContactEntryID", olText, False, False)
        userProp.Value = newContact3.EntryID
   End If
   
   newAcct.Save

   newContact3.ItemProperties("Parent Entity EntryID").Value = ""
   newContact3.Save

   newContact2.ItemProperties("Parent Entity EntryID").Value = ""
   newContact2.Save

   newContact1.ItemProperties("Parent Entity EntryID").Value = ""
   newContact1.Save

   Set newAcct = Nothing
   Set newContact3 = Nothing
   Set newContact2 = Nothing
   Set newContact1 = Nothing
   Set bcmContactsFldr = Nothing
   Set bcmAccountsFldr = Nothing
   Set bcmRootFolder = Nothing
   Set olFolders = Nothing
   Set objNS = Nothing
   Set olApp = Nothing

End Sub 

See Also

Link Business Contacts to an Account | 2007 Office System: Updated Developer Content