Apex Trigger to create a contract from Asset

Question

I am currently in the process of trying to get a trigger that will create a new contract each time an asset is created (within a certain product family) When our salesforce was setup our consultant decided against using normal assets and setup a new object for assets hence the custom asset object.

I have managed to create the trigger to create the contract but the problem i am encountering is getting the trigger to link the newly created asset and contract together.

Below is a the code im using any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

trigger create_contract_from_custom_asset on Asset_Custom__c (before insert) {

for(Asset_Custom__c a: trigger.new){

    If(a.Product_Family__c <> 'Consumables' && a.Product_Family__c <> 'Hardware'){

        string newasId = a.id;        
    Contract[] Con = new Contract[]{};
    Contract c = new Contract();

    c.AccountId = a.Account__c;
    c.StartDate = a.Purchase_Date__c;  
    c.Asset__c = a.name;  

    con.add(c);

    Insert con; 

    }

} }

Answer 1

1) If you want to link a newly created record with a different one then you'd have to use the former record's id, hence you need an after insert trigger. 2) Never use DML statements inside a loop

trigger create_contract_from_custom_asset on Asset_Custom__c (after insert) {
  Contract[] Con = new Contract[]{};
for(Asset_Custom__c a: trigger.new){

    If(a.Product_Family__c <> 'Consumables' && a.Product_Family__c <> 'Hardware'){

      Contract c = new Contract();
      c.AccountId = a.Account__c;
      c.StartDate = a.Purchase_Date__c;  
      c.Asset__c = a.name;  
      // I added a new field linktoasset__c which is of type lookup relationship
      c.LinkToAsset__c = a.id

    con.add(c);

    }
} 

  insert con;
}