Unable to create entity civicrm_contact: Entity property civi_user doesn't support writing.

[EDIT] Here is a barebones simple component, which can be executed manually from the components screen. It takes two text parameters (First Name and Last Name). If successful it displays the created CiviCRM contact ID as a site message.

{ "rules_create_contact_in_civicrm" : {
    "LABEL" : "Create contact in CiviCRM",
    "PLUGIN" : "rule",
    "OWNER" : "rules",
    "REQUIRES" : [ "rules" ],
    "USES VARIABLES" : {
      "first_name" : { "label" : "First Name", "type" : "text" },
      "last_name" : { "label" : "Last Name", "type" : "text" }
    },
    "DO" : [
      { "entity_create" : {
          "USING" : {
            "type" : "civicrm_contact",
            "param_contact_type" : "1",
            "param_civi_user" : [ "" ],
            "param_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_contact_sub_type" : [ "" ],
            "param_do_not_email" : [ "" ],
            "param_do_not_phone" : [ "" ],
            "param_do_not_mail" : [ "" ],
            "param_do_not_sms" : [ "" ],
            "param_do_not_trade" : [ "" ],
            "param_is_opt_out" : [ "" ],
            "param_legal_identifier" : [ "" ],
            "param_external_identifier" : [ "" ],
            "param_sort_name" : [ "" ],
            "param_display_name" : [ "" ],
            "param_nick_name" : [ "" ],
            "param_legal_name" : [ "" ],
            "param_image_URL" : [ "" ],
            "param_preferred_communication_method" : [ "" ],
            "param_preferred_language" : [ "" ],
            "param_preferred_mail_format" : [ "" ],
            "param_hash" : [ "" ],
            "param_api_key" : [ "" ],
            "param_first_name" : [ "first-name" ],
            "param_middle_name" : [ "" ],
            "param_last_name" : [ "last-name" ],
            "param_prefix_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_suffix_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_formal_title" : [ "" ],
            "param_communication_style_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_email_greeting_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_email_greeting_custom" : [ "" ],
            "param_email_greeting_display" : [ "" ],
            "param_postal_greeting_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_postal_greeting_custom" : [ "" ],
            "param_postal_greeting_display" : [ "" ],
            "param_addressee_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_addressee_custom" : [ "" ],
            "param_addressee_display" : [ "" ],
            "param_job_title" : [ "" ],
            "param_gender_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_birth_date" : [ "" ],
            "param_is_deceased" : [ "" ],
            "param_deceased_date" : [ "" ],
            "param_household_name" : [ "" ],
            "param_primary_contact_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_organization_name" : [ "" ],
            "param_sic_code" : [ "" ],
            "param_user_unique_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_created_date" : [ "" ],
            "param_modified_date" : [ "" ],
            "param_source" : [ "" ],
            "param_employer_id" : [ "" ],
            "param_is_deleted" : [ "" ],
            "param_current_employer" : [ "" ],
            "param_dupe_check" : [ "" ],
            "param_civicrm_user" : [ "" ]
          },
          "PROVIDE" : { "entity_created" : { "entity_created" : "Created entity" } }
        }
      },
      { "drupal_message" : { "message" : "Contact created with ID [entity-created:id]" } }
    ]
  }
}

Here is the result from running this component on a fresh install of Drupal/CiviCRM:

0 ms Executing action rule: Create contact in CiviCRM.
0.591 ms Evaluating the action component_rules_create_contact_in_civicrm.
" Evaluating rule Create contact in CiviCRM. 
0 ms Evaluating rule Create contact in CiviCRM.
0.143 ms Evaluating conditions of rule Create contact in CiviCRM. 
0.152 ms AND evaluated to TRUE.
" Rule Create contact in CiviCRM fires. 
0 ms Rule Create contact in CiviCRM fires.
3.969 ms Evaluating the action entity_create.
5.418 ms Unable to create entity civicrm_contact": Entity property civi_user doesn't support writing.
7.183 ms Unable to evaluate action entity_create. 
8.951 ms Evaluating the action drupal_message. 
9.074 ms Rule Create contact in CiviCRM has fired.
9.267 ms Finished evaluation of rule Create contact in CiviCRM.
10.3 ms Finished executing of action rule: Create contact in CiviCRM.

@markusa I'm on 4.6.9 in the dev sandbox that I am working with. I could upgrade to 4.6.12 I suppose.

Thank you @markusa for looking into this. I updated #4 with a new component more suitable for testing, which I tested on a fresh install. Same result.

I think I might have found a clue. Looking at the export of the rule, the second parameter is param_civi_user. However, in the Rules UI, this second parameter appears with a label "Drupal user" and wants data of type User:

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be the Drupal user that has permission to create contacts in CiviCRM, or the to-be Drupal user of the created contact, or ... what. I tried putting 1 for a value. I also tried 2 (the CiviCRM cid of my Drupal user 1). No dice.

At any rate, since the execution error barks about Entity property civi_user doesn't support writing, I think that the problem lies here.

@markusa Okay, thank you for the explanation. What steps are needed to patch our way out of this pickle?! How can I help?

Thank you @markusa, your timing couldn't be better. I sat down today to write a hack-job CiviCRM API rules handler for creating contacts because my project deadline has arrived and I need to create contacts in Rules.

Please let me know if I can help your efforts. Much appreciated! Cheers.

@markusa, thank you for the effort you have put into patching this. I installed the latest 7.x-2.0-beta1+17-dev which has the commit that references this issue. However, unfortunately I am still getting the exact same error:

0 ms Rule Create contact in CiviCRM fires.
16.637 ms Evaluating the action entity_create. 
22.434 ms Unable to create entity civicrm_contact": Entity property civicrm_user doesn't support writing.
22.898 ms Unable to evaluate action entity_create. 
22.96 ms Rule Create contact in CiviCRM has fired.

Any clues?

Cleared site caches, cleared Rules caches, ran cron, ran db updates, etc. etc.

I cloned the repo, cleared caches and created a new component from scratch. Now when I execute, I get:

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.

@markusa thank you! That did the trick. I changed the component so that 'Contact type' contains the string Individual and all is working. This is great! Now we can create CiviCRM contacts with Rules . . . brilliant.

Cheers.

I have discovered a further problem: Even though the contact is created, the Provided variable "Created entity" always comes back empty. This should be populated with the newly created contact entity for use in subsequent actions.

I can reproduce the problem on a fresh install.

I learned a bit more about what I am encountering. I was trying to use the civicrm-contact:id of the newly created contact entity before it was actually getting saved to the database. So I guess I need to save the entity before it gets its CID from CiviCRM in order to use the CID in subsequent actions. I tried to execute a "Save entity" action but this action refuses to recognize the newly created civicrm_contact entity as an entity that it can save. Thoughts?

Nevermind, it works like any other Create entity action. For some reason I was expecting it to magically save immediately. When the rule is evaluated, the entity is saved. What I needed to do was create a component that creates the entity and then passes that entity as provided by the component after the component is evaluated. Then in a master rule I can use the provided entity in subsequent components/actions. It all works great!