Refine events articles after review feedback

Correct wording in five events articles to reflect that AL event
subscribers bind by parameter name, not position:

- add-new-event-parameters-at-the-end: drop the inaccurate claim that
  appending a parameter forces subscribers to be updated or causes wrong
  values; keep the append-at-end best practice.
- do-not-add-ishandled-to-an-existing-event: reframe from "breaking
  change" to the semantic/purpose shift that leaves existing subscribers
  pointless; rename the breaking-change keyword to semantic-change.
- name-events-by-publisher-position: extend the good sample with
  position-named publishers raised from table and report trigger
  contexts.
- initialize-ishandled-to-false-before-publishing: scope the detection
  and best practice to events that actually carry a var IsHandled, so an
  OnBefore with no IsHandled is not flagged.
- do-not-bypass-critical-operations-with-ishandled: add a litmus-test
  definition of a critical operation (code that cannot stand as an
  independent, self-contained unit).

Knowledge-only; no contract or wiring change.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
This commit is contained in:
Jesper Schulz-Wedde 2026-06-25 11:38:58 +02:00
parent faeacb2484
commit 0ad92cad86
5 changed files with 35 additions and 7 deletions

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@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
---
bc-version: [all]
domain: events
keywords: [ishandled, breaking-change, event-contract, backward-compatibility, onbefore, integration-event, subscribers]
keywords: [ishandled, semantic-change, event-contract, backward-compatibility, onbefore, integration-event, subscribers]
technologies: [al]
countries: [w1]
application-area: [all]
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ application-area: [all]
## Description
Adding a `var IsHandled: Boolean` parameter to an event that already shipped without one is a breaking contract change. The signature changes, so existing subscribers no longer match and silently stop firing until they are updated, and the event's meaning shifts from "notify" to "overridable" — a semantic the original subscribers never agreed to. The safe move is to leave the existing event untouched and introduce a new `OnBefore…` event carrying `IsHandled` at the point you want to make overridable. Existing subscribers keep working against the original event; new subscribers opt into the override seam through the new one.
Adding a `var IsHandled: Boolean` parameter to an event that already shipped without one silently changes the event's purpose — from a plain notification into an overridable seam. Existing subscribers were written against a "notify" contract they never agreed to make skippable, so their behaviour can quietly become wrong or pointless. The safe move is to leave the existing event untouched and introduce a new `OnBefore…` event carrying `IsHandled` at the point you want to make overridable. Existing subscribers keep working against the original event; new subscribers opt into the override seam through the new one.
## Best Practice
@ -21,6 +21,6 @@ See sample: `do-not-add-ishandled-to-an-existing-event.good.al`.
## Anti Pattern
Mutating a shipped event — for example adding `var IsHandled` to `OnAfterCalculateTotal` — to retrofit override behaviour, breaking every existing subscriber and overloading the event's meaning. Detection: an `IsHandled` parameter added to a pre-existing event signature rather than introduced through a new dedicated `OnBefore` publisher.
Mutating a shipped event — for example adding `var IsHandled` to `OnAfterCalculateTotal` — to retrofit override behaviour, which overloads the event's meaning and undermines existing subscribers. Detection: an `IsHandled` parameter added to a pre-existing event signature rather than introduced through a new dedicated `OnBefore` publisher.
See sample: `do-not-add-ishandled-to-an-existing-event.bad.al`.