bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/style/named-invocations-not-object-ids.md
Jesper Schulz-Wedde a9f3c50863 Regenerate microsoft/knowledge from upstream BCApps instructions
The previous LLM-generated knowledge files contained factual
hallucinations. The most visible was the claim that `FindFirst` /
`FindLast` "forces a full-table scan" on an unfiltered record - it does
not; those APIs return a single row via the current key.

Other inaccuracies the audit found and fixed:

* `FindSet(true)` was described as "taking a LockTable". The correct
  upstream phrasing is that `FindSet(true)` sets
  `ReadIsolation::UpdLock` on the read. UpdLock and LockTable are
  related but distinct mechanisms.
* The list of production-scale tables had been invented beyond the
  upstream source (e.g. "Detailed Cust. Ledg. Entry") without a
  citation. The regenerated list matches the ten tables upstream lists
  with their P95 row counts.
* `SetLoadFields` guidance had been augmented with an extra mechanism
  claim ("the database resolves the filter using the index without
  hydrating the value") not present in upstream.

Approach: full regeneration of `microsoft/knowledge/` from the six
upstream BCApps Code Review instruction files, with Microsoft Learn /
the AL language reference as a secondary source. Every claim in every
regenerated file is anchored to a verbatim upstream quote (or a Learn
URL); the audit trail lives in artifacts/trace-<domain>.json on the
session workspace.

The PR #11 transaction/error-handling cluster is preserved verbatim:

* performance/understand-implicit-transaction-boundary.md
* performance/codeunit-run-as-atomic-sub-operation.{md,good.al,bad.al}
* performance/codeunit-run-requires-prior-commit-inside-transaction.{md,good.al,bad.al}
* performance/use-tryfunction-for-error-catching-not-rollback.{md,good.al,bad.al}
* performance/avoid-commit-inside-loops.{md,good.al,bad.al}
* security/commitbehavior-attribute-scopes-explicit-commits.{md,good.al,bad.al}
* testing/transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.{md,good.al,bad.al}

These articles already cite Microsoft Learn and were carefully
cross-referenced; the regeneration skips their topics rather than
duplicating them.

File counts after regeneration:

  performance   35 .md  (5 preserved + 30 new)
  privacy       17 .md
  security      18 .md  (1 preserved + 17 new)
  style         33 .md
  testing        1 .md  (preserved)
  ui            19 .md
  upgrade       18 .md

Total 141 atomic knowledge files, each strictly one rule. All pass
.github/scripts/validate_frontmatter.py with 0 errors and 0 warnings.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
2026-05-21 09:53:09 +02:00

1.6 KiB

bc-version domain keywords technologies countries application-area
all
style
page
report
codeunit
runmodal
run
object-id
named-invocation
al
w1
all

Call objects by name, not by numeric ID

Description

Page.RunModal, Report.Run, Codeunit.Run, and the Page::, Report::, Codeunit::, Table::, XmlPort:: selectors accept either a numeric ID or a named alias. The named form — Page::"Posted Sales Shipment Lines", Report::"Sales - Invoice" — is the one to use. Numeric IDs are an implementation detail that change with renumbering, do not survive a rename, and carry no signal to a reader about what the call actually does. The compiler resolves named aliases at build time, so the named form is no slower than the numeric form.

Best Practice

When invoking an object whose named alias is available in the same app (or in a dependency the current app already references), use the named form: Page.RunModal(Page::"Posted Sales Shipment Lines", SalesShptLine), Report.Run(Report::"Sales - Invoice", true). The same applies to Codeunit.Run, XmlPort.Run, Query.Open, and any platform method that takes an object reference. The named form makes diffs reviewable — a rename is visible — and makes log output and stack traces interpretable.

See sample: named-invocations-not-object-ids.good.al.

Anti Pattern

Page.RunModal(525, …) or Report.Run(206, true). The numeric form is unreadable, fragile across renumbering, and breaks every search that looks for callers of a named object.

See sample: named-invocations-not-object-ids.bad.al.