bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/events/prefer-this-over-includesender-in-codeunit-events.md

bc-version	domain	keywords	technologies	countries	application-area
25..	events	this-keyword includesender sender codeunit self-reference integration-event type-safety	al	w1	all

Prefer this over IncludeSender in new codeunit events

Description

When designing a new publisher, setting IncludeSender to true on [IntegrationEvent] or [BusinessEvent] gives subscribers the publishing object as an implicit sender parameter. From Business Central 2024 release wave 2, a codeunit can instead pass itself explicitly with the this keyword as a normal, strongly-typed Sender parameter. Explicit passing makes the sender visible and typed in the signature. This is new-event design guidance only: never change IncludeSender on an event that has already shipped.

Best Practice

For a new event, declare the publisher [IntegrationEvent(false, false)] with an explicit Sender: Codeunit "…" parameter and raise it with this, for example OnBeforeProcessOrder(OrderNo, this);. Subscribers then receive a typed sender they can call directly.

See sample: prefer-this-over-includesender-in-codeunit-events.good.al.

Anti Pattern

Designing a new codeunit event with [IntegrationEvent(true, …)] solely to hand subscribers the publisher instance, where this could be passed explicitly as a typed parameter. Do not apply this rule by mutating a shipped event's attribute flags.

See sample: prefer-this-over-includesender-in-codeunit-events.bad.al.