bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/performance/use-addloadfields-in-report-layouts.md
Jesper Schulz-Wedde 62dabf9a11 Co-locate AL samples next to their knowledge articles
The /samples/ top-level tree is replaced with sibling files in each
knowledge-layer folder. An article and its demonstrations now live
side-by-side:

  microsoft/knowledge/<domain>/<slug>.md
  microsoft/knowledge/<domain>/<slug>.good.al
  microsoft/knowledge/<domain>/<slug>.bad.al

Rationale:
- Proximity. An article and its paired samples are one unit; the
  filesystem now reflects that.
- Layer ownership. Samples inherit layer precedence for free -- a
  /custom/ fork can override an article and its samples atomically,
  which the shared /samples/ tree previously made awkward.
- Trivial migration path. Action-skill source globs
  (*/knowledge/<domain>/**/*.md) are unchanged; sample discovery is a
  sibling-filename lookup.

Changes:
- git mv of all 65 sample files from samples/<domain>/<slug>/{bad,good}.al
  to microsoft/knowledge/<domain>/<slug>.{bad,good}.al (history preserved).
- Update See-sample references in all 37 articles that ship samples.
- skills/read.md: replace the no-code-blocks bullet with a pointer to a
  new Sample files section that fully specifies the sibling convention,
  the kinds (good/bad + forward-compatible), multi-technology rules,
  demonstration-only status, and layer-precedence behaviour.
- skills/write.md: update the samples pointer to match.
- README.md: annotate the knowledge tree with the sample sibling shape.
- samples/README.md deleted; content lifted into skills/read.md.
- Both generators (C:\temp\gen_performance_knowledge.py,
  C:\temp\gen_security_knowledge.py) updated to emit at the new paths
  and to stop writing samples/README.md. Re-running them is idempotent
  against the committed layout.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
2026-04-17 13:45:33 +02:00

1.4 KiB

bc-version domain keywords technologies countries application-area
26..28
performance
report
addloadfields
ondatapreitem
layout
partial-record
al
w1
all

Use AddLoadFields in report dataitems

Seed article. Converted from an existing performance-review prompt to bootstrap the BCQuality performance corpus. Domain stewards should expand, restructure, and refine as needed.

Description

Reports iterate a dataitem's record automatically; the developer does not control the Find call directly. AddLoadFields, called in OnPreDataItem, tells the platform which fields the layout and the dataitem triggers will read. Without it the report streams every field of every row — for a ledger-entry dataitem on a production tenant, that is the dominant cost of the report.

Best Practice

In each dataitem's OnPreDataItem trigger, call AddLoadFields for every field used by the layout, by the dataitem's triggers, and by any code that runs in the row-level event hooks. If the layout uses a FlowField, also ensure CalcFields is called and that the underlying key is loaded (see add-sift-keys-for-flowfields).

See sample: use-addloadfields-in-report-layouts.good.al.

Anti Pattern

Omitting AddLoadFields is the default for reports generated by the AL wizard. For a dataitem backed by a ledger-entry table, this silently turns the report into a full-column scan.