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Repair broken knowledge references and align review examples with canonical articles. Correct explicit version gates, restore a missing title, and recognize the plugin directory in the root guard. Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com> Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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DataTransfer does not fire validation triggers or event subscribers
Description
DataTransfer writes directly at the database layer. It does not invoke field OnValidate triggers, table OnModify triggers, or any OnAfterModifyEvent / OnBeforeValidate... event subscribers that a normal Record.Modify(true) would. This is precisely what makes it fast — and precisely what makes it a footgun when the field being updated has validation logic that other code relies on. The receiving code never gets the signal that a row changed, derived fields stay stale, audit hooks do not run.
For new fields and tables added in the same change this is fine: nothing yet depends on the validation. For pre-existing fields with validation logic, DataTransfer quietly bypasses business logic that may be load-bearing for posting, calculation, or integration scenarios.
Best Practice
Use DataTransfer only when the field or table is new in the same change — initial population is the canonical safe case. When updating a pre-existing field that has validation logic, either use Modify(true) to honour the triggers, or, if DataTransfer is still required for performance reasons, leave a comment that explicitly states "validation triggers and event subscribers are intentionally not raised" and verify with the field's owner that this is safe.
See sample: datatransfer-skips-triggers-and-subscribers.good.al.
Anti Pattern
Reaching for DataTransfer to update an existing field with non-trivial OnValidate logic, without a comment and without confirming that subscribers can be skipped. The upgrade succeeds; runtime behaviour drifts silently.
See sample: datatransfer-skips-triggers-and-subscribers.bad.al.