bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/data-modeling/custom-document-dispatch-must-not-bypass-report-selections.md
Michael Dieringer e22352b248 Merge upstream/main; adopt articles[] eval override, add sample-link READ convention
- Resolve conflicts in al-data-modeling-review.md by keeping both sides'
  additions (folder-path support, InitRecord/Round cues from upstream;
  the 9 document-distribution/pricing/barcode cues from this branch).
- Switch the data-modeling evaluation override from an ad-hoc
  additionalArticles field to upstream's now-established articles[]
  convention (used elsewhere for finance/scm/query/reporting/style),
  removing the redundant parallel code path from Test-ReviewFixtures.ps1.
- Fix all 9 new articles' sample references to the markdown-link READ
  convention required by Knowledge-Retrieval.ps1's Assert-SampleLink
  (plain backticks satisfy validate_frontmatter.py's regex alone but not
  this stricter check - both validators must pass).

Validators: frontmatter 0/0, review-fixtures 126 cases/20 domains PASSED,
knowledge-index 342 articles/575 samples PASSED, skill-index 19 review
leaves PASSED.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-24 06:41:24 +02:00

3 KiB
Raw Blame History

bc-version domain keywords technologies countries application-area
all
data-modeling
report-selections
document-layouts
custom-report-layout
email-attachment
bespoke-dispatch
al
w1
all

Custom document dispatch must not bypass Report Selections

Description

A codeunit that hardcodes which report to run (Report.RunModal(MyReportId, ...)) and builds its own email directly, instead of registering the document through table 77 "Report Selections" and calling its own Print/Email procedures, works for the one case it was written for — and loses everything the platform's registry provides for free. Report Selections carries its own attachment/email-body configuration per usage ("Use for Email Attachment", "Use for Email Body", "Email Body Layout Code", "Email Body Layout Type"), plus a separate per-usage layout override, "Custom Report Layout Code", and table 9657 "Custom Report Selection" (the "Document Layouts" page on the Customer/Vendor card) lets one specific account override the report or layout without touching code at all. None of that exists for a document whose dispatch was hand-rolled: there is no registry row to point "Document Layouts" at, so an admin who goes looking for where to change this document's layout — the same place they'd look for every other document in the system — finds nothing, because the document was never registered there.

Best Practice

Register the document under a Report Selection Usage value (see extend-report-selection-usage-for-new-document-types.md) and dispatch through Report Selections' own Print/Email procedures (see document-print-and-email-actions-call-report-selections-directly.md), even when the surrounding business logic — which counterparty to use, what validation must pass before sending — is genuinely specific to the document. Custom logic belongs around the call to Report Selections, not instead of it.

See sample: custom-document-dispatch-must-not-bypass-report-selections.good.al.

Anti Pattern

A codeunit that runs a hardcoded report ID and builds its own email message directly, with no Report Selections row backing it. It works for the default case, but the report/layout cannot be changed per account without a code change and a new release, and the document is invisible to "Document Layouts" — the standard place every other document's distribution is configured.

See sample: custom-document-dispatch-must-not-bypass-report-selections.bad.al.

Source

BCApps ReportSelections.Table.al (table 77 — field 7, "Custom Report Layout Code"; fields 19–26 for email attachment/body configuration; SendEmailToCust/PrintWithDialogForCust as the registry-backed dispatch entry points) and CustomReportSelection.Table.al (table 9657, the per-account override backing the "Document Layouts" page) — both under src/Layers/W1/BaseApp/Foundation/Reporting/.