bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/events/initialize-ishandled-to-false-before-publishing.md

bc-version	domain	keywords	technologies	countries	application-area
all	events	ishandled initialization deterministic onbefore reset integration-event control-flow	al	w1	all

Reset IsHandled before publishing only when its value can carry over

Description

A routine that raises an OnBefore… integration event with a var IsHandled: Boolean parameter passes that variable by reference, so a pre-existing true can affect the following control flow. AL automatically initializes Boolean variables to false, so a freshly declared local Boolean passed to one event exactly once per procedure invocation is already deterministic. Initialization does not repeat for each loop iteration: a local declared outside a loop can carry true from one iteration to the next even when the source contains only one textual event raise. Outside a loop, reaching a later raise after if IsHandled then exit; also proves the value is false, provided that early exit is semantically correct and does not skip required downstream events.

Best Practice

Reset IsHandled := false; before a raise only when the value might otherwise carry over as true: the same variable is reused after an earlier raise without a control-flow proof that it is false, a raise is re-entered by a loop, the value comes from an input parameter, field, or global, or earlier code seeds it. Prefer separate fresh locals when independent event seams need independent handled state. A reset on a guaranteed-false fresh local used by one non-looping raise, or before a later raise reached only after a semantically valid if IsHandled then exit;, can be retained for readability, but its absence is not a correctness finding.

See sample: initialize-ishandled-to-false-before-publishing.good.al.

Anti Pattern

Raising OnBeforeX(…, IsHandled) when the variable can still be true from an earlier raise, an earlier loop iteration, or another source, so the publisher call starts with stale state. Do not match a single non-looping raise using a fresh local Boolean, or a later raise reached only after a semantically valid if IsHandled then exit; proves the value is false.

See sample: initialize-ishandled-to-false-before-publishing.bad.al.