Platform Events & Change Data Capture

Procedures for building event-driven integrations using Platform Events and CDC. Allocation limits, retention windows, publish behavior details, and testing API specifics live in the reference file.

@../_reference/PLATFORM_EVENTS.md

When to Use

• Designing event-driven architecture within Salesforce or with external systems
• Implementing real-time data synchronization using Change Data Capture
• Building decoupled integrations with retry and replay capabilities
• Replacing polling-based integrations with push-based event notifications
• Implementing audit trails or data replication to external data stores

Publishing Platform Events

From Apex

public class OrderEventPublisher {
    public static void publishOrderCompleted(List<Order> orders) {
        List<Order_Completed__e> events = new List<Order_Completed__e>();

        for (Order ord : orders) {
            events.add(new Order_Completed__e(
                Order_Id__c = ord.Id,
                Total_Amount__c = ord.TotalAmount,
                Customer_Id__c = ord.AccountId,
                Fulfillment_Status__c = 'Pending'
            ));
        }

        List<Database.SaveResult> results = EventBus.publish(events);

        for (Integer i = 0; i < results.size(); i++) {
            if (!results[i].isSuccess()) {
                for (Database.Error err : results[i].getErrors()) {
                    System.debug(LoggingLevel.ERROR,
                        'Event publish failed: ' + err.getStatusCode() +
                        ' - ' + err.getMessage());
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Publish After Commit vs Publish Immediately

• Publish After Commit (default): Events are lost if the transaction rolls back. Use for business events.
• Publish Immediately (set in event definition in Setup): Events publish even if the transaction fails. Use for audit/error logging. Configured at the event level, not via code parameters.

Subscribing to Platform Events

Apex Trigger Subscriber

trigger OrderCompletedTrigger on Order_Completed__e (after insert) {
    List<Task> followUpTasks = new List<Task>();

    for (Order_Completed__e event : Trigger.new) {
        followUpTasks.add(new Task(
            Subject = 'Follow up on Order ' + event.Order_Id__c,
            Description = 'Amount: ' + event.Total_Amount__c,
            WhatId = Id.valueOf(event.Order_Id__c),
            Status = 'Not Started',
            Priority = event.Total_Amount__c > 100000 ? 'High' : 'Normal'
        ));
    }

    if (!followUpTasks.isEmpty()) {
        insert followUpTasks;
    }
}

Trigger subscriber behavior:

• Runs in its own transaction (separate from publisher)
• High-volume events: automatic retry up to 9 times over 24 hours
• Standard volume events: no automatic retries
• Batch size: up to 2,000 per batch for high-volume events

Retry and Checkpoint Pattern

trigger OrderCompletedTrigger on Order_Completed__e (after insert) {
    if (EventBus.TriggerContext.currentContext().retries > 9) {
        List<Error_Log__c> errorLogs = new List<Error_Log__c>();
        for (Order_Completed__e event : Trigger.new) {
            errorLogs.add(new Error_Log__c(
                Source__c = 'OrderCompletedTrigger',
                Message__c = 'Max retries for order: ' + event.Order_Id__c
            ));
        }
        insert errorLogs;
        return;
    }

    try {
        // Process events with checkpointing to avoid poison-pill blocking.
        // processOrder() MUST be idempotent — on retry, it runs again for
        // events between last checkpoint and failure point.
        for (Order_Completed__e event : Trigger.new) {
            processOrder(event);
            EventBus.TriggerContext.currentContext()
                .setResumeCheckpoint(event.ReplayId);
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        throw new EventBus.RetryableException(
            'Transient failure: ' + e.getMessage());
    }
}

Flow Subscriber

Flow Type: Platform Event-Triggered Flow
Object: Order_Completed__e
Trigger: When a platform event message is received

Elements:
  1. Get Records: Find matching Order by Order_Id__c
  2. Decision: Check if order needs fulfillment
  3. Update Records: Set Order.Status to 'Processing'
  4. Create Records: Create Shipment__c record

External Subscribers

Replay Mechanism

Every published event receives a ReplayId -- a monotonically increasing sequence number.

Replay Options:
  -1 -> Tip of stream (new events only)
  -2 -> Earliest available (all retained events)
  <specific-id> -> From that ReplayId forward

Managing ReplayId in Apex

public class EventReplayManager {
    public static void updateReplayId(String eventType, String replayId) {
        Event_Replay_Checkpoint__c checkpoint =
            Event_Replay_Checkpoint__c.getInstance(eventType);
        if (checkpoint == null) {
            checkpoint = new Event_Replay_Checkpoint__c(
                Name = eventType,
                Last_Replay_Id__c = replayId
            );
        } else {
            checkpoint.Last_Replay_Id__c = replayId;
        }
        upsert checkpoint;
    }
}

Concurrency note: Multiple subscribers may read the same checkpoint and reprocess overlapping events. Use ReplayId for deduplication.

Change Data Capture (CDC)

CDC automatically publishes change events when records are created, updated, deleted, or undeleted.

Enabling CDC

Enable per object in Setup > Change Data Capture.

Channel format:
  Standard objects: /data/AccountChangeEvent
  Custom objects:   /data/MyObject__ChangeEvent

Handling CDC in Apex

trigger AccountChangeEventTrigger on AccountChangeEvent (after insert) {
    for (AccountChangeEvent event : Trigger.new) {
        EventBus.ChangeEventHeader header = event.ChangeEventHeader;

        if (header.changedFields.contains('BillingCity')) {
            System.debug('BillingCity changed to: ' + event.BillingCity);
        }

        switch on header.changeType {
            when 'CREATE' { handleCreate(event); }
            when 'UPDATE' { handleUpdate(event, header.changedFields); }
            when 'DELETE' { handleDelete(header.recordIds); }
            when 'UNDELETE' { handleUndelete(header.recordIds); }
        }
    }
}

Gap and Overflow Events

Gap events indicate missed events -- trigger a full sync.

if (header.changeType == 'GAP_CREATE' || header.changeType == 'GAP_UPDATE'
    || header.changeType == 'GAP_DELETE' || header.changeType == 'GAP_UNDELETE'
    || header.changeType == 'GAP_OVERFLOW') {
    initiateFullSync(header.entityName);
}

Overflow events occur when a single transaction modifies >100,000 records.

Event-Driven Architecture Patterns

Decoupled Integration

Salesforce (Publisher) ---> Platform Event ---> External System (Subscriber)

Publisher does not know or care who subscribes. New subscribers added without modifying publisher code.

Saga Pattern (Multi-Step Transaction)

Order Created     -> PE: Order_Created__e
Inventory Reserved -> PE: Inventory_Reserved__e
Payment Processed -> PE: Payment_Processed__e
Order Fulfilled   -> PE: Order_Fulfilled__e
If any step fails -> PE: Order_Compensation__e (rollback)

Each step is an independent transaction. Compensation events handle rollback.

CDC for Real-Time Sync

Salesforce -> CDC Events -> Data Lake / Warehouse
             (AccountChangeEvent, ContactChangeEvent, etc.)

Testing Platform Events

Testing Event Publishing

@isTest
static void testOrderEventPublishing() {
    Order testOrder = new Order(
        AccountId = testAccountId,
        TotalAmount = 50000,
        Status = 'Draft'
    );
    insert testOrder;

    Test.startTest();
    OrderEventPublisher.publishOrderCompleted(new List<Order>{ testOrder });
    Test.stopTest();

    // Verify via SaveResult
    List<Order_Completed__e> events = new List<Order_Completed__e>();
    events.add(new Order_Completed__e(
        Order_Id__c = testOrder.Id,
        Total_Amount__c = testOrder.TotalAmount
    ));
    List<Database.SaveResult> results = EventBus.publish(events);
    Test.getEventBus().deliver();

    Assert.isTrue(results[0].isSuccess());
}

Testing Event Subscribers

@isTest
static void testOrderCompletedSubscriber() {
    Account testAccount = new Account(Name = 'Test Account');
    insert testAccount;

    Order_Completed__e event = new Order_Completed__e(
        Order_Id__c = 'ORD-001',
        Total_Amount__c = 75000,
        Customer_Id__c = testAccount.Id,
        Fulfillment_Status__c = 'Pending'
    );

    Test.startTest();
    EventBus.publish(event);
    Test.getEventBus().deliver();
    Test.stopTest();

    List<Task> tasks = [SELECT Id, Priority FROM Task
        WHERE Subject LIKE '%ORD-001%'];
    System.assertEquals(1, tasks.size());
    System.assertEquals('Normal', tasks[0].Priority);
}

Testing CDC Triggers

@isTest
static void testAccountChangeEventTrigger() {
    Account acc = new Account(Name = 'Original Name');
    insert acc;

    Test.startTest();
    acc.Name = 'Updated Name';
    acc.BillingCity = 'San Francisco';
    update acc;
    Test.getEventBus().deliver();
    Test.stopTest();

    // Assert on whatever side-effects your trigger produces
}

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

EventBusSubscriber Query

List<EventBusSubscriber> subscribers = [
    SELECT Name, Position, Retries, LastError, Status, Topic
    FROM EventBusSubscriber
    WHERE Topic = '/event/Order_Completed__e'
];

Common Issues

Related

• Constraints: sf-apex-constraints
• Reference: @../_reference/PLATFORM_EVENTS.md, @../_reference/INTEGRATION_PATTERNS.md