Should setting a deceased_date of a contact automatically set is_deceased?

[johanv]

Hi all, and happy Cividay to everybody :-)

I have another question. I noticed that when I set the deceased_date of a contact, using the API, the value of is_deceased (typically 0) stays unchanged.

I wonder whether it would be a good idea to automatically update is_deceased when a contact's deceased_date is set or cleared.

Any thoughts about this?

[Eileen]

I would argue yes to 'is set' but no to 'is cleared' as I think you could decide you didn't really know when they died without them rising from the grave.

[Coleman Watts]

I think making the api "too smart" can cause problems in general (maybe not in this particular case). We have unit tests in place to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen - the test will change a single field via api and then check to make sure no other fields got changed accidentally.