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Disable Trigger Handlers for NPSP
Learn how to disable trigger handlers for all users, specific users, and with apex code.
- Disable Trigger Handlers
Review examples of when you can disable trigger handlers. - Disable Trigger Handlers for All Users
You typically disable a Trigger Handler for all users if you have a custom process or custom code that replace functionality. You may also disable a Trigger Handler for all users if you have a use case that requires that the standard behavior of an Apex class not occur for all users. - Disable Trigger Handlers for Specific Users
In cases where you have a custom integration with another system, or need to perform periodic imports of data where you don't need certain Trigger Handlers to run, you can disable a Trigger Handler for specific users. - Disable Trigger Handlers with Apex
Sometimes it's necessary to temporarily disable Trigger Handlers only during the execution of Apex code. NPSP offers two ways to achieve this depending on whether you want to disable specific Trigger Handlers or all Trigger Handlers at once.
Disable Trigger Handlers
Review examples of when you can disable trigger handlers.
- Temporarily disable certain Apex classes when inserting a large volume of records with data that is already structured in its final format.
- Disable Address-related Apex code when inserting or updating Contacts through a scheduled ETL job that always runs as a specific User.
- Temporarily prevent Payment or Opportunity Contact Role records from being created when Opportunities are inserted through a third-party package from the AppExchange.
It's helpful to know what each of the Apex classes do, so that you
know which Trigger Handlers to disable. Visit NPSP Codebase
Documentation
for a description of the Apex classes managed by TDTM
(designated by _TDTM extension in the
name.) Note that there are some classes that are not managed by TDTM, such as utility
and settings classes.
Disable Trigger Handlers for All Users
You typically disable a Trigger Handler for all users if you have a custom process or custom code that replace functionality. You may also disable a Trigger Handler for all users if you have a use case that requires that the standard behavior of an Apex class not occur for all users.
To disable a Trigger Handler:
- Click the Trigger Handler tab. If you don't see it, find it in the App Launcher . Note If you still don't see the Trigger Handler tab, make sure the Tab has been properly configured. For more information, read Prerequisites for Managing Trigger Handlers.
Click
in the row for the Trigger Handler you want to disable, and select Edit.- Deselect the Active checkbox.
- For all NPSP EDA-packaged Trigger Handlers, select the User Managed checkbox. Important You must select User Managed to prevent the Trigger Handler from being reactivated during the next package update.

- Click Save.
To re-activate a Trigger Handler:
Select the Active checkbox.
Deselect User Managed.
Click Save.
For more information on editing Trigger Handlers, see Edit a Trigger Handler .
Disable Trigger Handlers for Specific Users
In cases where you have a custom integration with another system, or need to perform periodic imports of data where you don't need certain Trigger Handlers to run, you can disable a Trigger Handler for specific users.
For example, let's say you have an external data source that already supplies an Account for Contacts. During the integration, you wouldn't want to run the code that creates Accounts (the ACCT_IndividualAccounts_TDTM class.) To stop that code from executing when the import runs, you would exclude the integration user from the Trigger Handler record for the ACCT_IndividualAccounts_TDTM class.
To disable Trigger Handlers for specific users:
- Click the Trigger Handler tab. If you don't see it, find it in the App Launcher. Note If you still don't see the Trigger Handler tab, make sure the Tab has been properly configured. For more information, read Prerequisites for Managing Trigger Handlers.
Click
in the row for the Trigger Handler you want to disable, and select Edit.Enter one or more usernames, separating each with a semicolon, in the Usernames to Exclude field. For example, integration@user.org;tester@user.org

Click Save.
Disable Trigger Handlers with Apex
Sometimes it's necessary to temporarily disable Trigger Handlers only during the execution of Apex code. NPSP offers two ways to achieve this depending on whether you want to disable specific Trigger Handlers or all Trigger Handlers at once.
Disable Specific Trigger Handlers
NPSP
exposes a collection of Trigger Handler records through the global TDTM_Config_API class. As such, you can
disable Trigger Handlers directly in your code and only for the execution context of
the current user.
The exposed Trigger Handler collection has the following behaviors:
- Changes made to the collection persist throughout the execution context for the current user.
- Changes made to the collection do not impact other users working in the org at the same time.
- Changes made to the collection are not committed to the database by NPSP.
- Salesforce.org recommends against upserting this collection to the database after making changes.
See the NPSP GitHub repository for more information on exposed global methods.
Code example:
// disable trigger that creates a new Household Account for Contacts
List<npsp__Trigger_Handler__c> handlers = npsp.TDTM_Config_API.getCachedRecords();
for (npsp__Trigger_Handler__c th : handlers) {
if (th.npsp__Object__c == 'Contact' && th.npsp__Class__c == 'ACCT_IndividualAccounts_TDTM') {
th.npsp__Active__c = false;
}
}Disable All Trigger Handlers
NPSP
includes a globally exposed class called
Callable_API
that implements the System.Callable interface. This interface is made available for
external applications and developers to leverage NPSP APIs. You can use the
TDTM.DisableAllTriggers action
to disable all Trigger Handler records at once for a given execution context.
Code example:
Callable npspApi = (System.Callable)Type.forName('npsp', 'Callable_API').newInstance();
Boolean isNpspTriggerDisabled = (Boolean)npspApi.call('TDTM.DisableAllTriggers', new Map<String, Object>()); These two lines turn off all Trigger Handlers, then you can continue with your own code.
Consider Order of Execution
Consider execution order carefully in your code design. Let's say you create your own Apex trigger on the Contact object that disables all the Trigger Handlers on Contact. There is no guarantee that your trigger will run before or after TDTM does. Dealing with this scenario will vary depending on your specific use case.

