bug/2544 Fix shared dataExtension fields not resolved in journey UPDATECONTACTDATA activity

[Copilot]

Three bugs in journey UPDATECONTACTDATA activity processing when working with shared dataExtensions:

1. DE not found → crash + full field retrieve: When a DE ObjectID wasn't in cache, the code called retrieveFieldsForSingleDe(undefined), causing a SOAP error and triggering a full scan of all dataExtensionField records.
2. Shared DE fields never resolved: Fields of shared DEs live on the parent BU; the existing code only checked the local dataExtensionField cache and always failed for shared DEs.
3. No cache when retrieving journey without dataExtension: DataExtension.attachFields() (called during DE retrieve) attaches fields to DE objects in memory but does not populate cache.dataExtensionField. The handler must always fetch fields on-demand.

Changes

DataExtensionField.js

• isSharedDe(customerKey) — checks the DE's CategoryID against the parent-BU folder cache; returns true if the folder's ContentType is in folderTypesFromParent
• retrieveFieldsForSingleSharedDe(customerKey) — temporarily swaps buObject/client to parent BU, calls retrieveFieldsForSingleDe(), then restores — same pattern as DataExtension.retrieveSharedForCache; includes null-guard for misconfigured credentials
• retrieveFieldsForSingleDeAuto(customerKey) — routes to shared or local retrieval automatically, eliminating repeated ternary logic at call sites

Journey.js — UPDATECONTACTDATA in both _postRetrieveTasks_activities and _preDeployTasks_activities

Scenario	Before	After
DE ObjectID not in cache	retrieveFieldsForSingleDe(undefined) → SOAP crash → full field scan	warn + silently skip
No dataExtensionField cache	always assumed local	isSharedDe() → correct BU
Cache exists, field missing	hard failure	re-fetch via retrieveFieldsForSingleDeAuto() with alreadyFetchedDe guard

Tests

• mcdev retrieve cred/bu -m journey — all journeys including local-DE and shared-DE UPDATECONTACTDATA (existing)
• mcdev retrieve cred/bu -m journey dataExtension — new: combined retrieve; verifies DataExtension.attachFields() does not pollute cache.dataExtensionField and field resolution still uses the correct per-DE fetch path for both local and shared DEs
• Key-based retrieve and deploy tests for both local-DE and shared-DE UPDATECONTACTDATA journeys (added in initial fix commit)

Documentation

No wiki changes required.

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>[BUG] shared dataExtension fields not resolved in journey "update contact" activity</issue_title>
<issue_description>### Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

tried retrieving a journey with a "update contact" activity which targets a shared dataExtension.
those seem to be cached but not their fields

even worse when we run the dataExtension isnt found then the subsequent field retrieve also fails to be stopped and throws a javascript error followed by a FULL retrieve of all fields - which should not start at all if the dataExtension wasnt found.

Expected Behavior

if a shared DE was recognized then its fields shall be cached.

Steps To Reproduce

1. mcdev retrieve cred/bu -m journey:testKey
2. see above error

Version

9.0.2

Environment

• OS:
• Node:
• npm:

Participation

• I am willing to submit a pull request for this issue.

Additional comments

No response</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>if the dataExtension wasnt found, the code should not attempt to retrieve the field or to get it from cache but silently skip that step.

if the dataExtension was found:
the current code seems to rely on an existing cache and always fails if that exists but the field couldnt be found in it. if the respective dataExtension was shared though, this cache will likely NOT contain the field in the first place, hence we would then need to run DataExtensionField.retrieveFieldsForSingleDe() with DataExtensionField.buObject set to a similar value as done in DataExtension.retrieveSharedForCache.

since the above is something likely happening for other types than journey as well, we should have a new method in DataExtensionField, or check if there is already a solution for that in the class.</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

@JoernBerkefeld fyi @yuliialikhyt

• closes [BUG] shared dataExtension fields not resolved in journey "update contact" activity #2544

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[github-actions]

Coverage Report

Commit:aefcc76
Base: develop@f8ce74c

Type	Base	This PR
Total Statements Coverage	71.11%	71.05%  (-0.06%)
Total Branches Coverage	70.83%	70.77%  (-0.06%)
Total Functions Coverage	83.71%	83.77%  (+0.06%)
Total Lines Coverage	71.11%	71.05%  (-0.06%)

Details (changed files):

File	Statements	Branches	Functions	Lines
lib/metadataTypes/DataExtensionField.js	82.32%	69.11%	92.85%	82.32%
lib/metadataTypes/Journey.js	67.87%	66.43%	96%	67.87%