Magento 1.9.0 Why Is Event sales_order_save_after Triggered Twice

Question

I have a custom function that creates a PDF file, which is triggered for the event sales_order_save_after. But why this function is triggered twice, I got 2 PDFs everytime for the same order.

If I use sales_order_place_after, then the function is only triggered once. So this fix my problem.

But my question is why sales_order_save_after is triggered twice in Magento?

Answer 1

It's possible one of your Payment modules or something may be saving the order as well, causing the twice save.

I've solved this personally in the following way (you could use it in your pdf generator, assuming it's in observer?

class Your_Module_Model_Observer
{

   public $eventComplete = false;

   function sales_quote_collect_totals_after()
   {

    if($this->eventComplete){return;}

    $this->eventComplete = true;

    // pdf code here
    }
}