api_channel_entries->update_entry.. anyway to not need to include all fields?

I am using the channel entry api to sync a bit of data into ExpressionEngine. The problem seems to be that the update_entry call needs to have all data for the entry, otherwise the current data gets flattened.

For example.. Say I have a channel that has 10 channel fields..

If I try to update 1 via update_entry, the data in the other 9 gets lost..

$data = array(
    'channel_id' => 8,
    'title' => 'test',
    'entry_date' => time(),
   'field_id_1' => 'test data'
 );
$this->EE->api_channel_entries->update_entry(1, $data)

Produces a mysql update for exp_channel_data like:

UPDATE `exp_channel_data` SET `channel_id` = 8, `field_id_1` = 'test data', `field_id_2` = '', `field_id_3` = '', `field_id_4` = '', `field_id_5` = '', `field_id_6` = '', `field_id_7` = '', `field_id_8` = '', `field_id_9` = '', `field_id_10` = '', WHERE `entry_id` =  '1'

Is there anyway around this?

If not, the documentation should probably be updated to remove the word “required”

http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/development/api/api_channel_entries.html#update-entry This function will update a channel entry. The data array must contain a title, an entry date, and data for all required fields.

Thanks -tim

[EDIT] Looking through the code, it appears this behavior is intended. Lines 928-929 of Api_channel_entries.php state:

// Make sure all the fields have a key in our data array even
  // if no data was sent

The next line it looks like this is bypassable if i set “autosave” to TRUE.

What is “autosave” and what would happen if I set it to TRUE? (I can’t find any documentation that relates to “autosave”) [/EDIT]