[OASIS Issue Tracker] (ODATA-1060) Improve specification of element response requirements

[OASIS Issues Tracker <workgroup_mailer@lists.oasis-open.org>]

    [ https://issues.oasis-open.org/browse/ODATA-1060?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=65778#comment-65778 ] 

Ralf Handl commented on ODATA-1060:
-----------------------------------

This is a tough one: current use of OData is that $metadata describes a concrete, implemented service, not an abstract superset that may only be partially implemented.

If a property is declared in $metadata, the client expects to get it in the response, even if it is null. To avoid breaking clients we recently added the preference omit-values=nulls that allows services to omit properties if they are null, but only if the client explicitly allows it with this preference.

Now saying that a declared property that just happens to be annotated in a certain way need never be sent by a service will break clients that believe in our promise that “A service MUST NOT require the client to understand custom annotations in order to accurately interpret a response.”


> Improve specification of element response requirements
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: ODATA-1060
>                 URL: https://issues.oasis-open.org/browse/ODATA-1060
>             Project: OASIS Open Data Protocol (OData) TC
>          Issue Type: New Feature
>          Components: CSDL JSON , CSDL XML, Vocabularies
>         Environment: Schema
>            Reporter: George Ericson
>            Assignee: George Ericson
>
> Element response requirements:  
> There is ambiguity on the use and meaning of Nullable.  
> The reason is a distinction between the semantics of Nullable and whether or not implementation is required.  
> At least in one example, it is common practice to allow a Nullable=False property to be excluded from a response with the implied meaning of not implemented.  The implementation requirement is not a term defined by OData.
> Proposal:
> 1) Add the following Term to Core:
> <Term Name="ImplementationRequired" Type="Core.Tag" DefaultValue="false">
> <Annotation Term="Core.Description" String="If 'true', implementation of the qualified element is required. If the required element is Nullable and has no value, it may be omitted from a response.  Otherwise it must be present in a related response." If an element is not required, it may be omitted from a related response.  If an element is not required and is not Nullable and is not present in a response, it may be assumed to have not been implemented.  If the element is Nullable and not present in a response, it may either have no value or have not been implemented." />
> </Term>
> The following summarizes the above:
> a.	Nullable=True, Implementation=Optional => Omission implies no value or not implemented
> b.	Nullable=True, Implementation=Required => Omission implies no value
> c.	Nullable=False, Implementation=Optional => Omission implies not implemented, the value is unknown.
> d.	Nullable=False, Implementation=Required => Omission is not allowed, the property must indicate Null if no value.



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