Zserio Schema Evolution Guide

This document describes Zserio support of schema evolution.

Zserio does not add additional stuff to the binary stream like unique field numbers or field types. This solution gives chance Zserio to outperform competitors in terms of data size but it avoids a good support of schema evolution.

So schema evolution in Zserio is very limited and it is not fully supported.

Regarding schema evolution, we might distinguish two different compatibilities:

• Forward compatibility which allows usage of new schema for old applications
• Backward compatibility which allows usage of old schema for new applications

Forward Compatible Changes

Backward Compatible Changes

Forward Compatible Changes

Top Level Structure Extension

The forward compatibility of extension at the end of top level structures works automatically. This is because the parsing always stops as soon as all fields are parsed even if there are some unread bits left in the bit stream.

Example

struct TopLevelStructure
{
    uint32 fieldInVersion1;
    varuint newFieldInVersion2; // old application will stop parsing here
};

Old applications will parse successfully new TopLevelStructure by reading only the first field fieldInVersion1 leaving field newFieldInVersion2 unread in the bit stream.

Enumeration Item Removal

The forward compatible enumeration item removal is possible by annotation @removed. This annotation ensures that enumeration item values do not change and will be compatible for old applications.

Example

enum bit:8 DarkColor
{
    NONE,
    DARK_RED,
    @removed DARK_BLUE, // old application will never parse this enumeration item
    DARK_GREEN
};

Backward Compatible Changes

Top Level Structure Extension

The backward compatibility of extension at the end of top level structures is implemented by new language keyword extend.

This keyword will indicate an optional extension which does not have to be encoded in the bit stream at all.

Example

struct TopLevelStructure
{
    uint32 fieldInVersion1;
    extend varuint newFieldInVersion2; // new application will check end of stream here
};

New applications will parse successfully old TopLevelStructure by reading the first field fieldInVersion1, accepting end of bit stream and leaving field newFieldInVersion2 unused. New applications will be responsible to check before each access of field newFieldInVersion2 if it is present or not.

Choice Without Default Extension

The backward compatibility of adding a new case in choice without default case works automatically. This is because all old cases in choice are known for a new application.

Example

choice UInt16Choice(uint16 selector) on selector
{
    case 1:
        VariantA a;

    case 2:
        VariantB b;

    case 3:
        VariantC newInVersion2; // new application will never parse this case

    // default case must be either omitted or must be empty!
};

Enumeration Item Addition

The backward compatibility of adding a new enumeration item without change of existed enumeration items works automatically. This is because all old enumeration items are known for a new application.

Example

enum bit:8 DarkColor
{
    NONE,
    DARK_RED,
    DARK_BLUE,
    DARK_GREEN,
    DARK_NEW_IN_VERSION2 // new application will never parse this item
};

Enumeration Item Removal

The backward compatible enumeration item removal is possible by annotation @removed. This annotation ensures that enumeration item values do not change and that new applications will still parse removed enumeration items.

Example

enum bit:8 DarkColor
{
    NONE,
    DARK_RED,
    @removed DARK_BLUE, // new application will parse this item (but should fire an error during serialization)
    DARK_GREEN
};

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