3.2.17 Changing Node Attributes

After a Node has been published, modifying certain attributes constitutes a breaking change, while others may be changed without affecting backward compatibility. Some constraints are already implied—for example, the DataType of a Variable shall not be changed (see 3.2.12). In general, changes to attributes should be avoided unless there is a compelling justification.

Table 1 lists all Node attributes and specifies whether they may be modified without introducing breaking changes (column “Rule to avoid breaking changes”).

The table also indicates whether an attribute may still be changed by a Server implementation when a companion specification is implemented in the Server (column “Change in Server allowed?”). For example, the Description attribute, when provided by the companion specification, may be left out in the Server. This reduces memory consumption and may be helpful servers running in small, embedded environments. Or the text may be provided in other locales.

Note that the information if an attribute may be changed in the Server is not related to backward compatibility.

Remark: A special case is the SymbolicName, which is not an OPC UA attribute but can be defined in a UANodeSet. Changing a SymbolicName is not considered a breaking change; however, it should be avoided because it may affect code generation. Implementers may change the SymbolicName before using a standardized UANodeSet without violating the specification.