HP WBEM Services Software Developer's Kit for HP-UX Provider and Client Developer's Guide A.01

Schema Design and Implementation
Schema Implementation
Chapter 348
• Deletion of a class, property, or method
• Movement of a class within the hierarchy in any direction except
"down" as a side effect of a new superclass being inserted in the line
of descent above
• Changing a property's type or a method's signature (method type,
parameter type, names of parameters, number of parameters)
• Decreasing Max or increasing Min cardinalities of associations
A detailed specification of changes which cause a major revision to the
CIM schema, and thus canaffect applications, can be found inthe section
labeled Schema Versions in the latest CIM Specification on the DMTF
web site: http://dmtf.org.
Note that the DMTF CIM schema will never shrink through the life of a
major version (for example Version going from CIM v2.6 to CIM v2.7). It
continues to grow due to this upgrade strategy.
Deprecation
Deprecation and use of the Deprecate qualifier is the appropriate route
for dealing with classes, properties, and methods within the schema for
which there is a plan to discontinue support in the future. While within a
major version of the CIM schema (for example Version 2.x), the
Deprecate qualifier signals that the entity will no longer be available in
a future major release (for example Version 3.x). The class, property, or
method should continue to be supported until the future release but the
qualifier indicates that there is a preferred alternative in place (the
parameter of the Deprecate qualifier).
Discontinuing Support
When upgrading to a new major version of the CIM schema, it is possible
to discontinue support for a capability implemented in the schema
through a class, property, or method. A major release (for example from
Version 2.x to Version 3.x) is most likely placed within a different
namespace, reducing compatibility issues between clients and providers.
Because it is difficult to synchronize installation of clients and providers,
clients would need to support both the old schema and the new schema.
Discontinuing support on a minor version changed within a major
version (for example Version 2.x to Version 2.y, where x < y) is not
recommended, as discussed in Backward Compatibility above. However,