SharePoint Search API response schema changes

[Martin Coupal]

Hi, I've started noticing issues with search REST api results lately where there are some new properties returned in the schema and some null values.

Ex: _api/search/query?querytext='Filename:B315N1001A.dwg AND ParentLink:106982_P'&selectproperties='Filename,DefaultEncodingURL,SPSiteUrl,UniqueID'&sortlist='LastModifiedTime:descending'

Returned values with Null (these values where never null before)

"Key": "PartitionId",
"Value": null,
"ValueType": "Null"
},
{
"Key": "Culture",
"Value": null,
"ValueType": "Null"
},

New properties that where never there before:

{
"Key": "DocumentSignature",
"Value": "-XXXXXX;-XXXXXX;-XXXXXX;-XXXXXX",
"ValueType": "Edm.String"
},
{
"Key": "CollapsingStatus",
"Value": "0",
"ValueType": "Edm.Int32"
}.

This is causing issues with my json parsing schema. 

Any info on this?

[#2]

UPDATE: I'll have to validate but the collapsingStatus and DocumentSignature do not seem to be always returned so I need to understand why.

However, having the Culture and PartitionId set to null does not seems to be valid...

[#3]

No help Martin but i am also having problems since 30th with extra properties in schema, order of properties returned changing and previously valid search queries no longer filtering

[#4]

I am facing the very same issue that results in failure of Json parsing. Is there any update from microsoft on this issue.

[#5]

Here are some findings in the results I'm getting. I've updated my power automate json schema (now I will always put things like "anyOf": ["type": "string", "type": "null"] in my schema definition) but I'm worried about the impact of these types of changes as I'm building flows for a lot of customers...:

RelevantResults.Properties
Removed
○ GenerationId
○ indexSystem
○ GeoLocationSource

Table.Rows.Cells
Changes
UniqueID:
Before Example: "Value": "36b8e7c3-deb7-42a2-89bf-551ccbbab779"
Now : "Value": "{36b8e7c3-deb7-42a2-89bf-551ccbbab779}"
PartitionId
Before Example: "Value": "a348e418-3879-46f3-b30e-c4bc1eaca908", "ValueType": "Edm.Guid"
Now: "Value": null, "ValueType": "Null"
Culture
Before Example: "Value": "fr-FR","ValueType": "Edm.String"
Now: "Value": null, "ValueType": "Null"

[#6 · Accepted solution]

My take is this. You should only expect properties you ask for. These may or may not have values depending on the property. As such, you should not have a rigid schema to validate returned data.

DocumentSignature/CollapseStatus are by no means new ones. As for other props these can and will change as we make changes. And the schema contract is a weak one and you should only count on any public documented properties or those you have created yourself.

Hope this makes sense :)

[#7]

Hi Mikael, I agree and that is what I've done to fix my schema parsing. However I'm wondering why results properties like Culture is now returning null. Is this an issue?
Thanks.

[#8]

@Martin Coupal Not really as Culture is just echoing the culture passed in on the query. If you want to know the language of an item look at DetectedLanguage.