Breaking changes in 6.0

Breaking changes

• Removed IsResource from the FhirTypeAttribute. One can just check against the Resource subtype instead.

• Renamed the IsNestedType parameter on FhirTypeAttribute to IsBackboneType to align with common FHIR jargon.

• Removed the BackboneTypeAttribute class. One can use IsBackboneType (above), the type's name (that was in this attribute) is now the ClassMapping.Name.

• Removed the DefinitionPath property of ClassMapping, since it is the same as the ClassMapping.Name for backbone types.

• POCO's no longer implement IDictionary<string,object>. Although this sounded like a good idea, it did break frameworks and made the debuggers display resoures as dictionaries. The interface is also not enough to base serializers or validators on, so it's use is limited. Therefore, we decided to remove it, and replace it with a specific interface (TODO: to be designed, insert reference here) that you can use to dynamically access and navigate POCO data.

• Since we now have a standard way to dynamically navigate a POCO, we removed Base.Children and Base.NamedChildren properties, since these have overlapping functionalities. Note that there is an extension method Children() (obsolete) that you can use for backwards-compatibility.

• The type of ElementDefinition.Constraint.RequirementsElement, ElementDefinition.Binding.DescriptionElement, ElementDefinition.Mapping.CommentElement and CapabilityStatement.Implementation.DescriptionElement have changed from Markdown to PrimitiveType. Set this property to Markdown to get the original behaviour. This change allows you to use the correct type depending on the version of FHIR you are writing against (which matters in e.g. FhirPath expressions that match against type).

• The type of Attachment.SizeElement has changed from Integer64 to PrimitiveType. Set this property to Integer64 to get the original behaviour, but you should now assign the correct type (i.e. UnsignedInteger before R5) depending on the version of FHIR you are writing against.

• The type of Bundle.Link.RelationElement has changed from FhirString to PrimitiveType. Set this property to Integer64 to get the original behaviour, but you can now use the correct type depending on the version of FHIR you are writing against.

• The type of Meta.ProfileElement has changed from Canonical to Code. Set this property to Integer64 to get the original behaviour, but you can now use the correct type depending on the version of FHIR you are writing against.

• Each of the above elements no have multiple helper properties (e.g. Attachment.Size and Attachment.SizeUnsignedInteger) to allow you to use "simple assignments" of primitives.

Removed obsolete members

Behavioural changes

• We have archived the Fhir.Metrics library. This means that Types/Quantity no longer supports UCUM unit conversion. Comparing units will now only succeed if the units are equivalent, at which point they are compared by value.

Minor/exotic breaking changes

• Parameters.this[] has been removed in favor of a (future) use of this operator on the base, e.g. for dynamic access to elements. You can use the existing (and equivalent) GetSingle() instead.
• ReflectionHelper.IsTypedCollection(System.Type) has been renamed to ReflectionHelper.IsTypedList(System.Type) since checking against ICollection<T> is not sufficient anymore to determine whether an element's type is a List, so we check against IList<T> instead.
• The type of FhirEvaluationContext.TerminologyService has been changed from ITerminologyService to ICodeValidationTerminologyService. For most users, this should not be breaking.
• The WithResourceOverrides static method introduced in 5.10 is now an extension method (and will need to be called on an instance). This allows subclasses to inherit it without implementing it themselves.
• Moved ScopedNodeExtensions from the ElementModel namespace to the Model namespace. Import Hl7.Fhir.Model when using methods like Resolve()
• The type of FhirEvaluationContext.ElementResolver has been changed from Func<string, ITypedElement> to Func<string, IScopedNode>. External resolvers should make sure to return a scoped node.
• The DefaultModelFactory has been removed. It had not been in use for years, except by our own tests. With the cleanup of the PocoBuilder (ITypedElement->POCO) infrastructure, we decided to remove this class.