histsdk/docs/plans/revision-write-path.md

Plan: Revision-Write Path (AddRevisionValuesBegin/Value/End)

Status: ARCHITECTURALLY BLOCKED — verified 2026-05-05. Same root cause as AddS2: client-side cache rejects values for tags that weren't registered through a configured IO server / Application Server pipeline. Documented below; implementation deferred until / unless that prerequisite is removed.

Empirical finding (2026-05-05)

The native trace harness was extended with --write-revision-values to drive the revision flow:

1. HistorianAccess.CreateHistorianDataValueList(HistorianDataCategory.NonStreamedOriginal) succeeds — list is bound to the live HistorianClient* via GetClient(ConnectionIndex.Process).
2. HistorianDataValueList.NonStreamedValuesBegin() succeeds — list batchID transitions 0 → 1.
3. HistorianDataValueList.AddNonStreamedValue(value, validate=true, out error) fails with ErrorCode=TagNotFoundInCache (129), ErrorDescription="error = 129 (Tag not found in cache)" — the value is never added to the list (Count stays 0).
4. HistorianDataValueList.AddNonStreamedValuesEnd() returns void.
5. HistorianAccess.SendValues(list, out error) returns true with ErrorCode=Success — but no wire bytes left the client because the list is empty. (Inspecting captured WriteMessage stream confirms no AddNonStreamValues* Trx call appears.)

The validation that rejects the value is the same gate that blocks AddStreamedValue (AddS2): the library's local tag cache only knows about tags that were:

• Auto-populated from a configured IO server / Application Server pipeline, or
• Read via the existing read flow (which hits the cache as a side effect)

Tags created via HistorianAccess.AddTag populate Runtime.dbo.Tag but are not added to the in-memory cache that AddStreamedValue / AddNonStreamedValue consult. So writes from a managed client to a client-created tag fail at the validation gate before any wire bytes flow.

Conclusion

The revision-write path does not bypass the AddS2 blocker — it shares the same TagNotFoundInCache precondition. There is no path from a managed client to a successful AddNonStreamValues call against a client-created sandbox tag.

To validate this conclusion further (not done in this pass — too risky for the production Historian) one could try AddNonStreamedValue against a system tag like SysTimeSec whose key IS in the cache from upstream registration. If that succeeds, the path is implementable in principle for IO-registered tags; if it also fails, the prerequisite is even stricter.

Decision

Do not add public WriteRevisionsAsync / BeginRevisionAsync to the SDK. The contract methods already exist in Wcf/Contracts/ITransactionServiceContract.cs (AddNonStreamValuesBegin/AddNonStreamValues/AddNonStreamValuesEnd) for completeness, but the orchestrator and public surface stay absent.

Revisit if either of these changes:

1. AVEVA documents (or a customer demonstrates) a code path that bypasses the cache validation for client-created tags.
2. The SDK's mission expands to include data correction for tags that ARE in the runtime cache (i.e., tags managed by a real IO server), in which case the harness extension below provides a starting point.

Harness diagnostic (preserved)

The --write-revision-values flag in tools/AVEVA.Historian.NativeTraceHarness/Program.cs reproduces the above failure deterministically. Re-run it any time to verify the blocker still holds:

dotnet run --no-build --project tools\AVEVA.Historian.NativeTraceHarness -- `
  --scenario write `
  --write-sandbox-tag RetestSdkWriteRevSandbox `
  --write-data-type Float `
  --write-skip-add-tag --write-skip-add-value `
  --write-revision-values

Look for the AddNonStreamedValue row's ErrorCode field in the JSON output.

Original plan (preserved for context if the blocker ever lifts)

Context

The Historian's "revision write" path is the documented mechanism for editing historized data after the fact (replaces the inferred ModifyData / DeleteData use cases that don't exist as WCF ops). Native managed surface (per Phase 1 findings of the write-commands plan):

Public method	Token	Purpose
ArchestrA.HistorianAccess.AddRevisionValuesBegin	0x06006175	Open a revision-edit transaction
ArchestrA.HistorianAccess.AddRevisionValue	0x06006176	Append a value to the open transaction
ArchestrA.HistorianAccess.AddRevisionValuesEnd	0x06006177	Commit the transaction
ArchestrA.HistorianAccess.AddRevisionValues	0x0600617F	Single-shot variant
ArchestrA.HistorianAccess.AddVersionedStreamedValue	0x0600616F	Push one versioned value (related path)

WCF surface is unknown — likely a new op group on IHistoryServiceContract2 or IRetrievalServiceContract4 or a new contract.

Goal

Public SDK API:

public Task<HistorianRevisionTransaction> BeginRevisionAsync(string tag, CancellationToken ct);
// On the returned transaction:
public Task AddRevisionValueAsync(HistorianSampleEdit sample, CancellationToken ct);
public Task<bool> CommitAsync(CancellationToken ct);
// IDisposable / IAsyncDisposable for cancellation rollback if such a thing exists

Or a single batch convenience:

public Task<bool> WriteRevisionsAsync(string tag, IReadOnlyList<HistorianSampleEdit> samples, CancellationToken ct);

The choice depends on the wire shape — if Begin/Value/End requires the caller to maintain a server handle between calls, the disposable transaction is necessary; if it's stateless, the batch convenience is fine.

Workstreams

A. Static analysis (1-2 hours)

• Inspect IL for the four managed public methods to identify the underlying CHistoryConnectionWCF.* calls and their server-side WCF contract methods.
• Add the contract methods to Wcf/Contracts/IHistoryServiceContract2.cs (or a new contract if appropriate) with [OperationContract(Name = "...")]
  • [MessageParameter] attributes once names are known.

B. Native harness extension (2-3 hours)

• Add --scenario revision-write to the harness.
• Refer to existing --scenario write plumbing for the AddTag wrapper pattern.
• Sequence:
  1. Open connection (probably write-enabled mode 0x401)
  2. AddTag for sandbox tag (re-uses existing harness flow)
  3. AddStreamedValue for the initial sample (currently blocked architecturally per Phase 2 findings — but may not be required if the revision path operates directly on the historian engine state)
  4. AddRevisionValuesBegin / AddRevisionValue × N / AddRevisionValuesEnd
  5. Read back via existing read path; verify the samples reflect the edits

C. Wire capture (1 hour)

• Same instrument-wcf-writemessage + instrument-wcf-readmessage IL-rewrite tooling already used for EnsT2 / DelT.
• Capture both Begin/Value/End and the single-shot AddRevisionValues variant for byte-level diff.

D. Decode + managed serializer (4-6 hours)

• Walk the captured InBuff bytes against the native serializer IL.
• The Begin payload likely seeds a server-side transaction handle that Value calls reference. Look for an out-returned handle in the Begin response.
• Value payload structure is likely similar to AddS2's pBuf (uint16 version + uint32 sampleCount + N × {tagId, FILETIME, quality, typed value bytes}) but may include a per-sample revision/version field.

E. Public API + tests (4-6 hours)

• New types: HistorianSampleEdit (sample + reason/version metadata), HistorianRevisionTransaction (disposable handle).
• Public methods on HistorianClient per the Goal section.
• Unit tests: golden-byte fixtures for Begin/Value/End/Commit payloads.
• Live integration tests: write a known sample, edit it via the revision path, read back and assert the new value appears.

Risks

• Server-cache prerequisite. If the historian's revision path also requires the tag to be "live in the runtime cache" (the same blocker that killed AddS2), the entire path may be unimplementable for the same architectural reason.
• State across calls. Begin/Value/End may store transaction state on the server keyed by the WCF session GUID. WCF's session model needs to be configured to keep the same channel alive across all three calls — which is a different lifecycle from the existing one-call-per-channel pattern in the SDK orchestrators.
• Concurrent edits. Server may reject concurrent revision transactions on the same tag — needs probing.
• Time bounds. Revision likely respects the same RealTimeWindow / FutureTimeThreshold system parameters as AddS2. Out-of-window edits silently drop or error — needs probing.

Success Criteria

• Public BeginRevisionAsync (or batch variant) live-verified against a sandbox tag created by EnsureTagAsync.
• Round-trip test: write initial value → revise it → read back → verify the revised value persists in History extension table via SQL.
• Golden-byte fixtures for Begin / Value / End / Commit captured against the sandbox tag.
• Decision documented for whether the AddRevisionValues single-shot variant is exposed in addition to the Begin/Value/End sequence.

Dependencies

• Existing analog write surface (EnsureTagAsync) — done.
• AddS2 is not a prerequisite; the revision path may be an independent code path that bypasses the runtime-cache gate. If it doesn't, this plan is blocked the same way AddS2 is.

Out of scope

• Editing event tags. Events come from AVEVA AnE; the SDK only reads them.
• Bulk schema changes. Forbidden over the wire per the Historian's architecture.

Trigger to start

A customer-driven request, or a real need to expose historical data correction in the SDK's API. Without one, this remains the most substantive remaining write-path workstream but isn't worth the 1-2 days of focused work speculatively.