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Status Planned for future release
Created by Guest
Created on May 17, 2026

Add a clear EOF indicator to the productAvailabilitySnapshot.v2 event stream

The current End-of-File (EOF) message for the productAvailabilitySnapshot.v2
event is indistinguishable from an empty or malformed payload. There is no
explicit field, flag, or marker that programmatically identifies it as the
intentional end of a snapshot batch.

This creates two concrete problems:

  1. Systems consuming the event stream cannot reliably detect when a full
    snapshot has been delivered. An empty message looks identical to bad data,
    a network issue, or a dropped event — forcing consumers to guess or
    implement fragile workarounds.

  2. The current EOF documentation
    (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/sip?topic=formats-new-event#newevent__ProdAvailabilitySnapshot)
    shows an empty structure with no distinguishing attribute.

Requested change: include an unambiguous EOF indicator in the message payload —
for example a dedicated field or a known non-empty sentinel value — so
downstream systems can deterministically identify the end of a
productAvailabilitySnapshot.v2 batch without relying on inference or timing.

What is your industry? Retail
How will this idea be used?

Our system consumes the productAvailabilitySnapshot.v2 event stream to
trigger downstream processing once a full snapshot has been received.
Without a reliable EOF signal, we cannot know when the batch is complete,
which causes us to either process incomplete data or hold processing
indefinitely waiting for a signal that currently does not exist.


  • Admin
    Sampson Wong
    May 27, 2026

    Thank you for your feedback regarding downstream consumption optimization for the snapshot event architecture. We agree that relying on implicit structural differences to identify batch boundaries introduces integration liabilities.

    To resolve this cleanly, the Inventory module will be updated for both productAvailabilitySnapshot.v2 and dgAvailabilitySnapshot.v2 event streams to include an explicit control boolean indicator within the data block.

    { "type": "productAvailabilitySnapshot.v2", "datacontenttype": "application/json", "id": "2a8d36a3-485b-3fc0-be26-d530625a6ec5", "specversion": "1.0", "time": "2026-05-27T21:15:00.000Z", "data": { "tenantId": "tenant1", "snapshotId": "productAvailabilitySnapshot-test", "isSnapshotComplete": true } }

    Effectively, when the snapshot routine concludes, the publisher platform will dispatch this formalized control payload containing the following attribute:

    • isSnapshotComplete: true — A dedicated boolean flag to enforce deterministic, programmatic handling of the end of a snapshot batch. (Subject to change based on final design)

    Implementation Best Practices

    • Event Stream Consumption: Because the data publishing is asynchronous, payloads may occasionally be processed out of sequence. Downstream integration frameworks should utilize the isSnapshotComplete: true flag as a signal to initiate final data reconciliation gates rather than instantly closing ingestion pipelines.

    • API-Driven Verification: After requesting the snapshot trigger, ensure you capture the jobId returned in the initial response payload. This jobId can be used with the Get Matching Job API to verify the definitive system completion status and the corresponding completion timestamp (completeTS).

    This request is scheduled for a future release cycle, and the IBM Documentation will be updated accordingly.