When would "fullDocumentBeforeChange" not be available?

MongoDB Atlas Stream Processing
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1

Hello!

As stated in the db.collection.watch() documentation:

Starting in MongoDB 6.0, you can use the new fullDocumentBeforeChange field and set it to:

“whenAvailable” to output the document pre-image, if available, before the document was replaced, updated, or deleted.

I would like to understand under which circumstances the fullDocumentBeforeChange would not be available.

I’m using MongoDB v6.0 dedicated on Atlas

Details

Document in DB before change:

{
    "_id": "65f4c121ac8791800bdca1ef",
    "arrayLevel1": [
        {
            "title": "level1",
            "arrayLevel2": [
                {
                    "title": "level2",
                    "property": "value",
                    "name": "John",
                    "age": 30
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Update:

await client()
    .collection('testStreams')
    .updateOne(
        {
            _id: getObjectId('65f4c121ac8791800bdca1ef'),
        },
        {
            $set: {
                'arrayLevel1.0.arrayLevel2.0.age': 40,
            },
        }
    );

Next result:

{
    ...
    "operationType": "update",
    "fullDocument": {
        "_id": "65f4c121ac8791800bdca1ef",
            "arrayLevel1": [
            {
                "title": "level1",
                "arrayLevel2": [
                    {
                        "title": "level2",
                        "property": "value",
                        "name": "John",
                        "age": 40
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    },
    "updateDescription": {
        "updatedFields": {
            "arrayLevel1.0.arrayLevel2.0.age": 40
        },
        "removedFields": [],
        "truncatedArrays": []
    },
    "fullDocumentBeforeChange": null
}

Why in the above stream change the fullDocumentBeforeChange is null?

Thanks!!

2

It would be not available if you didn’t enable capture of the pre-images on the collection. Or it was enabled, but an event that you are reading is from the past, before pre-images were enabled.

3

Thank you for the clarity!