[FEATURE REQ] Azure OpenAI make the API version a settable string PLEASE

[bartczernicki]

Library name

Azure.AI.OpenAI

Please describe the feature.

Why is the API version an ENUM and then stored in an interal string that cannot be changed?! This feels way over-engineered and resembles the old Azure SDK packages where we had ENUMs for Azure regions and the package became useless each time a new region was onboarded nor did it work for "private customer regions". Finally, we made that a string.

We have the same situation now. o1 is GA, customers are being onboarded and the SDK doesn't work because the 2024-12-01 API version is not in the ENUM. We have to wait for a new version of the package to come out. At least provide a mechanism to override this in the constructor or make it a get/set property not internal!

[jsquire]

Hi @bartczernicki. Thank you for reaching out and we regret that you're experiencing difficulties. Azure SDK clients are intentionally constrained in what service versions they may interact with to ensure compatibility. Clients support the version of the service they were generated and built against as well as any previous GA versions, under the assumption that the service follows Azure REST guidelines for breaking changes.

The enumeration form is a deliberate design decision and discussed in the Azure SDK Guidelines. As a pattern across the Azure SDK for .NET, this is not something that Azure OpenAI would be permitted to deviate from.

[github-actions]

Hi @bartczernicki. Thank you for opening this issue and giving us the opportunity to assist. We believe that this has been addressed. If you feel that further discussion is needed, please add a comment with the text "/unresolve" to remove the "issue-addressed" label and continue the conversation.

[github-actions]

Hi @bartczernicki. Thank you for opening this issue and giving us the opportunity to assist. We believe that this has been addressed. If you feel that further discussion is needed, please add a comment with the text "/unresolve" to remove the "issue-addressed" label and continue the conversation.

[bartczernicki]

@jsquire For context: I work for MSFT as an AI GBB. I understand the guidelines, it just prevents early access customers to have SDK access. If we need ENUMs for supported service versions...OK. Specifically, for Azure OpenAI many of these services are in "preview" and bugs are expected.

Furthermore, the non-beta and beta versions of the SDK force you to select preview or non-preview Service Versions. I do not understand that decision either, as Azure OpenAI there are certain APIs in preview that have specific model functionality. You would need to break the solution up to use different versions of the SDK package to mix functionality, which ones again forces me to fight the SDK.

It would be nice to override the ServiceVersion, by making that string property settable as an override. Make it a pragma warning directive if needed.

This causes downstream issues like this in Semantic Kernel:
microsoft/semantic-kernel#2833

[sdcb]

Hi @bartczernicki , this is my workaround for your reference, it works:

https://github.com/sdcb/chats/blob/d69e56e7c635fb1241cfc0e7f6323918ea95e99c/src/BE/Services/ChatServices/Implementations/OpenAI/AzureChatService.cs#L18-L25