Implement JSON Schema inlining

[prashanthseshadri]

Hi,

Is it possible to get the expanded version of Json Schema (resolved along with references) in the Java code so that i get a flattened JSON version?
eg:
===== A.json =========
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"foo": {
"type": "string"
}
}
}
========= B.json ==============
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"bar": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"$ref": "A.json#/properties/foo"
}
}
}
}

to give me the output as :
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"bar": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "string"
}
}
}
}

Also, is it possible to serialize this data? Jackson was throwing error on serializing it since JsonSchema itself does not have any field to be serialized.
Thanks in advance

[fge]

This is a very common request... This will be included in the next version.

It will be out by the end of the year.

[fge]

As to serialization, well, the original JSON is the serialization format ;)

[prashanthseshadri]

Yeah i get that - i mean the original JSON. But the ref resolution etc., might not happen out of the box via normal InputStream of the Json, which i think would be good to be included in the library in which case it would be good to serialize the JsonSchema object (along with the resolved URLs). :)

[prashanthseshadri]

Also, are you aware of the library (probably UI) which will do the resolution of the URLs? In that case, i can just give out the initial Schema from backend and from there on, UI would know to resolve it!

[fge]

Well, the plan is to have a class which you will get from a JsonSchemaFactory which will handle all the downloading of JSON. It will also perform inlining.

As to what resolves URIs, it is an interface: URIDownloader. You can implement your own for your own scheme. I do not use a dedicated library for that.

[prashanthseshadri]

Okay, thanks for the reply. Waiting for the flattening of Json work! is there any other issue link where i can track the progress of this?

[prashanthseshadri]

And just to clarfiy, i believe I would be able to get the Json Schema (after resolution) as a string some how at the end, right?

[fge]

As to tracking, I guess this issue will be the one (by the way, can you change the title to "Implement JSON Schema inlining"?).

If you want a JSON as a string you'll have to pass by an ObjectMapper. You can for instance do:

JacksonUtils.newMapper().writeValueAsString(theJsonNode);

[prashanthseshadri]

Yeah right, for which theJsonNode has to be got, some how from the JsonSchemaFactory object! So i would like you guys to ensure that the object obtained from JsonSchemaFactory (be JsonNode or any custom POJO) be actually serializable.

Thanks

[prashanthseshadri]

Hi,

Is there any update/progress on this?

[fge]

Not yet; recently I've been playing with another project. This is the next item on my todo list.

This turns out to be quite a complicated thing to do right... You have to account for ids, $schemas if any (what happens for instance if you try and inline a v3 schema into a v4 schema), "local" JSON References etc... It turns out to be quite a challenge.

[Simon-Payne]

Hi Francis,
I could definitely do with this functionality. In my case, I have a RAML API that references several JSON schemas that have quite complex structures, using some draft v4 features such as allOf[...], and JSON pointer references from the schema files to a separate file that has the definitions of various objects in it. The idea was to re-use object definitions in different schemas. I want to be able to generate POJOs from the object types that are being used in the schemas. Having schemas in a flattened format, like prashanthseshadri is asking, sounds like it is on the right lines. So I look forward to hearing more about this feature.
thanks
Simon