draft-zyp-json-schema-04.xml (48288B)
1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?> 2 <!DOCTYPE rfc SYSTEM "rfc2629.dtd" [ 3 <!ENTITY rfc4627 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.4627.xml"> 4 <!ENTITY rfc3986 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3986.xml"> 5 <!ENTITY rfc2119 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2119.xml"> 6 <!ENTITY rfc4287 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.4287.xml"> 7 <!ENTITY rfc2616 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2616.xml"> 8 <!ENTITY rfc3339 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3339.xml"> 9 <!ENTITY rfc2045 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2045.xml"> 10 <!ENTITY rfc5226 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5226.xml"> 11 <!ENTITY iddiscovery SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.hammer-discovery.xml"> 12 <!ENTITY uritemplate SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.gregorio-uritemplate.xml"> 13 <!ENTITY linkheader SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.nottingham-http-link-header.xml"> 14 <!ENTITY html401 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml4/reference.W3C.REC-html401-19991224.xml"> 15 <!ENTITY css21 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml4/reference.W3C.CR-CSS21-20070719.xml"> 16 ]> 17 <?rfc toc="yes"?> 18 <?rfc symrefs="yes"?> 19 <?rfc compact="yes"?> 20 <?rfc subcompact="no"?> 21 <?rfc strict="no"?> 22 <?rfc rfcedstyle="yes"?> 23 <rfc category="info" docName="draft-zyp-json-schema-04" ipr="trust200902"> 24 <front> 25 <title abbrev="JSON Schema Media Type">A JSON Media Type for Describing the Structure and Meaning of JSON Documents</title> 26 27 <author fullname="Kris Zyp" initials="K" role="editor" surname="Zyp"> 28 <organization>SitePen (USA)</organization> 29 <address> 30 <postal> 31 <street>530 Lytton Avenue</street> 32 <city>Palo Alto, CA 94301</city> 33 <country>USA</country> 34 </postal> 35 <phone>+1 650 968 8787</phone> 36 <email>kris@sitepen.com</email> 37 </address> 38 </author> 39 40 <author fullname="Gary Court" initials="G" surname="Court"> 41 <address> 42 <postal> 43 <street></street> 44 <city>Calgary, AB</city> 45 <country>Canada</country> 46 </postal> 47 <email>gary.court@gmail.com</email> 48 </address> 49 </author> 50 51 <date year="2011" /> 52 <workgroup>Internet Engineering Task Force</workgroup> 53 <keyword>JSON</keyword> 54 <keyword>Schema</keyword> 55 <keyword>JavaScript</keyword> 56 <keyword>Object</keyword> 57 <keyword>Notation</keyword> 58 <keyword>Hyper Schema</keyword> 59 <keyword>Hypermedia</keyword> 60 61 <abstract> 62 <t> 63 JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) Schema defines the media type "application/schema+json", 64 a JSON based format for defining the structure of JSON data. JSON Schema provides a contract for what JSON 65 data is required for a given application and how to interact with it. JSON 66 Schema is intended to define validation, documentation, hyperlink 67 navigation, and interaction control of JSON data. 68 </t> 69 </abstract> 70 </front> 71 72 <middle> 73 <section title="Introduction"> 74 <t> 75 JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) Schema is a JSON media type for defining 76 the structure of JSON data. JSON Schema provides a contract for what JSON 77 data is required for a given application and how to interact with it. JSON 78 Schema is intended to define validation, documentation, hyperlink 79 navigation, and interaction control of JSON data. 80 </t> 81 </section> 82 83 <section title="Conventions and Terminology"> 84 <t> 85 <!-- The text in this section has been copied from the official boilerplate, 86 and should not be modified.--> 87 88 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", 89 "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be 90 interpreted as described in <xref target="RFC2119">RFC 2119</xref>. 91 </t> 92 93 <t> 94 The terms "JSON", "JSON text", "JSON value", "member", "element", "object", 95 "array", "number", "string", "boolean", "true", "false", and "null" in this 96 document are to be interpreted as defined in <xref target="RFC4627">RFC 4627</xref>. 97 </t> 98 99 <t> 100 This specification also uses the following defined terms: 101 102 <list style="hanging"> 103 <t hangText="schema">A JSON Schema object.</t> 104 <t hangText="instance">Equivalent to "JSON value" as defined in <xref target="RFC4627">RFC 4627</xref>.</t> 105 <t hangText="property">Equivalent to "member" as defined in <xref target="RFC4627">RFC 4627</xref>.</t> 106 <t hangText="item">Equivalent to "element" as defined in <xref target="RFC4627">RFC 4627</xref>.</t> 107 <t hangText="attribute">A property of a JSON Schema object.</t> 108 </list> 109 </t> 110 </section> 111 112 <section title="Overview"> 113 <t> 114 JSON Schema defines the media type "application/schema+json" for 115 describing the structure of JSON text. JSON Schemas are also written in JSON and includes facilities 116 for describing the structure of JSON in terms of 117 allowable values, descriptions, and interpreting relations with other resources. 118 </t> 119 <t> 120 This document is organized into several separate definitions. The first 121 definition is the core schema specification. This definition is primary 122 concerned with describing a JSON structure and specifying valid elements 123 in the structure. The second definition is the Hyper Schema specification 124 which is intended to define elements in a structure that can be interpreted as 125 hyperlinks. 126 Hyper Schema builds on JSON Schema to describe the hyperlink structure of 127 JSON values. This allows user agents to be able to successfully navigate 128 documents containing JSON based on their schemas. 129 </t> 130 <t> 131 Cumulatively JSON Schema acts as meta-JSON that can be used to define the 132 required type and constraints on JSON values, as well as define the meaning 133 of the JSON values for the purpose of describing a resource and determining 134 hyperlinks within the representation. 135 </t> 136 <figure> 137 <preamble>An example JSON Schema that describes products might look like:</preamble> 138 <artwork> 139 <![CDATA[ 140 { 141 "title": "Product", 142 "properties": { 143 "id": { 144 "title": "Product Identifier", 145 "type": "number" 146 }, 147 "name": { 148 "title": "Product Name", 149 "type": "string" 150 }, 151 "price": { 152 "type": "number", 153 "minimum": 0 154 }, 155 "tags": { 156 "type": "array", 157 "items": { 158 "type": "string" 159 } 160 } 161 }, 162 "required" : ["id", "name", "price"], 163 "links": [{ 164 "rel": "full", 165 "href": "{id}" 166 }, { 167 "rel": "comments", 168 "href": "comments/?id={id}" 169 }] 170 } 171 ]]> 172 </artwork> 173 <postamble> 174 This schema defines the properties of the instance, 175 the required properties (id, name, and price), as well as an optional 176 property (tags). This also defines the link relations of the instance. 177 </postamble> 178 </figure> 179 180 <section title="Design Considerations"> 181 <t> 182 The JSON Schema media type does not attempt to dictate the structure of JSON 183 values that contain data, but rather provides a separate format 184 for flexibly communicating how a JSON value should be 185 interpreted and validated, such that user agents can properly understand 186 acceptable structures and extrapolate hyperlink information 187 from the JSON. It is acknowledged that JSON values come 188 in a variety of structures, and JSON is unique in that the structure 189 of stored data structures often prescribes a non-ambiguous definite 190 JSON representation. Attempting to force a specific structure is generally 191 not viable, and therefore JSON Schema allows for a great flexibility 192 in the structure of the JSON data that it describes. 193 </t> 194 <t> 195 This specification is protocol agnostic. 196 The underlying protocol (such as HTTP) should sufficiently define the 197 semantics of the client-server interface, the retrieval of resource 198 representations linked to by JSON representations, and modification of 199 those resources. The goal of this 200 format is to sufficiently describe JSON structures such that one can 201 utilize existing information available in existing JSON 202 representations from a large variety of services that leverage a representational state transfer 203 architecture using existing protocols. 204 </t> 205 </section> 206 </section> 207 208 <section title="Schema/Instance Association"> 209 <t> 210 JSON values are correlated to their schema by the "describedby" 211 relation, where the schema is the target of the relation. 212 JSON values MUST be of the "application/json" media type or 213 any other subtype. Consequently, dictating how a JSON value should 214 specify the relation to the schema is beyond the normative scope 215 of this document since this document specifically defines the JSON 216 Schema media type, and no other. It is RECOMMNENDED that JSON values 217 specify their schema so that user agents can interpret the instance 218 and retain the self-descriptive characteristics. This avoides the need for out-of-band information about 219 instance data. Two approaches are recommended for declaring the 220 relation to the schema that describes the meaning of a JSON instance's (or collection 221 of instances) structure. A MIME type parameter named 222 "profile" or a relation of "describedby" (which could be specified by a Link header) may be used: 223 224 <figure> 225 <artwork> 226 <![CDATA[ 227 Content-Type: application/my-media-type+json; 228 profile=http://example.com/my-hyper-schema 229 ]]> 230 </artwork> 231 </figure> 232 233 or if the content is being transferred by a protocol (such as HTTP) that 234 provides headers, a Link header can be used: 235 236 <figure> 237 <artwork> 238 <![CDATA[ 239 Link: <http://example.com/my-hyper-schema>; rel="describedby" 240 ]]> 241 </artwork> 242 </figure> 243 244 Instances MAY specify multiple schemas, to indicate all the schemas that 245 are applicable to the data, and the data SHOULD be valid by all the schemas. 246 The instance data MAY have multiple schemas 247 that it is described by (the instance data SHOULD be valid for those schemas). 248 Or if the document is a collection of instances, the collection MAY contain 249 instances from different schemas. The mechanism for referencing a schema is 250 determined by the media type of the instance (if it provides a method for 251 referencing schemas). 252 </t> 253 254 <section title="Self-Descriptive Schema"> 255 <t> 256 JSON Schemas can themselves be described using JSON Schemas. 257 A self-describing JSON Schema for the core JSON Schema can 258 be found at <eref target="http://json-schema.org/schema">http://json-schema.org/schema</eref> for the latest version or 259 <eref target="http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema">http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema</eref> for the draft-04 version. The hyper schema 260 self-description can be found at <eref target="http://json-schema.org/hyper-schema">http://json-schema.org/hyper-schema</eref> 261 or <eref target="http://json-schema.org/draft-04/hyper-schema">http://json-schema.org/draft-04/hyper-schema</eref>. All schemas 262 used within a protocol with a media type specified SHOULD include a MIME parameter that refers to the self-descriptive 263 hyper schema or another schema that extends this hyper schema: 264 265 <figure> 266 <artwork> 267 <![CDATA[ 268 Content-Type: application/json; 269 profile=http://json-schema.org/draft-04/hyper-schema 270 ]]> 271 </artwork> 272 </figure> 273 </t> 274 </section> 275 </section> 276 277 <section title="Core Schema Definition"> 278 <t> 279 A JSON Schema is a JSON object that defines various attributes 280 (including usage and valid values) of a JSON value. JSON 281 Schema has recursive capabilities; there are a number of elements 282 in the structure that allow for nested JSON Schemas. 283 </t> 284 285 <figure> 286 <preamble>An example JSON Schema could look like:</preamble> 287 <artwork> 288 <![CDATA[ 289 { 290 "description": "A person", 291 "type": "object", 292 293 "properties": { 294 "name": { 295 "type": "string" 296 }, 297 "age": { 298 "type": "number", 299 "divisibleBy": 1, 300 "minimum": 0, 301 "maximum": 125 302 } 303 } 304 } 305 ]]> 306 </artwork> 307 </figure> 308 309 <t> 310 A JSON Schema object MAY have any of the following optional properties: 311 </t> 312 313 <!-- TODO: Break attributes up into type sections --> 314 <!-- TODO: Add examples for (almost) every attribute --> 315 316 <section title="type" anchor="type"> 317 <t> 318 This attribute defines what the primitive type or the schema of the instance MUST be in order to validate. 319 This attribute can take one of two forms: 320 321 <list style="hanging"> 322 <t hangText="Simple Types"> 323 A string indicating a primitive or simple type. The string MUST be one of the following values: 324 325 <list style="hanging"> 326 <t hangText="object">Instance MUST be an object.</t> 327 <t hangText="array">Instance MUST be an array.</t> 328 <t hangText="string">Instance MUST be a string.</t> 329 <t hangText="number">Instance MUST be a number, including floating point numbers.</t> 330 <t hangText="boolean">Instance MUST be the JSON literal "true" or "false".</t> 331 <t hangText="null">Instance MUST be the JSON literal "null". Note that without this type, null values are not allowed.</t> 332 <t hangText="any">Instance MAY be of any type, including null.</t> 333 </list> 334 </t> 335 336 <t hangText="Union Types"> 337 An array of one or more simple or schema types. 338 The instance value is valid if it is of the same type as one of the simple types, or valid by one of the schemas, in the array. 339 </t> 340 </list> 341 342 If this attribute is not specified, then all value types are accepted. 343 </t> 344 345 <figure> 346 <preamble>For example, a schema that defines if an instance can be a string or a number would be:</preamble> 347 <artwork> 348 <![CDATA[ 349 { 350 "type": ["string", "number"] 351 } 352 ]]></artwork> 353 </figure> 354 </section> 355 356 <section title="properties" anchor="properties"> 357 <t> 358 This attribute is an object with properties that specify the schemas for the properties of the instance object. 359 In this attribute's object, each property value MUST be a schema. 360 When the instance value is an object, the value of the instance's properties MUST be valid according to the schemas with the same property names specified in this attribute. 361 Objects are unordered, so therefore the order of the instance properties or attribute properties MUST NOT determine validation success. 362 </t> 363 </section> 364 365 <section title="patternProperties" anchor="patternProperties"> 366 <t> 367 This attribute is an object that defines the schema for a set of property names of an object instance. 368 The name of each property of this attribute's object is a regular expression pattern in the ECMA 262/Perl 5 format, while the value is a schema. 369 If the pattern matches the name of a property on the instance object, the value of the instance's property MUST be valid against the pattern name's schema value. 370 </t> 371 </section> 372 373 <section title="additionalProperties" anchor="additionalProperties"> 374 <t>This attribute specifies how any instance property that is not explicitly defined by either the <xref target="properties">"properties"</xref> or <xref target="patternProperties">"patternProperties"</xref> attributes (hereafter referred to as "additional properties") is handled. If specified, the value MUST be a schema or a boolean.</t> 375 <t>If a schema is provided, then all additional properties MUST be valid according to the schema.</t> 376 <t>If false is provided, then no additional properties are allowed.</t> 377 <t>The default value is an empty schema, which allows any value for additional properties.</t> 378 </section> 379 380 <section title="items" anchor="items"> 381 <t>This attribute provides the allowed items in an array instance. If specified, this attribute MUST be a schema or an array of schemas.</t> 382 <t>When this attribute value is a schema and the instance value is an array, then all the items in the array MUST be valid according to the schema.</t> 383 <t>When this attribute value is an array of schemas and the instance value is an array, each position in the instance array MUST be valid according to the schema in the corresponding position for this array. This called tuple typing. When tuple typing is used, additional items are allowed, disallowed, or constrained by the <xref target="additionalItems">"additionalItems"</xref> attribute the same way as <xref target="additionalProperties">"additionalProperties"</xref> for objects is.</t> 384 </section> 385 386 <section title="additionalItems" anchor="additionalItems"> 387 <t>This attribute specifies how any item in the array instance that is not explicitly defined by <xref target="items">"items"</xref> (hereafter referred to as "additional items") is handled. If specified, the value MUST be a schema or a boolean.</t> 388 <t>If a schema is provided: 389 <list> 390 <t>If the <xref target="items">"items"</xref> attribute is unspecified, then all items in the array instance must be valid against this schema.</t> 391 <t>If the <xref target="items">"items"</xref> attribute is a schema, then this attribute is ignored.</t> 392 <t>If the <xref target="items">"items"</xref> attribute is an array (during tuple typing), then any additional items MUST be valid against this schema.</t> 393 </list> 394 </t> 395 <t>If false is provided, then any additional items in the array are not allowed.</t> 396 <t>The default value is an empty schema, which allows any value for additional items.</t> 397 </section> 398 399 <section title="required" anchor="required"> 400 <t>This attribute is an array of strings that defines all the property names that must exist on the object instance.</t> 401 </section> 402 403 <section title="dependencies" anchor="dependencies"> 404 <t>This attribute is an object that specifies the requirements of a property on an object instance. If an object instance has a property with the same name as a property in this attribute's object, then the instance must be valid against the attribute's property value (hereafter referred to as the "dependency value").</t> 405 <t> 406 The dependency value can take one of two forms: 407 408 <list style="hanging"> 409 <t hangText="Simple Dependency"> 410 If the dependency value is a string, then the instance object MUST have a property with the same name as the dependency value. 411 If the dependency value is an array of strings, then the instance object MUST have a property with the same name as each string in the dependency value's array. 412 </t> 413 <t hangText="Schema Dependency"> 414 If the dependency value is a schema, then the instance object MUST be valid against the schema. 415 </t> 416 </list> 417 </t> 418 </section> 419 420 <section title="minimum" anchor="minimum"> 421 <t>This attribute defines the minimum value of the instance property when the type of the instance value is a number.</t> 422 </section> 423 424 <section title="maximum" anchor="maximum"> 425 <t>This attribute defines the maximum value of the instance property when the type of the instance value is a number.</t> 426 </section> 427 428 <section title="exclusiveMinimum" anchor="exclusiveMinimum"> 429 <t>This attribute indicates if the value of the instance (if the instance is a number) can not equal the number defined by the "minimum" attribute. This is false by default, meaning the instance value can be greater then or equal to the minimum value.</t> 430 </section> 431 432 <section title="exclusiveMaximum" anchor="exclusiveMaximum"> 433 <t>This attribute indicates if the value of the instance (if the instance is a number) can not equal the number defined by the "maximum" attribute. This is false by default, meaning the instance value can be less then or equal to the maximum value.</t> 434 </section> 435 436 <section title="minItems" anchor="minItems"> 437 <t>This attribute defines the minimum number of values in an array when the array is the instance value.</t> 438 </section> 439 440 <section title="maxItems" anchor="maxItems"> 441 <t>This attribute defines the maximum number of values in an array when the array is the instance value.</t> 442 </section> 443 444 <section title="minProperties" anchor="minProperties"> 445 <t>This attribute defines the minimum number of properties required on an object instance.</t> 446 </section> 447 448 <section title="maxProperties" anchor="maxProperties"> 449 <t>This attribute defines the maximum number of properties the object instance can have.</t> 450 </section> 451 452 <section title="uniqueItems" anchor="uniqueItems"> 453 <t>This attribute indicates that all items in an array instance MUST be unique (contains no two identical values).</t> 454 <t> 455 Two instance are consider equal if they are both of the same type and: 456 457 <list> 458 <t>are null; or</t> 459 <t>are booleans/numbers/strings and have the same value; or</t> 460 <t>are arrays, contains the same number of items, and each item in the array is equal to the item at the corresponding index in the other array; or</t> 461 <t>are objects, contains the same property names, and each property in the object is equal to the corresponding property in the other object.</t> 462 </list> 463 </t> 464 </section> 465 466 <section title="pattern" anchor="pattern"> 467 <t>When the instance value is a string, this provides a regular expression that a string instance MUST match in order to be valid. Regular expressions SHOULD follow the regular expression specification from ECMA 262/Perl 5</t> 468 </section> 469 470 <section title="minLength" anchor="minLength"> 471 <t>When the instance value is a string, this defines the minimum length of the string.</t> 472 </section> 473 474 <section title="maxLength" anchor="maxLength"> 475 <t>When the instance value is a string, this defines the maximum length of the string.</t> 476 </section> 477 478 <section title="enum" anchor="enum"> 479 <t>This provides an enumeration of all possible values that are valid for the instance property. This MUST be an array, and each item in the array represents a possible value for the instance value. If this attribute is defined, the instance value MUST be one of the values in the array in order for the schema to be valid. Comparison of enum values uses the same algorithm as defined in <xref target="uniqueItems">"uniqueItems"</xref>.</t> 480 </section> 481 482 <section title="default" anchor="default"> 483 <t>This attribute defines the default value of the instance when the instance is undefined.</t> 484 </section> 485 486 <section title="title" anchor="title"> 487 <t>This attribute is a string that provides a short description of the instance property.</t> 488 </section> 489 490 <section title="description" anchor="description"> 491 <t>This attribute is a string that provides a full description of the of purpose the instance property.</t> 492 </section> 493 494 <section title="divisibleBy" anchor="divisibleBy"> 495 <t>This attribute defines what value the number instance must be divisible by with no remainder (the result of the division must be an integer.) The value of this attribute SHOULD NOT be 0.</t> 496 </section> 497 498 <section title="disallow" anchor="disallow"> 499 <t>This attribute takes the same values as the "type" attribute, however if the instance matches the type or if this value is an array and the instance matches any type or schema in the array, then this instance is not valid.</t> 500 </section> 501 502 <section title="extends" anchor="extends"> 503 <t>The value of this property MUST be another schema which will provide a base schema which the current schema will inherit from. The inheritance rules are such that any instance that is valid according to the current schema MUST be valid according to the referenced schema. This MAY also be an array, in which case, the instance MUST be valid for all the schemas in the array. A schema that extends another schema MAY define additional attributes, constrain existing attributes, or add other constraints.</t> 504 <t> 505 Conceptually, the behavior of extends can be seen as validating an 506 instance against all constraints in the extending schema as well as 507 the extended schema(s). More optimized implementations that merge 508 schemas are possible, but are not required. Some examples of using "extends": 509 510 <figure> 511 <artwork> 512 <![CDATA[ 513 { 514 "description": "An adult", 515 "properties": { 516 "age": { 517 "minimum": 21 518 } 519 }, 520 "extends": {"$ref": "person"} 521 } 522 ]]> 523 </artwork> 524 </figure> 525 526 <figure> 527 <artwork> 528 <![CDATA[ 529 { 530 "description": "Extended schema", 531 "properties": { 532 "deprecated": { 533 "type": "boolean" 534 } 535 }, 536 "extends": {"$ref": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema"} 537 } 538 ]]> 539 </artwork> 540 </figure> 541 </t> 542 </section> 543 544 <section title="id" anchor="id"> 545 <t> 546 This attribute defines the current URI of this schema (this attribute is 547 effectively a "self" link). This URI MAY be relative or absolute. If 548 the URI is relative it is resolved against the current URI of the parent 549 schema it is contained in. If this schema is not contained in any 550 parent schema, the current URI of the parent schema is held to be the 551 URI under which this schema was addressed. If id is missing, the current URI of a schema is 552 defined to be that of the parent schema. The current URI of the schema 553 is also used to construct relative references such as for $ref. 554 </t> 555 </section> 556 557 <section title="$ref" anchor="ref"> 558 <t> 559 This attribute defines a URI of a schema that contains the full representation of this schema. 560 When a validator encounters this attribute, it SHOULD replace the current schema with the schema referenced by the value's URI (if known and available) and re-validate the instance. 561 This URI MAY be relative or absolute, and relative URIs SHOULD be resolved against the URI of the current schema. 562 </t> 563 </section> 564 565 <section title="$schema" anchor="schema"> 566 <t> 567 This attribute defines a URI of a JSON Schema that is the schema of the current schema. 568 When this attribute is defined, a validator SHOULD use the schema referenced by the value's URI (if known and available) when resolving <xref target="hyper-schema">Hyper Schema</xref><xref target="links">links</xref>. 569 </t> 570 571 <t> 572 A validator MAY use this attribute's value to determine which version of JSON Schema the current schema is written in, and provide the appropriate validation features and behavior. 573 Therefore, it is RECOMMENDED that all schema authors include this attribute in their schemas to prevent conflicts with future JSON Schema specification changes. 574 </t> 575 </section> 576 </section> 577 578 <section title="Hyper Schema" anchor="hyper-schema"> 579 <t> 580 The following attributes are specified in addition to those 581 attributes that already provided by the core schema with the specific 582 purpose of informing user agents of relations between resources based 583 on JSON data. Just as with JSON 584 schema attributes, all the attributes in hyper schemas are optional. 585 Therefore, an empty object is a valid (non-informative) schema, and 586 essentially describes plain JSON (no constraints on the structures). 587 Addition of attributes provides additive information for user agents. 588 </t> 589 590 <section title="links" anchor="links"> 591 <t> 592 The value of the links property MUST be an array, where each item 593 in the array is a link description object which describes the link 594 relations of the instances. 595 </t> 596 597 <!-- TODO: Needs more clarification and examples --> 598 599 <section title="Link Description Object"> 600 <t> 601 A link description object is used to describe link relations. In 602 the context of a schema, it defines the link relations of the 603 instances of the schema, and can be parameterized by the instance 604 values. The link description format can be used without JSON Schema, 605 and use of this format can 606 be declared by referencing the normative link description 607 schema as the the schema for the data structure that uses the 608 links. The URI of the normative link description schema is: 609 <eref target="http://json-schema.org/links">http://json-schema.org/links</eref> (latest version) or 610 <eref target="http://json-schema.org/draft-04/links">http://json-schema.org/draft-04/links</eref> (draft-04 version). 611 </t> 612 613 <section title="href" anchor="href"> 614 <t> 615 The value of the "href" link description property 616 indicates the target URI of the related resource. The value 617 of the instance property SHOULD be resolved as a URI-Reference per <xref target="RFC3986">RFC 3986</xref> 618 and MAY be a relative URI. The base URI to be used for relative resolution 619 SHOULD be the URI used to retrieve the instance object (not the schema) 620 when used within a schema. Also, when links are used within a schema, the URI 621 SHOULD be parametrized by the property values of the instance 622 object, if property values exist for the corresponding variables 623 in the template (otherwise they MAY be provided from alternate sources, like user input). 624 </t> 625 626 <t> 627 Instance property values SHOULD be substituted into the URIs where 628 matching braces ('{', '}') are found surrounding zero or more characters, 629 creating an expanded URI. Instance property value substitutions are resolved 630 by using the text between the braces to denote the property name 631 from the instance to get the value to substitute. 632 633 <figure> 634 <preamble>For example, if an href value is defined:</preamble> 635 <artwork> 636 <![CDATA[ 637 http://somesite.com/{id} 638 ]]> 639 </artwork> 640 <postamble>Then it would be resolved by replace the value of the "id" property value from the instance object.</postamble> 641 </figure> 642 643 <figure> 644 <preamble>If the value of the "id" property was "45", the expanded URI would be:</preamble> 645 <artwork> 646 <![CDATA[ 647 http://somesite.com/45 648 ]]> 649 </artwork> 650 </figure> 651 652 If matching braces are found with the string "@" (no quotes) between the braces, then the 653 actual instance value SHOULD be used to replace the braces, rather than a property value. 654 This should only be used in situations where the instance is a scalar (string, 655 boolean, or number), and not for objects or arrays. 656 </t> 657 </section> 658 659 <section title="rel"> 660 <t> 661 The value of the "rel" property indicates the name of the 662 relation to the target resource. The relation to the target SHOULD be interpreted as specifically from the instance object that the schema (or sub-schema) applies to, not just the top level resource that contains the object within its hierarchy. If a resource JSON representation contains a sub object with a property interpreted as a link, that sub-object holds the relation with the target. A relation to target from the top level resource MUST be indicated with the schema describing the top level JSON representation. 663 </t> 664 665 <t> 666 Relationship definitions SHOULD NOT be media type dependent, and users are encouraged to utilize existing accepted relation definitions, including those in existing relation registries (see <xref target="RFC4287">RFC 4287</xref>). However, we define these relations here for clarity of normative interpretation within the context of JSON hyper schema defined relations: 667 668 <list style="hanging"> 669 <t hangText="self"> 670 If the relation value is "self", when this property is encountered in 671 the instance object, the object represents a resource and the instance object is 672 treated as a full representation of the target resource identified by 673 the specified URI. 674 </t> 675 676 <t hangText="full"> 677 This indicates that the target of the link is the full representation for the instance object. The object that contains this link possibly may not be the full representation. 678 </t> 679 680 <t hangText="describedby"> 681 This indicates the target of the link is the schema for the instance object. This MAY be used to specifically denote the schemas of objects within a JSON object hierarchy, facilitating polymorphic type data structures. 682 </t> 683 684 <t hangText="root"> 685 This relation indicates that the target of the link 686 SHOULD be treated as the root or the body of the representation for the 687 purposes of user agent interaction or fragment resolution. All other 688 properties of the instance objects can be regarded as meta-data 689 descriptions for the data. 690 </t> 691 </list> 692 </t> 693 694 <t> 695 The following relations are applicable for schemas (the schema as the "from" resource in the relation): 696 697 <list style="hanging"> 698 <t hangText="instances">This indicates the target resource that represents collection of instances of a schema.</t> 699 <t hangText="create">This indicates a target to use for creating new instances of a schema. This link definition SHOULD be a submission link with a non-safe method (like POST).</t> 700 </list> 701 </t> 702 703 <t> 704 <figure> 705 <preamble>For example, if a schema is defined:</preamble> 706 <artwork> 707 <![CDATA[ 708 { 709 "links": [{ 710 "rel": "self", 711 "href": "{id}" 712 }, { 713 "rel": "up", 714 "href": "{upId}" 715 }, { 716 "rel": "children", 717 "href": "?upId={id}" 718 }] 719 } 720 ]]> 721 </artwork> 722 </figure> 723 724 <figure> 725 <preamble>And if a collection of instance resource's JSON representation was retrieved:</preamble> 726 <artwork> 727 <![CDATA[ 728 GET /Resource/ 729 730 [{ 731 "id": "thing", 732 "upId": "parent" 733 }, { 734 "id": "thing2", 735 "upId": "parent" 736 }] 737 ]]> 738 </artwork> 739 </figure> 740 741 This would indicate that for the first item in the collection, its own 742 (self) URI would resolve to "/Resource/thing" and the first item's "up" 743 relation SHOULD be resolved to the resource at "/Resource/parent". 744 The "children" collection would be located at "/Resource/?upId=thing". 745 </t> 746 </section> 747 748 <section title="template"> 749 <t>This property value is a string that defines the templating language used in the <xref target="href">"href"</xref> attribute. If no templating language is defined, then the default <xref target="href">Link Description Object templating langauge</xref> is used.</t> 750 </section> 751 752 <section title="targetSchema"> 753 <t>This property value is a schema that defines the expected structure of the JSON representation of the target of the link.</t> 754 </section> 755 756 <section title="Submission Link Properties"> 757 <t> 758 The following properties also apply to link definition objects, and 759 provide functionality analogous to HTML forms, in providing a 760 means for submitting extra (often user supplied) information to send to a server. 761 </t> 762 763 <section title="method"> 764 <t> 765 This attribute defines which method can be used to access the target resource. 766 In an HTTP environment, this would be "GET" or "POST" (other HTTP methods 767 such as "PUT" and "DELETE" have semantics that are clearly implied by 768 accessed resources, and do not need to be defined here). 769 This defaults to "GET". 770 </t> 771 </section> 772 773 <section title="enctype"> 774 <t> 775 If present, this property indicates a query media type format that the server 776 supports for querying or posting to the collection of instances at the target 777 resource. The query can be 778 suffixed to the target URI to query the collection with 779 property-based constraints on the resources that SHOULD be returned from 780 the server or used to post data to the resource (depending on the method). 781 782 <figure> 783 <preamble>For example, with the following schema:</preamble> 784 <artwork> 785 <![CDATA[ 786 { 787 "links": [{ 788 "enctype": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded", 789 "method": "GET", 790 "href": "/Product/", 791 "properties": { 792 "name": { 793 "description": "name of the product" 794 } 795 } 796 }] 797 } 798 ]]> 799 </artwork> 800 <postamble>This indicates that the client can query the server for instances that have a specific name.</postamble> 801 </figure> 802 803 <figure> 804 <preamble>For example:</preamble> 805 <artwork> 806 <![CDATA[ 807 /Product/?name=Slinky 808 ]]> 809 </artwork> 810 </figure> 811 812 If no enctype or method is specified, only the single URI specified by 813 the href property is defined. If the method is POST, "application/json" is 814 the default media type. 815 </t> 816 </section> 817 818 <section title="schema"> 819 <t> 820 This attribute contains a schema which defines the acceptable structure of the submitted 821 request (for a GET request, this schema would define the properties for the query string 822 and for a POST request, this would define the body). 823 </t> 824 </section> 825 </section> 826 </section> 827 </section> 828 829 <section title="fragmentResolution"> 830 <t> 831 This property indicates the fragment resolution protocol to use for 832 resolving fragment identifiers in URIs within the instance 833 representations. This applies to the instance object URIs and all 834 children of the instance object's URIs. The default fragment resolution 835 protocol is "json-pointer", which is defined below. Other fragment 836 resolution protocols MAY be used, but are not defined in this document. 837 </t> 838 839 <t> 840 The fragment identifier is based on <xref target="RFC3986">RFC 3986, Sec 5</xref>, and defines the 841 mechanism for resolving references to entities within a document. 842 </t> 843 844 <section title="json-pointer fragment resolution"> 845 <t>The "json-pointer" fragment resolution protocol uses a <xref target="json-pointer">JSON Pointer</xref> to resolve fragment identifiers in URIs within instance representations.</t> 846 </section> 847 </section> 848 849 <!-- TODO: Remove this? --> 850 851 <section title="readonly"> 852 <t>This attribute indicates that the instance value SHOULD NOT be changed. Attempts by a user agent to modify the value of this property are expected to be rejected by a server.</t> 853 </section> 854 855 <section title="contentEncoding"> 856 <t>If the instance property value is a string, this attribute defines that the string SHOULD be interpreted as binary data and decoded using the encoding named by this schema property. <xref target="RFC2045">RFC 2045, Sec 6.1</xref> lists the possible values for this property.</t> 857 </section> 858 859 <section title="pathStart"> 860 <t> 861 This attribute is a URI that defines what the instance's URI MUST start with in order to validate. 862 The value of the "pathStart" attribute MUST be resolved as per <xref target="RFC3986">RFC 3986, Sec 5</xref>, 863 and is relative to the instance's URI. 864 </t> 865 866 <t> 867 When multiple schemas have been referenced for an instance, the user agent 868 can determine if this schema is applicable for a particular instance by 869 determining if the URI of the instance begins with the the value of the "pathStart" 870 attribute. If the URI of the instance does not start with this URI, 871 or if another schema specifies a starting URI that is longer and also matches the 872 instance, this schema SHOULD NOT be applied to the instance. Any schema 873 that does not have a pathStart attribute SHOULD be considered applicable 874 to all the instances for which it is referenced. 875 </t> 876 </section> 877 878 <section title="mediaType"> 879 <t>This attribute defines the media type of the instance representations that this schema is defining.</t> 880 </section> 881 </section> 882 883 <section title="Security Considerations"> 884 <t> 885 This specification is a sub-type of the JSON format, and 886 consequently the security considerations are generally the same as <xref target="RFC4627">RFC 4627</xref>. 887 However, an additional issue is that when link relation of "self" 888 is used to denote a full representation of an object, the user agent 889 SHOULD NOT consider the representation to be the authoritative representation 890 of the resource denoted by the target URI if the target URI is not 891 equivalent to or a sub-path of the the URI used to request the resource 892 representation which contains the target URI with the "self" link. 893 894 <figure> 895 <preamble>For example, if a hyper schema was defined:</preamble> 896 <artwork> 897 <![CDATA[ 898 { 899 "links": [{ 900 "rel": "self", 901 "href": "{id}" 902 }] 903 } 904 ]]> 905 </artwork> 906 </figure> 907 908 <figure> 909 <preamble>And a resource was requested from somesite.com:</preamble> 910 <artwork> 911 <![CDATA[ 912 GET /foo/ 913 ]]> 914 </artwork> 915 </figure> 916 917 <figure> 918 <preamble>With a response of:</preamble> 919 <artwork> 920 <![CDATA[ 921 Content-Type: application/json; profile=/schema-for-this-data 922 923 [{ 924 "id": "bar", 925 "name": "This representation can be safely treated \ 926 as authoritative " 927 }, { 928 "id": "/baz", 929 "name": "This representation should not be treated as \ 930 authoritative the user agent should make request the resource\ 931 from '/baz' to ensure it has the authoritative representation" 932 }, { 933 "id": "http://othersite.com/something", 934 "name": "This representation\ 935 should also not be treated as authoritative and the target\ 936 resource representation should be retrieved for the\ 937 authoritative representation" 938 }] 939 ]]> 940 </artwork> 941 </figure> 942 </t> 943 </section> 944 945 <section title="IANA Considerations"> 946 <t>The proposed MIME media type for JSON Schema is "application/schema+json".</t> 947 <t>Type name: application</t> 948 <t>Subtype name: schema+json</t> 949 <t>Required parameters: profile</t> 950 <t> 951 The value of the profile parameter SHOULD be a URI (relative or absolute) that 952 refers to the schema used to define the structure of this structure (the 953 meta-schema). Normally the value would be http://json-schema.org/draft-04/hyper-schema, 954 but it is allowable to use other schemas that extend the hyper schema's meta- 955 schema. 956 </t> 957 <t>Optional parameters: pretty</t> 958 <t>The value of the pretty parameter MAY be true or false to indicate if additional whitespace has been included to make the JSON representation easier to read.</t> 959 960 <section title="Registry of Link Relations"> 961 <t> 962 This registry is maintained by IANA per <xref target="RFC4287">RFC 4287</xref> and this specification adds 963 four values: "full", "create", "instances", "root". New 964 assignments are subject to IESG Approval, as outlined in <xref target="RFC5226">RFC 5226</xref>. 965 Requests should be made by email to IANA, which will then forward the 966 request to the IESG, requesting approval. 967 </t> 968 </section> 969 </section> 970 </middle> 971 972 <back> 973 <!-- References Section --> 974 <references title="Normative References"> 975 &rfc2045; 976 &rfc2119; 977 &rfc3339; 978 &rfc3986; 979 &rfc4287; 980 <reference anchor="json-pointer" target="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-pbryan-zyp-json-pointer-02"> 981 <front> 982 <title>JSON Pointer</title> 983 <author initials="P." surname="Bryan"> 984 <organization>ForgeRock US, Inc.</organization> 985 </author> 986 <author initials="K." surname="Zyp"> 987 <organization>SitePen (USA)</organization> 988 </author> 989 <date year="2011" month="October" /> 990 </front> 991 </reference> 992 </references> 993 <references title="Informative References"> 994 &rfc2616; 995 &rfc4627; 996 &rfc5226; 997 &iddiscovery; 998 &uritemplate; 999 &linkheader; 1000 &html401; 1001 &css21; 1002 </references> 1003 1004 <section title="Change Log"> 1005 <t> 1006 <list style="hanging"> 1007 <t hangText="draft-04"> 1008 <list style="symbols"> 1009 <t>Changed "required" attribute to an array of strings.</t> 1010 <t>Removed "format" attribute.</t> 1011 <t>Added "minProperties" and "maxProperties" attributes.</t> 1012 <t>Replaced "slash-delimited" fragment resolution with "json-pointer".</t> 1013 <t>Added "template" LDO attribute.</t> 1014 <t>Removed irrelevant "Open Issues" section.</t> 1015 <t>Merged Conventions and Terminology sections.</t> 1016 <t>Defined terms used in specification.</t> 1017 <t>Removed "integer" type in favor of {"type":"number", "divisibleBy":1}.</t> 1018 <t>Restricted "type" to only the core JSON types.</t> 1019 <t>Improved wording of many sections.</t> 1020 </list> 1021 </t> 1022 1023 <t hangText="draft-03"> 1024 <list style="symbols"> 1025 <t>Added example and verbiage to "extends" attribute.</t> 1026 <t>Defined slash-delimited to use a leading slash.</t> 1027 <t>Made "root" a relation instead of an attribute.</t> 1028 <t>Removed address values, and MIME media type from format to reduce confusion (mediaType already exists, so it can be used for MIME types).</t> 1029 <t>Added more explanation of nullability.</t> 1030 <t>Removed "alternate" attribute.</t> 1031 <t>Upper cased many normative usages of must, may, and should.</t> 1032 <t>Replaced the link submission "properties" attribute to "schema" attribute.</t> 1033 <t>Replaced "optional" attribute with "required" attribute.</t> 1034 <t>Replaced "maximumCanEqual" attribute with "exclusiveMaximum" attribute.</t> 1035 <t>Replaced "minimumCanEqual" attribute with "exclusiveMinimum" attribute.</t> 1036 <t>Replaced "requires" attribute with "dependencies" attribute.</t> 1037 <t>Moved "contentEncoding" attribute to hyper schema.</t> 1038 <t>Added "additionalItems" attribute.</t> 1039 <t>Added "id" attribute.</t> 1040 <t>Switched self-referencing variable substitution from "-this" to "@" to align with reserved characters in URI template.</t> 1041 <t>Added "patternProperties" attribute.</t> 1042 <t>Schema URIs are now namespace versioned.</t> 1043 <t>Added "$ref" and "$schema" attributes.</t> 1044 </list> 1045 </t> 1046 1047 <t hangText="draft-02"> 1048 <list style="symbols"> 1049 <t>Replaced "maxDecimal" attribute with "divisibleBy" attribute.</t> 1050 <t>Added slash-delimited fragment resolution protocol and made it the default.</t> 1051 <t>Added language about using links outside of schemas by referencing its normative URI.</t> 1052 <t>Added "uniqueItems" attribute.</t> 1053 <t>Added "targetSchema" attribute to link description object.</t> 1054 </list> 1055 </t> 1056 1057 <t hangText="draft-01"> 1058 <list style="symbols"> 1059 <t>Fixed category and updates from template.</t> 1060 </list> 1061 </t> 1062 1063 <t hangText="draft-00"> 1064 <list style="symbols"> 1065 <t>Initial draft.</t> 1066 </list> 1067 </t> 1068 </list> 1069 </t> 1070 </section> 1071 </back> 1072 </rfc>