schema.md

JSON Schema

Json-Works includes an implementation of JSON Schema, version 4. However it differs from the official specification in that it does not resolve any external schemas using the id keyword. In fact it ignores this keyword completely.

It does however support inline references to sub-schemas using the keyword $ref and expects to find them within the schema data that has been loaded. The contrived example below shows how a sub-schema named location can be used and referenced.

{
  "properties": {
    "prop1": {"$ref": "#/definitions/location"},
    "prop2": {"type": "array"},
    "prop3": {"$ref": "#/properties/prop1"}
  },
  "definitions": {
    "location": {
      "properties": {
        "lat": {"type": "number"}, "lon": {"type": "number"}
      }
    }
  }
}

Note that JSON Pointer syntax is used to reference other elements, with the required # hash symbol denoting the root of the schema. When this schema is used, the reference at prop1 will be resolved with the schema found at #/definitions/location. Likewise, the reference at prop3 will be resolved with the value at prop1, resulting in an overall scheme of:

{
  "properties": {
    "prop1": {
      "properties": {
        "lat": {"type": "number"}, "lon": {"type": "number"}
      }
    },
    "prop2": {"type": "array"},
    "prop3": {
      "properties": {
        "lat": {"type": "number"}, "lon": {"type": "number"}
      }
    }
  }
}

Sub-schemas are usually placed in a property of the document root, and named either definitions or $defs.

Documentation and examples of creating a schema can be found at json-schema.org.