A JSON shape description language, using JSON
JSON is inherently schema-less. It’s not relational. It’s not the kind of structure that makes up the “S” in “SQL”. It’s more free-form. It’s nested.
Sometimes, however, there’s a need to constrain (or just describe) what shapes a particular use of JSON are allowed to take. JSON Schema is a IETF Standard & language (with specification) for doing just that.
JSON Schema is used in the OpenAPI standard, as well.
Example
JSON
{
"id": 7,
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 22,
"hobbies": {
"indoor": [
"Chess"
],
"outdoor": [
"BasketballStand-up Comedy"
]
}
}JSON Schema
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#",
"$id": "https://example.com/employee.schema.json",
"title": "Record of employee",
"description": "This document records the details of an employee",
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"id": {
"description": "A unique identifier for an employee",
"type": "number"
},
"name": {
"description": "Full name of the employee",
"type": "string"
},
"age": {
"description": "Age of the employee",
"type": "number"
},
"hobbies": {
"description": "Hobbies of the employee",
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"indoor": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"description": "List of indoor hobbies",
"type": "string"
}
},
"outdoor": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"description": "List of outdoor hobbies",
"type": "string"
}
}
}
}
}
}