DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
View Events Video Library
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Integrating PostgreSQL Databases with ANF: Join this workshop to learn how to create a PostgreSQL server using Instaclustr’s managed service

Mobile Database Essentials: Assess data needs, storage requirements, and more when leveraging databases for cloud and edge applications.

Monitoring and Observability for LLMs: Datadog and Google Cloud discuss how to achieve optimal AI model performance.

Automated Testing: The latest on architecture, TDD, and the benefits of AI and low-code tools.

Related

  • Validate XML Request Against XML Schema in Mule 4
  • Validate JSON Request Against JSON Schema in Mule 4
  • Generating MongoDB Annotations for Java POJOs from JSON Schema Using the JSONSchema2Pojo Plugin
  • How to Convert JSON to RAML

Trending

  • Extracting Maximum Value From Logs
  • CI/CD Docker: How To Create a CI/CD Pipeline With Jenkins, Containers, and Amazon ECS
  • Common Problems in Redux With React Native
  • Micro Frontends for Quarkus Microservices
  1. DZone
  2. Coding
  3. Languages
  4. Publishing JSON Schema Documentation With Docson

Publishing JSON Schema Documentation With Docson

Trying to communicate using JSON files or messages? Here is a tool that will make it easier to share how the JSON should be constructed, without leaving a code editor and browser.

Alan Hohn user avatar by
Alan Hohn
·
Mar. 17, 16 · Tutorial
Like (2)
Save
Tweet
Share
16.75K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

For systems that have JSON data that's published as part of an API, there are tools such as Swagger/OpenAPI and RAML that can be used to define REST endpoints and the data types for requests and responses. However, for cases where JSON data isn't part of a REST API, such as documents in MongoDB, files on a disk, or messages, JSON Schema provides a way to specify what the JSON will look like in a way that covers all the possibilities better than making example documents.

JSON Schema is itself a JSON document with pre-defined properties and types. For example, a simple JSON schema might look like this:

{
    "description": "Mailing address schema",
    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#",
    "type": "object",
    "required": ["name", "zip"],
    "properties": {
        "name": {
            "description": "Full name of the recipient",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "addressType": {
            "description": "Whether the address is a residence, a business, or a post office box",
            "enum": ["residence", "business", "pobox"]
        },
        "street": {
            "description": "Street address and number",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "city": {
            "description": "City",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "state": {
            "description": "State code",
            "type": "string",
            "minLength": "2",
            "maxLength": "2"
        },
        "zip": {
            "description": "Zip code",
            "type": "string",
            "pattern": "^[0-9]{5}(?:-[0-9]{4})?$"
        }
    }
}

If well-indented, the above is moderately readable, if verbose. However, it is preferable to have tools to make it easier to navigate, and also to perform validation. Validation at runtime, of course, depends on the language, but the Python jsonschema library provides an easy means of testing JSON content to make sure the schema does what it's supposed to.

For navigation, there is a great tool called Docson that generates an interactive web page from a JSON schema. Docson is a JavaScript library, so it can dynamically generate the documentation from any JSON schema file it can fetch. Of course, because of cross-origin scripting concerns, there are some limits as to what it can fetch, so the best approach is to grab a local copy rather than serving from a Content Delivery Network (CDN).

With a copy downloaded and running, an example JSON file in the same directory as Docson's index.html, and using Python's SimpleHTTPServer:

$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer 9999

Docson produces a nice looking documentation page:

Image title

JSON Schema Documentation

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Validate XML Request Against XML Schema in Mule 4
  • Validate JSON Request Against JSON Schema in Mule 4
  • Generating MongoDB Annotations for Java POJOs from JSON Schema Using the JSONSchema2Pojo Plugin
  • How to Convert JSON to RAML

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends: