Apply required field to referenced JSON data schema - json

Question

I have the following use-case I try to solve with JSON schemas.
I have a generic JSON data schema for, for example, a user. Here is an example of the user.schema.json file.
{
"type": "object",
"definitions": {},
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"properties": {
"name": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
},
"email": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
},
"locale": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
},
"active": {
"type": "boolean",
"default": true
},
"password": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 8
},
"roles": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
}
}
}
}
Now I have 2 different kinds of requests:
- POST: Add a user
- PATCH: Update user data.
In 1 case, I can send this data structure, with 3 required fields, while in case of a patch each field is optional.
So I get the post request file: post-user.schema.json:
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"$ref": "user.schema.json",
"required": [
"name",
"password",
"email"
]
}
And for my patch (path-user.schema.json:
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"$ref": "user.schema.json"
}
Now the issue that I am having is that my POST schema also marks a user like:
{
"name": "NoPassword",
"email": "nopassword#moba.nl",
"roles": []
}
Which is missing the required password field, as a valid JSON schema.
Apparently, this is not the way to assign required fields to a referenced data structure. I have tried to use google to see what I can find on the subject regarding this using searches like:
[ how to assign required field to referenced schema's ]
and I tried to obtain this info from the documentation.
I have no luck.
My questions now are:
A. Is it possible to assign required fields to a $referenced json schema data object.
B. If this is possible how to do it
C. If this is not possible, what would be a good way to approach this.
Any help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

Using $ref results in all other properties in the object being ignored, so you need to wrap your use of $ref.
Let's take a look at the spec:
An object schema with a "$ref" property MUST be interpreted as a
"$ref" reference. The value of the "$ref" property MUST be a URI
Reference. Resolved against the current URI base, it identifies the
URI of a schema to use. All other properties in a "$ref" object MUST
be ignored.
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-handrews-json-schema-01#section-8.3
Then consider the schema you included in your question:
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"$ref": "user.schema.json",
"required": [
"name",
"password",
"email"
]
}
Reading the spec, you can see why required will be ignored.
Originally $ref was only designed to replace a WHOLE object, not ADD to the conditions for the object.
What you want is for multiple schemas to be applied to the instance. To do this, you use allOf.
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"allOf": [
{
"$ref": "user.schema.json"
},
{
"required": [
"name",
"password",
"email"
]
}
]
}
I loaded this schema into a demo for you to test at https://jsonschema.dev - although it doesn't support references yet, so I transcluded the reference, but the validation will work the same.
From draft-8 onwards, $ref will behave as you expect, as it becomes an applicator keyword rather than a keyword with special behaviours, meaning other keywords in the same object will not need to be ignored.