Ruby JSON Schema Validator
This library is intended to provide Ruby with an interface for validating JSON objects against a JSON schema conforming to JSON Schema Draft 4. Legacy support for JSON Schema Draft 3, JSON Schema Draft 2, and JSON Schema Draft 1 is also included.
Additional Resources
- Google Groups
-
ruby-json-schema on chat.freenode.net
Version 2.0.0 Upgrade Notes
Please be aware that the upgrade to version 2.0.0 will use Draft-04 by
default, so schemas that do not declare a validator using the $schema
keyword will use Draft-04 now instead of Draft-03. This is the reason for the
major version upgrade.
Installation
From rubygems.org:
sh
gem install json-schema
From the git repo:
sh
$ gem build json-schema.gemspec
$ gem install json-schema-2.5.2.gem
Validation
Three base validation methods exist:
validate: returns a boolean on whether a validation attempt passesvalidate!: throws aJSON::Schema::ValidationErrorwith an appropriate message/trace on where the validation failedfully_validate: builds an array of validation errors return when validation is complete
All methods take two arguments, which can be either a JSON string, a file containing JSON, or a Ruby object representing JSON data. The first argument to these methods is always the schema, the second is always the data to validate. An optional third options argument is also accepted; available options are used in the examples below.
By default, the validator uses the JSON Schema Draft
4 specification for
validation; however, the user is free to specify additional specifications or
extend existing ones. Legacy support for Draft 1, Draft 2, and Draft 3 is
included by either passing an optional :version parameter to the validate
method (set either as :draft1 or draft2), or by declaring the $schema
attribute in the schema and referencing the appropriate specification URI. Note
that the $schema attribute takes precedence over the :version option during
parsing and validation.
For further information on json schema itself refer to Understanding JSON Schema.
Basic Usage
```ruby require “json-schema”
schema = { “type” => “object”, “required” => [“a”], “properties” => { “a” => => “integer” } }
# validate ruby objects against a ruby schema
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 5 }) # => false JSON::Validator.validate(schema, {})
# validate a json string against a json schema file
#
require “json” File.write(“schema.json”, JSON.dump(schema))
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(‘schema.json’, ‘{ “a”: 5 }’)
# raise an error when validation fails
#
=> “The property ‘#/a’ of type String did not match the following type: integer”
begin JSON::Validator.validate!(schema, { “a” => “taco” }) rescue JSON::Schema::ValidationError => e e.message end
# return an array of error messages when validation fails
#
=> [“The property ‘#/a’ of type String did not match the following type: integer in schema 18a1ffbb-4681-5b00-bd15-2c76aee4b28f”]
JSON::Validator.fully_validate(schema, { “a” => “taco” }) ```
Advanced Options
```ruby require “json-schema”
schema = { “type”=>”object”, “required” => [“a”], “properties” => { “a” => { “type” => “integer”, “default” => 42 }, “b” => { “type” => “object”, “properties” => { “x” => { “type” => “integer” } } } } }
# with the :list option, a list can be validated against a schema that represents the individual objects
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, [=> 1, => 2, => 3], :list => true) # => false JSON::Validator.validate(schema, [=> 1, => 2, => 3])
# with the :errors_as_objects option, #fully_validate returns errors as hashes instead of strings
#
=> [URI:18a1ffbb-4681-5b00-bd15-2c76aee4b28f>, :fragment=>”#/a”, :message=>”The property ‘#/a’ of type String did not match the following type: integer in schema 18a1ffbb-4681-5b00-bd15-2c76aee4b28f”, :failed_attribute=>”TypeV4”]
JSON::Validator.fully_validate(schema, { “a” => “taco” }, :errors_as_objects => true)
# with the :strict option, all properties are condisidered to have "required": true and all objects "additionalProperties": false
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 1, “b” => { “x” => 2 } }, :strict => true) # => false JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 1, “b” => { “x” => 2 }, “c” => 3 }, :strict => true) # => false JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 1 }, :strict => true)
# with the :fragment option, only a fragment of the schema is used for validation
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “x” => 1 }, :fragment => “#/properties/b”) # => false JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “x” => 1 })
# with the :validate_schema option, the schema is validated (against the json schema spec) before the json is validated (against the specified schema)
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 1 }, :validate_schema => true) # => false JSON::Validator.validate({ “required” => true }, { “a” => 1 }, :validate_schema => true)
# with the :insert_defaults option, any undefined values in the json that have a default in the schema are replaced with the default before validation
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, {}, :insert_defaults => true) # => false JSON::Validator.validate(schema, {})
# with the :version option, schemas conforming to older drafts of the json schema spec can be used
#
v2_schema = { “type” => “object”, “properties” => { “a” => { “type” => “integer” } } }
=> false
JSON::Validator.validate(v2_schema, {}, :version => :draft2) # => true JSON::Validator.validate(v2_schema, {})
# with the :parse_data option set to false, the json must be a parsed ruby object (not a json text, a uri or a file path)
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 1 }, :parse_data => false) # => false JSON::Validator.validate(schema, ‘{ “a”: 1 }’, :parse_data => false)
# with the :json option, the json must be an unparsed json text (not a hash, a uri or a file path)
#
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, ‘{ “a”: 1 }’, :json => true) # => “no implicit conversion of Hash into String” begin JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 1 }, :json => true) rescue TypeError => e e.message end
# with the :uri option, the json must be a uri or file path (not a hash or a json text)
#
File.write(“data.json”, ‘{ “a”: 1 }’)
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(schema, “data.json”, :uri => true) # => “Can’t convert Hash into String.” begin JSON::Validator.validate(schema, { “a” => 1 }, :uri => true) rescue TypeError => e e.message end
# with the :clear_cache option set to true, the internal cache of schemas is
# cleared after validation (otherwise schemas are cached for efficiency) #
File.write(“schema.json”, v2_schema.to_json)
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(“schema.json”, {})
File.write(“schema.json”, schema.to_json)
=> true
JSON::Validator.validate(“schema.json”, {}, :clear_cache => true)
=> false
JSON::Validator.validate(“schema.json”, {}) ```
Extending Schemas
For this example, we are going to extend the JSON Schema Draft 3 specification by adding a ‘bitwise-and’ property for validation.
```ruby require “json-schema”
class BitwiseAndAttribute < JSON::Schema::Attribute def self.validate(current_schema, data, fragments, processor, validator, options = {}) if data.is_a?(Integer) && data & current_schema.schema[‘bitwise-and’].to_i == 0 message = “The property ‘#build_fragment(fragments)’ did not evaluate to true when bitwise-AND’d with #current_schemacurrent_schema.schema[‘bitwise-or’]” validation_error(processor, message, fragments, current_schema, self, options[:record_errors]) end end end
class ExtendedSchema < JSON::Schema::Draft3 def initialize super @attributes[“bitwise-and”] = BitwiseAndAttribute @uri = JSON::Util::URI.parse(“http://test.com/test.json”) @names = [“http://test.com/test.json”] end
JSON::Validator.register_validator(self.new) end
schema = { “$schema” => “http://test.com/test.json”, “properties” => { “a” => { “bitwise-and” => 1 }, “b” => { “type” => “string” } } }
data = { “a” => 0 }
data = => 1, “b” => “taco” JSON::Validator.validate(schema,data) # => true data = => 1, “b” => 5 JSON::Validator.validate(schema,data) # => false data = => 0, “b” => “taco” JSON::Validator.validate(schema,data) # => false ```
Custom format validation
The JSON schema standard allows custom formats in schema definitions which
should be ignored by validators that do not support them. JSON::Schema allows
registering procs as custom format validators which receive the value to be
checked as parameter and must raise a JSON::Schema::CustomFormatError to
indicate a format violation. The error message will be prepended by the property
name, e.g. The property ‘#a’
```ruby require “json-schema”
format_proc = -> value { raise JSON::Schema::CustomFormatError.new(“must be 42”) unless value == “42” }
register the proc for format ‘the-answer’ for draft4 schema
JSON::Validator.register_format_validator(“the-answer”, format_proc, [“draft4”])
omitting the version parameter uses [“draft1”, “draft2”, “draft3”, “draft4”] as default
JSON::Validator.register_format_validator(“the-answer”, format_proc)
deregistering the custom validator
# (also [“draft1”, “draft2”, “draft3”, “draft4”] as default version) JSON::Validator.deregister_format_validator(‘the-answer’, [“draft4”])
shortcut to restore the default formats for validators (same default as before)
JSON::Validator.restore_default_formats([“draft4”])
with the validator registered as above, the following results in
# [“The property ‘#a’ must be 42”] as returned errors schema = { “$schema” => “http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#”, “properties” => { “a” => { “type” => “string”, “format” => “the-answer”, } } } errors = JSON::Validator.fully_validate(schema, => “23”) ```
Validating a JSON Schema
To validate that a JSON Schema conforms to the JSON Schema standard,
you need to validate your schema against the metaschema for the appropriate
JSON Schema Draft. All of the normal validation methods can be used
for this. First retrieve the appropriate metaschema from the internal
cache (using JSON::Validator.validator_for_name() or
JSON::Validator.validator_for_uri()) and then simply validate your
schema against it.
```ruby require “json-schema”
schema = { “type” => “object”, “properties” => { “a” => => “integer” } }
metaschema = JSON::Validator.validator_for_name(“draft4”).metaschema # => true JSON::Validator.validate(metaschema, schema) ```
Controlling Remote Schema Reading
In some cases, you may wish to prevent the JSON Schema library from making HTTP
calls or reading local files in order to resolve $ref schemas. If you fully
control all schemas which should be used by validation, this could be
accomplished by registering all referenced schemas with the validator in
advance:
ruby
schema = JSON::Schema.new(some_schema_definition, Addressable::URI.parse('http://example.com/my-schema'))
JSON::Validator.add_schema(schema)
If more extensive control is necessary, the JSON::Schema::Reader instance used
can be configured in a few ways:
```ruby # Change the default schema reader used JSON::Validator.schema_reader = JSON::Schema::Reader.new(:accept_uri => true, :accept_file => false)
For this validation call, use a reader which only accepts URIs from my-website.com
schema_reader = JSON::Schema::Reader.new( :accept_uri => proc { |uri| uri.host == ‘my-website.com’ } ) JSON::Validator.validate(some_schema, some_object, :schema_reader => schema_reader) ```
The JSON::Schema::Reader interface requires only an object which responds to
read(string) and returns a JSON::Schema instance. See the API
documentation
for more information.
JSON Backends
The JSON Schema library currently supports the json and yajl-ruby backend
JSON parsers. If either of these libraries are installed, they will be
automatically loaded and used to parse any JSON strings supplied by the user.
If more than one of the supported JSON backends are installed, the yajl-ruby
parser is used by default. This can be changed by issuing the following before
validation:
ruby
JSON::Validator.json_backend = :json
Optionally, the JSON Schema library supports using the MultiJSON library for selecting JSON backends. If the MultiJSON library is installed, it will be autoloaded.
Notes
The ‘format’ attribute is only validated for the following values:
- date-time
- date
- time
- ip-address (IPv4 address in draft1, draft2 and draft3)
- ipv4 (IPv4 address in draft4)
- ipv6
- uri
All other ‘format’ attribute values are simply checked to ensure the instance value is of the correct datatype (e.g., an instance value is validated to be an integer or a float in the case of ‘utc-millisec’).
Additionally, JSON::Validator does not handle any json hyperschema attributes.