JSON::Schema::ToJSON - Generate example JSON structures from JSON Schema definitions

0.19

use JSON::Schema::ToJSON;

my $to_json  = JSON::Schema::ToJSON->new(
    example_key => undef, # set to a key to take example from
    max_depth   => 10,    # increase if you have very deep data structures
);

my $perl_string_hash_or_arrayref = $to_json->json_schema_to_json(
    schema     => $already_parsed_json_schema,  # either this
    schema_str => '{ "type" : "boolean" }',     # or this
);

JSON::Schema::ToJSON is a class for generating "fake" or "example" JSON data structures from JSON Schema structures.

The key that will be used to find example data for use in the returned structure. In the case of the following schema:

{
    "type" : "object",
    "properties" : {
        "id" : {
            "type" : "string",
            "description" : "ID of the payment.",
            "x-example" : "123ABC"
        }
    }
}

Setting example_key to x-example will make the generator return the content of the "x-example" (123ABC) rather than a random string/int/etc. This is more so for things like OpenAPI specifications.

You can set this to any key you like, although be careful as you could end up with invalid data being used (for example an integer field and then using the description key as the content would not be sensible or valid).

To prevent deep recursion due to circular references in JSON schemas the module has a default max depth set to a very conservative level of 10. If you need to go deeper than this then pass a larger value at object construction.

Note that the underlying JSON schema parser, JSON::Validator now handles recursion so you shouldn't have to worry too much about this - see its documentation for details.

my $perl_string_hash_or_arrayref = $to_json->json_schema_to_json(
    schema     => $already_parsed_json_schema,  # either this
    schema_str => '{ "type" : "boolean" }',     # or this
);

Returns a randomly generated representative data structure that corresponds to the passed JSON schema. Can take either an already parsed JSON Schema or the raw JSON Schema string.

Caveats? The implementation is incomplete as using some of the more edge case JSON schema validation options may not generate representative JSON so they will not validate against the schema on a round trip. These include:

• additionalItems

  This is ignored

• additionalProperties and patternProperties

  These are also ignored

• dependencies

  This is *also* ignored, possible result of invalid JSON if used

• oneOf

  Only the *first* schema from the oneOf list will be used (which means that the data returned may be invalid against others in the list)

• not

  Currently any not restrictions are ignored as these can be very hand wavy but we will try a "best guess" in the case of "not" : { "type" : ... }

In the case of oneOf and not the module will raise a warning to let you know that potentially invalid JSON has been generated. If you're using this module then you probably want to avoid oneOf and not in your schemas.

It is also entirely possible to pass a schema that could never be validated, but will result in a generated structure anyway, example: an integer that has a "minimum" value of 2, "maximum" value of 4, and must be a "multipleOf" 5 - a nonsensical combination.

Note that the data generated is completely random, don't expect it to be the same across runs or calls. The data is also meaningless in terms of what it represents such that an object property of "name" that is a string will be generated as, for example, "est sed asperiores" - The JSON generated is so you have a representative structure, not representative data. Set example keys in your schema and then set the example_key in the constructor if you want this to be repeatable and/or more representative.

Data::Fake is used for some of the generated data, through use of fake_name, fake_past_datetime, fake_int, and fake_words

To generate subsections of data, or for those schema that are large only generating small sections, you can combine with JSON::Validator like so:

    use JSON::Validator;
    my $jv = JSON::Validator->new;
    $jv->schema( 'petstore.json' );

    my $generator = JSON::Schema::ToJSON->new;

    my $response = $generator->json_schema_to_json(
            schema => $jv->get( '/definitions/Pet' )
    );

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. If you would like to contribute documentation, features, bug fixes, or anything else then please raise an issue / pull request:

https://github.com/Humanstate/json-schema-tojson

Lee Johnson - [email protected]