JSON Schema / IETF support

So, apparently JSON Schema is an IETF standard (Informational), that is used in products like Swagger, and is some sort of alternative to node-simple-schema.

http://json-schema.org/ http://json-schema.org/documentation.html http://json-schema.org/latest/json-schema-core.html

Has there been any thought given to support json-schema objects and syntax? Perhaps through toSimpleJson() and fromSimpleJson() methods?

[awatson1978]

Hi, I don’t have a horse in the race regarding how it’s package. The one thing I’ll say though, is don’t underestimate the value of having a well curated API.

// maybe export both the function as well as attaching it to the SimpleSchema object?  
// lodash and moment provide similar flexibility
import { buildSimpleSchemaFromJson, SimpleSchema} from "some-pkg";

// for people who want want to keep their namespaces flat
let PersonSimpleSchemaA = buildSimpleSchemaFromJson(personJsonSchema);

// for people who want curated API namespaces and Intellisense functionality in their editors 
let PersonSimpleSchemaB = SimpleSchema.buildSimpleSchemaFromJson(personJsonSchema);

As for MongoDB’s newish built-in JSONSchema validation - yes, I have! We’re very excited about the new functionality, and very much looking forward to using it.

However, maybe 80% or 90% of the work we do is with iOS apps and using Meteor as an application server. In the healthcare industry, there’s an industry wide initiative to enable standardized HTTP interfaces at all the hospitals and laboratories in the US. So we focus a lot of our time building client side apps that don’t actually use Mongo or DDP all that much. Rather, we tend use the Meteor build pipeline, and then fetch data from lots of different servers using HTTP. The hospital endpoints are suppose to be all the same, but there are implementation bugs, differences in interpretation, different versions of the standard, etc. So, we need the JSONSchemas on the client to do quality control.

We’re interested in someday landing on an NPM based simpl-schema + minimongo + ajv solution, and minimizing our overall usage of Atmosphere. But that’s probably a year away, and requires at least two more major refactors.

Until then, SimpleSchema/Minimongo is the isomorphic solution we know works. Better to use it to work the JSONSchemas over to the client. Then we can lock down some acceptance tests and integration tests, and then refactor to the NPM packages.

[aldeed]

@awatson1978 I agree with @coagmano that some sort of factory function is best, but I’d add that it should be a separate package with a dependency on simpl-schema. So rather than SimpleSchema.fromJsonSchema, it would be its own thing you import:

import buildSimpleSchemaFromJson from "some-pkg";

let PersonSimpleSchema = buildSimpleSchemaFromJson(personJsonSchema);

If nobody else is interested in creating and owning this package, I can do it. But I do think it’s best to keep all of that separate. (The existing package should already be broken into a few different packages, IMO.)

Out of curiosity, are you using MongoDB and have you looked into their newish built-in JSONSchema validation? If you attach those to the mongo collections directly in Mongo, then .attachSchema may not even be necessary, although you’d have to parse mongo errors.