[API Proposal]: System.Text.Json.Schema: option to disable generating $refs

Open
#114,916 1 comment 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
42/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
csharp

Research direction

Start with JsonSchemaExporterOptions and the GetJsonSchemaAsNode entry point mentioned in the issue, then trace where the schema exporter creates $ref nodes. Add the proposed GenerateRefs option and verify that disabling it produces an expanded schema without references for the provided nested dictionary case.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

api-suggestion area-System.Text.Json
Background and motivation

I apply DataAnnotations attributes (migrating from Newtonsoft.Json.Schema) to the JSON generated schema through JsonSchemaExporterOptions.TransformSchemaNode. However, the built-in generator transforms part of the schema into a $ref before I can apply my own transformations, resulting in an incorrect schema because the values of the attributes are not the same. Here's an example:

[TypeArgumentRegularExpression("[A-Za-z]+", 0)]
[TypeArgumentRegularExpression("[0-9]+", 1)]
public Dictionary<string, string[]>? Dict { get; set; }

[TypeArgumentRegularExpression("[A-Z]+", 0)]
[TypeArgumentRegularExpression("[a-z]+", 1)]
[TypeArgumentRegularExpression("[0-9]+", 2)]
public Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, string[]>>? Dict2 { get; set; }

Note that TypeArgumentRegularExpression is a custom attribute based on System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.RegularExpressionAttribute which allows me to specify to which TKey/TValue the regex pattern should be applied. The resulting schema looks like:

"properties": {
  "Dict": {
    "type": "object",
    "additionalProperties": false,
    "patternProperties": {
      "[A-Za-z]\u002B": {
        "type": "array",
        "items": {
          "type": "string",
          "pattern": "[0-9]\u002B"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "Dict2": {
    "type": "object",
    "additionalProperties": false,
    "patternProperties": {
      "[A-Z]\u002B": {
        "$ref": "#/properties/Dict"
      }
    }
  }
}

As you can see, the TValue of the second dictionary has been turned into a $ref to the first dictionary, even though it has a different regex pattern for TKey (Dict's TKey is [A-Za-z]+, but Dict2-TValue's TKey only allows [a-z]+).

I think the easiest solution for this would be an option to disable generating $refs.

API Proposal
namespace System.Text.Json.Schema;

public sealed class JsonSchemaExporterOptions
{
    public bool GenerateRefs { get; init; }
}
API Usage
var transformer = new MyJsonSchemaTransformer();

var jsonSchemaExporterOptions = new JsonSchemaExporterOptions
{
    TreatNullObliviousAsNonNullable = true,
    TransformSchemaNode = transformer.TransformSchemaNode,
    GenerateRefs = false,
};

var result = jsonSerializerOptions.GetJsonSchemaAsNode(typeof(MyObject), jsonSchemaExporterOptions).ToString();
Alternative Designs

No response

Risks

No response

Dominant language
C#
Stars
18.3k
Forks
5.6k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

More from dotnet/runtime

All issues in dotnet/runtime

Similar issues

More C# issues

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.