JSON Schema reference resolution

Question

I have a JSON schema that contains "$ref" tags and I am trying to get a version of the JSON schema that have the "$ref" tags resolved. I am only looking to resolve "$ref" from definition (tags) within the JSON Schema string (ie. not external resolution needed).

Is there a library that performs the resolution of the JSON Schema? (I am currently using org.everit.json.schema library, which is great, but I can't find how to do what I need).

For example, my original schema is:

{
  "$id": "https://example.com/arrays.schema.json",
  "description": "A representation of a person, company, organization, or place",
  "title": "complex-schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "fruits": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "vegetables": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": { "$ref": "#/$defs/veggie" }
    }
  },
  "$defs": {
    "veggie": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": [ "veggieName", "veggieLike" ],
      "properties": {
        "veggieName": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The name of the vegetable."
        },
        "veggieLike": {
          "type": "boolean",
          "description": "Do I like this vegetable?"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Which would resolve to something like this (notice that the "#defs/veggie" resolves to its definition inserted inline in the schema):

{
  "$id": "https://example.com/arrays.schema.json",
  "description": "A representation of a person, company, organization, or place",
  "title": "complex-schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "fruits": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "vegetables": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "required": [ "veggieName", "veggieLike" ],
        "properties": {
          "veggieName": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "The name of the vegetable."
          },
          "veggieLike": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "description": "Do I like this vegetable?"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

This isn't possible in the general sense, because:

• the $ref might be recursive (ie reference itself again)
• the keywords in the $ref might duplicate some of the keywords in the containing schema, which would cause some logic to be overwritten.

Why do you need to alter the schema in this way? Generally, a JSON Schema implementation will resolve the $refs automatically while evaluating the schema against provided data.