json-refs

What is json-refs?

The json-refs npm package is a utility for working with JSON references, which are pointers within JSON objects that reference other parts of the JSON document. It helps resolve these references and can be used to make JSON documents easier to understand and manipulate by consolidating linked data.

What are json-refs's main functionalities?

Resolving JSON References

This feature allows the resolution of JSON references within a JSON document. The code sample demonstrates how to resolve references in a JSON file located at a specified path, with an option to resolve circular references.

{
  "jsonRefs": require('json-refs'),
  "path": './somePath/to/json',
  "options": { resolveCirculars: true },
  "resolvedJson": function() {
    var root = jsonRefs.resolveRefsAt(this.path, this.options).then(function (results) {
      console.log(results.resolved);
    }).catch(function (err) {
      console.error(err.stack);
    });
    return root;
  }
}

Finding JSON References

This feature involves identifying all the JSON references in a given JSON object. The code sample shows how to find all references, including those that might be invalid, within a JSON object.

{
  "jsonRefs": require('json-refs'),
  "jsonObject": { /* some JSON object */ },
  "options": { includeInvalid: true },
  "foundRefs": function() {
    var refs = jsonRefs.findRefs(this.jsonObject, this.options);
    console.log(refs);
    return refs;
  }
}

Other packages similar to json-refs

swagger-parser

Swagger Parser is a package that can parse, validate, and dereference Swagger and OpenAPI documents. Similar to json-refs, it handles resolving references but is specifically tailored for Swagger and OpenAPI specs, providing more specialized functionality in these contexts compared to the more general-purpose json-refs.

json-schema-ref-parser

This package dereferences JSON Schema $refs pointers. Like json-refs, it resolves references within JSON documents but focuses specifically on JSON Schema, making it ideal for scenarios involving JSON Schema validation and manipulation.

README

json-refs

json-refs is a simple library for interacting with JSON References and JSON Pointers. While the main purpose of this library is to provide JSON References features, since JSON References are a combination of Object structure and a JSON Pointer, this library also provides some features for JSON Pointers as well.

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Documentation

The documentation for this project can be found at https://github.com/whitlockjc/json-refs/blob/master/docs/README.md. Specific documentation can be found here:

• API documentation can be found at https://github.com/whitlockjc/json-refs/blob/master/docs/API.md
• CLI can be found at https://github.com/whitlockjc/json-refs/blob/master/docs/CLI.md

Installation

json-refs is available for both Node.js and the browser. Installation instructions for each environment are below.

Browser

Installation for browser applications can be done via Bower or by downloading a standalone binary.

Using Bower

Installation is standard fare:

bower install json-refs --save

To use the Bower install, your HTML includes might look like this:

<!-- ... -->
<script src="bower_components/lodash/dist/lodash.min.js"></script>
<script src="bower_components/graphlib/dist/graphlib.core.min.js"></script>
<script src="bower_components/path-loader/browser/path-loader-min.js"></script>
<script src="bower_components/json-refs/browser/json-refs-min.js"></script>
<!-- ... -->

Standalone Binaries

The standalone binaries come in two flavors:

• json-refs-standalone.js: 1,904kb, full source source maps
• json-refs-standalone-min.js: 140kb, minified, compressed and no sourcemap

Of course, these links are for the master builds so feel free to download from the release of your choice. Once you've gotten them downloaded, to use the standalone binaries, your HTML include might look like this:

<!-- ... -->
<script src="json-refs-standalone.js"></script>
<!-- ... -->

Node.js

Installation for Node.js applications can be done via NPM.

npm install json-refs --save

If you plan on using the json-refs CLI executable, you can install json-refs globally like this:

npm install json-refs --global

After this, feel free to run json-refs help to see what you can do or view the CLI documentation linked above