Generate Json schema from XML schema (XSD)

Question

Does anybody know how to generate a JSON schema from a existing XML schema (XSD file)? Are there any tools available for this?

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I am the author of Jsonix, a powerful open-source XML<->JSON JavaScript mapping library.

Today I've released the new version of the Jsonix Schema Compiler, with the new JSON Schema generation feature.

Let's take the Purchase Order schema for example. Here's a fragment:

  <xsd:element name="purchaseOrder" type="PurchaseOrderType"/>

  <xsd:complexType name="PurchaseOrderType">
    <xsd:sequence>
      <xsd:element name="shipTo" type="USAddress"/>
      <xsd:element name="billTo" type="USAddress"/>
      <xsd:element ref="comment" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xsd:element name="items"  type="Items"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attribute name="orderDate" type="xsd:date"/>
  </xsd:complexType>

You can compile this schema using the provided command-line tool:

java -jar jsonix-schema-compiler-full.jar
    -generateJsonSchema
    -p PO
    schemas/purchaseorder.xsd

The compiler generates Jsonix mappings as well the matching JSON Schema.

Here's what the result looks like (edited for brevity):

{
    "id":"PurchaseOrder.jsonschema#",
    "definitions":{
        "PurchaseOrderType":{
            "type":"object",
            "title":"PurchaseOrderType",
            "properties":{
                "shipTo":{
                    "title":"shipTo",
                    "allOf":[
                        {
                            "$ref":"#/definitions/USAddress"
                        }
                    ]
                },
                "billTo":{
                    "title":"billTo",
                    "allOf":[
                        {
                            "$ref":"#/definitions/USAddress"
                        }
                    ]
                }, ...
            }
        },
        "USAddress":{ ... }, ...
    },
    "anyOf":[
        {
            "type":"object",
            "properties":{
                "name":{
                    "$ref":"http://www.jsonix.org/jsonschemas/w3c/2001/XMLSchema.jsonschema#/definitions/QName"
                },
                "value":{
                    "$ref":"#/definitions/PurchaseOrderType"
                }
            },
            "elementName":{
                "localPart":"purchaseOrder",
                "namespaceURI":""
            }
        }
    ]
}

Now this JSON Schema is derived from the original XML Schema. It is not exactly 1:1 transformation, but very very close.

The generated JSON Schema matches the generatd Jsonix mappings. So if you use Jsonix for XML<->JSON conversion, you should be able to validate JSON with the generated JSON Schema. It also contains all the required metadata from the originating XML Schema (like element, attribute and type names).

Disclaimer: At the moment this is a new and experimental feature. There are certain known limitations and missing functionality. But I'm expecting this to manifest and mature very fast.

Links:

• Demo Purchase Order Project for NPM - just check out and npm install
• Documentation
• Current release
• Jsonix Schema Compiler on npmjs.com

Answer 2

JSON Schema is not intended to be feature equivalent with XML Schema. There are features in one but not in the other.

In general you can create a mapping from XML to JSON and back again, but that is not the case for XML schema and JSON schema.

That said, if you have mapped a XML file to JSON, it is quite possible to craft an JSON Schema that validates that JSON in nearly the same way that the XSD validates the XML. But it isn't a direct mapping. And it is not possible to guarantee that it will validate the JSON exactly the same as the XSD validates the XML.

For this reason, and unless the two specs are made to be 100% feature compatible, migrating a validation system from XML/XSD to JSON/JSON Schema will require human intervention.

Answer 3

Disclaimer: I'm the author of jgeXml.

jgexml has Node.js based utility xsd2json which does a transformation between an XML schema (XSD) and a JSON schema file.

As with other options, it's not a 1:1 conversion, and you may need to hand-edit the output to improve the JSON schema validation, but it has been used to represent a complex XML schema inside an OpenAPI (swagger) definition.

A sample of the purchaseorder.xsd given in another answer is rendered as:

"PurchaseOrderType": {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "shipTo": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/USAddress"
    },
    "billTo": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/USAddress"
    },
    "comment": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/comment"
    },
    "items": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/Items"
    },
    "orderDate": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}.*$"
    }
  },

Answer 4

Copy your XML schema here & get the JSON schema code to the online tools which are available to generate JSON schema from XML schema.

Answer 5

True, but after turning json to xml with xmlspy, you can use trang application (http://www.thaiopensource.com/relaxng/trang.html) to create an xsd from xml file(s).