Discovering Implicit
Schemas in JSON Data
Javier Luis Cánovas Izquierdo, Jordi Cabot
{javier.canovas,jordi.cabot}@inria.fr
ICWE Conference
July 2013

APIs everywhere

APIs everywhere

flickr/FortMeade
Format War

flickr/FortMeade
Format War
XML vs. JSON

0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
JSON-based API XML-based API
Source: ProgrammableWeb.com
XML vs. JSON

flickr/Eleaf

Also called JavaScript Object Notation, is a text-
based open standard designed for human-
readable data interchange. It is derived from the
JavaScript scripting language for representing
simple data structures and associative
arrays, called objects. Despite its relationship to
JavaScript, it is language-independent, with
parsers available for many languages.
JSON (/ˈdʒeɪsɒn/ jay-sawn, /ˈdʒeɪsən/ jay-
sun)
Source: Wikipedia

Also called JavaScript Object Notation, is a text-
based open standard designed for human-
readable data interchange. It is derived from the
JavaScript scripting language for representing
simple data structures and associative
arrays, called objects. Despite its relationship to
JavaScript, it is language-independent, with
parsers available for many languages.
JSON (/ˈdʒeɪsɒn/ jay-sawn, /ˈdʒeɪsən/ jay-
sun)
… and it is schemaless

flickr/jean-louis zimmermann
Example

flickr/Mads Boedker
Our proposal

Discovery of schemas in JSON

Creation Refinement

Creation Refinement
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5

R1 R2 R3
Creation Refinement

Creation Refinement

M1 M2 M3 M4

Discovering dependencies

Implementation

Not enough…
• Allowing developers to enrich the partial schemas
• Ideas from database normalization theory and XML-based approaches
Improve discovery process
• Some metrics: effectiveness, coverage, etc.
Evaluate the discovery process
• Automatize the generation of documentation
• Identifying use patterns in the JSON-based API
Promote JSON-based APIs
• Generation of mash-ups
• …others?
Additional uses

Check it out!
https://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/json-discoverer/
Except where otherwise noted, content on this presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Do you wanna try?