Extension:VisualData/Schema Builder

Schema Builder

VisualData' Schema Builder is a complete UI able to create compliant json-schema vocabulary, supporting properties, sub-objects, items (arrays), content blocks, and of course the basic json-schema types and string formats. Compared to other solutions like jsonSchemaCreator it offers a more intuitive creation/editing of nested properties/sub-schemas and a better inteFgration with Mediawiki OOUI. However, it currently provides an incomplete support compared to the entire features of the json-schema specifications, the most important still to be added being the directives oneOf, anyOf and support for the $ref keyword.

The Schema Builder is accessible either through the special page "Manage Schemas" (provided that the logged-in user has the proper permissions) or through a dropdown menu from the tab "Edit data".

(CRUD datatable by which to create/edit/rename/delete schemas)

(dropdown to manage schemas when user has permissions "visualdata-canmanageschemas")

The Schema Builder allows to create fields, multiple fields, subitems, multiple subitems (arbitrarily nested) and content-blocks, and to rearrange them. It produces json-schema compliant schemas that will be saved in the VisualDataSchema namespace.

Fields created through the interface can be defined through a large set of options, like label, help message, visibility, type, preferred input (based on type), format, required, default value, value formula, and more.

Wikitext can be inserted anywhere (in content-blocks, label and help elements) therefore the resulting form is fully customizable.

The list of widgets available in the dropdown "Preferred input" contains 3 different sets of widgets listed below and reflects the type and format actually selected, plus whether the field is multiple or not. Therefore the widgets shown in the dropdown based on other settings are always less than the total available widgets.

Each input widget is in turn fully customizable through a dedicated interface, so most of the native configuration settings of both OOUI widgets and Mediawiki's OOUI widgets are accessible.

If accessed through the Edit data tab or the edit icon on the header of the form (provided that the logged-in user has the proper permissions) all the changes to a schema performed through the SchemaBuilder are interactively reflected in the related form for a fast schema/form prototyping.

This is a demo of a form produced by the SchemaBuilder with various available inputs.

Available widgets

The SchemaBuilder offers 3 different sets of widgets:

native OOUI input widgets, like:

Mediawiki's OOUI widgets like:

custom widgets like:
- intl-tel-input
- RatingWidget
- ButtonMultiselectWidget
- MenuTagSearchMultiselect
- LookupElement
- VisualEditor (requires Extension:VEForAll and textarea format)
- TinyMCE (requires the textarea format)

Editing of schema or property names

Since version 1.0.5 VisualData supports deletion and rename of schemas and properties keeping in synch the data in related articles. After editing a schema or property name involving an update of article data, the SchemaBuilder will show the following message:

If the operation is confirmed ensure to run

php maintenance/runJobs

in the MW installation folder to complete the operation.

Available options

Here is a table with all currently available options for each component:


option	component	description
name	schema, content block, field, subitem/subschema	unique name of the component. Should not be changed unless the json-data and parser functions will be updated
title	schema, field, subitem/subschema	title of the component. Can be wikitext
description	schema, field, subitem/subschema	description of the component. Can be wikitext
content block	content block	content of the content-block element (can be wikitext)
label	field	field label (can be wikitext)
help-message	field	field help-message (can be wikitext)
visibility	field	visible, condition, hidden, create only
type	field	string, number, integer, boolean
format	field	color, date, datetime, datetime-local, email, month, password, number, range, tel, text, textarea, time, url, week
multiple	field	boolean
preferred input	field	see below (it depends on type, format and multiple)
required	field	boolean
default value	field	can be wikitext, supports multiple values
value formula	field	string, template or parser function applied to the value before submission. An "untrasformed" is value among json-data to avoid recursive transformations
can be null	option widgets	null option for select widgets
options (as defined)	option widgets	user-defined options for select widgets
wikilist	option widgets	options retrieve from a wikilist (inserting an article title)
options label formula	option widgets	string, template or parser function applied to the label of the menu options
query	lookup widgets	conditions of the query
schema	lookup widgets	schema to be queried
printouts	lookup widgets	properties to be queried
option value formula	lookup widgets	string, template or parser function applied to the value of the menu options
multiple-items	subitem/subschema	whether the subitem/subschema can be instantiated (i.e. the container with all the related fields inserted multiple times)
layout	subitem/subschema	layout of the subitem/subschema, can be section (default) or horizontal
min items	items (arrays)	minimum number of required items
max items	items (arrays)	maximum number of required items
unique items	items (arrays), for fields	whether the input values are unique

Schema Builder

Available widgets

Editing of schema or property names

Available options

See also