Json Schema - validate pattern for string inside an array is ignored

Question

I have a schema defined this way:

"permissions": {
          "type": "array",
            "properties": {
               "items":
                 {
                   "$ref": "#/definitions/permissionsType"
                 }
            }
        },

and permissionsType:

"permissionsType": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^[a-zA-Z0-9]+(:[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9-]+)+$"
    },

...

I am not sure why the pattern regex is ignored.

Answer 1

Remove the properties keyword and it will work as expected.

I'm not sure what you're trying to do with the properties keyword here. properties only applies when the instance being validated is an object. Because the instance is an array, properties is ignored. If the instance were an object, the properties keyword would apply, but it would be expecting an object with a property name "items" that matches #/definitions/permissionsType. I don't think that's what you meant. I think you wanted an array whose items all match #/definitions/permissionsType.

"permissions": {
  "type": "array",
  "items": { "$ref": "#/definitions/permissionsType" }
}