JSON Schema - Recursive Schema Definition

Question

I have a JSON Schema

{
    'description': 'TPNode',
    'type': 'object',
    'id': 'tp_node',
    'properties': {
        'selector': {
            'type': 'string',
            'required': true
        }, 
        'attributes': {
            'type': 'array',
            'items': {
                'name': 'string',
                'value': 'string'
            }
        },
        'children': {
            'type': 'array',
            'items': {
                'type': 'object',
                '$ref': '#'
            }
        },
        'events': {
            'type': 'array',
            'items': { 
                'type': 'object',
                'properties': {
                    'type': {
                        'type': 'string'
                    },
                    'handler': {
                        'type': 'object'
                    },
                    'dependencies': {
                        'type': 'array',
                        'items': {
                            'type': 'string'
                        }
                     }
                 }
            }
        }
    }
}

What I'm trying to express in the children property is that it's an array of objects with the same exact schema. Is this the correct way to describe it?

Answer 1

Yes, your schema will work. The "$ref": "#" points back to the root of the schema document.

However, the "type": "object" is useless:

{
    'type': 'object',
    '$ref': '#'
}

If $ref is present, then all other keywords are ignored. It would be better to remove type from the #/properties/children/items schema.

Answer 2

Use the id of the schema you need to reference

'$ref': 'tp_node'

See here: http://json-schema.org/latest/json-schema-core.html#anchor30