Welcome
This site aims to be a comprehensive guide to SchemaType.
What is SchemaType?
SchemaType is a Data Definition Language for structured data formats like YAML, JSON, CSV, etc. Traditionally, DTDs are used for data validation. SchemaType has this goal, certainly, but it goes much further than that. When data is well defined, much of the software that deals with the data can be generated rather than written by hand. Put another way, the more well-defined data you have in your system, the less code you have to write.
Interestingly, the data definitions (schemas) can be partially generated from valid input. THe more valid input that you feed such a generator, the more accurately it can define the schema. This makes the adoption of SchemaType easier and more appealing. Use your data to create the schema; review and tune it by hand; then use the schema to generate much of your software.
This guide describes the SchemaType language in full. It has reference material
and also tutorials for getting you up to speed. It also describes the reference
implementation: a CLI tool called stp, which also runs the online SchemaType
Editor.
Helpful Hints
Throughout this guide there are a number of small-but-handy pieces of information that can make using SchemaType easier, more interesting, and less hazardous. Here’s what to look out for.
ProTips™ help you get more from SchemaType
These are tips and tricks that will help you be a SchemaType wizard!
Notes are handy pieces of information
These are for the extra tidbits sometimes necessary to understand SchemaType.
Warnings help you not blow things up
Be aware of these messages if you wish to avoid certain death.
You'll see this by a feature that hasn't been released
Some pieces of this website are for future versions of SchemaType that are not yet released.
If you come across anything along the way that we haven’t covered, or if you know of a tip you think others would find handy, please file an issue and we’ll see about including it in this guide.