Stream: conformance
Topic: Empty arrays in JSON
Morten Ernebjerg (Oct 22 2020 at 07:38):
Hi :wave: I am wondering how to interpret the following statement in the spec about the JSON representation of resources:
Just as in XML, JSON objects and arrays are never empty, and properties never have null values (except for a special case documented below).
I would read this as saying that empty arrays are invalid in FHIR resources. However, the JAR validator (Version 5.1.16) says the following is valid.
{
"resourceType": "DocumentReference",
"status": "current",
"category": [{
"coding": []
}],
"content": [
{ "attachment": { "contentType": "text/plain", "data": "Zm9v" } }
]
}
(It does complain about empty objects, though.) Is the statement from the spec only meant to provide best-practice guidance or is it merely not enforced by the validator?
Lloyd McKenzie (Oct 22 2020 at 14:46):
@Grahame Grieve
Grahame Grieve (Oct 22 2020 at 20:14):
looks like an oversight to me
Lloyd McKenzie (Oct 22 2020 at 20:29):
Do you need a Git issue?
Grahame Grieve (Oct 22 2020 at 20:47):
no
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
