Content Comparison

A data domain (domain) can cross-reference another in its definition creating a relationship between two or more domains. In the following diagramexample, the student domain makes a cross-reference to the country domain:

When a student data records is are POSTed, the request body would include a reference to a specific country  data record:

{
	"studentID": "XYZ-123",
	"name": "Juana Masa",
	"homeCountry": "/drs/country:v1/MEX",
	"birthday": "946684800"
}

When the student data record is referenced records are referenced (i.e. GET)  the response will insert the appropriate country information:

...

To reference another domain, include the cross-reference property definitions "type": "uri",   "uriType": "xref"  and "xrefLocation". The xrefLocation is the  the path to another  another data record or a property of the another data record.  

{
	"modelSchema": {
		"properties": {
			"<property1>": {
				"type": "uri",
				"uriType": "xref",
				"xrefLocation": "<path (or UUID) of a domain or domain property>",
				""
				...other item1 properties....
			},
			"<property2>": {
				 ... 
			}
		}
	}
}

xrefLocation

When defining a reference, the  the domain path to the reference is used.  When When POSTing data for the reference the data record path is used.

Some examples will help clarify:

Reference to an

...

Entire Data Record

When POSTing the reference, the xrefLocation entry in the model schema for referencing a complete data record would be:

...

"homeCountry": "/drs/country:v1/MEX"

Reference a Property in

...

a Data Record

    "xrefLocation": "/domains/{domain-name}[:version][/property]"

e.g.

"homeCountry": {
	"type": "uri",
	"uriType": "xref",
	"xrefLocation": "/domains/country:v1/name"
}

...

A Cross Reference Example

The following demonstrates in more detail the example where properties from an existing country domain is are to be referenced by a new domain called students.  Assume Assume the country domain contains many properties including the country name and the address for the immigration office. The student domain will reference the countries domain twice:

1. In a property called homeCountry 
2. A In a property called immigrationAddress

GET the address Property in the countries Model Schema

GET /domains/versions/<country-version-uuid>/properties

[
	{
			.
			.
		"propertyName": "immigrationAddress",
		"propertyType": "node",
				.
			.
	},
	{
			.
			.
		"propertyName": "name",
		"propertyType": "string"
			.
			.
	}
]

Create a New students Domain and Add the Cross-Reference To the First Version's Model Schema

POST /domains/versions/<students-domain-uuid>

...

Note that homeCountry is a primitive type while immigrationAddress is a node and  contains contains several items such as street, city, province-state, and postal-code.

Again, the students domain could just reference the country data record once, which would cause the entire country data record to be inserted.

...

Consider the situation where a state domain needs to reference to reference country and country needs a reference back to multiple state data records.

This creates a "chicken-or-the-egg" problem since the schema for one will exist before the other. To remedy this problem, one of the domains can be updated after both are created.

For example:

1. POST the modelSchema for the state domain:

...

Data can be posted only if all uri's of type xref have a valid xrefLocation`s.

PATCHing a domain:version is denied if any data is POSTed to it.

...