Introduction

If you have used Swagger, JSON Schema or RAML to document your API you have probably used JSON references. A JSON reference is a JSON object that looks like {"$ref": "http://some/where"} and points to a JSON object somewhere else so you don’t have to copy and paste it. It’s kinda like a hyperlink for JSON.

JSON References are usually used with JSON Schema and API tooling but it’s actually a separate standard. It’s pretty handy any time you are writing a complex JSON document and need to repeat yourself.

JSON Reference is a library for resolving references. You can use this library to resolve references into proxy objects, allowing you to work with a JSON schema with references like a normal JSON document. You can also inline referenced JSON and create new JSON documents without references.

• Resolves all references, replacing them with proxy objects.
• Supports references to external files, urls, or custom sources.
• Safely resolves circular references.
• Supports caching dereferenced schemas.
• Dereferenced schemas can be safely encoded with json_encode.
• Works with Swagger, JSON Schema, and any other spec compliant JSON documents.