Dereference all references

[kilianmh]

For a project of mine, I created a function to dereference all JSON pointers in a file (using cl-json-pointer).

Do you think such a dereference (if you have a better name in mind, go ahead!) function could/should be part of this library?

[y2q-actionman]

@kilianmh Sorry for the late reply. I will consider it now.

[kilianmh]

The function I defined only works when all the references are in the same JSON document. For pointers that are in files relative to the document, it might be necessary to have an optional path parameter. If you like the idea, I can submit a PR.

[y2q-actionman]

I have a question about the dereference function you posted. What it is doing is dereferencing the JSON pointer of "$ref", and if "$ref" is included in the dereferenced result, dereferencing it again, recursively?

How does dereference-all looks like? I think you may apply a JSON Pointer to JSON and then use another JSON Pointer on the result. However, if you know how many times you are going to use the JSON Pointer, it seems to me that you can just change the JSON Pointer. (For example, instead of using /a/b twice, use /a/b/a/b.) If you don't know the number of times, I see the danger of potentially infinite dereferences.

[kilianmh]

My function dereference applies each reference the first time seen and "stores" (as parameter in the lexical functions) that value when dereferencing further. When the same reference appears again, it's giving an warning and stops on that branch.

The function is working for my use case, but there certainly are improvements feasible.

[y2q-actionman]

I see. I thought it would be better to create a separate library utilizing cl-json-pointer, rather than include it as a part of cl-json-pointer. If you create such a library, I will add a link to it to the README.