The JSON Data Provider supports following options under the Connection section in Report Data Source dialog.

Content

In the Content tab, specify the type of JSON data source. The options available for specifying the JSON data are as follows:

• External file or URL: Enter the path or URL of an external JSON data file or select the file from the drop-down which displays the JSON files available in the same folder as the report. The connection string generated using this option starts with the keyword jsondoc.
  
• Embedded: Enter the path of the JSON data file to embed in the report. You can enter the data manually or edit the data in selected JSON file. The connection string generated using this option starts with the keyword jsondata.
  
• Expression: Enter an expression to bind to the JSON data at runtime. For more information on Expressions, see Use Dynamically Built JSON Data Source topic.

Schema

The JSON schema describes the structure of a JSON data. In ActiveReports, the JSON data provider uses the JSON schema to obtain fields. For more information on JSON schema, please see http://json-schema.org/latest/json-schema-core.html.
The keywords of JSON schema that are supported in the JSON data provider are:

• type: Indicates the type of the JSON schema element. See here for more information on type keyword.
     
• properties: Indicates the properties collection for JSON schema elements with the object type. See here for more information on properties keyword.
     
• items: Indicates the definition of items for JSON schema elements with array type. Only single values are supported.
  For example,  "items" : [ {...}, {...}, {...} ] is not supported because it contains multiple values. See here for more information on items keyword.
     
• definitions: Indicates the independent definitions which can be used by other JSON schema elements using $ref keyword. See here for more information on definitions keyword.
     
• $ref: Indicates the reference to a definition for JSON schema elements with object type. Only "definitions" ({ $ref : #/definitions/... }) references are supported.

In the Schema tab, select the JSON schema file corresponding to your JSON data. The options available for specifying the JSON schema are:

• External file or URL: Enter the path or URL of an external JSON schema file or select the file from the drop-down which displays the JSON files available in the same folder as the report is located. The connection string generated using this option starts with the keyword schemadoc.
  
• Embedded: Enter the path of the JSON schema file to embed in the report. You can enter the schema manually or edit the schema in the selected JSON file. The connection string generated using this option starts with the keyword schemadata.
  
  For generating JSON schema, use the JSON schema generator available at http://jsonschema.net/#/. 

Connection String

JSON connection string has two parts - jsondoc or jsondata and schemadoc or schemadata.

• jsondoc or jsondata: Refers to a specific JSON data file located on either the file system or at a web-accessible location.
  
• schemadoc or schemadata: Refers to JSON schema file corresponding to the existing JSON data.
  
  For example,
  jsondoc=C:\Data\customers.json;schemadata={
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "address": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "streetAddress": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "city": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "streetAddress",
        "city"
      ]
    },
    "phoneNumber": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "location": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "code": {
            "type": "integer"
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "location",
          "code"
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "address",
    "phoneNumber"
  ]
}