CPS Delta between an anchor and JSON payload API

Overview

The second API proposed under the Delta feature is to generate a delta between configuration stored under an Anchor and JSON payload provided by the user. All the responses and exceptions thrown by this API will be similar to the API to generate delta between 2 anchors to maintain consistency between the API's.

Issues & Decisions

HTTP response codes for Delta between Anchor and Payload API

Proposed API

The proposed API will be part of the CPS Data Interface. This API takes multipart form data as request body, using this the user can provide the JSON payload and its corresponding Schema Context in form of a Yang or ZIP file. This file will only be used to generate the data nodes from the JSON payload and will not be persisted in CPS DB. The following response codes will be returned by the API:

Request parameters:

Request body:

Content-Type: multipart/form-data

Response Body/Delta Report Format

[
  {
    "action": "ADD",
    "xpath": "/bookstore/categories/[@code=3]",
    "target-data": {
      "code": 3,
      "name": "kidz"
    }
  },
  {
    "action": "DELETE",
    "xpath": "/bookstore/categories/[@code=1]",
    "source-data": {
      "code": 1,
      "name": "Fiction"
    }
  },
  {
    "action": "UPDATE",
    "xpath": "/bookstore/categories/[@code=2]",
    "source-data": {
      "name": "Funny"
    },
    "target-data": {
      "name": "Comic"
    }
  }
]

Functional Details about the API

The proposed API will be used to generate a delta between data fetched from an anchor against JSON payload provided by the user. The following are some key functional details about the API:

• The second Delta API utilizes the same algorithm which is used by the 1st CPS Delta API i.e. the API to generate delta between 2 anchors, by doing so we can ensure consistent results between both APIs, similar performance in delta generation and easier maintainability of code. 
• The second API fetches the data from the anchor provided as part of request and compares it to the raw JSON payload which is also sent as part of the request.
• In order to generate the delta report in the expected format, the JSON payload needs to be parsed into data nodes which would provide essential details such as xpath and leaf data.
• In order to parse the JSON payload to data nodes, the schema context of the JSON is required. The schema can be fetched using two approaches depending on the user's requirement:
  • The request body is of type multipart form data and accepts two parameters, one is the JSON payload as Text/String and the second is an optional parameter to provide the schema details in form of a yang or zip file. If the schema details are provided as part of request body, then the particular schema will be used to parse the JSON payload into data nodes.
  • If no Schema detail is provided as part of the request, then the algorithm will fetch the Schema Context using the anchor name, but here the assumption is that the JSON payload has same schema as that of the anchor.
  • If no schema is provided explicitly then the assumption is that the JSON payload has same schema as that of the anchor and it uses the anchor name to get the schema context which it, then uses to parse the JSON payload to data nodes. If in case, no schema is provided, and the schema of the anchor does not match the schema of the JSON payload then appropriate error message will be thrown.
• The descendants option is not provided as part of the request and is set to INCLUDE_ALL_DESCENDANTS by default, as one cannot be sure whether the JSON payload contains the descendants similar to the descendants in the anchor. So, the best-case scenario is to fetch all the descendants under the anchor and compare them to JSON payload.