Specify an array of strings as body parameter in swagger API - rest

Question

I would like to post an array of strings like
[
"id1",
"id2"
]
to a Swagger based API. In my swagger file, I have those lines:
paths:
/some_url:
post:
parameters:
- name: ids
in: body
required: true
What is the correct way to specify the type of ids as an array of strings?
Update:
According to the specification, the following should work in my option:
parameters:
- in: body
description: xxx
required: true
schema:
type: array
items:
type: string
https://github.com/Yelp/swagger_spec_validator does not accept it and returns a long list of convoluted errors, which look like the code expects some $ref.

Answer 1

Your description of an array of string is correct, but the parameter definition misses the name property to be valid.
Here's a full working example:
swagger: "2.0"
info:
title: A dummy title
version: 1.0.0
paths:
/path:
post:
parameters:
- in: body
description: xxx
required: true
name: a name
schema:
type: array
items:
type: string
responses:
default:
description: OK
Try the online editor to check your OpenAPI (fka. Swagger) specs: http://editor.swagger.io/

Answer 2

I have created a swagger issue as the help provided by Arnaud, although is valid yaml, will give you NPE exceptions when trying to generate. You will need to provide an object like the following:
myDataItem:
type: object
description: A list of values
required:
- values
properties:
values:
type: array
items:
type: string
And then refer to it (in your post item etc):
schema:
$ref: "#/definitions/myDataItem"
For reference the github issue:
https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-codegen/issues/6745
Note, the issue has been fixed in version 2.3.0 and higher, ideally you should upgrade to that version.

Answer 3

None of the answers worked for me. As it is stated in the following Baeldung article:
To better document the API and instruct the user, we can use the example label of how to insert values
So the full working example would be something like that:
swagger: "2.0"
info:
title: A dummy title
version: 1.0.0
paths:
/path:
post:
parameters:
- in: body
description: xxx
required: true
name: a name
schema:
type: array
items:
type: string
example: ["str1", "str2", "str3"]
responses:
default:
description: OK
You can check how the Example Value is now better informed in the Swagger editor.

Answer 4

For Array containing Object as it's content, definition for Object can be also expressed using definitions & $ref.
Example:
schema:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/definitions/ObjectSchemaDefinition'
definitions:
ObjectSchemaDefinition:
type: string

Answer 5

The answer with the most votes got me in the right direction. I just needed an example of an array of objects where each one of them had a property which was an array of strings with more than one value in the strings array. Thanks to the documentation I got it working like this:
MyObject:
type: object
properties:
body:
type: array
items:
type: object
properties:
type:
type: string
values:
type: array
items:
type: string
example:
- type: "firstElement"
values: ["Active", "Inactive"]
- type: "SecondElement"
values: ["Active", "Inactive"]
One thing to keep in mind is that indentation is of paramount importance to swagger. If you don't indent things well, swagger will give you strange error messages.