The JSON Format for CloudEvents defines how events are expressed in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format (RFC8259).
This document is a working draft.
CloudEvents is a standardized and transport-neutral definition of the structure and metadata description of events. This specification defines how the elements defined in the CloudEvents specification are to be represented in the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format (RFC8259).
The Attributes section describes the naming conventions and data type mappings for CloudEvents attributes.
The Envelope section defines a JSON container for CloudEvents attributes and an associated media type.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC2119.
This section defines how CloudEvents attributes are mapped to JSON. This specification does not explicitly map each attribute, but provides a generic mapping model that applies to all current and future CloudEvents attributes.
The core CloudEvents specification defines a minimal abstract type system, which this mapping leans on.
The CloudEvents type system is mapped to JSON types as follows:
CloudEvents | JSON |
---|---|
String | string |
Binary | string, Base64-encoded binary |
URI | string |
Timestamp | string |
Map | JSON object |
Object | JSON value |
The CloudEvents data
attribute is Object
-typed, meaning that it either
holds a String
, or a Binary
value, or a Map
. Map
entry values are
also Object
typed.
If an implementation determines that the actual type of an Object
is a
String
, the value MUST be represented as JSON string
expression; for Binary
, the value MUST represented as JSON
string expression containing the Base64 encoded binary
value; for Map
, the value MUST be represented as a JSON object
expression, whereby the index fields become member names and the associated
values become the respective member's value.
The following table shows exemplary mappings:
CloudEvents | Type | Exemplary JSON Value |
---|---|---|
eventType | String | "com.example.someevent" |
eventTypeVersion | String | "1.0" |
cloudEventsVersion | String | "0.1" |
source | URI | "/mycontext" |
eventID | String | "1234-1234-1234" |
eventTime | Timestamp | "2018-04-05T17:31:00Z" |
contentType | String | "application/json" |
extensions | Map | { "extA" : "vA", "extB", "vB" } |
data | String | "<much wow="xml"/>" |
data | Binary | "Q2xvdWRFdmVudHM=" |
data | Map | { "objA" : "vA", "objB", "vB" } |
Each CloudEvents event can be wholly represented as a JSON object.
Such a representation uses the media type application/cloudevents+json
All REQUIRED and all not omitted OPTIONAL attributes in the given event MUST become members of the JSON object, with the respective JSON object member name matching the attribute name, and the member's type and value being mapped using the type system mapping.
The mapping of the Object
-typed data
attribute follows the rules laid out
in Section 2.3., with one additional
rule:
If an implementation determines that the type of the data
attribute is
Binary
or String
, it MUST inspect the contentType
attribute to determine
whether it is indicated that the data value contains JSON data.
If the contentType
value is "application/json", or any media type
with a structured +json suffix, the implementation MUST translate
the data
attribute value into a JSON value, and set the data
member of the envelope JSON object to this JSON value.
Unlike all other attributes, for which value types are restricted to strings
per the type-system mapping, the resulting data
member JSON value is unrestricted, and MAY also contain numeric
and logical JSON types.
Example event with String
-valued data
:
{
"cloudEventsVersion" : "0.1",
"eventType" : "com.example.someevent",
"eventTypeVersion" : "1.0",
"source" : "/mycontext",
"eventID" : "A234-1234-1234",
"eventTime" : "2018-04-05T17:31:00Z",
"extensions" : {
"comExampleExtension" : "value"
},
"contentType" : "text/xml",
"data" : "<much wow=\"xml\"/>"
}
Example event with Binary
-valued data
{
"cloudEventsVersion" : "0.1",
"eventType" : "com.example.someevent",
"eventTypeVersion" : "1.0",
"source" : "/mycontext",
"eventID" : "B234-1234-1234",
"eventTime" : "2018-04-05T17:31:00Z",
"extensions" : {
"comExampleExtension" : "value"
},
"contentType" : "application/vnd.apache.thrift.binary",
"data" : "... base64 encoded string ..."
}
Example event with JSON data for the "data" member, either derived from
a Map
or JSON data data:
{
"cloudEventsVersion" : "0.1",
"eventType" : "com.example.someevent",
"eventTypeVersion" : "1.0",
"source" : "/mycontext",
"eventID" : "C234-1234-1234",
"eventTime" : "2018-04-05T17:31:00Z",
"extensions" : {
"comExampleExtension" : "value"
},
"contentType" : "application/json",
"data" : {
"appinfoA" : "abc",
"appinfoB" : 123,
"appinfoC" : true
}
}
- RFC2046 Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types
- RFC2119 Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels
- RFC4627 The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
- RFC4648 The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings
- RFC6839 Additional Media Type Structured Syntax Suffixes
- RFC8259 The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format