Schemas overview

Schema files define the data an adapter sends to and receives from the external system it integrates with. Schema does not define the overall format of that data — that is controlled by requestDatatype and responseDatatype in action.json. Schema is only applied when the datatype supports translation, such as JSON, XML2JSON, or URLENCODE.

Schema files live within the adapter’s endpoint configuration at adapter-home-dir/entities/<entity-name>/. You can use multiple schema files in a single adapter. Every action can have:

• A request schema that defines the data sent to the external system.
• A response schema that defines the data received from the external system.

The request and response schemas do not have to be separate. For CRUD operations they are often the same file.

Why schemas matter

Different systems name the same data differently. Schema files let the adapter translate field names automatically so that each system receives data in the format it expects.

For example:

• System A calls a device IP address ip_addr.
• System B calls it ipaddress.
• Itential Platform calls it ip_address.

WhenItential Platform retrieves a device from System A, the adapter schema maps ip_addr → ip_address automatically. WhenItential Platform adds a device to System B, the schema maps ip_address → ipaddress. This translation happens in the adapter libraries based on the field mappings you define in the schema.