APIJSON Protocol Specification

Purpose and Scope

This document provides a high-level overview of the APIJSON request/response protocol, which acts as a declarative JSON transmission standard and automated ORM specification Document.md1-160 The protocol allows clients to specify exact data shapes, relational joins, filtering conditions, and transactional modifications without writing custom server-side endpoints.

For detailed technical specifications, refer to the child pages:

• Request methods and structure: Request Methods and Structure
• Query syntax and operators: Query Syntax: Keywords and Operators
• Associations, joins, and subqueries: Associations, Joins and Subqueries

Sources: Document.md9-160

2.1 Request Methods and Structure

APIJSON abstracts traditional REST endpoints by combining operations into a unified protocol mapped across methods such as get, gets, head, heads, post, put, and delete Document.md9-158 Requests are structured as JSON objects containing target table names (e.g., User, Moment) or array containers ([]) accompanied by metadata tags, pagination parameters (page, count), and structural keywords (query, join) Document.md48-156

For detailed documentation on endpoint operations, table array definitions, and array control keywords, see Request Methods and Structure.

Sources: Document.md48-57 Document.md139-156

2.2 Query Syntax: Keywords and Operators

Query customization is performed using reserved modifier keys starting with @ (such as @column, @order, @group, @having, @combine, @role, and @schema) and condition suffixes attached to field names (such as {}, $, ~, %, and <>) Document.md52-148 These operators allow clients to control projection fields, sorting, grouping, regular expression filtering, and logical combinations directly within the payload.

Sources: Document.md52-54 Document.md144-148

For detailed documentation on modifier keys, condition suffixes, and logic operators, see Query Syntax: Keywords and Operators.

Sources: Document.md52-54 Document.md144-148

2.3 Associations, Joins and Subqueries

To handle relational data, APIJSON supports dynamic entity association using reference paths via the key@ syntax (e.g., id@: Moment/userId) Document.md99-105 This enables both application-level joins (APP JOIN) handled by memory-side batching and database-level joins (SQL JOIN), alongside advanced subqueries and existence checks.

For detailed documentation on reference path formatting, join types, and subqueries, see Associations, Joins and Subqueries.

Sources: Document.md99-105