Open APIs

Within TMF620, for the productOffering response, the subresource `productSpecCharacteristicValue` has a field called `Value` which is of type `Any` (it can be of any type).  

This has led some of our partners to code this to string type for flexibility, but our underlying system has a more structured model and treats these as Objects (to manage as structured but flexible arrays).
The conformance profile for this TM Forum API states the rule is it needs to be present as "Array of CharacteristicValueSpecification - there must be at least one value in this array."
So is it acceptable in a TMF compliant implementation to require that the system calling GET for TMF678 resources use an object/array here rather than take license from the "any" designation and use other types like string?  Or to be compliant must my underlying system take any type here and find some way to convert it to the structured model of an array?  Ultimately, can a member offer a "TM Forum Open API" compliant solution that requires certain types be used where the standard allows for ANY or does the standard require that constituents truly support any field type in these situations?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Michael

I don't think that this will help for v4 APIs. But for Gen5 APIs (some already published) we have completely revamped the characteristic value and specification value model. Any has now gone away, and the values are strongly-typed subtypes of Characteristic and CharacteristicSpecificationValue. The types are based around json schema basic types, and they do include Object and Array of Objects, as well as basic types such as String, Array of Number, etc.

To be honest, though, I don't know how this is reflected in the CTK itself.

Within TMF620, for the productOffering response, the subresource `productSpecCharacteristicValue` has a field called `Value` which is of type `Any` (it can be of any type).  

This has led some of our partners to code this to string type for flexibility, but our underlying system has a more structured model and treats these as Objects (to manage as structured but flexible arrays).
The conformance profile for this TM Forum API states the rule is it needs to be present as "Array of CharacteristicValueSpecification - there must be at least one value in this array."
So is it acceptable in a TMF compliant implementation to require that the system calling GET for TMF678 resources use an object/array here rather than take license from the "any" designation and use other types like string?  Or to be compliant must my underlying system take any type here and find some way to convert it to the structured model of an array?  Ultimately, can a member offer a "TM Forum Open API" compliant solution that requires certain types be used where the standard allows for ANY or does the standard require that constituents truly support any field type in these situations?

Thanks in advance!