Docs / Features / Objects

Storing objects

Every entity you store in Open Register is an object — a validated, versioned JSON record that lives in a register, follows a schema, and carries metadata about who changed it, when, and why. Objects are the smallest unit of data the system commits to.

What you get

Data integrityEvery write is validated against a JSON Schema. Invalid data never lands.

Citation-stable IDsPersistent identifiers survive renames, moves, and storage migrations.

Audit trailEvery change is logged and signed. WOO and BIO evidence comes for free.

Sub-features

Schema validation on every write
Object relationships (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many)
Object locking for concurrent edits
Soft deletion with restore
Version history per object
Signed audit trails
File attachments via Nextcloud Files
Persistent identifiers (UUID + URN)
Schema-aware search across registers
Batch operations (create, update, delete)

Quick example

Store an object via the REST API. Replace citizens with your register slug and citizen with your schema slug:

POST /index.php/apps/openregister/api/objects/citizens/citizen
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN

{
  "bsn": "123456789",
  "firstName": "Jenna",
  "lastName": "de Vries"
}

If validation passes, the response carries the persistent ID, the version, and the audit-log entry that recorded the write:

{
  "id": "urn:nl-openregister:01HXY...",
  "version": 1,
  "audit": "urn:nl-openregister:audit:01HXY...",
  "data": { "bsn": "...", "firstName": "Jenna", "lastName": "de Vries" }
}

Pairs well with

OpenCatalogiPublic catalogue of registers

DocuDeskGenerate docs from objects

OpenConnectorSync objects to external systems

For sales conversations

Every object writes a signed audit-log entry by default. For Woo / BIO compliance evidence, no extra plug-in is required. Link to the audit-log architecture for the technical detail.