JSON API response to Structs using Ecto Schema

One alternative valid way is to use Jason and plain structs with @type t :: ... definitions plus Domo for validation.

Considering MapShaper module from this example app, the structs can be defined like:

defmodule Address do
  @moduledoc false

  use Domo

  defstruct [city: "", state: ""]

  @type t :: %__MODULE__{city: String.t(), state: String.t()}
end

defmodule User do
  @moduledoc false

  use Domo

  today = NaiveDateTime.utc_now()
  defstruct [id: 0, fname: "", lname: "", email: "", createdOn: today, updatedOn: today, addresses: [%Address{}]]

  @type t :: %__MODULE__{
    id: non_neg_integer(),
    fname: String.t(),
    lname: String.t(),
    email: String.t(),
    createdOn: NaiveDateTime.t(),
    updatedOn: NaiveDateTime.t(),
    addresses: [Address.t()]
  }

  defimpl MapShaper.Target do
    def translate_source_map(_value, map) do
      addresses = get_in(map, ["_embedded", "addresses"])
      created_on = map |> get_in(["createdOn"]) |> parse_date()
      updated_on = map |> get_in(["updatedOn"]) |> parse_date()

      map
      |> Map.put("addresses", addresses)
      |> Map.put("createdOn", created_on)
      |> Map.put("updatedOn", updated_on)
    end

    defp parse_date(str) do
      str
      |> NaiveDateTime.from_iso8601()
      |> then(fn
        {:ok, date_time} -> date_time
        _ -> nil
      end)
    end
  end
end

And parsing + validation that looks like:

with {:ok, binary} <- File.read("user.json"),
      {:ok, map} <- Jason.decode(binary),
      user = MapShaper.from_map(%User{}, map),
      {:ok, user} <- User.ensure_type_ok(user) do
  user
end

Returns the following nested struct for the valid input:

%User{
  id: 283230,
  fname: "John",
  lname: "Smith",
  email: "john.smith@example.com",
  createdOn: ~N[2016-03-31 10:49:11.386],
  updatedOn: ~N[2016-10-31 16:36:12.968],
  addresses: [
    %Address{city: "Minneapolis", state: "MN"},
    %Address{city: "New Orleans", state: "LA"}
  ]
}