Example time format changes to date-time if schema referenced through $ref

When importing API through the developer portal / azure cli / azure PowerShell, example fields with format set to time are changed to full date-time if the example schema is referenced by $ref.

Reproduction steps

1. Import the following API specification:

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Time Format Test
  description: Time Format Test
  version: 1.0.0
servers:
  - url: 'https://example.com'
paths:
  /without-schema:
    post:
      summary: POST ISO time
      operationId: post-iso-time
      requestBody:
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              type: object
              properties:
                time:
                  type: string
                  format: time
            example:
              time:
                '10:00:00+01:00'
      responses:
        200:
          description: OK

  /with-schema:
    post:
      summary: POST ISO time with Schema
      operationId: post-iso-time-w-schema
      requestBody:
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/IsoTime'
            example:
              time:
                '10:00:00+01:00'
      responses:
        200:
          description: OK

components:
  schemas:
    IsoTime:
      type: object
      properties:
        time:
          type: string
          format: time

2. Navigate to the imported API. Check the operations generated body in the Test tab.

Expected behavior

Both operations should have the following body:

{"time":"10:00:00+01:00"}

Actual behavior:

The body of the POST ISO time with Schema operation is:

{"time":"2021-12-16T09:00:00Z"}

It has been converted from ISO time to ISO date-time in UTC.

This issue prevents users from testing the API with the provided example, as the backend service expects a time, not date-time property.

This issue affects also Azure CLI, APIM REST API and Azure PowerShell.

@marcin-m-dsv, thank you for opening this issue. Due to the winter holidays season, it may take us longer than a few days to respond to it. If the issue is urgent, please contact Azure support.

@marcin-m-dsv, thank you for reporting the bug.

[mikebudzynski]

@VitaliyKurokhtin, it sounds similar to a bug that was fixed with the October's release: https://github.com/Azure/API-Management/releases/tag/release-service-2021-10 but affects time instead of date type.

Properties with format: date in OpenAPI documents are no longer converted to a date-time object.

[Hekku2]

We are having somewhat similar issue, but in our case the timestamp in example, such as

Input:

{
   "changeTime": "07:00:00"
}

Is converted to this in the example provided by APIM portal:

{
   "changeTime": "2024-08-21"
}

This is creating issues for our end users.