Precompile to pre-built class about protobuf.js

[dcodeIO]

The returned classes are actually not a result of the builder alone, but also of turning the protocol reflection inside out. You can see it here:

https://github.com/dcodeIO/ProtoBuf.js/blob/master/src/ProtoBuf/Reflect.js

Think of them as an interface between the user and the reflected state that must always be built (which is pretty fast from json as there is no parsing involved). It's not possible to split that as it directly accesses all the core functionality of the library. Upside: No compilation step required :-)

For this reason I personally am not going to change the way it is currently.

[timmutton]

Oh ok, I assumed it would be non-trivial but I also didnt realise how tied in it was to everything :)

[DimitarChristoff]

slightly off-topic but on the same subject of proto2js builds - if you wanted to pre-package your protos and use import, how would you handle this cli level? use case is say:

// Foo.proto
message Foo {
    required string fizz = 1;
}

and

// Bar.proto
import "Foo.proto";

// really extend Bar but that produces an empty constructor. 
message Bar {
    required string buzz = 2;
}

running

node bin/proto2js tests/Bar.proto -amd
define(["ProtoBuf"], function(ProtoBuf) { return ProtoBuf.newBuilder().create([
    {
        "name": "Bar",
        "fields": [
            {
                "rule": "required",
                "type": "string",
                "name": "buzz",
                "id": 2,
                "options": {}
            }
        ],
        "enums": [],
        "messages": [],
        "options": {}
    }
]).build(); });

even the imports array from the parser is being lost as the script only takes into account .messages ...

my use case is that I really need to get files that import and extend protos working w/o modding them. the parser just returns imports in an array but does not get the messages, which makes things confusing. I hope I am missing something... using tests from #10

[dcodeIO]

You are right, there is currently no import handling at all in proto2js. I will think about a solution and let you know!

[dcodeIO]

I've updated the proto2js utility to also include all imports when using the -class, -commonjs or -amd parameters. However, if this works in every single case might still need some testing :)

[DimitarChristoff]

yep. nice. I am gonna mod that to support extend now. incidentally:

$ node bin/proto2js tests/extend.proto -amd
 Error: Illegal token in message FieldDescriptorProto: ; (type or '}' expected)

though it works, or at least does not throw w/o the amd / cjs switches.