Serialize JSON value to protobuf.Value automatically?

[hadar759]

I have an Express server with Connect set up, which, among other things, receives files and their contents from users and writes them to the server's FS.
This is the proto schema I use:

message FileEdit {
  string path = 1;
  google.protobuf.Value content = 2;
}

message EditFilesRequest {
  repeated FileEdit file_edits = 1;
}

When using a cURL, I can just send the content as a JSON:

curl \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"file_edits":[{"path": "example.json","content": { "a": { "b": 2, "c": [1, "2", []]}, "d": 2 }}]} \
   http://.../EditFiles

However, when using the Node Connect client I have to serialize it myself using Value.fromJson, otherwise I get a type error:

import { client } from 'my-client.ts'
import { Value } from '@bufbuild/protobuf';

await client.editFiles({
  file_edits: [{ path: 'example.json', content: Value.fromJson({ a: { b: 2, c: [1, '2', []] }, d: 2 }) }],
});

Is there any way I can just send the content as JSON, and let Connect itself take care of serializing it to the correct format (same as in cURL)?

[timostamm]

Hadar, for the well-known wrappers.proto, we already "unbox" to an optional primitive in the generated code:

/**
 * @generated from field: google.protobuf.BoolValue bool_value_field = 1;
 */
boolValueField?: boolean;

We could take a similar approach with google.protobuf.Value (and also google.protobuf.Struct, a JSON object). For your example, it would be:

/**
 * @generated from field: google.protobuf.Value content = 2;
 */
content?: JsonValue;

Would you like to add a feature request in protobuf-es? It's a breaking change, and we might not get to it right away, but it definitely looks like a good improvement.

[hadar759]

Thanks for the quick reply! Will add a feature request :D