protoc-gen-ts

Protobuf to TypeScript generator

Generates ts files from proto file definitions.

Setup

To install the generator (bear in mind that it could be installed in ${HOME}/.local/bin too):

curl -Lo protoc-gen-tsx \
    https://github.com/join-com/protoc-gen-ts/releases/download/[VERSION]/protoc-gen-tsx.darwin.arm64 \
&& chmod +x protoc-gen-tsx \
&& sudo mv protoc-gen-tsx /usr/local/bin

• If you need a binary for Linux, you can change the word "darwin" in the url by "linux".
• If you need support for the Intel processor, or any other ARM processor, change "arm64" by "amd64".

Usage

will generate TS implementations into proto-ts folder for all your proto files inside proto:

protoc proto/*.proto -I proto --tsx_out=proto-ts

Advanced topics: Required fields & type flavors

In order to enable the "required fields" feature and the "type flavors" feature, copy the following files from this repository into your proto directory:

• google/protobuf/descriptor.proto
• options.proto

Required fields

We can mark all fields as required in a message, with a "message custom option":

message ExampleMessage {
  option (join.protobuf.typescript_required_fields) = true;
  int32 firstField = 1;
  int32 secondField = 2;
  string thirdField = 3 [(join.protobuf.typescript_optional) = true]; // We can mark fields as optional
}

We can also mark individual fields as required:

message ExampleMessage {
  int32 firstField = 1;
  int32 secondField = 2 [(join.protobuf.typescript_required) = true];
  string thirdField = 3;
}

Type flavors

We can also generate flavor nominal types for our fields with primitive types:

message UserProfile {
  int32 id = 1 [(join.protobuf.typescript_flavor) = "UserId"];
  string username = 2;
  repeated string emails = 3 [(join.protobuf.typescript_flavor) = "Email"];
}

Field masks

By default, the generated type for the field mask property will be { paths: string[] }. To add clarity which fields can be send as a mask use:

message GetRequest {
  int32 id = 1;
  google.protobuf.FieldMask read_mask = 2 [(join.protobuf.typescript_mask) = "Company"];
}

Develop

1. Follow instructions to install Go and add /usr/local/go/bin to the PATH environment variable
2. Run ./build.sh to compile the package
3. Or navigate to tests folder and run yarn compile
4. Run yarn proto:build:package(1/2/3) to generate one of the packages for tests
5. Run yarn test to run tests