protoc-gen-defaults

This project is currently in alpha. The API should be considered unstable and likely to change

protoc-gen-defaults is a protoc plugin generating the implementation of a Defaulter interface on messages:

type Defaulter interface {
	Default()
}

Installation

go get go.linka.cloud/protoc-gen-defaults

Usage

Overview

protoc-gen-defaults make use of Protobuf options to define defaults field value.

Generation

protoc-gen-defaults works the same way does the protoc plugins

Example:

protoc -I. -I defaults --go_out=paths=source_relative:. --defaults_out=paths=source_relative:. types.proto

Disable generation or implementation

Implementation generation can be ignored with the (defaults.ignored) = true message option.

message NoDefaulterImplementation {
	option (defaults.ignored) = true;
	string string_field = 1 [(defaults.value).string = "string_field"];
}

It may be useful if you intend to write your own Defaulter implementation.

An empty implementation can be generated with the (defaults.disabled) = true message option

message EmptyDefaulterImplementation {
    option (defaults.disabled) = true;
    string string_field = 1 [(defaults.value).string = "string_field"];
}

Scalar and Well-Known Value

Each scalar or Well-Known type has its corresponding (defaults.value).[scalar] = [value] option, the [value] will be set if the scalar field has the zero value, e.g 0 for numbers, "" for strings, false for bools

• float / google.protobuf.FloatValue:

  float float = 1 [(defaults.value).float = 0.42];

• double / google.protobuf.DoubleValue:

  double double = 2 [(defaults.value).double = 0.42];
  ****google.protobuf.DoubleValue double_value = 20 [(defaults.value).double = 0.42];

• int32 / google.protobuf.Int32Value:

  int32 int32 = 3 [(defaults.value).int32 = 42];
  google.protobuf.Int32Value int32_value = 24 [(defaults.value).int32 = 42];

• int64 / google.protobuf.Int64Value:

  int64 int64 = 4 [(defaults.value).int64 = 42];
  google.protobuf.Int64Value int64_value = 22 [(defaults.value).int64 = 42];

• uint32 / google.protobuf.UInt32Value:

  uint32 uint32 = 5 [(defaults.value).uint32 = 42];
  google.protobuf.UInt32Value uint32_value = 25 [(defaults.value).uint32 = 42];

• uint64 / google.protobuf.UInt64Value:

  uint64 uint64 = 6 [(defaults.value).uint64 = 42];
  google.protobuf.UInt64Value uint64_value = 23 [(defaults.value).uint64 = 42];

• sint32:

  sint32 sint32 = 7 [(defaults.value).sint32 = 42];

• sint64:

  sint64 sint64 = 8 [(defaults.value).sint64 = 42];

• fixed32:

  fixed32 fixed32 = 9 [(defaults.value).fixed32 = 42];

• fixed64:

  fixed64 fixed64 = 10 [(defaults.value).fixed64 = 42];

• sfixed32:

  sfixed32 sfixed32 = 11 [(defaults.value).sfixed32 = 42];

• sfixed64:

  sfixed64 sfixed64 = 12 [(defaults.value).sfixed64 = 42];

• bool / google.protobuf.BoolValue:

  bool bool = 13 [(defaults.value).bool = true];
  google.protobuf.BoolValue bool_value = 26 [(defaults.value).bool = false];

• string / google.protobuf.StringValue:

  string string = 14 [(defaults.value).string = "42"];
  google.protobuf.StringValue string_value = 27 [(defaults.value).string = "42"];

• bytes / google.protobuf.BytesValue:

  bytes bytes = 15 [(defaults.value).bytes = "42"];
  google.protobuf.BytesValue bytes_value = 28 [(defaults.value).bytes = "42"];

Messages

Message default behaviour is defined with the (defaults.value).message = {initialize: bool, defaults: bool} field option.

• initialize: if set to true the field will be initialized with an empty stuct reference from the appropriate type
• defaults: tells that the Default method should be called if the type implements the Defaulter interface

Message message = 17 [(defaults.value).message = {initialize: true, defaults: true}];

Well-Known Messages

google.protobuf.Duration

The default value is parsed according to the Prometheus time durations format

google.protobuf.Duration duration = 18 [(defaults.value).duration = "2d"];

google.protobuf.Timestamp

The default value is parsed using the following RFCs as defined in the time package:

• time.RFC822
• time.RFC822Z
• time.RFC850
• time.RFC1123
• time.RFC1123Z
• time.RFC3339

Timestamp also support a convenient value now which will set the value from time.Now() at Default() method call time.

google.protobuf.Timestamp timestamp = 19 [(defaults.value).timestamp = "now"];
google.protobuf.Timestamp time_value_field_with_default = 18 [(defaults.value).timestamp = "1952-03-11T00:00:00Z"];

Enums

The enum index value if currently to zero.

enum Enum {
    NONE = 0;
    ONE = 1;
    TWO = 2;
}
Enum enum = 16 [(defaults.value).enum = 1];

oneof

If the defaults.oneof option is set, the oneof will be initialized with a struct of the oneof type wrapper, the regular field type default option will be applied.

oneof one_of {
    option (defaults.oneof) = "two";
    OneOfOne one = 29 [(defaults.value).message = {defaults: true, initialize: true}];
    OneOfTwo two = 30 [(defaults.value).message = {defaults: true, initialize: true}];
    OneOfThree three = 31 [(defaults.value).message = {defaults: true, initialize: true}];
    Enum four = 32 [(defaults.value).enum = 1];
}

Repeated and Maps

repeated and maps are not supported.

All types example

syntax = "proto3";

package tests;

option go_package = "go.linka.cloud/protoc-gen-defaults/tests/pb;pb";

import "defaults/defaults.proto";

import "google/protobuf/wrappers.proto";
import "google/protobuf/timestamp.proto";
import "google/protobuf/duration.proto";

message Types {
    // Scalar Field Types
    float float = 1 [(defaults.value).float = 0.42];
    double double = 2 [(defaults.value).double = 0.42];
    int32 int32 = 3 [(defaults.value).int32 = 42];
    int64 int64 = 4 [(defaults.value).int64 = 42];
    uint32 uint32 = 5 [(defaults.value).uint32 = 42];
    uint64 uint64 = 6 [(defaults.value).uint64 = 42];
    sint32 sint32 = 7 [(defaults.value).sint32 = 42];
    sint64 sint64 = 8 [(defaults.value).sint64 = 42];
    fixed32 fixed32 = 9 [(defaults.value).fixed32 = 42];
    fixed64 fixed64 = 10 [(defaults.value).fixed64 = 42];
    sfixed32 sfixed32 = 11 [(defaults.value).sfixed32 = 42];
    sfixed64 sfixed64 = 12 [(defaults.value).sfixed64 = 42];
    bool bool = 13 [(defaults.value).bool = true];
    string string = 14 [(defaults.value).string = "42"];
    bytes bytes = 15 [(defaults.value).bytes = "42"];

    // Complex Field Types
    enum Enum {
        NONE = 0;
        ONE = 1;
        TWO = 2;
    }
    Enum enum = 16 [(defaults.value).enum = 1];
    Message message = 17 [(defaults.value).message = {initialize: true, defaults: false}];
    oneof one_of {
        option (defaults.oneof) = "two";
        OneOfOne one = 29 [(defaults.value).message = {defaults: true, initialize: true}];
        OneOfTwo two = 30 [(defaults.value).message = {defaults: true, initialize: true}];
        OneOfThree three = 31 [(defaults.value).message = {defaults: true, initialize: true}];
        Enum four = 32 [(defaults.value).enum = 1];
    }
    
    // WellKnow types
    google.protobuf.Duration duration = 18 [(defaults.value).duration = "2d"];
    google.protobuf.Timestamp timestamp = 19 [(defaults.value).timestamp = "now"];
    google.protobuf.DoubleValue double_value = 20 [(defaults.value).double = 0.42];
    google.protobuf.FloatValue float_value = 21 [(defaults.value).float = 0.42];
    google.protobuf.Int64Value int64_value = 22 [(defaults.value).int64 = 42];
    google.protobuf.UInt64Value uint64_value = 23 [(defaults.value).uint64 = 42];
    google.protobuf.Int32Value int32_value = 24 [(defaults.value).int32 = 42];
    google.protobuf.UInt32Value uint32_value = 25 [(defaults.value).uint32 = 42];
    google.protobuf.BoolValue bool_value = 26 [(defaults.value).bool = false];
    google.protobuf.StringValue string_value = 27 [(defaults.value).string = "42"];
    google.protobuf.BytesValue bytes_value = 28 [(defaults.value).bytes = "42"];
}

message Message {
    string field = 1 [(defaults.value).string = "lonely field"];
}

message OneOfOne {
    option (defaults.ignored) = true;
    string string_field = 1 [(defaults.value).string = "string_field"];
}

message OneOfTwo {
    string string_field = 1 [(defaults.value).string = "string_field"];
}

message OneOfThree {
    option (defaults.disabled) = true;
    string string_field = 1 [(defaults.value).string = "string_field"];
}

Using reflection / without code generation

Setting protobuf message defaults is also supported using reflection:

package main

import (
	pb "..."
	"go.linka.cloud/protoc-gen-defaults/defaults"
)

func main() {
	var msg pb.MyMessage
	defaults.Apply(&msg)
}

TODO

• docs
• oneof support
• set default values by using Protobuf reflection
• add more generic methods to use as default value, e.g. uuid, bsonid... ?
• repeated support ?
• maps support ?
• bytes support