Nested protobufs of mismatching types do not serialize correctly

[ghost]

Definition:

message Child {
    optional uint32 foo = 1;
}

message FakeChild {
    optional uint32 foo = 1;
}

message Parent {
    optional Child child = 1;
}

Code:

var foo = new Parent({child: new FakeChild({foo: 1})});

Confusingly, this results in: Error: Illegal value for Message.Field .Child.foo of type uint32: object (not an integer). I believe the correct behavior should be serializing FakeChild as an instance of Child, as this will mean that imported types will serialize correctly as child messages.

[dcodeIO]

I assume this behavior originates from: https://github.com/dcodeIO/ProtoBuf.js/blob/master/src/ProtoBuf/Builder/Message.js#L43

When given a single argument, the constructor has to distinguish if it's either just referencing the first field or if it is an object containing fields (it allows both multiple arguments in field declaration order and a single object). The argument could be another message (which is an object), just referencing the first field in declaration order.

As a result, the else condition tries to set the first field's value (this is Child.foo) to the argument, which is an instance of FakeChild.

I'll think about a solution, but unfortunately, I don't see a good one atm except dropping field declaration order entirely.

Edit: Well, there seems to be a bit more to that as an instance of Child works. Still puzzled. An instance of child works as there is a check in place here which circumvents the issue. This happens only if the statements returns false (not a proper instance). A possible solution could be placed right below the instanceof check statement.