Broken typescript exports after moving to @grpc/grpc-js

[ikibalnyi]

Hey,

After updating to @grpc/grpc-js all the exports got changed from export BookService

grpc-node/packages/grpc-tools/src/node_generator.cc

Line 190 in a5cc154

out->Print(template_vars, "var $name$Service = exports.$name$Service = {\n");

to export['com.book.BookService'].

grpc-node/packages/grpc-tools/src/node_generator.cc

Line 188 in a5cc154

out->Print(template_vars, "var $name$Service = exports['$full_name$'] = {\n");

What is the point of such change? Now it's not possible to generate proper typescript definitions for such exports.

// grpc
import { BookServiceClient } from "./proto/book_grpc_pb";
const client = new BookServiceClient("127.0.0.1:50051", grpc.credentials.createInsecure());

// changed to

// grpc-js
import * as bookGrpcPb from "./proto/book_grpc_pb";
// @ts-ignore
const BookServiceClient = grpc.makeClientConstructor(bookGrpcPb["com.book.BookService"], "BookService");

So now such export is not valid for Typescript and you have to write // @ts-ignore.
Why was removed export of the BookServiceClient? or at least BookService?

[murgatroid99]

That second line you linked is in the generate_package_definition branch, which is triggered by using the generate_package_definition code generation option. That option makes the generated file export an object that is intended to be loaded using grpc.loadPackageDefinition. You could then apply a TypeScript type to the resulting object.

However, using that option is not the only way to generate code for use with the grpc-js library. You could also use the grpc_js code generation option instead. That will generate code very similar to the code generated without any options, except that it will import @grpc/grpc-js instead of grpc.

[ikibalnyi]

@murgatroid99 that helped, thank you!

Fixed by changing:

--grpc_out=generate_package_definition:$OUT_DIR

to

--grpc_out=grpc_js:$OUT_DIR

[agreatfool]

One more question, from which version of grpc-tools the flag grpc_js get available?

[ikibalnyi]

From what I've found it's available starting from 1.9.0 https://github.com/grpc/grpc-node/releases/tag/grpc-tools%401.9.0

[agreatfool]

@ikibalnyi OK, thanks. Then I could give the upgrade warning. Next version of ts grpc tool have to be upgraded with grpc-tools version over 1.9.0.