JS - How to get and set fields of inner message field

[jonathan-se]

Given the following message:
message A{
-- message B{
------ int32 x = 1
------ int32 y = 2
-- }
-- int32 foo = 1
-- B bar = 2
}

msg = A.deserializeBinary(buffer)

1. Is msg.getBar().getX() is the only way to get x value? or there is a nicer solution like msg.bar.getX() (without using toObject())?

2. How can I set the value of x field without creating a new B message?

[adematte]

I really don't get the protoc generated code for javascript. Having to call a myriad of get/set methods to create a nested object doesn't make any sense and it feels out of place in the javascript ecosystem. I would prefer passing a plain JS object directly, especially since it supposedly supports canonical json encoding as stated here: https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/proto3#json

any plan to update protoc regarding JS code generation to make it more dev friendly ? This could even be done without introducing breaking changes by either adding an option to the protoc js code generation plugin or adding methods to parseTo/From javascript plain objects.

[majelbstoat]

I agree.

toObject works well for getting multiple fields (though, see protocolbuffers/protobuf#4518). I understand that getting a single field through an accessor is problematic, due to collisions with internal fields, but I would also love to be able to set multiple fields from JSON. Any of:

const res = new messages.UserResponse({ user: { username: 'abc', email: 'me@mine.com' } })

const res = messages.UserResponse.fromJSON({ user: { username: 'abc', email: 'me@mine.com' } } )

would make life so much easier. Even making the setX() methods fluent would be an improvement:

const user = new User()
user.setUsername('abc')
  .setEmail('me@mine.com')

[doogledor]

Any solutions to this? - creating a pb structure without having to create all the layers of a deep json structure

[hemant-saikia]

Any updates on this. Would really appreciate a simpler object creation technique.

[kurnal-volt]

any updates on this?

[dibenede]

Unfortunately with the current API users have to use a set*(new Foo()) pattern to create inner object fields.