Comments from .proto files should move over to dart

[ened]

Given this enum defined in a proto file:

// Defines the response status for a IAP operation.
enum IAPResponseStatus {
    // All went well, see the other fields for response details.
    ok = 0;

    // Fatal error during the API action.
    error = 1;

    // (iOS only) Library user needs to fetch the list of products from the store first.
    emptyProductList = 2;

    // In-App purchases not available (device or policy constraints etc).
    disabled = 3;
}

Then this plugin currently generates:

class IAPResponseStatus extends $pb.ProtobufEnum {
  static const IAPResponseStatus ok = const IAPResponseStatus._(0, 'ok');
  static const IAPResponseStatus error = const IAPResponseStatus._(1, 'error');
  static const IAPResponseStatus emptyProductList = const IAPResponseStatus._(2, 'emptyProductList');
  static const IAPResponseStatus disabled = const IAPResponseStatus._(3, 'disabled');
}

However, it should generate:

/// Defines the response status for a IAP operation.
class IAPResponseStatus extends $pb.ProtobufEnum {
  /// All went well, see the other fields for response details.
  static const IAPResponseStatus ok = const IAPResponseStatus._(0, 'ok');
  /// Fatal error during the API action.
  static const IAPResponseStatus error = const IAPResponseStatus._(1, 'error');
  /// (iOS only) Library user needs to fetch the list of products from the store first.
  static const IAPResponseStatus emptyProductList = const IAPResponseStatus._(2, 'emptyProductList');
  /// In-App purchases not available (device or policy constraints etc).
  static const IAPResponseStatus disabled = const IAPResponseStatus._(3, 'disabled');
}

[sigurdm]

I think this should be true of all comments.
I will look into this

[v0l]

With gRPC this would be very helpful to copy all the comments from rpc methods into the dart code!

[armiol]

Is this still considered for implementation? We are struggling with the comments not being transferred to the Dart output as well.

[sigurdm]

It would be awesome to support I agree. Currently we don't have a lot of resources, so don't expect it to happen soon.

[MattyBoy4444]

Any news on this?

[bartekpacia]

This would be a very useful feature.

I'll offer a use case I have: I generate the Selector class from the .proto file, and it's part of my package's public API. Unfortunately, I cannot add doc comments to it, because well... it's generated. Result: users of my package don't have docs when they hover over the Selector in their IDE.

Tagging @sigurdm – I've seen you're activate on Dart related repos on dart-lang and google. I hope you can find some resources to implement this 🙏🏻

[sigurdm]

Unfortunately I no longer work on the dart-protobuf project.

I did start looking into this long time ago, and all the information is there in the descriptors, but there are quite some details in converting them to useful dartdoc comments - and also questions about how it should be configured. I never got very far.

I still think it would be really nice to have though.

[bartekpacia]

Sure, I understand.

If Google can't do this because it's not an important issue for you... is this repository accepting contributions?

[sigurdm]

I will defer to @osa1 who is working in this now.

[kevmoo]

I'd LOVE to have this, too.

[bartekpacia]

Wow, awesome! Thanks @kevmoo!

[kevmoo]

Wow, awesome! Thanks @kevmoo!

There is some more work we could do here. Like making the comment references to other types work. Let's file separate issues for those.