[Feature Request] Export generated validate proto artifacts

[newyankeecodeshop]

Feature description:

Make @bufbuild/protovalidate/gen/buf/validate/validate_pb.js an exported artifact so that it can be used by the generated code of user protobuf files.

Problem it solves or use case:

In a typical installation of protovalidate-es, there are two copies of validate_pb.js. One is inside @bufbuild/protovalidate and one is generated when users compile their proto files. The packages/example shows this as it includes its own copy in src/gen/buf/validate/validate_pb.ts. The generated JS files contains over 60KB of data describing the proto artifacts.

Proposed implementation or solution:

Allow users to replace the generated validate_pb.js with a single line:

export * from "@bufbuild/protovalidate/gen/buf/validate/validate_pb.js";

This could eventually be automated by a protoc plugin.

Contribution:

I have a PR that implements this and updates the example package.

Examples or references:

None

Additional context:

None

[timostamm]

It's true that there are typically two copies of validate_pb.js when you use protovalidate. It's usually compressed away very well when you serve a web app, but clearly it's not ideal.

Edition 2024 adds the import option feature (see here for an example). This feature solves the issue because the code you're generating doesn't need to generate the import anymore. Unfortunately import option isn't available in syntax proto3, so it isn't very helpful in practice.

What's needed here is a "canonical" import location, so that instead of generating validate_pb.js, the file is simply imported from @bufbuild/protovalidate. We actually have a plugin option to enable that (see here). We never got around to testing all use cases and documenting it properly, but it looks like the cleanest solution to me. You'd drop include_imports: true from buf.gen.yaml, and instead add a rewrite_imports= line.

Exporting the generated code from @bufbuild/protovalidate is still necessary though, and that's a good starting point. It needs to be "canonical" though: A .js extension is the most flexible and portable, so it's important that the exports use only this file extension.

[timostamm]

• Export generated validate proto artifacts #152 merged, albeit without the example.
• Use rewrite_imports to deduplicate a copy of validate_pb.ts #184 uses the new exports with the rewrite_imports option in an internal package.
• Use rewrite_imports in the example #185 applies the option to the example.