Remove $typeName and $unknown

[netanel-utila]

Hi,

Is there any way to exclude $typeName and $unknown from the types? we don't want to expose this to our clients:

Thanks

[timostamm]

You can remove properties (and do much more) with mapped types.

Here is an example for a Connect client that does not make properties optional, and strips the $typeName and $unknown properties: https://github.com/connectrpc/examples-es/tree/main/custom-client

The OmitTypeName type from this example might just be what you need.

[netanel-utila]

I understand that it's possible to implement this; however, same as the timestamp issue, I thought this could be something incorporated as a plugin or something. This way, it would automatically generate the desired outcome and we won't need to create wrappers, etc.

[timostamm]

Do you mean a plugin option to disable $typeName and $unknown?

ts-proto has many plugin options and basically no runtime library. Protobuf-ES has a different approach - it generates very little code, hosts most functionality in the runtime library, and aims for a single way to do things. The practical advantage is that we can test correctness, which is infeasible with a large number of plugin options that can affect each other.

Depending on your use case, it might be worth to write a Protobuf plugin that emits types without $typeName 🤔

Regardless of the concrete way to disable $typeName, we're aware that the property has disadvantages. Closing as a duplicate of #994, which tracks making it optional.