Unable to add custom imports for pbts generated types

[thegecko]

protobuf.js version: master

When using a custom target for pbjs I expect to be able to have generated classes inherit from a custom base class (as opposed to something from the protobufjs codebase, e.g. protobuf.Rpc.Service).

This can be achieved by writing out a require in the template, but when it comes to generating the types with pbts, the requires are lost and tsc fails.

I see there is a hardcoded import added by pbts:

https://github.com/dcodeIO/protobuf.js/blob/master/cli/pbts.js#L146

JSDoc doesn't seem to support imports/requires, so is there a way to add custom imports?

[dcodeIO]

I think this'd require some sort of postprocessing at this point, but a mechanism that somehow inherits custom imports from JS in the generated TSD would be ideal, probably.

[thegecko]

Ultimately I'm trying to create an abstract class for implementing RPC server templates and this is the final hurdle.

I can approach this in different ways:

• Create a PR containing a new generic target and base class alongside protobufjs.Rpc.Service
• Keep it a custom implementation, which will require the imports to be fixed:
  • Fix imports by inventing a new extension to the jsdoc markup (@import perhaps) to be processed by pbts
  • Fix imports by allowing a list of imports to be passed to the pbts tool

I think I'd prefer to see the import syntax included in the target as it keeps the concerns together. Therefore the jsdoc extension approach could be better. I can then share my server work if of interest later.

Any preference?

[thegecko]

Perhaps abuse the @external tag:

http://usejsdoc.org/tags-external.html