It's very likely that your problem can be better solved using extensions.
http://code.google.com/apis/protocolbuffers/docs/proto.html#extensions
For example, you could do:
message Field {
required string name = 1;
optional int32 int32_value = 2;
optional int64 int64_value = 3;
optional double double_value = 4;
optional string string_value = 5;
// ...
extensions 100 to max; // For types not listed above.
}
// Elsewhere
message Bar { ... }
extend Field {
optional Bar bar_value_ext = 123;
}
For every type that you want Field to be able to contain, you need to define
an extension like bar_value_ext.
On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 5:24 AM, <ra...@raisoftware.ro> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I have been searching ProtoBufs documentation for hours and I could
> not find a simple feature: how to write a generic type, which is
> determined at runtime, similar to "object". As far as I can see all
> values need to have specific types. Suppose I want to serialize an
> object:
>
> message Object
>
> {
>
> message Field
>
> {
>
> required string name = 1;
>
> required string value = 2;
>
> }
>
> optional string objectType = 1;
>
> repeated Field fields = 2;
>
> }
>
> How can I make Field.value be of any type (="object")?
>
> Thrift doesnt have it, Cisco Etch and Hessian have it. ProtoBuffs
> toolchain looks the best support, but this is showstopper problem for
> us.
>
> I appreciate your answer.
> >
>
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