protobuf: Issue with omitempty in generated protobuffers

[karlek]

When strings finds a string defined at location 0, the resulting object reaching the frontend has the location field omitted since the location is 0 and thus empty. The golang code is generated with the json tag to omitempty values which causes this bug.

There are no clean solutions, but I've found these:

https://medium.com/@nevio/golang-dealing-with-protocol-buffer-omitempty-and-boolean-json-responses-ae1ba5f4e9c3

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34716238/golang-protobuf-remove-omitempty-tag-from-generated-json-tags

[mewmew]

Before trying a work-around, should we check how far the v2 rewrite of Protobuf has gotten? That's where we want to head going forward anyways, and with some luck this may be handled differently in v2.

[karlek]

Sounds reasonable, avoid solving problems which will be solved anyway

[karlek]

Do you have the link to the rewrite?

[mewmew]

Do you have the link to the rewrite?

• Code: https://github.com/golang/protobuf/tree/api-v2
• Blocking issues for v2 release: https://github.com/golang/protobuf/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Ablocks-v2
• Design docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19kfhro7-CnBdFqFk7l4_HmwaH2JT_Rhw5-2FLWLEGGk/edit
• More low-level design docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1epnKUCTeP_yQWmOJgOhELdmQTk8a3VPQGOV9d6RFbt0/edit#heading=h.q3iwtwhfujjx

[mewmew]

A draft PR is prepared which uses v2 protobufs (see #46). However, it is not yet ready for prime time.