OpenAPITools / OpenAPITools/openapi-generator
[REQ][Go Client] Support circular schema definitions
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Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Valid OpenAPI specs can have circular definitions, however, this is not currently supported in generated Go client SDKs.
Validity of OpenAPI circular definitions is discussed here:
- https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification/issues/822
- https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/52163
Such definitions will also validate on the OAS3 validators by Mermade and APIDevTools.
Currently, when such a spec is used, the invalid recursive type compile error occurs.
# github.com/grokify/go-ringcentral/codegen/engagevoice
../../../../codegen/engagevoice/model_agent_account_access.go:12:6: invalid recursive type AgentAccountAccess
../../../../codegen/engagevoice/model_campaign.go:12:6: invalid recursive type Campaign
../../../../codegen/engagevoice/model_custom_dial_zone_groups.go:12:6: invalid recursive type CustomDialZoneGroups
../../../../codegen/engagevoice/model_quota_target.go:12:6: invalid recursive type QuotaTarget
Describe the solution you'd like
The problem with circular definitions occurs in Go because the compiler cannot determine the size of such a struct. The solution is to replace the nested struct with a pointer, who's size is known, as described here:
A pointer's size is known, but how big is something that contains itself? (And the inner struct contains itself as well, as does the inner inner struct, and so on.)
https://stackoverflow.com/a/8261789/1908967
This has been confirmed to compile by manually updating the generated model files.
Describe alternatives you've considered
None yet.
Additional context
- The use of pointers for nested structs is also being discussed in various JSON
nullvalue threads. - Google's auto-generated Go client SDKs appear to always use pointers for nested structs - https://github.com/googleapis/google-api-go-client
Given how pointers are part of a long-running nullable discussion, one thought is to use a CLI parameter that will make all nested structs pointers as to make it an optional feature.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the reported generated files model_agent_account_access.go, model_campaign.go, model_custom_dial_zone_groups.go, and model_quota_target.go, and reproduce the invalid recursive type errors for a circular OpenAPI definition. Compare them with the manually pointer-updated models described in the issue; done means the generated Go client compiles for these definitions without recursive-type errors.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- go, java
- Domain
- api, tooling
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100