IDE can intellisense protobuf-python members

Question

I want a intellisense of protobuf class generated in python. But the implementation of generated protobuf class are special, the code is like:

class X(_message.Message):
  __metaclass__ = _reflection.GeneratedProtocolMessageType
  DESCRIPTOR = _X

Most python IDE only can intellisense __metaclass__ and DESCRIPTOR two members rather than the members defined in .proto file.

How to make it?

Answer 1

If you're using a recent Python version (3.7+) then you can try out my https://github.com/danielgtaylor/python-betterproto project. It generates dataclasses with proper types that VSCode, PyCharm, and others can use to provide type hints & intellisense.

For example, given this input:

syntax = "proto3";

// Some documentation about the Test message.
message Test {
    // Some documentation about the count.
    int32 count = 1;
}

You would get output like this:

# Generated by the protocol buffer compiler.  DO NOT EDIT!
# sources: int32.proto
# plugin: python-betterproto
from dataclasses import dataclass

import betterproto


@dataclass
class Test(betterproto.Message):
    """Some documentation about the Test message."""

    # Some documentation about the count.
    count: int = betterproto.int32_field(1)

It is much, much easier to read than the official generated descriptor classes.