jsonpb: Adds support for other []byte types to be base64 encoded.

The proto3 spec encodes the bytes type to be a base64 encoded string
when marshalling to jsonpb. This adds support to jsonpb to correctly
encode go types in the format `type Bytes []byte` into base64 instead of
being represented as an uint8 array.

While these types won't be generated by the standard protobuf compiler,
they can be generated by others such as gogo protobuf.

Author: d4l3k

jsonpb/jsonpb.go

@@ -53,10 +53,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/golang/protobuf/proto"
 )
 
-var (
-	byteArrayType = reflect.TypeOf([]byte{})
-)
-
 // Marshaler is a configurable object for converting between
 // protocol buffer objects and a JSON representation for them.
 type Marshaler struct {
@@ -374,7 +370,7 @@ func (m *Marshaler) marshalValue(out *errWriter, prop *proto.Properties, v refle
 	v = reflect.Indirect(v)
 
 	// Handle repeated elements.
-	if v.Type() != byteArrayType && v.Kind() == reflect.Slice {
+	if v.Kind() == reflect.Slice && v.Type().Elem().Kind() != reflect.Uint8 {
 		out.write("[")
 		comma := ""
 		for i := 0; i < v.Len(); i++ {
@@ -684,7 +680,7 @@ func unmarshalValue(target reflect.Value, inputValue json.RawMessage, prop *prot
 	}
 
 	// Handle arrays (which aren't encoded bytes)
-	if targetType != byteArrayType && targetType.Kind() == reflect.Slice {
+	if targetType.Kind() == reflect.Slice && targetType.Elem().Kind() != reflect.Uint8 {
 		var slc []json.RawMessage
 		if err := json.Unmarshal(inputValue, &slc); err != nil {
 			return err

jsonpb/jsonpb_test.go

@@ -282,6 +282,21 @@ func init() {
 	}
 }
 
+// Bytes is used to test that []byte type aliases are serialized to base64.
+type Byte byte
+
+// Bytes is used to test that []byte type aliases are serialized to base64.
+type Bytes []Byte
+
+// BytesMessage is used to test that []byte type aliases are serialized to base64.
+type BytesMessage struct {
+	Bytes Bytes `protobuf:"bytes,1,opt,name=bytes,json=bytes" json:"bytes,omitempty"`
+}
+
+func (*BytesMessage) Reset()         {}
+func (*BytesMessage) String() string { return "" }
+func (*BytesMessage) ProtoMessage()  {}
+
 var marshalingTests = []struct {
 	desc      string
 	marshaler Marshaler
@@ -373,6 +388,7 @@ var marshalingTests = []struct {
 	{"BoolValue", marshaler, &pb.KnownTypes{Bool: &wpb.BoolValue{Value: true}}, `{"bool":true}`},
 	{"StringValue", marshaler, &pb.KnownTypes{Str: &wpb.StringValue{Value: "plush"}}, `{"str":"plush"}`},
 	{"BytesValue", marshaler, &pb.KnownTypes{Bytes: &wpb.BytesValue{Value: []byte("wow")}}, `{"bytes":"d293"}`},
+	{"BytesMessageValue", marshaler, &BytesMessage{Bytes: []Byte("wow")}, `{"bytes":"d293"}`},
 }
 
 func TestMarshaling(t *testing.T) {
@@ -445,6 +461,7 @@ var unmarshalingTests = []struct {
 	{"BoolValue", `{"bool":true}`, &pb.KnownTypes{Bool: &wpb.BoolValue{Value: true}}},
 	{"StringValue", `{"str":"plush"}`, &pb.KnownTypes{Str: &wpb.StringValue{Value: "plush"}}},
 	{"BytesValue", `{"bytes":"d293"}`, &pb.KnownTypes{Bytes: &wpb.BytesValue{Value: []byte("wow")}}},
+	{"BytesMessageValue", `{"bytes":"d293"}`, &BytesMessage{Bytes: []Byte("wow")}},
 	// `null` is also a permissible value. Let's just test one.
 	{"null DoubleValue", `{"dbl":null}`, &pb.KnownTypes{Dbl: &wpb.DoubleValue{}}},
 }

proto/text.go

@@ -513,7 +513,7 @@ func (tm *TextMarshaler) writeAny(w *textWriter, v reflect.Value, props *Propert
 	switch v.Kind() {
 	case reflect.Slice:
 		// Should only be a []byte; repeated fields are handled in writeStruct.
-		if err := writeString(w, string(v.Interface().([]byte))); err != nil {
+		if err := writeString(w, string(v.Bytes())); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	case reflect.String: