Generate client in build process from another project/reference

[danbopes]

Product

Strawberry Shake

Is your feature request related to a problem?

Currently, I can generate a C# client using gRPC by following this approach:

<ItemGroup>
  <Protobuf Include="..\Services.WeatherForecast\Services.WeatherForecast.proto" GrpcServices="Client">
    <Link>Protos\Services.WeatherForecast.proto</Link>
  </Protobuf>
</ItemGroup>

This generates a client that I can use in my app. Whenever I update the protobuf reference in my main app, the resulting client is automatically updated.

The solution you'd like

I’d like to achieve something similar with GraphQL. Imagine if we could do this:

<ItemGroup>
  <Graphql Include="..\Services.WeatherForecast\Services.WeatherForecast.graphql" GraphqlServices="Client">
    <Link>Protos\Services.WeatherForecast.graphql</Link>
  </Protobuf>
</ItemGroup>

This would generate the GraphQL client, which I could then seamlessly use in my app. Given that .NET is increasingly moving toward cloud support and distributed applications (thanks to .NET Aspire), I believe this addition would be incredibly useful and beneficial.

[michaelstaib]

There are key difference here between GraphQL and gRPC ... if you generate a client for the whole schema you are not going for a cloud first API but something where you need expressions. Strawberry Shake generates from the GraphQL operation as other popular GraphQL clients do.