Collaboration on shareable grpc-spring-boot-starter features

[ST-DDT]

Hi I'm ST-DDT (Core Developer of yidongnan/grpc-spring-boot-starter).

I noticed, that we both implement similar features for both of our libraries, so I would like to propose a collaboration on those features in an independent (github) organization. For the sake of discussion lets call it grpc-spring for now.

This organization would host repositories for features that could be beneficial for both our projects (and also others). For a start I considered these features:

• Security/Authentication/Authorisation (Server + some client parts, if applicable)
• ExceptionHandling (annotation driven; Server)
• Spring-Cloud Discovery NameResolverProvider (Client)
• Spring-Cloud Discovery Service registration (Server)
• spring-boot-grpc-java-bom (Optional, maybe for our own use)
• (I'm open for suggestions)

(+ related documentation)

These libraries should hopefully not require spring boot or at least keep it optional.

I don't care who the owner is, but I would like to keep the group id different from both our projects (to not promote one or the other). Maybe org.grpc_spring?

What I wish to achieve with this organization:

• Reduce code duplication
• Keep documentation for shared features in a central place (+maybe explicit permission to reuse/embed it in both our projects)
• Increase the code usage (more frequently used => less bugs + more features)
  • This includes 3p libraries and frameworks
• Provide others with the option to share their grpc-spring code (e.g. grpc-spring-security-keycloak)
• (Optional) Bring both our projects closer together (and maybe merge them in the far future)

Non goals:

• Copy one's project to the organization, discarding the other
• Adding annotations for/dependencies to either of our projects

What do you think of my proposal?

[jvmlet]

Thanks for reaching out, @ST-DDT . I wonder how you imagine two starters built on one shared core library. What will differentiate them ?

[ST-DDT]

There wouldnt be a "core" library. The would be multiple feature libraries. There are plenty of features that will only be present in our indivual libraries. Such as server/client creation/configuration, interceptors...

Maybe those will at some point be moved over, but then the org should have gained a solid foundation and would replace the existing projects, but that is probably in the far future, if at all. Having two projects for the same task is probably non-optimal.

At the time I joined the grpc development, also considered joining this project, but its focus was on being lightweight server only. And I needed client support for my work. I still keep an eye open on this project (e.g. security/auth issues), but my job forces me to keep the other one updated. Since I cannot drop my project and I dont want to request you to drop yours, I would still like to join forces on some features. Together we are strong enough to establish standards for grpc-spring.

Another reason is that I get proposals for grpc-spring features, that quite dont fit into a grpc-spring-boot-starter. If we would join forces in a grpc-spring orga, then those projects would automatically gain a good place.

[jvmlet]

@ST-DDT, As a first step in collaboration efforts you are welcome to support this proposal by voting up.

[bherrmann2]

In lieu of this, I have created a PR to port over the GrpcRequestScope in yidongnan/grpc-spring-boot-starter done by @ST-DDT (https://github.com/yidongnan/grpc-spring-boot-starter/pull/259)

@ST-DDT are you ok with this being ported over and can you take a look if possible? https://github.com/LogNet/grpc-spring-boot-starter/pull/198

[ST-DDT]

Well, my original idea behind the collaboration was to prevent this from being necessary... I'm fine with you porting this feature over. It would be nice, if you could add a (by @ST-DDT) to the PR description after the PR reference though. That way I get notified, that others consider it useful and am able to notify you, if I ever find a bug in "my" code.