Protobuf / ROS 2 interoperability

Overview

proto2ros helps maintain an interoperability layer between Protobuf dependent and ROS 2 aware code by generating equivalent ROS 2 message definitions given source Protobuf message definitions, as well bi-directional conversion APIs in relevant languages such as C++ and Python. To date, Protobuf syntax versions 2 and 3 are supported but only syntax version 3 has been extensively tested.

Packages

This repository contains the following packages:

Next steps

See contribution guidelines!

Contributing to proto2ros

First off, thanks for taking the time to contribute! ❤️

All types of contributions are encouraged and valued. See the Table of Contents for different ways to help and details about how this project handles them. Please make sure to read the relevant section before making your contribution. It will make it a lot easier for us maintainers and smooth out the experience for all involved. The community looks forward to your contributions. 🎉

And if you like the project, but just don’t have time to contribute, that’s fine. There are other easy ways to support the project and show your appreciation, which we would also be very happy about:

• Star the project
• Tweet about it
• Refer this project in your project’s readme
• Mention the project at local meetups and tell your friends/colleagues

Table of Contents

• I Have a Question
• I Want To Contribute
  • Reporting Bugs
  • Requesting Features
  • Your First Code Contribution
  • Improving The Documentation

I Have a Question

Before you ask a question, it is best to search for existing issues that might help you. In case you have found a suitable issue and still need clarification, you can write your question in this issue. It is also advisable to search the internet for answers first.

If you then still feel the need to ask a question and need clarification, we recommend the following:

• Open an issue.
• Provide as much context as you can about what you’re running into.
• Provide project and platform versions (nodejs, npm, etc), depending on what seems relevant.

We will then take care of the issue as soon as possible.

I Want To Contribute

[!IMPORTANT] When contributing to this project, you must agree that you have authored 100% of the content, that you have the necessary rights to the content, and that the content you contribute may be provided under the project license.

Reporting Bugs

Before Submitting a Bug Report

A good bug report shouldn’t leave others needing to chase you up for more information. Therefore, we ask you to investigate carefully, collect information and describe the issue in detail in your report. Please complete the following steps in advance to help us fix any potential bug as fast as possible.

• Make sure that you are using the latest version.
• Determine if your bug is really a bug and not an error on your side. If you are looking for support, you might want to check this section).
• To see if other users have experienced (and potentially already solved) the same issue you are having, check if there is not already a bug report existing for your bug or error in the bug tracker.
• Collect information about the bug:
  • Stack trace (Traceback)
  • OS, ROS, Platform and Version (Windows, Linux, macOS, x86, ARM)
  • Package versions, package manager, depending on what seems relevant.
  • Possibly your input and the output
  • Can you reliably reproduce the issue? And can you also reproduce it with older versions?

How Do I Submit a Good Bug Report?

We use GitHub issues to track bugs and errors. If you run into an issue with the project:

• Open an issue.
• Explain the behavior you would expect and the actual behavior.
• Please provide as much context as possible and describe the reproduction steps that someone else can follow to recreate the issue on their own. This usually includes your code. For good bug reports you should isolate the problem and create a reduced test case.
• Provide the information you collected in the previous section.

Once it’s filed:

• The project team will label the issue accordingly.
• A team member will try to reproduce the issue with your provided steps.
• If the team is able to reproduce the issue, it will be confirmed as a bug and the issue will be left to be addressed by someone.

Requesting Features

Before Submitting a Feature Request

• Make sure that you are using the latest version.
• Read the documentation carefully and ensure the functionality is indeed missing.
• Perform a search to see if the feature has already been requested. If it has, add a comment to the existing issue instead of opening a new one.
• Find out whether your idea fits with the scope and aims of the project. It’s up to you to make a strong case to convince the project’s developers of the merits of this feature. Keep in mind that we want features that will be useful to the majority of our users and not just a small subset. If you’re just targeting a minority of users, consider writing an add-on/plugin library.

How Do I Submit a Good Feature Request?

Feature requests are tracked as GitHub issues.

• Use a clear and descriptive title for the issue to identify the suggestion.
• Provide a step-by-step description of the suggested enhancement in as many details as possible.
• Describe the current behavior and explain which behavior you expected to see instead and why. At this point you can also tell which alternatives do not work for you.
• Explain why this enhancement would be useful to most proto2ros users. You may also want to point out the other projects that solved it better and which could serve as inspiration.

Your First Code Contribution

• Install a suitable ROS distribution.

• Fork this repository on GitHub.

• Clone your repository fork under a local ROS workspace:

  mkdir -p path/to/workspace/src
  cd path/to/workspace/src
  git clone https://github.com/user-name/proto2ros.git
  cd -
  

• Install pre-commit hooks for it:

  cd path/to/workspace/src/proto2ros
  pip install pre-commit
  pre-commit install
  cd -
  

• Make the intended changes with appropriate tests that validate it.
• Push these changes and open a pull request against this repository.

Attribution

This guide is based on the contributing-gen. Make your own!